Hold old was your puppy when you brought him home?

[kittdog]

I'm just curious as to how old your puppy was when you brought him/her home? It seems a lot of people are bringing home 7 week old puppies, which is just so young. At that age they just start learning from their mothers & siblings. If you've brought home puppies at different ages have you had different experiences with them on certain puppy behaviors, like biting? Thanks

[beccadiane374]

Tanner was 12 weeks when I brought him home & while he definitely did a lot of chewing, I've never had a big problem with him biting me. He would occassionally nip me, mostly by accident when he would miss his toy & get me instead, but I've read recently on here about people's hands looking like they had a cat & such and that has never been an issue. While I would've loved to have had him as a tiny-fit-in-your-hand puppy, I really believe that him staying with his mom & siblings longer was the best thing for him.

[Sandi16]

We got Louie when he was 4 months old. So we didn't have a lot of the biting, nipping issues. I thought the norm for puppies was at the very least 8 weeks?

[Hagar]

Renny was about 4 days short of 8 weeks old. Since he was the first dog I have had to raise from a puppy by myself, I don't know if my experiences are different from most people or not. His 4th Birthday was the 19th of this month.

He did have some sort of intestinal parasite that required medication within the first few days I had him, that caused very runny stools. He had been wormed before I got him, but the remaining parasite is very common according to my vet.

We had triumphs and setbacks as far as housebreaking went. I think the setbacks were a combination of me expecting too much from him too soon and the fact that I had an elderly Siamese cat who had started forgetting where the litter box was. I finally had to have the cat put to sleep when she lost all control. Renny was finally reliably housebroken at about 5 months and has been an absolute delight in that department.

We went through the chewing phase and I still have puppy toothmarks on a lot of the furniture, and he chewed a couple pairs of my shoes. That pretty well ended once he got his adult teeth. He also did some digging in the backyard, but has also outgrown the digging.

I did take him to obedience classes which helped to a point. About the time the classes ended, we had a very wet and rainy month or so. Because of that, I didn't do the needed followup and reinforcement of what he'd learned in the classes. If I stop to talk to a neighbor on a walk, he will greet them with great enthusiasm, and then sit or lay quietly until I'm ready to continue our walk, but will not sit on command. My main regret is that he never quite caught onto "Come" on command.

He is generally well behaved, but is very independent ( Typical Cairn). He does have the run of the house and is allowed on any furniture he wants to get onto. He spends a lot of time on the back of the couch watching the world go by, and has slept in my bed with me since the first night I got him. Him spoiled? Nah!

[Idaho Cairns]

Puppies and biting are kind of a natural thing--they all do it. Just as with human babies, puppies take most of their sensory information, early in life, through their mouths. Not sure the age in weeks makes much difference. Prevention of puppy biting is a relatively easy thing to train away.

[SparkyJonesMom]

Sparky came home when he was 12 weeks old, and when we get another puppy, she'll be 12 weeks old, too.

[sheila and Misty]

Misty after a little begging was 5 weeks old-too young really I had to do some begging and convincing .and Toby was 9 going on 10weeks

[kjwarnold]

Our breeder won't let her pups leave before 12 weeks, so Packy was 14 wks. old (almost 5 yrs. now) and Kirby was 12 wks. old (just turned 1 yr.) when we got him. Both boys were crate trained when we got them and slept almost the entire night through. Yeah, we were really lucky! They went through the usual puppy biting thing, but neither one has ever been a chewer.

I think leaving them with their mother for that long really helps teach them some manners, plus they were exposed to other dogs at our breeder's house and learned from them as well. Seven weeks seems really young to me -- have they even had enough shots by then?

[Brody]

9 weeks.

[cairnrescueleague]

Unless there are special circumstances, such as a singleton puppy with no littermates to learn from, if the person you're getting your puppy from is willing to let them go at younger than 12 weeks, it usually means they are not a responsible breeder. In addition to missing out on everything they learn from their mother and littermates, which can make thing like housebreaking and bite inhibition much more diifficult, it also probably means they haven't done the research they should have in terms of the breeding or tested for genetic problems cairns can be prone to.

[cupcake]

Lucy was only 7 weeks old when we brought her home ,and in my opinion she was too young.I think that is why Lucy had problems socialising with other dogs ,she didn't seem to be able to interact with others

[DKC]

Molly was a little over 16 weeks when I got her. The lady I got her from usually let them go at about 9 weeks, but for some reason Molly and her brother weren't sold by 16 weeks old. I had choice of her or one of the little girls from the other litter, but I really felt like it was better to get a pup that was a little older than 9 weeks.

Molly has some issues with socialization and tends to be a bit leery of people (even me) at times, and I wonder if this would be different if she'd been younger when I got her. But, I'm sure that would have also had it's own set of drawbacks too.

[Xonk]

9 weeks

[kintra]

Zach's breeder's policy is they have to be at least 12 weeks old, so he was a little over that when I bought him although it had been pretty much decided he was my puppy from the time he was 4 weeks old.

[jodi0553]

just shy of 8 weeks. too young. we had a lot of problems with training and him getting appropriate signals from other dogs, especially from dogs that did not want to play when he did. as an adult, he still does not recognize a hostile dog all of the time. from my reading on the subject, i think this is partially due to coming home too young. on the other hand, i started to bring him with me to work at that age, where there were many MANY people to socialize with as well as a few other dogs. the result is that he is amazingly well socialized to people.

[Hagar]

My understanding is that in a lot of areas it is actually against the law to sell a puppy or kitten under 8 weeks old.

While my experiences with Renny at a little under 8 weeks were generally good, I think about 12 weeks is a more appropriate age. They are just a bit more mature.