It really make no sense to pay so much attention to the age.... There are so many different points which also play huge role and influence future character of the puppy....
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Originally Posted by KoosLetydeGraaff
That is allso the problem and we (us) try to do our utmost to socialisating the pups. But you know the circumstances why we have to hold our pups so long.
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I really do not unterstand why you are sorry that you have to keep the puppies till 8 weeks.... What is the problem?
We must be honest - picking up the puppies in the 5-6 week have his "historical" reason: almost all puppies where born and grow up in kennels. Most of them were born in winter and it means they saw people only during the feeding time. Can you imagine a breeder which spend hours outside to have good contact with pups and to socialize them? So there was a serious reason why people picked up their pups so early. And it apply also to similar breeders now. So in the listed cases (the breeder has no time to socialize puppies, the puppies stay for the whole time in kennel and have no contact with dogs or people, the mother has shy or agressive character - simply said: if there are not proper conditions for the puppy to develop right) than it is really good to take the puppy home as fast as possible.
About staying with the breeder longer (till 8-10 weeks) - we already have great "research field" in Germany where are more litters born and the puppies were picked up later. And there is good visible difference: if the breeder is good, if he socialize the puppies they have great character later. And there is really no problem that they were longer by the breeder (in the most cases it is even better). But if the breeder is bad, the puppies are kept in kennel without socialization and contact with dogs and people - such pups are later shy.... (of course future character depends also a lot from the future owner - but I mean here the "basic" character of the puppy)
So I personally would no buy puppy with 5 weeks. The reason is easy - such small puppies start at this age to play with other puppies, they start not only to comunicate with other but also to live together. They learn social behaviour, the learn how to live in a pack. And every week counts - older puppies are later much more social to other dogs, they have much better "bite control" (they do not bite with full power because they already learned from other puppies that it hurts). Especially pups living together with people learn very much - it will profit with better contact with people later.... But I write here about puppies which have CHANCE to learn (it means I write about socialized puppies and I assume that the mother (and father) have normal character - if they are agressive or shy the pupps staing longer by the breeder will learn they bad behaviour...). But on the other hand it is better not to buy puppy older than the 8-10 weeks. Because it is no problem if the breeder must socialize one-two puppies (in this case you can pickup the puppy later) but even the best breeder is not able to socialize whole litter. Puppy which will stay longer by the breeder will become shy, it will be harder to get contact with them.
So for me personally 5 weeks is too early and 10 weeks is the border time to get the puppy. About the right time everyone has to decide by himself because as I wrote - it depends on the breeder, on the parents of the puppy, the conditions where the puppy lives and the most important on our trust to the breeder (if you do not trust him, if you are not sure he will cary for the puppy right way - thake the puppy earlier).