You're not a bad mom, you're a protective mom, but these sweet little babies are dogs too and need to do doggie stuff. Yes, teach him to "leave it and drop it" practice commands in the house and outdoors also. No back yard, do you have a park near you, buy a retractable leash they come in 16 and 20 foot lengths, use ONLY for park where there are no other dogs around and let him run a bit. I use Front Line for fleas and Ticks, works great.

Everyone feels differently about this. I have a tiny little male that I have never had outside...what they dont know, they dont miss! He has a huge house to cover with legs that are all of 2.5 inches long....he is paper trained, he gets plenty exercise inside, and he does not KNOW outside, so he has no concept of OUTSIDE and does not miss it! Now about the leg lifting...that is not determined by "outdoors" that is determined by sexual maturity, which he will begin to reach around 6-8 months old....his growth plates will be matured and it will be safe to neuter him without the possibility of affecting growth plates in bones/joints around 8 months old....have him neutered then, or if you see that he is beginning to hike his leg after 6 months of age, take him in for his surgery. There are exceptions to every rule, but I have been fortunate enough to never have a young, unbred male hike his leg after he was neutered, unless it was one of my breeders that retired and I had neutered. Fleas and worms.....spray your yard for fleas....I use DemonMax...it is safe after it dries for 24 hours and it kills fleas and spiders and about 2000 other insects! I do NOT take my dogs on walks or to parks, etc....unsafe in my mind.....crazy theives and roaming pit bulls, etc.....just not worth the trouble. My babies have never been out of my huge back yard, never will be.....perfectly fine for the last 15-20 years! Again what THEY dont know, they dont miss!!! Dont feel bad about having a house dog...they do just fine and never miss running around outside, getting into whatever passes through the yard at night, or what people may throw over the fence, or what falls from neighbors trees (seed pods, etc)....he will be perfectly happy right where he is! And dont feel all guilt ridden about your decision....your baby certainly doesnt!!!

When Buddybear was a puppy I took him to the largest grassy area in our town area where the courts, police station is and he ran out as far as his 25' retractable leash would go..... I cried to see the joy on his face, then he wiggled in the grass and ran some more. He was probably 4-5 months old. He still enjoys it to the max.

Don't you love seeing the joy on their little faces? Duchess is 3.5 years old and I can see the joy in her face every time I take her to the dog park where she can run as fast as she wants. She takes off running as soon as I take her leash off in the dog park.

I get the same joy watching my babies tear around my back yard.....no diseases, no strange droppings from other dogs that you dont know if they are sick or vaccinated or eaten up with fleas or ticks.....absolutely safe and I love watching them rollin the grass and tear all over the yard, picking low hanging fruit from the fig tree and the dwarf peach trees and the dewarf plum tree! They play on the slip and slide and run through the sprinkler and swim in their little kiddie pools! Never been off this property, never will miss what they have never seen! My itty bitty babies that do not come outside, do great indoors, and swince they have never been outside, they dont know it, they dont miss what they dont know.....and I refuse to put MY adventures and what I miss doing in parks and on jogging trails, on them! No ticks, no fleas, no diseases, no crazy dogs running after them, possibly hurting them, even by accident.....one of my tiny babies is curled up on top of my foot as I type this, sound asleep! (A neighbor was almost killed by two loose pit bulls that attacked her on the jogging trail about 500 feet from my home! Another chow killed a poodle on that same trail in the park area....nope, aint worth it to me!) YOU have to live with YOU and your choices....dont do anything out of guilt!!

I cannot say my kids' feet have never touched pavement, but I can say they rarely, if ever touch pavement, or ground in most 'public' places, now that they live with me. I like my kids to have an 'outdoor/fresh air' experience, but safely. I do take my three kids shopping with me into pet friendly places, but they go by human hand transport from the car to a cart into which we have placed one of the memory foam mats we carry in the vehicles for that purpose.

Our three kids are quite well socialized without the 'dog park' and 'sidewalk' experiences. It is not a 'snobbish' thing that we do...it is just to keep them from becoming injured or ill because we cannot always tell what was spilled where, and we do not feel guilty in the least about doing our best to keep them safe.

