Buying a 5-6 month old puppy

[Sami2023]

Hi, I have my flame retardant suit on already :) We are looking at getting a Cockapoo and have been following a breeder for about 10 months, all reviews are positive, health checks are done, the puppies are well-socialised with other dogs and people. etc...
They have two female puppies who will be six months old in a few weeks. They are left over from a litter of ten puppies. They are fully vaccinated. We are tempted but I was just reaching out for experiences of getting older puppies.
We would have plenty of time for training with a 1-1 trainer and we all work from home in our house so the puppy would rarely be left alone If it were more than a few hours, we would do doggy daycare/dog walker.
This would be a second dog, as we had a springer spaniel from 8 week until he died of liver failure at 8 years old :(

Is this a recipe for disaster or are there success stories out there? We are not expecting an easy ride but just wanted to do if it was do-able.

I really wouldn't get a puppy from this breeder. Cocker poos are a classic puppy mill mix and it is a big red flag that they had a litter without having a waiting list of homes ready

I personally wouldn't buy a 6 month old puppy either, as they are past the socialisation window. If the pups have been living in a kennel like environment it will be a big change to be in a family home and they may already have littermate syndrome. If the breeder cares about the dogs and was adopting out rather than selling then maybe but IMO a dog is going to be part of your family for a long time so I would rather wait for the right pup to come along.

Have you considered a poodle by the way? Lovely dogs and you don't need to clip them in an extreme way. They look just like a doodle with a teddy cut and far more likely to get a healthy, well balanced and ethically bred pup. The risk of a doodle is that you can get a hyper cocker with the grooming needs and intelligence of a poodle but without an off switch - know quite a few of these locally and they are.... challenging!!

Good luck finding the best pup for you :)

I think a 6 months old puppy will be fine.

However the big questions you'll have to ask is where was the puppy kept in the last 6 months?
Things to consider are house training, lead walking and general exposure to household objects, noises and people.

Some things may take longer to ^fix" while others may always be a problem.

For example I have had 2 kennel raised dogs (one from a top UK breeder, I have to add) and both struggled with the TV and binbags of all things. They never really learned either that these objects are harmless.
The other thing was that they were not used to interactions with people and had the tendency to be aloof even though they are a very friendly breed. One also struggled with my children and she was never really a family/ child's dog. (Not aggressive or anything just didn't want to interact with them until they were in their teens and less "bouncy")

No unless you can 100% guarantee that the puppy has been socialised perfectly.

There’s a window between 8-16 weeks where it’s SO important to introduce the pup to things in a calm and healthy way so you can try and prevent fear reactivity. This breeder sounds like a mill and quite shot so I doubt that has happened.

You’d be mad to get one of these dogs. Get yourself on a mini poodle breeder waitlist and go from there.

Why would a breeder keep a puppy for 6 months? Seems strange to me. If fully socialised within the home and outside with proof it wouldn’t bother me that much but I can’t understand the reasoning.

As a side note, I work with dogs and cockerpoos are the current bane of my life. Neurotic, nervous, lots of aggression, awful coats to maintain, completely bonkers and not in a good way. The behavioural referral lists are 6 months long and it’s literally cockerpoo after cockerpoo…everyone seems to be following the trend thinking they are perfect but it’s far from the truth, go into it with your eyes wide open especially with a pup that may or may not have had the correct socialisation.

I'd wonder why the puppies are still with them at 6 months, and would ask a lot of questions about socialisation, living in the house etc, and expect to see some evidence of that - going for a walk with each one, for example, and seeing how he or she reacts to people and lorries and so on, and what recall is like.

Lack of a waiting list isn't necessarily a red flag. I know someone who breeds very solid gundogs who has a bitch a few weeks off whelping and so far has only two or three people waiting for a litter of six or seven.

We got our vizsla pup at 5 months and we have a four year old girl already. No problems at all.

The fact they still have 2 puppies at 6 months old would make me think they are not puppy farmers as they would flog the puppies to anyone to get their money. If that is the truth of the situation . It maynot be.

If the puppies have been out and about and had some socialisation it may work out really well.

We cant really know as we have not seen the puppy or the breeder. I would do a lot of grilling the breeder and check that they have had them for 6 months and that they are not returned puppies due to behavioural or health issues. Quiz them on what they have done with the puppies maybe ask if you can take the dogs out for a walk (with the breeder) and watch their behaviour

It worked out really well for us - we got Harry at 5 months. The breeder had been keeping to show, but by then he was already bigger than the breed standard, so she decided to rehome him to a family.

He'd lived in the home with his mum and aunt and another dog, so going to a single dog household was a big change for him, but he settled in nicely. He still loves other dogs and is always keen to make new canine friends.

The breeder had worked really well on training him and it showed. He was crate trained and pretty much housetrained; used to household noises, could be left for short periods and walked quite nicely on the lead. He's responded well to further training since.

All in all he's a super dog and we feel very lucky to have him.

By health checks you mean specialist health tests (breed specific) on each parent?
Where did you find them? Reviews etc can be faked.
These pups have missed a crucial socialisation period. Can you trust they have been taken out and about and actually experienced the world?
Were they sold and returned? Why? Is the breeder simply breeding more than there is demand from? Another red flag.
A neighbour took on a bearded collie at a similar age. It was a bloody nightmare. Never been on a lead. Never met dogs other than those it lived with. Never seen strangers or traffic or anything other than where it was bred.

