To bring puppy home at 8 weeks old...

[SofaBear]

...is it far better to bring puppy home at 8 weeks old, rather than bringing him home at 6 weeks old? I feel that it is, but would like to hear your input.
My puppy was born on 11/6/12 and if I wait until he's 8 weeks old, I will bring him home around 1/1/13.

I work part-time for the school district and winter break is from 12/22/12 - 1/8/13. If I bring him home on 1/1/13 when he is 8 weeks old, I will only have 6 days left of winter break to spend some good quality, 'shutdown period' time with him.

But if I were to bring him home at around 6 weeks old (providing the breeder does this), I would have 17 days with him before I have to leave him for 4 hours a day.

Can you please tell me which would be better?
Thank you.

[Lucy Dog]

Any breeder that allows a puppy to go home at 6 weeks is most likely not a very good breeder to begin with and not someone you should be buying a puppy from. Some will do 7 weeks, but I'd still be hesitant... What's the rush from their perspective to get them out so early? I've never brought a puppy home prior to 8 weeks. My current one was 9.5 weeks when I brought her home.

Regardless, in a lot of states (Colorado being one of them), it's illegal to let a puppy to go home with it's new family prior to that 8 week mark.

Age to Sell Puppy Table

[carmspack]

definitely 8 weeks minimum . The benefits he has with his dam and littermates far outweigh the benefits that he would have with you.

[Roberts60]

I had to take mine at 6 weeks. Really had no choice they were selling them all at 6 weeks. He's 9 weeks now and doing great. No accidents in house eats like a horse and very playful.


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[Kyleigh]

Please don't take the puppy home at 6 weeks ... way to young. I brought Kyleigh home at 9 weeks ... at the breeder's insistence that she would NOT leave the house prior to 8 weeks.

A good breeder will NOT let the puppy leave that early.

Carmspack hit it right on the head!

[gaia_bear]

I brought Gaia home at 6 weeks and really struggled w/ teaching her bite inhibition as she missed out on a crucial time with her mother/litter mates. I would definately wait until he's at least 8 weeks old.

[MaggieRoseLee]

8 weeks is so much better. There's alot the mother dog and littermates can teach each other that won't come from a human house.

http://dogtime.com/puppy-when-to-bring-home-dunbar.html

http://www.doglistener.co.uk/choosing/choosing_puppy.shtml

http://www.raisingspot.com/adopting/find-puppy-seven-weeks

[martemchik]

I brought my puppy home at 6 weeks...he's 2.5 and perfectly socialized. We were able to teach bite inhibition really quickly so that wasn't a big deal. I didn't find any issues with it but if I had to do it again I would've waited 2 more weeks. Most breeders will let pups go when they think they're ready and don't need the mother anymore. Some think its 6 weeks, others 8, and others even longer, really depends on the puppies.

I don't know of a breeder that gives a range though...if they want them out by 6 weeks they will usually tell you this (and yes many of those are not good breeders). If they want them out by 8 weeks you usually have to make arrangements with the particular breeder to keep the dog there longer and it usually is due to some sort of thing you're doing (like vacation). Talk to your breeder and see what they want to do, I'd be surprised if they tell you that you can take them any time you want after 6 weeks. Most people either want them there til 8 weeks or want them gone really quickly.

[carmspack]

they think they're ready and don't need the mother anymore. ------- this is true the mother probably would be annoyed with them --BUT - they need the lessons learned from their littermates. They also need for their immune systems to mature , they need to be vetted. 6 weeks is too young for that first vaccination.
This is a get-there-hairy-butts-out-of-here asap(after you hand me the bucks) plan. Puppy farmers.

[DJEtzel]

8 weeks and 6 weeks is a big difference. I would definitely never take a puppy before 7 weeks, it's a lot of socialization time. If I didn't have another dog, I probably wouldn't take the puppy until 12 weeks+.

We got Frag at 12 weeks and he had already learned bite inhibition and didn't nip or chew.

We got Recon at 7.5 weeks (many breeders will let a pup go a weekish early if schedules work better that way. I had a 4 day weekend coming, so she agreed it'd be for the best since I had other dogs in the home anyway) and he's typically mouthy, but I could only imagine how bad he would be socialization/bite inhibition wise if we didn't have other dogs and the dog park to take him to.