So I picked up a 9 week year old puppy earlier this week and I've been crate training it but bringing it outside to do its thing. When I've done research, I've seen that due to parvo, puppies are not supposed to go outside until fully vaccinated at 16 weeks.

Am I missing something here? Am I not able to bring the puppy outside at all? Where do they do their business?

No you can bring them outside, they will not contract parvo for simply being outside. Since parvo is a virus it can only spread in places that have already been infected. What you do want to do is limit his/her contact with other dogs. Don't let him/her do his/her business in a place where other dogs commonly roam/do their business as that could be a potential hotspot for the virus to spread. Also only socialize him/her with dogs that you are 100% sure are clean from the virus, which basically restricts you to family and friends for the time being. Then once he gets his final round of shots at around 16 weeks you can socialize him/her as much as you want. Hope I helped!

Like Aidan said, it's not that you can't take the pup outside, it is that you don't want to take the pup outside where other dogs with unknown health have been outside. Parvo is typically spread from dog to dog through ground contamination. As long as you only take your pup outside where other dogs are not (or where you or your family's dogs, who you know are healthy and fully vaccinated, go).

Thanks a lot guys for the clarification.

I am sort of at a bind here. I live in a townhome complex and I've seen a lot of people in here that own/walk their dogs. There is one across the pathway from me that owns a black lab. My assumption is that wherever I'm going to bring Loki to potty, a dog has been there   

I live in the country so I don't have that problem. I was curious, though, could you use puppy training pads, seen them at the store, and put them on the ground, not sure if that would give him/her protection from the actual ground?

The training pads are usually for people who put it on the floor within the house and then they go to potty on that.

I don't want to do that because the puppy will get used to going to the bathroom in the house and I don't want to train it to do that. Also, the puppy could confuse clothes or something else within the house to be a potty pad.

I'm sorry I meant take the puppy pads outside until all shots are complete, so he/she views outside as potty and the pads protect him/her from the possible contaminated grass. I hope I clarified that better.

HardHitter wrote:

Thanks a lot guys for the clarification.

I am sort of at a bind here.  I live in a townhome complex and I've seen a lot of people in here that own/walk their dogs.  There is one across the pathway from me that owns a black lab.  My assumption is that wherever I'm going to bring Loki to potty, a dog has been there   

My advice would be to call up your neighbors and explain to them that you have a new puppy. Tell them that you're doing your best to prevent your puppy from getting parvo and then ask them if their dog(s) have ever had it in the past/have been vaccinated for it. If you have some sort of yard then that would be the most ideal place to let your puppy go. If not then find a place around your house that you see the least amount of dogs going through and let your puppy go there. I also live in the country so is was never a problem for me, but I know that several members on here have had puppies in city/suburban environments and have been able to manage. Hopefully one of them could come in and offer their advice on the subject.