This is how we did it for our dogs in our surrounding community and we hope you can find similar ways to work with your puppies.
1. Your puppy's feet do not hit the ground anywhere that you don't know, until they receive their 12 week Parvo shot.
2. You can carry your puppy and put them in a box/container with you in stores or even while enjoying outdoor dinning at any age. We actually have a square soft lined puppy car seat that we used in the car and then would carry with us to put them in shopping carts and outside restaurant chairs to eat with us.
3. Hunting and lumber stores are your puppy's friend. Grady's Sports & Sportsmen's Warehouse are incredibly dog friendly, the store's on the main strip at Clemson University cater to dogs with water bowls being available, and lumber stores don't mind most of the time.
4. Tractor Supply! and farming stores, they'll even give your puppy treats.
There are lots of other tips and tricks that google is full of, but this is how we socially trained our three Australian Shepherds when the COVID restrictions first happened. As a result of doing the above, today with all kinds of young Clemson University students and parents gathering around my Obie (male), he was able to be loved on by strangers. We want you to have this experience with your furry children too, while keeping them, you, and others safe.
Training your puppy to go outside for potty is something we have not worked on due to our concerns with Parvo. So simply said, your puppies paws have never stepped on anything but our home floors or the Vet's stainless steel exam table. Here is a website that gives you some direction as how to crate train and a schedule for potty and feeding times, as they go hand in hand. So until you get comfortable with where your puppy is in potty training for the outdoors, here is what we have done for accidents inside.
https://www.dog-training-excellence.com/puppy-crate-training-schedule.html
We guesstimate the puppies are peeing and pooping on the artificial grass potty training area in our whelping area about 85%+ of the time. Accidents do happen but the amount of puppy pad laundry has decreased to maybe once a day or once every two days since we started doing this a few weeks ago. You can buy a cute little grass setup at Petco and other pet stores, but you can also make a much larger, much more durable, and cheaper on your own.
1) Rabbit tray $15.99 to $19.99 depending on the size you want. This is very durable where as the ones you buy at from pet suppliers are flimsy plastic trays (ask me how I know)
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/catalog/small-pet-cage-liners
2) Artificial Grass (Indoor/Outdoor) at Home Depot $13, a 3 foot piece that coms on a 6 foot roll, gives you 2 sections for the Rabbit tray to change in and out. The next step is key, grab an ice pick or a sharp pointy item and punch holes all over the artificial grass to allow more drainage. When the puppy poops, you just pick up the poop with toilet tissue when you see it and flush it down the toilet. If it gets stepped on or sunk in to the grass, a little liquid soap and a shower head or hose cleans it right up.
3) Newspaper or Puppy Pee Pads go under the artificial grass. If you use Puppy pee pads, just change out as necessary and rinse off the grass daily. Now if you don't want to spend money, just go on Facebook, ask your local for sale groups for newspapers for your puppies and you'll get more than you can handle. Newspapers work just as good, you just have to clean the rabbit tray with some household cleaner.
Now for accidents that do happen, we use a product called Simple Solution, Oxy Charged Stain & Odor Remover. It's claim is that it eliminates the scent left and the puppy won't create a habit of peeing in the same place. We've had some success with it and have used it for all our puppies and dogs.
When your puppy/dog need baths remember they don't need them all the time. Dog's fur contains important oils that keep the fur healthy and shiny. We introduce puppies to baths at 4 weeks of age to get them used to the process and not be nervous around water. Our own dogs, we introduced the bathtub and water every couple of weeks without doing any bathing so that they continue to be desensitized to it. Basically just letting them stand in about an inch or two of water to splash around in. Use dog safe shampoos and conditioners and Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo can also be used.
Nail trimming is so important to start early, as dogs have a natural aversion to their paws being handled. Play with your puppy/dog's feet rubbing them and petting them regularly. We start trimming the nails after one week with baby nail clippers so that those needle like nails don't cut into our Dame during nursing. Besides typical dog nail clippers, there are dog nail grinders (the Dermal brand is what we use). Some dogs don't like clippers and some dogs don't like grinders, so take the time to learn what works for your dog. When trimming the nails, be sure to only cut the clear white area and cut short the pink part of the nail as that is a blood vessel. Dog nail blood vessels bleed freely and are time consuming to stop. There are powders to help clotting and if in a pinch, baking soda works some along with direct pressure to the nail.
They are in a strange and scary new place without their siblings, smells, sounds, and visual environment that were their former home and safe place. So it is important to slowly introduce your Fur Baby to their new surroundings. Limit them to a single room as a place of play and sleeping (example is crate and closed in playpen area) and every few days allow them to investigate new parts of the room, expanding their world. Now this doesn't mean they cannot go with you to other rooms and places. This slow introduction is for where their “safe place” or “home” will be and where they will spend most of their time in life
This will also help with potty training because you are their “Everything” and will need to learn your puppy's cues for when they are telling you they need to go outside, just as you need to train them when and where to use the potty. REMEMBER: Puppies need to use the bathroom at least every 2 hours if not earlier, so set those alarms, have some slippers, and PJs for late night going outside bathroom trips.
I cannot say how much these videos helped me get ready to deal with our own puppies as they were growing up. Zak has gotten a new puppy named “Inertia”, a boarder collie, so her traits are a lot like Australian Shepherds. He shows his training success' and failures with Inertia which is refreshing. Zak also has a lot more new videos you can watch and see if they fit your needs, but the 2019 videos of Inertia are so helpful. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMssKIjsDxXl_ZXQgcHlEY_fC-yL5P76N