Just wondering what age the breeders out there think is the best time to choose a pup?

I prefer to choose a pup around 6 - 7 weeks old, even then it can be hard to be sure you have picked the right one depending on what you are choosing for i.e. showing, breeding or just a pet

If it's a borzoi to show then 6 weeks on the dot. That seems to be the time that they most resemble the adult they will turn into, before and after that time, up till about a year they change shape so much. If it's a collie as a pet then 7 or 8 weeks when they're ready to leave their Mum is fine :)

It's a Goldie, which will hopefully become my foundation bitch.

If you let the breeder know that you are looking for a foundation bitch they would be able to point you in the right direction. By the time my pups are 7 weeks old I can usually tell which ones I like. They tend to catch your eye. I've looked at a couple of other peoples litters at that time and the overall shape is usually what they end up with, but not always ;) It's not the first time that an ugly duckling has turned into a swan :)

With my last pup that I bought in to show, I had a look at the litter at 5 weeks and myself and the breeder had a good idea which boy I would have then I made my final choice at 7 weeks (it was the same boy we thought it would be at 5 weeks), he's a Rottie.

At five weeks I am getting an inkling and usually can pick out the ones I don't like so much. 

I like 7 weeks myself as at 6 weeks which is the age a lot of the older breeders always said to chose I have occasionally had a fat pup or one that hasn't gone up on leg yet as much as the others, only to turn out to have just as much leg length later as an adult. 

After 8 weeks they can change so much in different directions that I wouldn't want to choose one from a litter I hadn't seen from the start.

Then again how good am I choosing my pups is hard to say :D

Some people really have a knack for picking puppies, there is one in my breed that I wished lived nearer to me.

>Some people really have a knack for picking puppies

Oh yes, I once saw a litter of two week old puppies and the breeders could tell by then which ones were pets and which were possible show dogs.  Even by then they knew what head shape each puppy was oing to have etc. 

Of course they know this from experiance of their own breeding, the foundation lines and looking at other litters in the breed.

Myself?  I like to see a litter at 4 weeks (cuteness and to look at possible puppies taking loads of pictures to go over of the whole litter) 6 weeks (choose puppy) 8 Weeks (final desicion and take puppy home)

With our last puppy, as the breeder was so far away I only went at 6 week but my parents brought home the pictures and said about charecteristics. We had two puppies which were the top two in our opinion, knowing we only had second pick thought we would have one of teh two and breeder would have other but neither us or breeder (both experianced in breed) told each other untill crunch time at 6 weeks.  From the photo's I had decided who I liked out of mum and dad's chhoice of two.  At 6 weeks saw the litter without knowing exactly who was who I chose out the same one I did from pictures :D  Unfortantly I ended up siding with mum, not Dad!!!! 

Puppy we didn't get hasn't quite grown to shape and mouth has gone :( Puppy we got, now nearly 2, is lovely :)

I think alot of it is gut instint, this is how I go for pups.  My Dad on the other hand...Goes for the one that wins his heart, not his head!

I dont no i have seem to be able to pick puppies out of litters at about three weeks and still ended up keeping them, This happend to Mia, mum wanted her litter sister, but mia had what i thought the better front we ended up keeping her, well we have seen pictures of the one mum wanted and mia looks better in construction front neck and sholder wise, i admit after about 7 weeks  she went extremly ugly and lanky at six months she look out of place compaired to bitches that had matured faster, but i wouldnt give up i had seen that shape there as a young puppy, plus she is from the slower maturing lines, and now at 2 years she is back to that shape, doing well. and mum is really pleased with her! I have also done this to a litter of our yanks and we kept the one i said yes to at this age, and I have also done this to a friends litter and she ended up keeping the puppy i picked put at about 3-4 weeks. I tend to really look for the faults in the mother against the puppies as you are aiming to improve the line all the time.

