Match-making Puppies ( why letting your breeder choose is important)
Updated: 3 days ago
How We Choose the Right Puppy for Your Family
When someone first inquires about a puppy, they usually have a particular sex or color in mind. This is completely understandable and a perfectly valid request to make of a breeder.
Sometimes these preferences are practical. Another breeder may need a specific color or sex for their breeding program, or a family with an intact male may prefer not to bring a female into the household. Other times, it's simply personal preference. Maybe you've always had girls, or you love the striking look of a merle. I get it!
But there is so much more to choosing a puppy than color or sex, and this is where a breeder's experience becomes invaluable.
We are with our puppies from the moment they are born until the day they leave us. We watch them navigate their developmental stages and help them through their fear periods. We know which puppies recover quickly from something that startles them and which ones need a little more time. We know who tends to be bossy, who is a little shy, and how each puppy interacts with their littermates in different situations.
All these observations, made over the 8 to 12 weeks the puppies spend with us, paint a picture that goes far beyond what someone might see during a single visit.
Even when a family comes to meet the litter, they are only seeing a snapshot of that puppy's development. Maybe the visit falls during a fear period, or the crazy, shark-toothed biting phase around six weeks. Maybe the puppies aren't quite themselves that day. There are so many things that can influence a puppy's behavior at any given moment.
Your breeder has the advantage of seeing the whole picture.
This is why we don't assign puppies to families until they are at least 8 weeks old.
By then, we've watched them through their ups and downs and have a much better understanding of how they handle the world around them.
We may recognize that a puppy with a lot of prey drive would thrive in a working home, while another might be perfectly happy as a couch potato in a busy household with neighborhood kids, toddlers, or a house full of teenagers.
And even then, we can be wrong!
Puppies, like people, change. Their environment, upbringing, experiences, and the way they are taught to handle their emotions all influence the dogs they eventually become.
We use the Puppy Culture program to help our puppies navigate these important developmental stages and give them the best possible start.
We can make a prediction, but we can't make a promise.
You might be thinking, Well, if you can't promise what a puppy will be like, why wait eight weeks to choose one?
Because after eight weeks of careful observation, we can make a pretty good prediction!
We've been very successful with our puppy placements because we pay close attention to each puppy as they grow. We also take the lifestyle, environment, and expectations of their future families into consideration before making a decision. It's not simply a matter of choosing the puppy someone likes best when they come to visit.
What About Show Dogs and Breeding Prospects?
For families looking for a show dog or breeding prospect, we use a different set of criteria.
In these cases, color is absolutely the last consideration, while sex may be important depending on the breeder's future goals. We're looking at much more than temperament. Structure, teeth, movement, and personality all play a role in determining which puppies may have show or breeding potential.
We evaluate our puppies at 4, 6, and 8 weeks, and sometimes again at 10 weeks.
A lot can change structurally during those few weeks. The puppy who looks like your best prospect at six weeks isn't necessarily going to be your best prospect at eight or ten weeks.
In an ideal world, we could grow puppies out to 16 weeks before making these decisions. But most breeders don't keep an entire litter that long, and doing so can limit the puppies' opportunities for individual socialization during an important developmental period.
That's why those evaluations at eight and ten weeks are so valuable.
Some breeders believe that the structure you see at eight weeks is often a good indication of what the adult dog will look like. I've found this to be true quite often myself.
But these evaluations require experience. You need to understand your breed standard, know how your particular lines develop, and have watched enough puppies grow into adults to recognize what is likely to change and what isn't.
For example, I know that some of my puppies can have curly tails at eight weeks. I also know that those tails will almost always correct themselves by around 16 weeks. That's something I've learned through years of watching my own puppies grow.
As breeders, we learn to read these changes over generations.
Seven generations into my own breeding program, I'm certainly not right 100% of the time, but I have a pretty good idea! I also value the opinions of experienced breeders from other breeds and often ask them to evaluate my puppies with me. A second set of knowledgeable eyes is always welcome.
A Lot More Than Picking a Favorite
There is a tremendous amount of thought that goes into choosing the right puppy for the right home.
So when we tell you that the little black boy with the green collar is going to be yours, rest assured that it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision!
That choice represents at least eight weeks of watching, evaluating, and getting to know that puppy, along with learning about you and your family.
Our hope is always the same: that the puppy we choose will thrive in your home, fit comfortably into your lifestyle, and bring you many years of happiness.
Because in the end, finding the right fit matters so much more than finding the right color.
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