hiya!
i work in a photolab so see tons of puppy piccies. yesterday did some pics of 8week old westie litter mates in their new home,with their bessotted owner.
one was quite fluffy one was rea;lly smooth coated, what would you expect from a 8week old puppy? are both types usual?, they had really runny eyes too,& the smooth one had a itchy tail (very pink looking),not docked.

when do their ears settle,one had pricked one had tipped?
it was quite sad really,obvisley not weell bred,but the apple of their owners eye!

Hi Michelled, :-)

Could you tell all this from the pictures or did you see them? Runny eyes can be a number of things, could be just simply needing the hair trimmed at that eye. I always trim the hair back as early as 4-5 weeks just incase as the harsh hair can come in so quickly.

Not sure about the pink tail as it is generally hard to see any skin trouble unless you move the coat and look inside it. Very very rare to see any skin trouble on such a young puppy. Westies tails are never docked.

Coats are something you need to actually have a good look at I think. Some can appear more fluffy but have a perfectly good double coat. Some are just fluffy with a single coat which is very undesireable and couldn't be shown. Some have a nice tight double flat coat which is my preference but some breeders like the first option as yu can get furnishings on them at 6 months for the showring.   You can also get nice tight coats but that are only single coated so the coat would need to be looked at. I am showing a puppy dog tomorrow who is just 6 months no furnishings but a beautiful tight harsh coat.

Being honest about coats, buyers are the worst for buying a westie because they think it is a cute fluffy things. My first litter I had one that was a bit fluffy and every single person wanted it because it appeared cuter LOL it was the I would never ever have kept.

Some ears don't got up till they are a good 4-5 months , I believe or certainly in my experience  when picking puppies that if they are still down at 12 weeks once they have had a bit of hair trimmed off them then their ears may be on the big side.  Again that is not a rule just my thoughts when I am picking puppies. At 8 weeks it is common for them to still be down.

Hope I have covered everything :-)))

I got my westie at 7 weeks and he has got big ears but a great coat and great appearance and a brilliant nature as I have 3 young kids and would trust him with them anytime. It doesn't bother me anyway as he is my pet never intended to show him. Is it true that males normally have bigger ears anyway?

I guess the way to look at it is the ears should be proportionate with the dog so generally males are slightly bigger so yes the ears would be slightly bigger. ( not so that you would notice though)
I do a bit of trimming and often people say their westies have huge or big ears on the phone and quite often it is the trimming of the dog. Their ears should just almost " peek out" of the head furnishings. When you look at westies prepared for the showring etc they have lovely full head furnishings but if you compared then to one that is not in show trim that has most of the hair removed from the head and ears the show trimmed westie will tend to look smaller eared.

Quite often when I have trimmed a westie into what I think is a middle ground between a show trim and a managable pet trim the owners are suprised how their dogs ears suddenly look a lot smaller. One chap said to me that he prefered his dog looking big eared as it gave him his funny expression LOL :-).   

Just like you my dogs are my much love companions and family pets firstly.  

I had one of mine already for a show this morning. When I went to my bed he looked a beautiful picture ( in my eyes) when I got up this morning somehow my bag door had opened during the night and my dog have been having run in the back garden during the night. What a site I can tell you. I spend the next 90 mins bathing and drying him again.  :-)))))) I left at 8am for my 3 hours journey which I only got 1 hour into and the motorway was closed due to a huge accident and then had to sit in the traffic for 2 hours ROFLOL.. what a morning. Maybe my dog was telling me something this morning.

BFN

hi! yes only saw the photos,but there was alot of them!!!!!
you could see the pink tail on the smoother coated one & looked like it had been nibbled. i was just interested inyour thoughts after our conversations on poor breeding the other day thats all!!!
youve answered my questions about the coat & eyes thanks!!!!!!!

:-)