Posted on 08/27/2011 2:44:20 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Seperating puppies from their litter too early can turn them into aggressive dogs, say scientists. They are significantly more likely to display problematic behaviour as adults than those who stay for at least two months.
This raises the risk that they will be abandoned by their owners. Researchers studied 140 dogs aged between 18 months and seven years.
Half had been taken from the litter and adopted between the ages of 30 and 40 days, and half had been taken at 60 days.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2029876/Taking-dogs-litter-young-makes-aggressive.html#ixzz1WGgFtGaK
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Doggie ping
Not in my experience.
You were taken from your litter young?
Perhaps in Europe things are different.
Exactly. They’re more than capable, physically, of being adopted at eight weeks, but many if not most puppies don’t make the emotional/psychological shift until nine weeks. I.e.: some (I don’t know the percentage) will grieve the loss of their family at eight weeks; at nine weeks, they are eager to leave the litter and bond with their new primary humans. I have see this with my own eyes. It’s horrible to watch a puppy get depressed over losing his mother and sibs. It happens at eight weeks, but never at nine.
One of my dogs is psychotic...adopted from a shelter.
We have speculated that it was seperation from Ma too young.
Call me old fashioned, but I like my dogs that way. Their MY dogs, not your play thing.
We brought home our most recent pup at 7 weeks, but we have 3 adults already, so he seemed to feel right at home. He loves people and other dogs.
He came from a litter of 16, and wasn’t getting much attention from his mother, although she is a very sweet girl. That’s just a large litter.
Pups learn a lot the from their mom in the first 2 months. Although not by choice I was left with a newborn Chi @CBC birth. Had to bottle feed it every two hours and take care of its diaper needs. Needless to say, she doesn’t know she’s a dog.
I hear you. I’ve taken three of mine at 7 weeks. I prefer it, because in my experience, they’re less likely to learn bad habits.
Yep. My breeder won’t release them until 9 weeks of age.
Due to his breeder being a total moron and my concern that my pup wouldn’t survive his “expert rearing” to the 8 week period, I brought Odin home at 6 weeks.
He is more aggressive than his siblings *but* he also came into a stable, established pack of older dogs, particularly the Portuguese Podengo Medio who immediately “adopted” him as her child.
They all acted as both siblings/parents to him and shoved him back into line when he needed it.
He has the perfect disposition for his job *but* in the hands of somebody who had *not* had Dobes for nearly 40 years, he would have possibly wound up in a shelter or dead.
Others might consider him “too much to handle” but to me, he’s just another Dobe and no big deal.
*If* I were breeding/selling pups, I would definitely -not- let them go until 8 weeks and would probably wait until they were 10-12 weeks old.
[that period is very common amongst Ibizan breeders]
They *do* benefit greatly from pack social interaction, especially in the extremely important area of bite inhibition as taught by their siblings.
Wild canids stay with their parents for *months*, often reaching near-adulthood by the time the next litter is born.
On the flip side, hand rearing pups away from other dogs will make them much more “human oriented” and in the hands of a -great- trainer, they can become excellent dogs but they will always lack the simple joy of knowing how to “be a dog”.
I would want to avoid that, myself.
[and to this day, his 100 pound self obeys the PPM’s little 25 pound self like a good soldier]...:)
In that case, I’m glad I didn’t say it was a hard and fast rule, with no exceptions. ;)
You did send me to Bing, though, were I found this nugget, fwiw:
“If you want to adopt the healthiest, happiest puppy possible, wait until it is nine weeks old to separate it from its mother and littermates by bringing it into your home. At this age, you can be relatively sure that bite inhibition and basic housetraining habits have been learned. The critical socialization period for puppies lasts until the age of sixteen weeks, giving a nine-week-old puppy plenty of time for proper socialization in its new home.”
http://petlvr.com/blog/2009/09/02/best-age-to-adopt-a-puppy/
Oh, geez. DROID freeping sux.
He never once uttered a peep of sorrow for his 'lost family' again.
A week later, he'd totally integrated himself into the pack and kept busy trying to learn how to run fast enough on wobbly puppy legs to keep up with a pack of long-legged Sight Hounds....:)
Here he is at 8 weeks learning Very Important Dog Things, such as cricket hunting.
My puppy will be 12 weeks old when I pick him, due to my trip to Alaska.
No worries.
Well said. Imho, being experienced with a breed is key.
All dogs can be aggressive if mishandled, but those of us with the larger, more athletic breeds have a particular responsibility. Our youngest, just a year old, weighs 80 to 85 pounds and our largest weighs 120. There is absolutely no way I could control any of my dogs by brute strength alone. That’s where knowledge and experience is essential.
Gypsy looks like she’s got some basenji in her.
I’ve taken two dogs at nine weeks. Both are sweet, but both have problems, having been in less than optimal environments. I think that in many, if not most cases, 9 weeks is a good time to bring in a new puppy.
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