I think it just depends on the person you are and if you can see the shape and angles at such a young age or not, i seem to have it but mum dosent so much, shes starting to trust me though!! but i would definantly chose before 8 weeks as after this they change shape rapidly and can look strange as they grow in diffrent ways :P

Fiona x

Now this seems to be the consensus among British breeders choose by 8 weeks.

Now my US correspondents don't like to choose until about 12 weeks, but which time I could never pick one and I think you can get a totally false idea, yet they insist they could never choose as early as we do.

As they tend to want to win early with their pups and usually have them made up to champions as pups maybe the ones looking good at 12 weeks are the ones that look good in puppy???

I think you could be corect there Brainless!
Fiona x

Then again how good am I choosing my pups is hard to say

Not that hard to say Barbara when the ones you've kept have done so well - I'd say you were pretty good at it :D :D

Well I have managed to pick the best in a couple of litters for other people more often, sometimes there just isn't what you want in the litter but you need to keep one for the bloodlines.

It did take me 3 generations to keep something really good, and then my sensible head told me it was too soon to keep another pup so I had sold her, but when she came back I knew it was fate, and no way was going to let Jozi slip through my fingers again.  Her Mum was the best bitch in her litter, but with hindsight I know that I picked the worst pup in my first litter

I think there's a difference in keeping something that will win and then keeping something even if it won't because your developing your bloodlines, sometimes that chance of having something good enough to win has to wait, as breeding can be two steps forward and one back.

I wonder this too.
an established breeder in my breed told me the best time was about 10 weeks!!
that is the age I will let mine go, but in the meantime I have people travelling, sometimes from a very long distance, to see these pups from 6 weeks, hoping to pick one!!
I'm not too worried, as I'm only thinking of keeping a bitch, but I've been asking all my prospective dog owners if they want a pup to show at all, as obviously I will need to assess whether any are NOT really suitable for that
The best pup we got was one that picked us!!! I picked a bitch, and she certainly is starting to come into herself at a year of age, but it was one of her litter mates, a dog, that followed us everywhere when we went to visit the litter (which we did quite often as they were only a mile away) and he has turned out to be an absolute stunner!! The breeder is really pleased with him.
I think I need a good few more years to get an "eye" for this sort of thing.
 

As we work our dogs as priority, but need to keep our conformation right for the few shows we go to, we rely fairly heavily on the Volhard puppy assessment at 7 weeks on the nose!

Having said that, for conformation, you can't beat looking at pups when they're still wet and newborn!

Jo

Jasper my golden caught my eye at 3 weeks, then 5 and when I picked him up at 7 he was still gorgeous, his breeder said 7 weeks was usually the time to choose goldens for showing!

Thanks for all your input. I think I will pay my first visit at 5 weeks and leave the final decision until 7. The breeder is also sending me photo's on a regular basis.

was wondering, from this post, how breeders go on with the selection proceedure. if someone has a litter of say 8, who gets the picks and when is it worked out? I mean, if all the puppy buyers come at around the 5 week mark, but don't want to make a decision till pups are older, how does that work? What if, at 7 weeks, say 3 people want the same puppy? As only one can have it, if the others don't want one of the other puppies, how does this situation be resolved? or if maybe, there are 3 puppies with numerous people after it? Could you end up with maybe 4 puppies that you thought were homed needing homes?

Just wondered how this all works.

A friend who has puppies on a far more regular basis than I, always has a waiting list of people who want a puppy bred from her dogs.

She won't keep a list of more than 10, so that hopefully one litter should satisfy everyone's requirements - but the first person on that list who is looking for a show dog (or bitch) gets first pick of dog or bitch, second, second pick, and so on.....   It means a lot of work on the part of the breeders, firstly checking out the people who want to go on the list, and then remembering who wants what and in what order they can come and see the puppies!  

Margot

Unless someone wants to show I allocate choice according to first come first served from those who are having a pup.

If I should have more than one person after a pup to show from each sex then the order of contact would apply too.

With pups that are to be companions only I try and match the pups to the owner, and it is surprising how often the choice I think fits is the owner they are drawn to themselves.

