Originally Posted by IRescue452
It depends on location. Do you know of any dogs that had parvo or other diseases in your area? How about strays in the area: you can usually find out from your local shelter if a large number of strays show up with mange or heartworms. Honestly, in our area most people bring their pups to the park starting at 8 weeks. I started taking Autumn everywhere at 15 weeks when we got her. We don't have much for a pup to catch in our area. I've never heard of an incidence of a puppy catching anything from our area but our vet still says to wait until they've had all their shots. I think you should at least know your own backyard. I wouldn't want to paper train a puppy when the backyard is right there.
Now as for my own opinion on people being scared to take a puppy outside when there isn't any reason to believe there is disease in their backyard, I walk out of the room and laugh and then cry for the puppy.