Hi everyone, I am the pround owner (well almost) of a blue roan Cocker Spaniel (boy) he is now two weeks old, I'm of into town this afternoon to buy 'The Perfect Puppy' book. When the puppies are 4 or 5 weeks old I have to view them and as daft as this question may sound I get to choose one, how will I choose one apart from thinking they are all gorgeous and wanting to take all 6 (which I know can't happen) How do I possibly know which one to choose is there any hard and fast rules in respect of this? Which pet insurance is the best? etc., etc., so many questions. My first ever puppy as you can probably tell but my family and I have a lot of love and time to make this little chap a welcome addition to our family. The lady says it's KC registered am I right in thinking it will already be named, but I can call it an everyday name of my choice? Well actually my husband's choice!

There are lots of studies about how you should test all the puppies with compatibility tests, pinning them down to see if they fight you, etc etc, I think that when it comes down to making your final choice your puppy will choose you. Unless you are going to show your puppy, then I would ask the breeders advice as to which one she thinks would do well in the show ring.
My last 3 dogs were not chosen from a litter, but when we got our Dachsund years ago we took home the one that walked up to us, settled on my knee and decided she was mine.

With any luck your puppy will choose you! Just go along with an open mind, and play with the litter. If there's one that says to you "I'm yours" then that's the one for you. (Sometimes there may not be any pups in a litter which especially appeal - in that case walk away - don't go for 'well it's nice enough'. I saw and rejected 5 litters before finding my 'special' pup.)

Regarding the name, yes you're right. The breeder will register the pups with their "posh" name, but you can call your pup whatever you want!

Good luck!
:)

Hiya
When we got our Cocker (also a blue roan who is now 5 months old) we had been in touch with the breeder for ages. As soon as the pics were posted on her web site we saved them as wallpaper on the PC. Everytime the pics were updated we would change our wallpaper. By the time we went for our first visit the pups were 2 weeks old, we'd fallen in love with one purely from the pics. He had 3 big black splodges on his bum & was gorgeous! We thought he would be a very light roan, but now hes growing up youd hardly recognise him from those early pics. He looks totally black with some grey flecks on his chest & the sweetest white tip on his tail!
Good luck with your new pup, they are the most fantastic dogs :-)

thank you to all who has offered advise, i'm a complete novice as you can probably tell, i'm off for a week away now in the sun and am taking the perfect puppy book with me as my reading matter! No doubt I'll have more questions when I get back. Thanks again.