It does help to have a bred where all pups are the same colour and to be honest are not going to vary so much as to make a huge difference to the prospective pet owner on choice on the appearance front, and really I as the breeder am going to be the only one to know their characters or even tell them apart.

I see all the people wanting the same pup could be a problem

We were really lucky with Jasper's breeder, there were only 3 boys in the litter and we wanted a boy and when we first saw them they were such a gorgeous chunky litter, we fell in love with Jasper as he was the only one with his eyes open at the time, the second time we went he wouldn't wake up and all the others were playing about :rolleyes:  We didn't intend to show him and although the breeder was chosing one of the boys for someone else who wanted to show, it was between another and Jasper, and we got Jasper :) :) :)   We were really happy about that, but had he have been the one that was going to be shown we would have been pleased with any one of this particular litter - even a girl they were all so beautiful :)  

I also remember this particular breeder keeping one pup back after meeting prospective owners as they insisted they wanted a dog that didn't bark she was not letting them go to people she didn't feel were good enough for her pups :) 

Well that is where their spot on the list comes in.  Say there are 3 pup of the sex they want and they are third on the list then they get whichever pup isn't chosen by the other two.  If they are second they get to choose from two and the first gets the choice of three.

Having no choice means you either dog elsewhere or you are happy with whichever pup is available.

Two of the top winner s in my breed were in a litter of one of each sex, breeder kept the bitch and the first in line for a dog was happy to have the only male.

as pups are very much a work in progress and changing daily, I would have thought people choosing to have a puppy from a particular litter are basing their choice primarily on the qualities of the Mother and Father of the litter and the breeder.

I've told my prospective puppy owners that they get to pick in order of contact...I've also told them to have a couple of pups in mind,
But I've also said for them to come round and see which pups are attracted to them, cos I'm a firm believer it's a two-way street

Thanks for your replies :)

With Miz she very much chose us and we were smitten by her, she kept coming over and nibbling my laces and Matt said (get your hankies ready) he saw our future together in her eyes, awww!! :)

She had a twin brother as well, the same in every way, markings the lot so it wasnt based on colour as we didnt originally want a brindle but thats what we got!

Another strange thing was Brook (Her mum) was watching us when we picked up each puppy to say hello and see how they handled and how they cope with being taken away fom the litter so you can have a 1 on 1 meet!
Brook kept coming over and nudging us and making such a fuss when we picked up the other puppies (There were 8 in the litter) but when we picked up Mitz she just sat looking at us all happy, and came and laid on my lap licking Mitz while I was holding her. Maybe Brook even knew which one was best for us!? :P
Anyone else had that with theyre dam?

We deffo made the right choice, she is the best dog in the world in her mummys eyes!

Also Tracey (The breeder) said we were the ONLY people who made a fuss of Brook and Marley (the sire) while we were looking at the puppies, I found that quite upsetting.
How can someone go to see a litter and not fuss over the mum and dad?
Brook was laid on my lap for so long having a stroke while we were round talking she absolutly covered my legs in hair! And I mean covered!! :D :D

My puppy owners dont get to see the pups until they have passed muster with my adults (don't keep males).  If they are in any doublt that they want this 20kg bundle of pushy adult then they son't get to see a pup.

Thats what I mean, the people were paying no attention to the dam, completely ignoring her.
She had to turn so many people away because of that (not to mention pikeys trying to get a Staff), I mean if people wont make a fuss of the dogs that had the litter.....

The funniest thing I have ever heard is that one if the hopeful owners asked.......are you ready for it?? ''I want a puppy, but I want one which doesnt wee or poo on the carpet'' Tracey said ''Of course they will wee on the carpet!'' THEN the hopeful said further ''Well it wont bite anything will it? I dont want a puppy that mouths or bites or will chew things'' After that Tracey showed her the door and was tempted to kick her up the ar*e on her way out!!!

I'd have suggested a visit to hamley's toy store.

I would have kicked her up the ar*e for wasting my time!! :D :D