Hello! I am new to this forum so should introduce myself. My family and I recently had to put down our fantastic almost 11 yr old yellow lab who to us was a once in a lifetime pup w/ her blend of calm disposition, loyalty, intelligence friendliness to any person/dog/animal she came in contact with. As you can imagine its left an uneasy quietness to the house so we are looking for her successor In our home its my wife, myself and our 8 yr old daughter and 6 yr old son. We found a reputable breeder in our area that had a litter about 2 1/2 weeks ago and went and put a small down payment down on a black female that we will go to pick out in a couple of weeks. The pedigree's in both parents look to check out pretty well (no hip/elbow issues in any of the relatives going back 3-4 generations...all excellent or good rating). He says he breeds only for good disposition only (as any good breeder should) and our quick meeting with parents it looked to be accurate. The dad was in a large outdoor kennel and looked to be very friendly. The mom was in the whelping box w/ her 1 wk old pups at the time when we met them. She did a quick snarl when we first got near which I have to give a pass as i'm sure she's just being protective, right?. After the breeder told her its OK she calmed right down. Anyways, there are 4 females that we get first pick of when we go back. I am doing my own reading/research as to how to pick the right pup for our family but curious if anyone had any other advice what to do/look for when you do this. We are not hunters but a pretty active family so looking for a good family pet that is good w/ our kids and other pups. Of course training and exercise play a huge role in this so that we'll have covered. Does it still hold true that when you are looking at the liter to see which ones come to you and let you hold them on their back and settle after a short period to determine good nature (rather than overly squirmy)? Such a big decision i just wanted to make sure we do this right. We were so spoiled with our last pup its hard to compare! Is it odd to ask to interact w/ the parents when we go to do this? I wasn't sure if the mom would be a good judge given she recently gave birth w/in the last month Thank you for your help!
Its a big decision and its great to see that you're giving it such thought. I can't advise you, but I'll tell you what we did. We asked the breeder if we could play with the litter for a while. It gave us an idea about their personalities and how they might fit in with our expectations. The breeders insight and advice, developed over many years of breeding working Labs, was a great help. We decided against the one that constantly crawled over all the other pups to get our attention - that looked like a high maintenance puppy. We also discounted the one that held back in the corner. Our previous Lab was like that - perfect while the grandchildren were growing up but we wanted a more active dog this time. In the end we narrowed it down to two bitches. I'd have taken them both but my wife's wisdom prevailed so we chose the one with the more interesting colouration. Three years on I wouldn't change a thing as Holly is exactly what we were looking for. I hope that you find the perfect puppy.
Hello, and a warm welcome to the forum. I'm not all that convinced that you can tell much about the character of a puppy at 8 weeks - the character of the parents, and how the puppies have been treated and socialised before you take them home is a huge determining factor and probably your best guide. There are professionals that assess young puppies, but I'm not so sure there is even agreement between professionals about how successful that is. I'm a bit surprised you were allowed to see a bitch with 2.5 week old puppies, I've never been allowed to see a litter before 4 weeks, and it's not a surprised the bitch was unhappy about visitors. So I wouldn't be surprised about the growl. What I think it important, and yet so few people ever mention, is the conformation of the puppies. Which of the puppies look well balanced, move well etc. clean eyes, clean ears, good scissor bite and so on. Apart from that, I'd choose the dog that was the boldest, and avoid puppies that seem at all nervous or fearful.
Not expert advice at all, Axel is our first lab and first large breed dog. This is simply our experience. We went with the calmest of the litter. The one sitting back in the corner while all the others were crawling all over the place and 'barking' and such. He has been easy to train for the most part, and calm at home but so fun when we go on hikes and swimming and such. With my Pomeranian we picked the most boisterous puppy and man oh man. He's stubborn haha. And was hard to train. Still is actually at 2.5 years old. So because of this I wanted to do the opposite and get the calmest lab puppy. So far it's worked wonderfully for us. It's probably a good thing we got the crazy Pomeranian, otherwise I don't think axel would have been as welcomed by him
I had two puppies from the same litter that were almost identical to each other in personality. They have grown into very different dogs. So, I would take their personalities when you are choosing with a pinch of salt.
When I got Dozer there was no option of looking at his brothers and sisters because there were only 2 brought to me and the choice was my sisters and I was holding them until she had a bit of time to come pick them up. Now with Stryker, the breeder had 8 male puppies. All except Stryker were sleeping. I picked up a few and they didn't do much. Stryker was the only active one at the time but it was late and they all just had baths and dinner. I should of went with the lazy ones as I know they would sleep once in awhile. Anyway, all dogs will pretty much pick up on your personality and traits so.
