Puppy Age at Adoption

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

I have noticed that there have been a few new members that seem to have adopted their pets at quite a young age (they also seem to have them home already). Not Judging but wondering, I understand there may be circumstances but it has always been my understanding that 8 weeks or older is preferable.

To new prospective owners looking for help I thought a discussion on the boards would be a good place for them to start.

How old was your puppy when you brought him or her home....Daisy was 9 weeks.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Tara was supposed to be 8 weeks but was actually 7 weeks and 5 days. The breeder is in a state where it is against the law to sell puppies under 8 weeks old.   I'm pretty sure she fudged the 2 days so people could pickup the puppies over the weekend.  We picked her up Friday and Sunday she was 8 weeks.

[Melissa & Porter]

Porter was 13/14 weeks--it took me a long time to convince DH that we needed a dog.  I think all that time he spent with parents, an aunt, and one other littermate who also sold late might be why he is so into dogs.  He loves his people, but he also is thrilled to meet and hang with dogs.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I think that Tara possibly could have benefited from staying a little longer with her canine family. She was a pretty insecure puppy. I also learned that she was the "favorite" of the mom in the guardian home and she used to carry her around all the time. So she was away from her canine family even when she had the opportunity to be with them.  Tara seems to be much more comfortable with people than she is with dogs.

[Michael Gurley]

I brought Sunny home when she was 9 weeks old, but she had been separated from her littermates and her mother THREE WEEKS before that. I didn't know this until after I had adopted her, and I wasn't about to send her back! The breeder sent her to live with her sister because her sister wanted her kids to be able to play with one of the new puppies for a few weeks before it was adopted. Had I known this, I would have researched into the quality of the breeder a little more.

 

As it were, the breeder didn't ask me any questions at all about what type of home Sunny was going to, gave me a spay contract but never checked up on it, and hasn't returned any emails for a long time. Sunny doesn't really understand "manners" with other dogs, and she took a very long time to understand using a soft mouth versus biting human flesh. We worked really hard though, and now she's perfect :)

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

This sounds like Tara. She doesn't seem to know "dog manners". That's a good way to put it.  And she was a terrible biter too as a puppy. Plus she was so insecure and had what seemed to be low self esteem (I don't know if dogs can have this??). We had to spend a lot of time encouraging her to try new things and then telling her how wonderful she was-kind of build her confidence. What seemed to help her the most was us really moving into a leadership role for her. She needed to know that we would be consistent with her and that she was safe with us and could trust us.  

 

That is quite a story about your breeder-geez!  You sure ended up with a sweetheart though!!

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Ok, I guess I'll fall on the sword on this one for the sake of the other side!  Being what I call "Dog stupid" at the time (DoodleKisses was not yet a website), we brought Lucy and Sophie home at 6 weeks.  So, not only did we get litter mate sisters, we apparently brought them home too early!  I knew nothing about the whole socialization/learning stuff from the Mother, I just knew that they were already eating solid foods, and it was chaos where they were.  They were a litter of 11 puppies.  Particularly for little Sophie who was the runt, she was just pummeled constantly.  Their Mother, quite honestly looked exhausted!  They were from what I would call a Hobby breeder, so she did not have the strict guidelines (that I knew nothing about at the time anyway) that others have.  I wasn't buying from a Pet Store, or a Puppy Mill, I had a 2 year health guarantee, I thought I was doing the right thing.  Now, 2.5 years later I often think what if anything would have been different if I had left them.  I'm sure that having litter mates leave together made some difference, but I'm not sure what they missed from their Mother.  The only issue that I question is Lucy's shyness.  It isn't terrible, but she just is not as outgoing as Sophie.  Her Therapy work is on a much smaller, slower pace than Sophie who loves it.  Lucy has to check things out very carefully!  Sometimes I think that they might be even better because they came to us at 6 weeks because they got so much socialization and human contact in that first two weeks as both of us were home with them 24/7 or they were with us.  I personally think this is another one of those areas where you can get a bad dog by removing them early, and you can also get a bad dog if you leave them longer.  A lot of it has to do with what you put into it once you get the dog.  I wish I had a crystal ball that I could wind backwards and see how different they would have been, but  it really doesn't matter to me because I couldn't love them anymore than I already do.  If I had left them the other two weeks, I might have second guessed myself and said "Two puppies, lady are you crazy what were you thinking", and never gone back to get them ..... :o)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think in the case of Sophie and Lucy, it was to their benefit that they were adopted together since they were so young. They did get to learn bite inhibition and how to behave around other dogs from each other. Two dog litters are not that unusual among smaller breeds, and in that case, one sibling is all they would have had anyway.

