WHAT AGE DOG TO SELECT?
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page was on the web but the url is no longer active. This is a saved version. "I just want to look at the puppies." With these words, visitors to our shelter and many, many other facilities make a vital decision--often without realizing they have made a choice at all. Isn't it always better to get a puppy? Not
necessarily. Let's look at the total picture. The perfect
dog for you may be very different from the perfect dog for the family next
door--different in size, in temperament, in activity level. So, too, the
right age for a dog to enter your family may not be the same as for someone
else. The obvious advantage to getting a really
young puppy is that you can (usually) see it with its mother and littermates.
This gives you a great deal of information that will be useful both in
selecting the right puppy and in working with its particular personality
later on. There are excellent puppy tests available to help you evaluate the
personality of dogs at this stage (though some authorities have recently
questioned the validity of such tests). You can also talk to the breeder
about his or her impressions of each puppy. If your puppy is one of a litter
at the shelter, you may not see the mother but you can still tell a lot by
how the puppy interacts with littermates (and you). In the United States, many breeders sell
puppies at six or even five weeks; "puppy mill" dogs may be shipped
off at five weeks, too. I think this is too soon. The current party line is
that seven weeks is the perfect time. Without wading into the controversy
over whether the "fear imprint period" is so important as to
mandate a 49-day date, I'm going to come out strongly against taking puppies
away before seven weeks, if purchased from a breeder. The
shelter puppy, depending on its level of stress, may be another matter--talk
to the shelter workers about this. If the litter is in foster care with an
experienced person, especially if with the mother, I'd still wait for seven
weeks if at all possible. What about the slightly older pup--from eight
weeks on up to four or even six months? If you are concerned about the
"fear imprint period"--and I'm not convinced that it is quite so
inflexible as often thought--you will probably want to wait until about fourteen
weeks (end of the "first fear imprint period"). This is about three
months. If the puppy has had a happy home life and has been handled a lot by
the breeder's family, you will have a three-month-old dog that's ready to
leave home, already accustomed to solid food, and ready for fairly easy
housebreaking. On the other hand, adolescence is not yet about to strike.
Some European breeders will not even consider letting a puppy leave until
fourteen weeks, or even twenty to twenty-two weeks. Again, these comments apply
only to puppies from breeders; obviously you wouldn't want a puppy to stay in
a shelter cage for six extra weeks if he came in at eight weeks! With puppies in general, you have the
satisfaction of being the dog's first (and, we hope, only) family beyond his
litter and a dim memory of the breeder. Whatever influences eight-week-old
Maisie, your new Golden Retriever, undergoes in youth, you'll control them.
On the other hand, puppies are a lot of work! Housebreaking and
teething come to mind readily. Every dog-oriented household has hundreds of
little marks on furniture, walls, and shoes from longago teethers. If you are
a fanatic housekeeper--or if you aren't around enough to cope with a canine
baby's needs--or if patience is not your strength--you should definitely
consider an older dog. The young adult (six months to a year) is old
enough to start some really solid training. Your adolescent Brittany adoptee,
whom we'll call Millie, is probably either housebroken or ready to learn this
essential skill very quickly. Like human teenagers, canines at this age are
ready to branch out. The dog from one to two years of age is also
still malleable, but has the additional advantages of being full grown (at
least vertically) and past the chewing stage in most cases. In the case of
mixed breeds, you can now see what the finished product will actually look
like! Any "secondhand" dog will have a
definite history. This is good news and bad news at the same time. Abuse,
neglect, or simply lack of training will show up clearly--you want to know
about these things up front. Meanwhile, the dog's basic personality will be
pretty clear also, which is a big plus. If considering a fully adult dog, you
should either try to learn about evaluating its behavior, or talk to people who
know more about this than you do. Some kinds of "history," such as
simple lack of obedience training, can be smoothed out; others, such as real
deficiencies in early socialization, are more difficult. An example: one of
our adults came to us at two (or more) and had no idea how to walk on a
leash. Today she is a successful hospital therapy dog. Her sterling
temperament and easygoing manners stood out; leash training was a minor
matter in comparison. Many outstanding adult dogs are available for
adoption for reasons that have nothing to do with their behavior. (In other
words, there is absolutely nothing "wrong with them.") Owners die,
or divorce, or move to places where dogs are not allowed. Allergies happen.
Guide dogs and other service dogs retire. Occasionally it is possible to get
a "career change" dog, splendidly trained, that just didn't work
out in its destined career--guide dogs that lack confidence, service dogs
that turn out to have mild hip problems, drug dogs that can't find the quarry
reliably enough, and so on. Which should you choose, after all these
considerations--puppy or adult? Well, if you really have ambitions or
particular plans for your dog's future, and you have lots of time and
patience, I'd go for the puppy at seven weeks. (Personally, I'd be more
likely to be visiting little Sheba regularly at the breeder's but leaving her
there until about fourteen weeks, but I'm not arguing with seven weeks). The
average family with a moderate degree of dog skills, patience, and time, will
do equally well with the puppy, the young adult, or the fully mature animal.
Those with limited training time or skills, or older people, I think should
consider the mature dog first. In fact, there is even a growing tendency to
place quite senior dogs (six and over), if in good health, in appropriate
homes. We have had dogs that arrived in our house at
six weeks, eight weeks, six months, eight months, a year (three), two-ish
(numerous), and early middle age. They have come directly from breeders, from
friends, from neighbors, from no one knows where, and from the shelter. We
have also raised one litter of puppies, two of which left at six weeks (which
at that time was the standard age) and two at three months. Nearly all of
them settled in very nicely. Frankly, I doubt that there is any
"ideal" age to get a dog, in terms of the end result. There are,
however, a lot of differences in the experience you will go through getting
to that result. Take your pick. Of course, I'd like to think that you will first consider adopting a dog (of whatever age), rather than buying it. There are unbelievable numbers of wonderful dogs out there waiting for homes, and far too many of these will be euthanized for lack of shelter space. You can get any age and just about any breed, either from shelters or through breed rescue. If you strongly prefer to get your dog from a breeder, make sure it's a responsible one. The local or national breed club will offer referrals. You certainly don't want to deal with a "backyard" producer or, worse, a puppy mill! But those are topics for another month. |