Hi and welcome. I'm no expert as Bailey is our first dog (since childhood). We wanted a boy (well the OH did, i didn't mind) and we had the choice of two - we held and interacted with both little boys at 7 weeks old - one responded to us and one didn't...we went with the one that responded to us...and enter into our lives Bailey...totally nuts, mad and barking, but so lovable, loyal and determined we have never (well maybe occasionally during the worst of the crocopup days) regretted bringing him home with us! Good luck and post some pictures as everyone on here loves pictures of puppies
Thank you everyone for your quick replies and personal experiences! All very helpful information! I was actually surprised that we got to see the pups at only 1 1/2 weeks too but it was very brief but I wasn't sure if i should make anything of the mamma growling or not. I had read that could be a red flag what you might get in one of the female offspring but at the same time i give her a pass because of the maternal instincts they are dealing with having pups so soon before. Would it make sense to ask to interact w/ the parents out of their kennel when we go see the pups at 5 weeks or not worth it? I had read about looking at the eyes, movements, etc as well so have that on the list! very easy to get sucked into who looks the cutest and most playful so gotta look for the red flags too. Also a very good point about them taking on the temperment of your house as well. I've always believed that as long as you start w/ a well adjusted pup and put the training time and socialization time in they SHOULD adapt to your lifestyle to a point as long as they get what they need (ie. excercise, right diet, etc)
I picked Doug because he watched everything. his breeder said he was one of the cleverest pups who worked things out and calmly enjoyed everything. He was a wonderful dog and wanted to please and just share his life and cheeky slant on the world. Moo I picked because she was small stubborn and had ears like a matadors hat. She is still stubborn, wonderful taught me loads and the worst pup pick ever but my friend thinks we were made for each other . I had no choice with Rory he was the left over dog I was last on the list so I got him. It wasn't a problem they were great pups a fab litter. Weird thing was he'd been one of the pups I liked. So I got to bring Buddha belly home.' All my dogs have been different. But I made sure they all came from health tested parents and that the breeder was one who took care in matching dogs and wanted to improve conformation and temperaments. I think it's down to us really and in the end we get the dog from the pup we develop when we bring them home. Our hard work starts when we bring them home and can go in some unexpected directions . Good luck with your pup and I'm sure you will no difficulty choosing the one for you and your family.
We didn't choose our last puppy now 7 months old, she chose us . Marcus had hunkered down to sit with the pups and play with the older dogs, this little scrap came over, plonked herself down and that was it really. We keep in touch with the breeder, and also know a little about how her siblings are getting on. They all seem very similar, even down to their sleeping positions!
You know you keep reading that......that you let THEM choose YOU but not always that simple if they all just play on their own and one doesn't go out of his way. i can see ups/downs of going with the extremes (the super shy one that stays in the corner and the instigator / most playful one) trying to envision what those traits could mean as an adult dog so maybe the safe play to go down the middle of the road. And we won't discount the fact that i'm sure i've super over analyzing this situation too since if the pups are all healthy, have good healthy parents and we do our job w/ training and socializing a lot is on us for how they turn out. just wanted to make sure i did my homework on this since its been about 11 years since we were in this position! and the last time it was a breeder out of state and they only had 2 left and just got extremely lucky!
When the pups in Quinn's litter were 7 weeks old, they were roaming inside the house with their mom (yellow lab) who obviously loved people and was very playful. There was an adorable little yellow girl that was so playful and kept coming over to us and I wanted her so badly, but she was already sold. All the pups were so cute, it was really hard to pick one. Quinn bit OH gently on his chin and he said he felt an instant connection...so that was that. I think that any of the pups in her litter would have been great with good temperaments - don't worry too much and go with your gut! Good luck.
Hi and welcome When we chose Harley we picked up several pups. One pup hid at the back so we didn't get to see him, one pup was very bold and just wanted to climb over us. My daughter picked up one of the pups and my hubby was playing with another who came to him. I went over to both.....the boy just wanted to play whereas the girl cuddled up to me, put her head on my chest and fell asleep.......I picked her and haven't regretted it at all. Harley is now 3 and is an amazing girl. Good luck on choosing
Thank you everyone for your time and input ! I know i'm mostly over thinking all of this but always curious what other peoples experiences have been. You only get once chance to make the decision and we're in a good spot that we get first pick of the 4 black females so even more pressure i guess haha I'm sure whomever we go with will work out well . thanks again!
I hope your breeder checked out more than just hips and elbows. We took the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test with us. It was good to read ahead of time and the breeder and I had fun with the parts we did but I gave up. Some of it seemed to be geared to older than 8 week old puppies. And while I saw significant differences in the puppies the four times we went to visit them, during the test they were all coming out very close in their scores. I gave up on the test and went with my observations. Mr. Chewy and Mr. Scaredy Cat did the same on the test as the other two but showed definite characteristics otherwise that I was not keen on. Still, just reading the test was an education and I think helped me to observe more closely even though I didn't use it directly. http://www.volhard.com/pages/pat.php
We said Stanley picked us because he bounded straight out of where they were kept and sat infront of us wagging his tail. One look into those big brown eyes and I was smitten. And the next few times we went to see him he was always the first one over. Now knowing Stanley he's just very friendly and would've done it to anyone. Just loves attention and being fussed. Still happy with our choice though
We visited at 5 weeks. We wanted a black girl so the breeder plonked the 5 black bitches on the lawn for us...it was IMPOSSIBLE to differentiate between them. They were all roly poly friendly happy bitey jumpy little girls. So we left without "choosing" one. On pick-up day it was eeny-meeny-miney-mo lol.
great thank you! i'm going to take a look at that now. As for the breeder, I just mentioned hips/elbows because thats mostly whats listed on the parents pedigree's that he gave us (some went more in depth w/ the eye check, etc). As a general rule he said he breeds for even temperament across the board and from what we saw when we visited it seemed to be true so he seems to do a good job
Yeah they don't really have a personality at 8 weeks old i chose Tilly cause when I picked her up and cuddled her she enjoyed it and kept licking my hand the others wernt as interested lol
