We have found a breeder on Long Island that has a liter coming on or about April 24th. Litter will be chocolate and black, our preference is chocolate. It breeder is not too far from us (probably a good hours or so). Is it recommended to try to visit the pup when its still with the breeder. I was thinking of getting a crate with a blanket with our scent on it to have the breeder keep the pup in it for the week before we pick the pup up? what do you think of those ideas? We are going to crate train (closed crate), I wanted to start with the right size crate, what is recommended for a new pup (8 weeks). I do have a larger crate but I'm thinking I shouldnt start the pup off in that large of a create. Any advise would be helpful. Thanks,
What an exciting time for you I didn't visit my pup before he came home , so I cant really advise on that . Re the crate , I didn't use one, not much help am I But I think what some people do is to divide a large crate so that it feels snug but provides a toilet area away from the sleeping part , far better than a small one which could restrict .
How exciting! We visited the litter at 4 weeks and 6 weeks, 4 hours away from us! A bit different, though, because the breeder is a friend, so we stayed with them for the weekend. But I would definitely have visited anyway. I don't think it has any real impact on the puppies, but it's lovely to see them when they're cute little bundles of fun, take some photos and have cuddles. I don't think the scent thing will make much difference - the puppy will still be sleeping with his litter mates at that time, so it will quickly get destroyed and covered in all sorts! I don't think your scent will hang around very long in a puppy pen full of wriggly worms As for the crate, I'd just use a divider. This is what we did when we brought Willow home. I bought the biggest crate I thought I'd need for an adult and then my husband made a divider to go in it. Some people just use a box to block off one end. When she grew out of that section, I just removed the divider, because by that time she realised it was her "den" and not an area to go to the toilet.
Exciting times! Yes, it's a good idea to leave a blanket with the breeder to get the smell of Mum and littermates on it, our pups always come up with one, Twiglet still carries hers around .
My understanding is that you leave the blanket so the scent of Mum and pups gets on it and makes pup more comfortable in your home. Not so your scent gets on it ahead of time. WE could have done it but didn't, puppies settled in just fine. I know leaving a crate at my breeders it would just have been in her way. There were 9 pups in Oban's litter, imagine if everyone wanted to do that. So exciting. WE were close enough to visit 3 times before bringing puppy home. How in the world will you bear the wait?
So very exciting! We visited Pongo twice before he came home - once at about 4 weeks and once at 7 weeks. I don't think it made any difference to him really (but who can tell?)..... but it was lovely to see him so small and then watch him grow. And it was nice to see how clearly his personality was developing even as a tiny pup! Enjoy the next few weeks. (And get some sleep )
I didn't visit Juno until the day we collected her from the breeder but had lots of photos of her and her litter mates growing up. We even chose he from a photo as we couldn't get to the breeder due to 4 hour drive each way and OH being backward and forwards to the UK, Holland and Germany for work at the time. For some reason OH didn't trust me to visit puppies all by myself . First time I saw her was when she came hurtling into my arms when we collected her. On the crate front I had a 24" crate for her until she was about 4.5 months old and had no problems
We just went for a big crate from day 2 and put a plastic dog bed in one side with a cushion and pads in the other. Ours was 8 weeks old and never had any nighttime issues. Last pee/poop at about 11pm and slept through until my OH got up at 5ish. I think we were very very lucky with nighttime toileting.
We may do a visit of the mom in about two or three weeks she is only about a hour and a half from us. ( on my way to visit my sister). Birthday is estimated to be around the 24th of April. Can't wait. Reading the book The Happy puppy. Really enjoying it. Thanks for all the words of encouragement. I'll need them once the pup gets home
We visited the kennel that Tilly came from several times before we picked her out. We did not know which pups were going to be available until the day we went to get her. We had two that we felt we did not want, and endied up getting the one we hoped we would get. We did not visit the kennel where we got Cooper. We did see some videos of the pups and photos of both parents. The kennel was about an 8 hr drive, and we just could not find the time. When the pups were ready, there were two Chocolate females left and we had first pick of the two. The breeder had sold both pups to buyers in the Portland area, and she brought them to Portland on the 3rd of July when they were coming over for a Field Trial. Cooper picked us. She was much more interested in us than the other pup was. She was also probably the runt of the litter, since she only weighed 5.5 lbs at 7 weeks. We have learned that the runt puppy is no more likely to be a small dog than any other in the litter. Cooper is 24+" at the shoulder and weighed 81# today. We didn't think about taking a blanket to the breeders. I don't know if it would make any difference since both of our pups settled in, in about 2 days. Incidentally one of the breeders we talked to before we got Cooper, would not allow visits. He said he was worried about the possibility of disease, since the pups would not have any vaccinations at that point. He was a breeder with a good reputation, so I don't think he was trying to hide anything.
Getting close to the expected birth date (24th). Picked out names already. Not sure if we'll get a male or female. Have to wait and see. Never made it to breeder yet. But hoping to sometime after birth. Just reading and thinking of what we need. Made one trip to pet store just checking atuff out. Have two large crates so all set with that. I'll post when I know more. Cheers.
Puppies born on the 27th. Two brown girls, so ours will be a girl, name Violet. Want to post a pic. But can't seem to figure that out.
