Is 13 weeks too old for puppy?

[Yellownotblue]

Hi, I’m currently visiting breeders and looking for a puppy (Havanese). I saw one today who is absolutely gorgeous (the pup, not the breeder 😁) and I have a good gut feeling about him. But he is just over 12 weeks (will be 13 this weekend). Is that too late for a new puppy? I keep reading conflicted advice about the best age to bring a puppy home and the dangers of missing the socialisation window. Thank you!

Thank you everyone, it’s really reassuring to read about your experiences with older puppies. The breeder has confirmed she has socialised the puppies with visitors of all ages, other dogs, household noises (hoover etc), car journeys and so on. He is partially housetrained and crate trained. When I visited, the puppies got excited at first but within minutes they were all calm and quietly playing together/ untying my shoes. The mum was there, she is lovely and inquisitive and wanted to share in the games and cuddles.

I’m seeing another breeder on Thursday and will make a decision then.

My brother has a Havanese.. he came home at 12 weeks... this was deliberate...and he is a fab little dog. As long as the breeder has done some socialisation it can be beneficial for the pups to stay with their Mum longer... and they are often nearly house trained!

Hi, just posting in case anyone wanted to know the outcome.

We got our Havanese pup a month ago at 13 weeks. He’s just turned 4 months today and he’s the loveliest ball of fluff. Toilet training is pretty much done, he sleeps through the night (11-7.30am) and while he still has the occasional wee accident in the house in daytime, it’s down to us not picking up his signals. We also have accident-free days. He is good around other dogs and people, inquisitive and playful. He very rarely barks or growls (mostly at the broom!), and never at the doorbell (even on Halloween when it rang 100 times). He is not destructive and is very food motivated, which makes training easy. He is learning lots of commands, but we will need to work slowly on him staying alone, as he is a Velcro dog and he follows me everywhere. We are working on that and have started puppy school.

Thank you everyone for your advice, I’m glad I went with a slightly older puppy as he is just wonderful and has been very easy to train. He is fully socialised and is taking absolutely everything in his stride - bus, tube, big dogs, fireworks, hoover etc, nothing fazes him. No regrets whatsoever!

I was also offered an 8 week old Hava puppy by another breeder, but I had a bad vibe about her and the puppy - the house was dirty and chaotic with way too many dogs for the space, lots of barking and adult dogs weeing everywhere. This was from a breeder who has won national titles with her show dogs. It goes to show how important it is to see the puppies in their home environment, and to talk to the breeder at length.

This sounds fabulous OP. Show us the new pup!

Ddog was Velcro for two years. It's good they are Velcro they will have good recall. And they want to be with you and won't run off.

Try and separated with a baby gate to start. Do they have a crate?

We got our boy at 5 months and it worked out brilliantly. The breeder had been keeping him to show, but he turned out to be not quite show standard. It meant she'd got him through the "newborn" stage, had toilet trained him, crate trained him, got him socialised and used to walking on a lead - all we really had to do was take him home and love him! He's just the best boy.