I have located some Labrador breeders I am interested in but they seem to be rather far away - what is the maximum recommended distance to travel when you take your puppy home?

There is no such max/min distance as such, I have brought a pup from Scotland, a journey of almost 7 hours, pup coped very well, slept most of the way, just be prepared with towels and newspapers etc, for accidents, sips of water. If it is the right pup, then distance shouldnt be the problem.

I am more than prepared to travel for the right pup, but the pups welfare is my main consideration when deciding how far to travel. I guess I want reassuring that a puppy does not suffer any "ill effects" when travelling a distance. :-)

I never feed my pups before they travel, so I always ask for people to arrive on the day of pick up as early as possible, as I said plenty of towels and newspapers, some water thats all on the journey home, once home, allow pup to get used to the new surroundings, then offer small amount of food, sometimes they do not eat properly first day or so, but that is not unusual, but the journey should not cause any ill effects.

A good idea is to pick up puppy in the evening when it would naturally want to sleep, but to be honest as pups eat and sleep mostly at that age it is rarely a problem if the journey is under 4 hours, or even a bit longerr, and one missed meal will make little difference.

When you get pup home though, only give half a meal, and don't be surprised if it doesn't eat a lot first few days, put food doen, and remove after 15 minutes until next feed time.

Hello ice
How far our you talking? there shorter the distance is better for the pup,but some people have to travel a long time to get want they want, you just have to try and make it as comfortable as possible for you and the new pup.

I live in Surrey and have seen breeders in Devon an South Wales that I am interested in. I suppose the drive would be about 2 -3 hrs :-(

I really dont think you will cause the pup any discomfort at all,try to arrange your travel to miss peak times and take with the you what the other poster mentioned.

I've seen some further approx 5-6 hrs but I don't think that this distance would be fair on a pup. :-(

As long as it's a one-off journey, the pup will cope. The three hour journey I had back from my pup's breeders was nothing to her. She fell asleep within a few minutes of leaving and woke up as we entered our village.
Good luck finding the right pup.:)
LynnT

Our puppy travelled from Liverpool to Essex without any problem. If you know that you are going to have a journey, try to get your breeder to take the puppy out for short rides in the car, to help prevent car sickness.

Daisy

Thanks for the advice everyone - you have all been great :-)

Hi Ice,
we travelled from Wirral in the Northwest to Derbyshire . Due to traffic holdups the journey back took almost three hours.
Our breeder made sure he hadnt been immediately fed .We brought plenty of towels and wipes etc incase he was sick on the journey back ( which he was - once ) . After that he was fine . Obviously a little frightened as everything is new but he slept almost all of the way .
Lel