When should my puppies leave?

860 Views 4 Replies 5 Participants Last post by T Lledsmar, Aug 30, 2021

Michelle N

Discussion Starter · Mar 16, 2021

Hi,

I'm just looking for a bit of advice.

We have had our first litter of puppies which are now 7 weeks old. We are keeping one, my mum is having one and we are selling another. We have decided to keep them with their mother until between 10 and 11 weeks after doing a lot of research.

My question is..The person I am selling one of the pups to lives in between London and South Africa. He would like me to arrange the Rabies vaccination for the pup which wont be until 14 weeks of age (2 weeks after the 2nd set at 12 weeks) Once the puppy has had the Rabies vaccination, she wont be able to travel to South Africa until 30 days after. This mean that potentially i will keeping the puppy until 18 weeks of age. What I want to know is, would this do more harm than good for both the pup and mum when its time to leave?

We have done a lot of research before deciding to breed our beloved dog Phoebe but I cant find the answer anywhere and so your thoughts would be most welcome.

Thanks

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3GSD4IPO

· #2 · Mar 16, 2021

Puppies should be separated from Mother by about 5 weeks, when they are eating on their own.

At 8 weeks they should be separated from each other and handled separately with an occasional outing together.

By 9 weeks they should be separated from each other permanently.

Since the pup will not be with Mother anyway, 18 weeks etc. won't matter.

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fosterDog

· #3 · Mar 16, 2021

Make sure he pays in advance. Its a lot harder to sell a 4-5 month old puppy and you could be stuck with a dog you didn't intend to keep for life.

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storyist

· #4 · Mar 16, 2021

Years ago I got two Akitas as pups (not at the same time, each was an only dog for her lifetime). They were puppies kept by their breeders until an older age. One was 12 weeks when I got her. She no longer had littermates but lived among the older dogs.

The other was 16 weeks and lived with the littermate the breeder was keeping until I took her home.

They were truly great dogs, nothing like Akitas are said to be like today. They got along with other dogs, cats, livestock, and people. In retrospect, reading all the whines about "puppy blues" on some dog sites, I wonder if I not only benefited from skipping the really early bitey stage but if in general they were just calmer from staying in a natural situation longer.

Two is an anecdote, not data, but I wouldn't hesitate to take an older puppy again so long as it was raised in a good home, and even if I can't prove it, I suspect it's good for the puppy.

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T Lledsmar

· #5 · Aug 30, 2021

This post contains Opinions.

In my experience, a dog that stays with mother up through around 12 weeks is going to be easier to manage, and healthier than a dog that is taken early. I know a lot of breeders that send them away at 6 weeks, to me this is lunacy. I believe the sub 10 week send aways are driven by people's "need" to have a "tiny little cute puppy". Mother teaches her pups a lot about manners, respect, and obedience during that 6-14 week stage that we really can't do as efficiently. Pups left longer with mom generally don't nip as much, don't jump as much, and quickly learn who is the boss and that they should listen to the boss. HOWEVER, depending on the setting those Pups left with mom could develop some nasty habits.

to me its the difference between getting a pup that can barely walk and cant even do stairs and won't do anything without second guessing the command vs a pup that is fully mobile and eager to please.

Ymmv but ultimately I think you're doing the right thing and this one that is going far away should be paid in full now, and you should charge more for keeping it longer.

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