A few weeks ago, my brown Standard Poodle puppy was born. He's already bringing me so much joy. I love to go watch him with his mother, littermates, and older half-sibling, and let him sleep on me while I visit. I'm very lucky to work with a Poodle breeder, so I get access to Ripley through his puppyhood! Even though I annoy him by taking so many pictures, he is so far a mostly easy-going pup. He's one of the bigger pups in the litter.
I am a professional dog groomer and Ripley will eventually grow up to be my grooming competition dog. Before that, I plan on showing him in conformation. I'm very excited for both of these things, and hopefully he will be as well! But, first and foremost... he will be a beloved family member.
Throughout the next year you can probably expect to see a lot of post-grooming pictures, hopefully some pictures from conformation, and undoubtedly pictures of him and my other two dogs (a Corgi and a Jack Russell mix) doing whatever dogs do best.
Well, here it is folks... Ripley is officially home with me. Yes, I know he's a couple of weeks younger than what's typical, and it wasn't planned this way on purpose. But I took him home for lunch this holiday weekend to meet my family, and he did so well here I decided he should stay. He's going to get way more one-on-one time here at home with me. He's fully weaned already, and seems well-adjusted in general for a pup. My sister stays at home and will be on him like a hawk when I'm not here, and my two other dogs will give him plenty of doggy interaction to learn from as well. I'm confident I can give him what he needs.
I watched him and his siblings this weekend while the breeder was out of town for the holiday and we all had a great time. He's very playful, but not terribly rambunctious.
When I took him to my house he barely batted an eye at meeting my family and our visitors. I carefully supervised his interaction with a few children, and let him settle in for a nap in his crate when he seemed ready to rest. The trick is to always catch them before they get irritable/tired, I say! He does EXTREMELY WELL with potty breaks! Every time I put him outside on the grass he piddles. No accidents as of yet. Again... trick is to catch them before it's an issue. I shaved his face once again, and also his feet and tail for the first time.
Overall I am happy with my decision to bring him home, he's going to have a lot more space here, and more love and attention than he'll know what to do with. I can also get a head start on training him and spend extra time desensitizing him to as many situations and sounds as possible. I'm going to enrich the heck out of this puppy's childhood!
I know and understand the concerns, believe me - I had not planned this. If he seems to not take to it or be lagging behind in any way, I have no qualms about taking him back to the breeder for another couple of weeks. He's weaned and wasn't getting much interaction with his mother anymore since all the puppies want to do when they see her is try to suck. Aside from the interaction with his siblings, there's not much downside to him being here, but several upsides.
My home is safe and set up for a puppy, and he can get outside here and explore many more things safely than he could at the breeder's place, where he could not go outside safely. He's going to have a ton more room to play than where he was since I have more space to set up playpens, and there is someone here to watch his needs all day.
There's drawbacks, I know, and I fully acknowledge that. But it's nothing I feel that can't be overcome with careful attention. Not too much different than raising a single-puppy litter would be. He has my two dogs to interact with to learn dog language (they're doing well together so far), otherwise I wouldn't have even considered it.
EDIT: Also want to mention I will be taking him for visits quite often, if he stays. I suppose he could end up going back, that is a possibility, I am watching his very closely. Though I really am confident he will be happy here and learn many things with my family's one-on-one attention. He seems to be taking it in stride today. The breeder's place is small and there's no safe outside area, especially for 10 puppies. My house is larger, with a good puppy play area set up and a crate, my dogs are well socialized, and my yard has only ever been visited by my own two dogs who I know are fully vaccinated so I feel it's as safe as outside gets for a dog, here.
Ripley's a cutie! Glad you're having fun. He does seem young, even with help from your other dogs, I'm surprised the breeder allowed it. I hope he still gets lots of time with his mom.
He will still get as much sibling/mom time as I can give him, I plan to visit as much as I was before. Though truth be told, dogmom avoids the puppies if she can, she decided she didn't want to nurse for a very extended period on this litter, so she naturally started avoiding them. The litter spends most of the day together in safe pens, 3-4 pups to a pen since there wasn't a good space for one large puppy zone. I don't think the breeder would have allowed it if she didn't think I could offer something here that would make it worthwhile. If he wasn't fully weaned and mom was still spending tons of time with him, if I didn't have a better space, or if he was a tiny pup or one that was less adjusted, neither one of us would have done it. But in this situation, and every situation in life is different, it may very well be a good decision for him.
