# Buying an older puppy.



## Purley (May 21, 2010)

I guess this doesn't totally relate to poodles. I was just wondering if the more experienced poodle people think that its generally more difficult to get an older puppy. 

I am not planning on getting any puppy for a while but you sometimes see very reputable breeders who are retiring a show dog or have puppies that have not found their for ever home, and I wondered if breeders generally keep their puppies in the home or if they are generally kept in a kennel situation.

As you know, Lucy was five months old when I got her and I think (I might be wrong of course) that it was because she had grown up in a kennel situation with other puppies and adults - that it took me so long to house train her. Her breeder told me she was house trained before I got her but that was total rubbish. If she was house trained at the breeders would she not have been house trained here?

I suppose its hard to answer this, but I wonder if reputable breeders would always tell the truth. If you wrote and asked them if a year old (for instance) puppy had been kept in their home or if it had spent all its life in a kennel (asked diplomatically of course) would they tell you the truth if they wanted to find a home for the puppy??


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## 2719 (Feb 8, 2011)

If Lucy was totally housebroken at the Breeders there is still the chance that she could revert to soiling in the house because of the change in environment. But if she was totally trained at the Breeders it should only have taken a few accidents for her to realise that you don't want her soiling in the house and she should have become housebroken at your house very quickly. 

Also, if she was always trained to go on grass (for example) and you have gravel she would be confused..but again that confusion should have been easily rectified if she was already trained. (An example..one of my first spoos was a winter puppy..she happily went pee and poo out in the snow. When the snow melted..she wouldn't go. We walked her to the nearby arena and she did her business in the snow from the ice cleanup..until we re-trained her to go on grass.)

It also depends on the type of Breeder who you buy from. Some Breeders do have a higher amount of dogs and do not let all the dogs run freely in their home. Smaller hobby breeder are more likely to let the dogs join in the family until they go to new homes.

As for breeders selling retiring show dogs..usually these dogs have been used in a breeder program. Some dogs spend an inordinate amount of time in kennels if they are being shown by handlers.

I would hope that they would tell you the truth and not soft soap you to get rid of an older dog. I mean why breed dogs if you don't care a wit about them or the people who want to give them a home?


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## Beach girl (Aug 5, 2010)

When I was looking for Casey, I was inquiring all over the place. One breeder told me she did not have any puppies at the moment, but she had an older dog (I think he was 2 or 3 years old) who she was not going to show or use at stud, and she thought I would be a good home for him. I was a little bit interested, until after some questioning, found out he was not house-trained and had lived mostly in a kennel. But she assured me he "could be trained very quickly."

Um, no thanks. I was definitely not interested in a dog that age who wasn't used to household living.

I give her points for honesty; she did not try to mislead me about how he had been living. 

So that's the one and only experience I had with being offered an older dog, for what that's worth.


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## Purley (May 21, 2010)

I sometimes wonder why they still have year old puppies. Perhaps they thought they would show them and then they decided that they were not good enough. There is a Shih-tzu breeder that usually has pet puppies for sale on the website. They are also all breed judges so I assume they have someone to look after the dogs when they are away judging. The younger puppies are $1,000 but the older ones are maybe $600 and $400. 

However, I also know of a beagle breeder around here. She is trying to sell six month old really nice puppies for $100 dollars. Apparently they had lots of orders for puppies so she bred several bitches and then was shocked to find she had 19 puppies. 

I am assuming in both cases that they had larger litters than expected and had some "left overs". I guess all you can do is phone or email them and see if the answers to your questions sound sensible!

With the woman I bought Lucy from - well she never answered my emails after I gave her the deposit. I did manage to speak to her after a while on the phone but I didn't find out until after I got Lucy, how many dogs and puppies she had. If I had known that in the beginning, I probably wouldn't have bought a puppy from her. You do need all the facts to be able to decide if you still want to take a puppy.


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## LEUllman (Feb 1, 2010)

Beau was 6 months old when we got him, and after reading the many horror stories on the forum involving all manner of training issues with little puppies, I am _sooo_ glad we got an older pup! The breeder told us she was hoping to show Beau, but the situation changed and she had to let him go. Her loss was our gain! He had been living in her home and was fully house trained; the few accidents he did have were mostly our fault, because as newbie dog owners we didn't recognize the signals. And as far as attachment goes, well let's just say we call him our Velco poodle.

In our case, getting an older puppy meant having the cake and eating it, too.


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## Cdnjennga (Jul 30, 2009)

I would consider an older puppy if I could meet the puppy and see where it had been living beforehand. It would depend on whether the puppy was just one of a number of dogs or had individual time, attention and training.

At the end of the day I wouldn't want to live with a dog with temperament issues due to a lack of socialization by the breeder (this doesn't apply to rescues, they are a completely different thing!)


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## Feathersprings (Jul 15, 2010)

The breeder I am getting my puppy from also had a year old puppy available and another Breeder had two 18 mos. olds. All housebroken and crate trained. The older two already spayed and neutered. These were all dogs that lived in their homes.


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## 3dogs (Nov 3, 2010)

I personally LOVE older puppies & young dogs. I hate with a passion housetraining but that is me. I got my Crested from a fantastic breeder & this dog was returned back to her since the owners couldn't house train this Crested lived with this family for 1 year. When I got her she was just fine. One just needs to realize that small dogs have small bladders & therefore they need to go out often. She was 15 months old. My next dog was out of a bad Rescue. That was before I learned that there are bad rescues like bad breeders BUT I love this little dog. He was 10 months old & did have seperation anxiety issues due to being adopted out & then returned within a week. Though small he was active & didn't want to be held wanted to be on the ground running about. So, I was about his 8 home. The Rescue had 25 dogs living in the HOUSE free & he was the smallest at 7lbs. To get away from it all he learned to literally jump up on kitchen counter & then jump on top of the Fridge to be safe. So, it took about 2 years to build up the seperation from me to him BUT awesome dog & he is 9 now. As a family more recently we did get a pup (house training ughhhh!) but she is a good dog at nearly 2 1/2. We aquired her full sister when she was about 16 months & was left to wander around the yard, get pregnant & have not much human interaction. She is great, a little shy but still has great confidence out & about. Leif is our newest addition & a Spoo & we adopted him from a GREAT resce CPR & we are in LOVE with this dog. Besides a few marking incidences the first week he is awesome. Estimated between 3-5years.

Personally I love the older dogs from 8months- 18months. I have had almost no potty issues, behvior has been very good on the whole but nothing a little training can't help with (pups should have training too), & they have all slipped right into the family & pack. Older pups Rock.


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## Purley (May 21, 2010)

If a dog has been kept in a kennel situation most of the time, I would guess that it would not have any idea of house training. I mean - unless a dog is kept in a place where peeing and pooping are not allowed, how would it know that there are places that you can't do that?


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