😍😍😍 what a pair of beauties.

This is a brilliant idea IF you can satisfy yourself that the pups have been properly socialised and trained in their first six months.

We have a 13 year old cavvie who we got at 5 months. He was bred to be a show dog but turned out to be unsuitable as he had an undescended testicle. When we got him he was house trained, used to living in a family, used to animals, had been on outings to schools, shops etc, had grown out of puppy biting... basically someone else had done the hardest bits of puppyhood and left us the more manageable bits.

Ask lots of questions and observe the puppy and its mother carefully and you could be very lucky.

It isn't uncommon for breeders to have slightly older pups because they had intended to run them on to show etc and they haven't quite met the standard for whatever reason. However that can't be the case here with them being mixed breeding and so I would be suspicious as to why. It could be genuine but I would ask many more questions including the important socialisation questions mentioned by others, lack of waiting list etc

What a lovely picture @WestBridgewater

We’ve got a cockerpoo and she’s not a nightmare. Lovely dog.

The breeder had been keeping to show, but by then he was already bigger than the breed standard, so she decided to rehome him to a family.

That's quite a different scenario to the one the op is considering.

Our boy is lovely too @BarrelOfOtters Loads of people walk cockapoos near where I live. The majority are well behaved dogs.
OP, I would be reluctant to take on a puppy aged 5-6 months because they’re fast approaching adolescence. You won’t have bonded with the dog, and you will be taking it on when its behaviour could become challenging. Has the dog been socialised? Has it received any training? Where has it been living inside or outside? I personally wouldn’t risk it.

Just no.
its either been returned due to “ faults “
with health or temperament , or it’s been living in a kennel with its sibling and the socialisation window has passed . You can’t believe a word the breeder tells you.

many tears rescue won’t re home dogs like this unless there is a resident dog “ to teach them how to be a pet dog “.

Or someone couldn’t cope with a few sleepless nights when they brought a puppy home and didn’t realise that they would have to do some training. Not all pups are returned due to a ‘faults’

We got our late SandyDog at 7 months from a mad single person, 13 dog household. She was used to being inside and out but hadn’t been trained at all so needed to start from scratch.

Considering I knew next to nothing, we did all right. Toilet training had to be done but we were past the tiny bladder stage to overnights were easy enough. Also past most of the chewing stage so that was good, too. I enrolled her in training classes which helped, she took to instruction very quickly as she very much wanted to please and liked receiving treats.

We bought the breed textbook and I read various bits on dogs. Once I got into a routine with walks, she made a few friends of her own and did well, mostly. I couldn’t walk her off lead because there was the odd occasion when she took against another dog and she would also head off into the bush block next to the park before school which didn’t suit.

Getting an older pup worked out well for us.

We got a 10 month old (not a poddle) from a very reputable breeder who’d kept him and another male from the sand litter as potential stud dogs, the other dog was simply a slightly better example of the breed. He arrived very well socialised he’d been to dog shows washed brushed so been handled travelled in a car met other dogs etc. he walked beautifying on his lead was fully house trained crate trained and he was used to living with other dogs and being left. He settled very quickly and has never looked back. So it’s been an absolute triumph I would definitely do it again. The only two things he hadn’t experienced were stairs he came from a bungalow and I don’t think he was walk off lead very often so when he first came here walking blew his mind! 7 months in his is a joy I would definitely do it again.

You would be massively on the back foot with an awful lot of things at that age regardless of how they have been kept until now.

The first 3-4 months are a deal breaker for the most part in a dogs life. As well as the quality of the breeding.

Id run for the hills on so many levels. As a dog trainer I’ve yet to meet a cockapoo that doesn’t have some significant issues even when raised well as the vast majority are from puppy farms.

Have the parents been health tested? PRA and a range of generic tests for the cocker. Hip scoring ideally too. Poodle PRA as a minimum.

Rescue is different. Our last dog came to us at 6 months. She was challenging. She’d come out of a home with no ill treatment. Id do that again.

Buying from a show breeder whose dog hasn’t made the grade is also fine as long as they’ve been well socialised and cared for (they should have been as a potential show prospect).

I haven’t read the responses as I know what they’ll be but my parents ended up with a six month old Belgian Shepherd, who had been returned to breeder. He turned out to have the biggest character and to be one of the best dogs I ever knew. 25 years on I still laugh to myself remembering some of his funny ways. I know it’s not the “right” thing to do but can’t imagine not having had him in our lives.

This breeder has two pups available. All the scenarios above there'd only ever be one pup.

When you say health-tested, do you mean both parents have had full health checks including eyes, elbows and hips, or that the puppies have had the once-over from the vet when getting vaccinated?

Why has the breeder not been able to sell them at any point in the six months since they were born? Did the homes fall through or did she just breed with no real idea of how she was going to sell them?

I walk a dog who was re-homed at six months as supposedly, "the breeder couldn't find a home for it". She's beautifully natured but not the breed she was meant to be and has a life-limiting illness that means she's unlikely to make her third birthday. She also has a whole host of allergies and needs a very expensive diet. She's cost her owner thousands in vets bills and is on lifelong medication.

The owners fell for the sob story of a poor, cute, unwanted puppy - it's a very common way for people to sell unhealthy dogs - please, please do your research and get properly checked out by your own vet before you make any decisions.