Young pups need to be with their mother at that age. They are still learning. If he remains at your house, you won't notice anything special, and he will seem fine. The difference will be later on in his life. You are risking him lacking the proper social skills learned through his mother and siblings.
No serious breeder would let you have a puppy at that age. Too late now, and she probably won't want to take the puppy back. Less hassle and costs for her...
So you'll just have to do what you can, and know that this is far from an ideal situation. And scrap that " breeder " from your list !
I know this is a hot button topic. I can take him back, and I might. Gosh, I don't know. I do feel like my setup here would be good for him. But of course I would. Due to circumstances the breeder is currently living in a small space and space for the puppies there is limited due to this. He has more room to play here, much more. The breeder's place is not a bad place, but the space is so limited right now, no really great play area unfortunately. It'll only feel smaller the larger they get.
Everything about my setup is better aside from the lack of puppies so I am torn on it. I want to do good by him, which is why we thought it might be good in this particular case. But I am torn about him not being with siblings all day anymore, I know it is important. There are many important building blocks for a puppy, I'm trying to weigh out who has the better "Lego house" to live in I suppose. I know I will get him back there to see siblings often, I have dogs here as well, and someone else to care for him all day here. On the other hand, she has the other puppies.
I am writing all this because I want to be always be honest and give as thorough a picture as I can without going into the specifics of another person's life and setup without their consent, and I do appreciate everyone's thoughts. I can understand if people think it is the wrong choice, you can't see any of this in person. I am split. I am confident my place is good and I can do much for him here. I just don't have puppies to interact with him, just my two other dogs. I will give it more thought, I have been giving it thought all day.
It does seem unorthodox. But that's his name with the tag line I would want Ripley to have litter playtime and maybe a nap with the sibs for the next few weeks. I don't know if that's too wrenching to separate the puppy after his litter dates every day or if taking early possession jump starts him to his better life.
I appreciate that you are open and honest, and are considering this decision carefully. I wouldn't worry about him needing space right now. It's much more important that he be with his littermates. I agree with Dechi that you may not see any issues right now, but they will develop later. Under 6 weeks is just way too young to be away from his mom and siblings. He can't get what he needs from you and your dogs.
I agree that he'd benefit more from being with mom and littermates than from more space at this point. It's only a few more weeks, and if the breeder lets you visit often, you will still get to see him and get some bonding time. I know you have other dogs, and that's good, but other puppies his age and his mom would be better. The good breeders I know with singleton pups often take them to spend a lot of time with other litters that are of a similar age so they get that interaction. Whatever you decide, congrats on the new pup. He's adorable!
I am going to go ahead and bring him back after work tonight. Talked to breeder and she had zero qualms with that. Maybe we both just got a little excited, we're both still learning but our hearts are in the right place.
Of course you're excited! Can't fault you there. Geesh, I'm excited and Ripley's not even my dog! It's just he's so darn cute! Still, it's for the best. At least you get to spend time with him before he comes home - that's the best way, imo.
Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been super busy! Ripley has also turned into a little blur on paws, he's tough to get a picture of unless he's sleeping.
First four pictures are from yesterday, the rest are from today. I might update with some more pictures later on today as well... I might let him in the pool today and see how he reacts to being introduced to that. I'll go slow and if he takes to it he can hang out on the small step (we've got a "lounge" sort of step in our pool that's only about 4 inches deep) or maybe swim for a bit in someone's arms. If he doesn't take to it really quickly we'll keep working on it a later date. It'll all be up to him.
A little bit of pool time! He was pretty good in the pool, just hung out for a couple of minutes and then tried to climb out when I wasn't being interesting enough. He's not quite big enough to get up the step alone yet, but I was more than happy to give him a little boost so he could go roll in the grass and play ball with his siblings. He did the doggy paddle a couple of times, I kept my hand under him for safety. He seemed to have fun. But he seemed to have even more fun chasing after the other dogs!
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