Your baby is still quite young. You still have plenty of time to decide, and always, you have the option to change. :D

So, when can I come over and play and have that much fun, too? :lol tears


Seriously, I know exactly what you mean.

For a brief little while, I was taking my three Yorkies for adventure walks down the private lane, but there are a few houses that also share the private lane with us, and there are a couple with fenced yards that 'back up to' the private lane without egress to it. One of those that 'back up to' the lane had two larger dogs in it, and the owners would sit and watch their dogs CHARGE THE FENCE, barking wildly at us and our Yorkies and they NEVER SAID ONE WORD in an effort to control their dogs!!! I was concerned that those dogs might find a way out of their yard, and be waiting for us, so we quit taking them, and it was a huge shame to have to do that, but it just didn't feel safe anymore. The folks who share the private lane have horses, cattle, and one has a lovely white pit girl baby who is just the sweetest thing, but her owners CORRECT her and I CORRECT MY Yorkies for barking at her, and that was working really well. I always watched the woods carefully for critters that my kids might decide were worth the chase, and kept them in the sandy lane and out of the yards and woods, and watched both ways for neighbors in their vehicles, who 'poke' down to lane, going very slowly because it is bumpy and quite deeply sandy.

The other thing that really spooked me was a UPS truck that came flying down the narrow lane behind us. The lane only accommodates one vehicle at a time...and barely that...LOL, and it is a 'horse shoe' so it was an 'all of a sudden' thing and whoosh there's a huge brown truck flying up behind you. It was everything I could do to snatch three Yorkies into the edge of the woods and out from in front of that truck. The people who live on the lane travel at about .2 to maybe 5 MPH...not UPS, apparently!!!

:thumbup::thumbup:

I think im going to continue to keep him indoors....at least for a while still....I'm a new mom and still too nervous. I wish I had a back yard for him to play in....but my grandma does and I am over her house every afternoon. It is just a few mins away. Maybe I will just start letting him play in her yard. The only problem with that is she has rose bushes and I'm afraid he might poke an eye out. Lol

The bushes -- I have the same problem with Max. He has no concern for his eyes.

It is good to be watchful. Don't feel pressured to do anything you are not comfortable with.

Living in Arizona, we dont have grass, just rocks painted green in the front yard. Just patio and dirt in the back. Everyone that walks their dogs at the police station have their pups on leashes and are middle aged or older. I feel safe there and I think Buddybear is also.

I WISH I had a nice grassy backyard, but it's not going to happen anytime soon, unless we move. The back is fenced and puppy proofed. I'm always outside with him or my dh is. He is not left alone.

I totally get others not taking their dogs out cause some people don't have the brains God gave them at birth.

I've taken him to the little doggie park with a friend and her little dog only twice. It is alllll dirt, no grass and a few rude people so I don't go back.

Cookie goes nuts chasing squirrels, lizards, and birds, digging in the yard, and so on, but she has a large fenced off yard to play in. And she really loves to sunbathe too. And then the walks at the park are favorites for both of us, though the park is the only place I'll walk her because I have a wide open view to steer away from other dogs who could be a threat.

That sounds like a great plan. Just make sure no one opens the gate. I put locks on my gates to keep the neighborhood kids, utility workers, and so on from opening them, because Cookie is a lot faster than they are. Not that I think she'd run out, but it's always nice to a backup plan (of course the primary plan is to train your pup to come when you call). Gotta think like an engineer and have multiple points of failure lol.

I have a rose bush, too, and I watch that my Yorkies do not get too close. Also, when it is trimmed, I make sure that all thorns are where they don't accidentally walk on one and get stuck.

My Yorkies will 'jump' when they get poked or bump into a bit of fallen tree branch, and some are pretty small. They are 'sneaky' and fall when no one is looking, and can be very hard to see, especially when it is darker outside. So, you might want to just take a peek around the yard, to see what is at 'eye level' to your Yorkie that might cause harm to a 'running full tilt' puppy.

Only bad parent are the ones that doesn\'t care and you\'re definitely not in that category. Also, you\'re here to learn to make your furbutt\'s life better just like the rest of are!

For the rose bushes, would it be possible for you to put up short fence just enough to keep him out? Maybe like a 12" high lettuce fence?