Regardless, anyone can see that they are happy, healthy, well-adjusted, beautiful dogs, and that's what matters!

[Adina P]

I definitely agree that it's a bad idea to adopt a puppy prior to 8 weeks.  I know someone locally who was given a doodle pup as a Christmas gift and this pup was 5 weeks!  I visited the pup several weeks later and she was great with me, totally comfortable with humans.  THEN I invited her to a small romp in a friends yard and the second she came in and saw my dogs she screamed and hid the entire time.  Granted my dogs were bigger than her (she was at least 4 months then, possibly up to 6 months...I'm NOT sure) and kind of rude and surprised her and then proceeded to get her into a corner with their enthusiasm and curiosity.  But she literally never interacted with them on purpose.  She hid the whole time under a lawn chair and any time she stopped hiding she returned to hiding as soon as she could.  Simply terrified. 

Later her owners told me that they were able to bring a friend's dog over to visit at their house and this dog was a bit less energy and the dogs peacefully coexisted, but they never played.  That was probably a couple years ago and I don't know if this doodle ever got over her discomfort around other dogs or learned to interact normally with them.

 

Anyhooo...that is my only experience with a textbook case of dog taken too early and not understanding dogs because of it. That said I'm sure we can find other examples of dogs that are FINE around other dogs because they were genetically predisposed to be better even though taken at a young age.  Has anyone done a real big study on this?

 

Finally, I do want to add that with the number of breeders using guardian homes, it is not uncommon for the momma dog to be sent back to their guardian family once the pups are 5 weeks or so.  When I've questioned breeders about it generally say that Momma dogs just are NOT interested in being with their pups past weaning.  They get frustrated and annoyed by them at that point and usually just try to escape their presence. 

 

I did get to visit one litter at 5 weeks this summer and indeed that was the case.  When the momma dog she was tolerant of them but that's about it.  The only other mom I saw with a puppy was when we picked up Rosco at 8 weeks.  Momma dog was ball obsessed.  Rosco would jump on her, grab her neck fur and hang or try to play rough with her and she essentially ignored him!  Shouldn't momma dogs be correcting stuff like this?  Apparently they don't all care and not when a ball was in play. 

 

The moral of my rambling is YES dogs that leave their litters early may have dog - dog issues.  If you're a breeder, stop sending them home so early!  If you're a buyer, consider that such a breeder doesn't really know dogs anywhere near as well as a breeder should.  BUT...simply getting a dog at the 'right age' doesn't mean it won't nip like a mad man (Rosco started nipping me at 9 weeks and only quit at 1 year! and he was ROUGH).

[Rory]

I guess I am very lucky. I got Yetti at 9 weeks, but she had been purchased 2-3 weeks prior and was neglected during that time before she was given up, and came to me. But I haven't encountered any of the early adoption problems. She absolutely loves other dogs, has fantastic doggy manners, and great bite inhibition. She was never all that nippy to begin with, but I worked diligently the first few weeks to make sure that even if young kids tormented her a little (pulling on ears, hands in mouth, yanking her tail, etc.) that she would never bite down. We also went to puppy socialization classes right away, so she got to play with other dogs.

 

Seems like I was pretty fortunate, since she left her mom and littermates at 6-7 weeks old.