hi as some of you may know i have been looking into getting a new pup, well we thought we had found the right one.

we have a pup on trial from a very respected breeder and judge but the pup is 20 wks and has not been socialized he has been excepted very well by all my dogs but is nervous, we took him to p@h today i did not pick him up but just took time to let him adjust to the surrounding's he followed my 13 wk very confident pup very slowly into the shop and crept around the shop slowly meeting lots of people which he seemed reassured with, we then took him to a small sports field in our village and he had a great play with the pup this part went very well.

my question is do you think at 20 wks he will be able to become a confident dog and cope with going to shows in the future or will his lack of socialization take months or possibly years to improve, have i got him early enough not to affect him to much.

when we went to see him he was confident in his own home and loved the kids people dont seem to be his problem its more the big wide word.

He is still a baby at 20 weeks and you say that he hasn't been socialised.  The other thing you said was that "he has been accepted well by all my dogs"  from which it appears that you have quite a few dogs in addition to another pup of 13 weeks which could be a bit scary for a little one!  You seem to think that he was confident in his own home so I would imagine that he will also become confident in yours once used to his new surroundings. 

20 weeks is nothing in doggy terms.  I wouldn't expect the pup to trust you completely until he has lived with you for at least 4 weeks.  Once you have the trust your confidence will fill him with confidence.  Plenty of socialisation, puppy classes and ringcraft and the same personality that you see at home will come out.  I have seen so many dogs do a complete u turn when they have been to ringcraft for as little as 3 weeks. Also with you having another pup around he will attact to the pup easily which means it takes a little longer for them to focus on humans.

Emma

we took him for another small walk tonight and he was so much better the other pup actually gives him confidence as he follows my pup every where.
i breed my pup myself and have socialized him lots so he is not scared of anything i think this will be very good for him.

as this pup has been bought for my son to show and to work with i don't think we will be able to take four weeks to come to a decision whether he is staying as we will all be to attached by then and i cant afford to have any more (just pet only) dogs.

this pup has a exceptionally good pedigree and is a good example of the breed so its just whether we can bring him out of himself.

he will go to puppy classes on Monday and ring craft on Wednesday so i hope he trusts us a little by then i don't want to scare the life out of him.

i have managed to change one of my girls around from coming to me with fear aggression (with dogs) to accepting my mums dog staying with us for two weeks while my dad was in hospital i hope it wont take that long for this pup.
my fear aggressive girl has taken this pup in as if he belongs here.

Give him as much time as you can without getting to attached before making a decision.
Remember head before heart in the decision for future showing.  (I wish I could take my own advice on that one sometimes)

Emma

>we took him for another small walk tonight and he was so much better the other pup actually gives him confidence as he follows my pup every where.

Head before heart - absolutely!

Be very careful of this pup only gaining confidence from your other pup.  Make sure that you start to socialise him away from the other pup more than with, or you stand the chance that he never gains confidence for himself and is only confident when yours is around :(   This could be a disaster if you are showing him :(

This is one of the reasons why 2 pups together are much more work than one to bring up ;)

Must say, I wouldn't be impressed with a breeder who has kept a pup until 20 weeks and not socialised it :(  IMHO the very least you should expect from a good breeder is a pup who isn't scared of new experiences :(   If you decide to keep him to show then you really will need to plan his socialisation carefully.