# How old should a puppy be when sold or adopted to new home?



## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

the consensus at pf seems to be at least 8 weeks. breeders who release their puppies any younger than that are looked on with suspicion. some good breeders who end up with exceptionally small puppies, especially, will hold them longer out of concern for health and developmental issues.


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## poolann (Jan 31, 2013)

Racer's tail is docked but he does have his dewclaws. His breeder does agility as do I & it seems that the current consensus in the agility community is that dogs that are doing a lot of jumping, climbing & tight turns at fast speeds do use the dewclaws. Since the hair on his legs is longer they cannot be seen. I do have to be aware of them while grooming so that I don't catch them in a brush and so that I am sure to trim them but other than that I have no issues. Many people prefer natural tails & I believe in some countries that is the norm.


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## brownlikewoah (May 3, 2012)

at least 8 weeks old, I took my girl home at 12 weeks old. The longer they're around their siblings to learn doggy manners the better in my opinion! My girl is natural tailed & has her dew claws intact as well, the tail was especially important to me for a number of reasons. You have to be careful with breeders who offer this though, as it is not the standard for the breed, so you get either breeders who have working dogs and see them as a tool and intentionally leave them, and you have crappy backyard breeders who don't know what they're doing and leave them. Do you mind sharing what breeder you are considering going with? People on this forum know a lot of the breeders out there and can help point you in the right direction


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## cjay (Oct 28, 2013)

It's hard to leave the new puppy at the breeders. I felt like a new mom who goes home without her baby. :/ 
Tawney's kids in Phoenix, is the breeder. I have googled her, called the better business bureau and there is nothing out there about her that I can find. 
We went to her house and she had mom, dad, and puppies (9 ) from this litter. Stayed two hours. She asked me tons of questions and allows us to bring Gabe. There has never been any pressure to buy the puppy. 
I requested to leave a deposit to hold the little girl. 
Breeder requested at least 8 weeks but encouraged us to wait 10 weeks to pick up. Said it was better for the babies. 



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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

Toys are kept longer then standards and I think that we benefit from that. My girls were all 16 weeks when I got them and they were so ready to learn - 2 days to housebreak and crate train and then on to house manners. Along time ago I got one from a greeder who appeared much younger then the reported age of 10 weeks, and it took until she was nine or ten months to completely housebreak her.


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

Legally, at least 8 weeks. From there, it differs from breeder to breeder. Some will send puppies home right at 8 weeks, others will wait until 9, 10, or even 11-12 weeks. Even later for toys sometimes. Some things that might affect when a puppy goes home include: vaccination schedule, breeder holding back multiple show picks or the entire litter to have a little longer to evaluate structure, etc.


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

@cjay: i visited the tawney's web site and noticed that she allows her males to be used for stud to produce goldendoodles. you may want to ask some of the breeders at pf how they feel about that. please note that if you decide to get a puppy anyway, no one is going to criticize you. there are a number of poodle mixes represented at pf and they are all equally admired and doted on once the photos start being posted!


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## brownlikewoah (May 3, 2012)

alright I checked out the website... if I were looking for a puppy, I would definitely pass on this breeder.
She is allowing her studs to be used in doodle breeding, if someone is involved in breeding poodles, they are passionate about it, and do not condone participating in the doodle population.
Her explanation of why she doesn't health test is crap. That's great if she has a few generations back for history of dogs, now have a paper trail to prove it. There's no way of knowing what the quality of the hips etc are without actually doing xrays and proper tests. 
What level of COI is she breeding? I do not see any pedigrees on her website... Puppies should NOT be sold automatically with full registration, a good breeder should want control over who has breeding rights to their lines, so that only the best of the best is reproduced. 
She is charging way too much for her puppies considering what she is putting into them. Usually the expensive cost of a puppy is to cover the expense of health testing & showing the parents, neither of which she is doing : /
This is only my opinion of course, if you have your heart set on getting a puppy from them then that is your decision... but if I were you I would look into harmony mountain hunting pudels.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

Yikes - also read that they bred a blind rescue poodle - which indicates that they give zero thought to the health and genetics of the dogs that they breed. They say that the dog was blind as the result of being bitten, but what could they really know being that it was a rescue.
Not saying that you couldn't wind up with a perfectly wonderful poodle from them, just saying that your odds are much worse then if you got one from a health testing show breeder - and they seem to be charging as much or slightly less then a reputable breeder would...


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## 3dogs (Nov 3, 2010)

I personally would skip this breeder. Not only studding out their poodle to Golden's, labs etc... please check OFA for any health testing. Standards have plenty if health issues & the parents should be health tested & as many you can track in the pedigree. Also age of leaving is usually 8-12 weeks, very small toys possibly 16 wks.


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## cjay (Oct 28, 2013)

Not much I can do about it now. We had already paid for the puppy before I joined the group. So I can only pray that she turns out to be a great dog with no issues.





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## 3dogs (Nov 3, 2010)

Enjoy your new pups to bits. Please post your pedigree on Poodle Pedigree. com. As much info out there for poodles is great for all poodle lovers. Also please read up in the many Poodle ailments out there not only to become familiar with them but if anything should arise you know where to start. For example my Standard started losing his hair & it was drastic so I started to eliminate Cushing's, Thyroid, mange, bacterial & fungal. Now just treating like he has SA but it might be due to Topical Flea as well. Anyway, Post lots of photos on the Poodle Rainbow thread.


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## Indiana (Sep 11, 2011)

We got our two standard poodles at 12 weeks but I can't really see what the advantage was. We still needed to teach them bite inhibition and dog manners etc. When I was a kid on the farm one of our dogs died having puppies so we bottle-fed the puppies, but they never had any mommy or daddy training. They were fantastic dogs when they grew up, so although I intellectually accept the thing about getting puppies at 8 weeks minimum, I don't really know that to be true.


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

cjay said:


> Not much I can do about it now. We had already paid for the puppy before I joined the group. So I can only pray that she turns out to be a great dog with no issues.


i'm sure everyone here wishes the same thing for you and is looking forward to watching her grow. congratulations on your new baby!


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## louislinus (Jan 23, 2013)

Honestly I think so much if buying a puppy is a huge crapshoot. Our spoo was a rescue from a backyard breeder/animal hoarder and our other dog Airedale/Spoo mix is from the pound. They are both the most delightfully tempered, easy to train dogs I've honestly ever been in contact with. Our previous dog, Kerry Blue Terrier, I purchased for many many dollars from a very highly regarded breeder. Our pup had a chronic congenital gut issue (that another pup also had in the litter). We spent thousands on him in his first year just keeping him alive. He got better but was a terrible resource guarder after that - attributed to the sickness and we had to rehome after he had 6 dog bites in one year. So while I *know* that good breeding is important.
as a previous poster said, anecdotally I have had the complete opposite experience. I'm sure your pup will be great.  


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## liljaker (Aug 6, 2011)

A good breeder will not release them too soon; my breeder keeps them until after the first vaccination just to be sure there are no reactions. I have heard of breeders selling pups very early which really is illegal (I think) in some states before a certain age. I think 10 to 12 weeks should be minimum.


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