How old was your puppy when you first met them?

[Celledora]

At what age is a puppy developed enough to show a hint of its character?

We have been wanting a dog for years and circumstances finally allow it (permanently working from home, child is old enough). We can’t adopt a rescue as my DS is primary age, so are getting a puppy.

We’ve been in contact with a dog owner for almost 12 months, her girl has now had a litter and we have ‘1st pick’!

I’ve researched all the usual things to check health and well-being wise and everything is good so far but rather than choose from the litter based on the sex/colour, want the one that is the best fit - ‘let the pup pick us’ as they say.

We had rescues in my family so were able to go on character/behaviour but I’m aware that’s not really possible with newborns! They’re only 2 weeks old now, we’re wondering when would be a good time to meet them and ‘pick’ the one we want.

Ideally we’d leave it to 8 weeks but I’m aware the owner has a few people interested and it’d be unrealistic to leave it to the last minute when the pups will be ready to be homed.

If anyone has advice on what week would be best to visit to get an idea of their characters, I’d be so grateful!

I said I wanted a chilled out one. Breeder said that personality tends to start showing by six weeks and we could see that from the videos she sent us. The litter was very similar with one 'full on' boy, one smaller one who was into everything, then the rest were just similar. We picked ours based on something about her - just appealed to us.

I met ours at 4 weeks old, he was in a litter of 3 puppies and all 3 pups definitely had developed their characters by then. I wanted a boy and a calm dog so went for the quieter boy. He is great and we love him but he can be nervous at times.

I think ideally when picking a puppy you don't want the most confident in your face puppy but also not the quietest and most reserved!! You want the one somewhere in the middle, sociable but not hyper.

We met the litter at 6 weeks and chose ours.. we met again at 7 weeks and brought him home at 8 weeks. He was the lively one of the group and he's still a very lively dog at 8 mo this compared to a lot of puppies... which is very lively!

I picked mine from a photo and met him the day I collected him at 11 weeks (Covid). My sister in law and nephew (who have one of his littermates) met the pups and video called me with him. The breeder was great and sent us lots of pics and videos so we could see them interacting with each other and her family. Would have been nice to meet him before but happily it was love at first sight!

6 weeks usually for me - as I've had gundogs and the breeder has always wanted to see which have the most potential for work / show.

I had third choice out of 6 bitches for the latest, Breeder had one, the owner of the sire had the second. There was one that the breeder thought might have less potential for work, and three that she didn't think there was much between, so I chose the one I felt I had a better interaction with out of those three.

The two that went to the breeder & the sire's owner are doing really well as working dogs, mine is a fabulous obedience dog, so just what I wanted.

Our first dog was chosen by me at 8 weeks (by agreement with dh) and he fell for a bouncy pup that was all over him. I fell for one that sat and LOOKED at me, like there was someone sussing me out. She was a brilliant family dog, and ironically adored dh and was always "his" dog.

trust your instincts would be my advice, look into their eyes and choose the one that chooses you.

We chose at 3.5 weeks, well, as others said, she chose us! We went for a boy, but our tiny girl was the only pup to cuddle up and kiss us, and we fell in love with her entirely. She’s a phenomenal pup and we utterly adore her.

Four weeks and eight weeks, then he came home with us after he'd all as his vaccinations at 12 weeks. He was 90% toilet trained by the time he came to us as well.

First visited when litter was 5 weeks, then again at 11 weeks. Got our puppy delivered to us at 12 weeks.

Thanks everyone. Had a good chat with the owner who is happy to let us wait until at least 6 weeks to visit and see which pup picks us, no pressure. As pp have suggested, we’re looking for a ‘middle of the pack’ dog, not too dominant or nervous, but other than that have no preferences really, they’re all beautiful!

We won’t be bringing them home until 8+ weeks but just want to meet the litter in person before then. I’m so relieved the owner is focused on the right family for the right dog and maybe should have trusted this would be the case but couldn’t assume so.

Over the last year we’ve contacted a few breeders who have been treating it as a straightforward ‘business deal’, asking us to select based on sex/colour immediately or lose out to someone willing to pay upfront to ‘reserve’ a pup before they’re even born, they’re not been short of people willing to do this over the last year.

As I mentioned before, I’ve always had rescue dogs that we’ve picked on character so this just didn’t feel right. Very glad we kept in contact with the wonderful breeder we’re now going ahead with.

We first met ours at 3 weeks and again at 6 weeks. We have photographs of both visits . We bought him home at 9 weeks.

The Labrador was four weeks old and up to his elbows in rice pudding as they were just about weaned. We chose him a week later and he came home at eight weeks. Fifteen and a half years ago now!