The Best Age to Bring a New Puppy Home

What’s the best age to bring a baby puppy to your home?

When is the best age for me to adopt a labradoodle puppy? And relatedly, when is the best age for a labradoodle puppy to be removed from its mother and littermates to go to its forever home?

The easy part of this labradoodle puppy adoption timing question is that it should definitely not be before the labradoodle puppy is at least 8 weeks old. That is now the law in many U.S. states like here in Pennsylvania. That is based on good animal science and husbandry practice.

puppy adoption between 8 to 14 weeks

Beyond 8 weeks, the answer to these questions depend largely on what the new adoptive home will be like. Through the labradoodle puppy’s 14th week, it will be undergoing a very sensitive socialization process.

The following is a simplification, but basically starting at 6 weeks of age, while the puppy is still with mom and the breeder, the puppy will be very exploratory. Your labradoodle puppy, filled with curiosity, will inspect its world as much as it can. This curiosity and openness to new experiences will grow in the next few weeks until it rapidly diminishes from about its 12th week of age. By week 14, the puppy’s curiosity will be replaced with fear.

So it’s really really super important that the puppy be exposed to as many stimuli and as much socializing as possible, and that those have positive associations for the puppy. This is a critical time period when the labradoodle puppy will learn that vacuum cleaners are okay, children aren’t scary, and cats don’t want to be chased.

This is also when puppies really learn the all-important bite inhibition. An adult dog without good bite inhibition will be a danger to every person–adults and especially children.

Because of the importance of this developmental period, I recommend that labradoodle puppies being raised by a competent breeder and dog trainer remain with the breeder until 12 to 14 weeks of age. This assumes that the breeder and/or dog trainer will provide all of that vital socialization and stimulation that a young puppy needs during those weeks of its life.

If, however, the puppy would be going to a home that has the time and resources necessary to do this themselves, then I would recommend that the puppy go to that new adoptive home at 8 weeks. This would entail spending hours each day with the puppy ensuring it learns as much as possible.

Why a puppy should not go to its adoption home before 8 weeks

Removing a puppy from its mother and litter mates too early causes a
range of problems in the puppies development. Many studies performed have shown a resulting increase in aggression, hyper-reactivity, learning problems, fearfulness and anxiety in puppies removed from mom too early. One of these research studies is discussed on ‘HealthyPets.Mercola.com’ in the article: “Puppies Taken from Litter Too Soon Develop Behavior Problems
as Adults.”

When you consider what a puppy learns from her littermates and mother within those first few vital weeks, it’s easy to understand why.

• A mother will regularly discipline a puppy for bad behavior during its first few weeks of life. The puppy may throw a tantrum and feel upset, but the mother will be stern…although they always follow the discipline with a little nuzzling and some love 🙂
• This early and regular discipline teaches the puppy about right and wrong behavior, that actions have consequences and bad behavior is not fun. If this learning is taken away, the puppy may develop behavioral issues and not accept direction and commands from its adopted human companion later in life. This makes puppy training harder and ultimately leads to a less companionable dog.
• A puppy will learn from its mother and fellow puppies about the strength of its bite and not biting too hard. His littermates will yelp with pain and move away, and the mother will snarl and discipline the puppy if it bites and hurts while nursing. Also, the puppy will itself be the victim of too hard biting, so it gets some first hand experience of how painful it can be. This teaches the puppy that biting too hard hurts and results in negative consequences, so they slowly learn to control their bite. This is known as ‘bite inhibition’ and is a vital skill for every dog to learn. If taken away before these lessons are learned, the puppy will bite too hard not knowing any better and this can be very dangerous as the puppy matures into a larger and stronger dog. You would have to go through the process of teaching bite inhibition yourself and this can be difficult and even painful work!
• During time with her puppy littermates and mother, a puppy will learn how to relate to and communicate with other dogs. She will learn about hierarchy, canine body language, posturing and vocalizations (barking, growling etc.). Puppies also learn about things like chasing and how to play correctly with other dogs, also how to interact fairly and safely with other dogs. This will lessen the overall quality of your puppy’ life.
• A dog needs to be tolerant to touch for health and hygiene reasons and the safety of those around it. As a new puppy owner, you’ll want to regularly groom and inspect your labradoodle to check for parasites and other health problems. And a vet will need to touch a dog all over during a medical examination. So you really need your pup to be tolerant of humans touching it all over. A labradoodle puppy will constantly be bumped, nudged, pawed and climbed all over during its time spent with littermates. This teaches the puppy not to be afraid of touch, to get used to it and be more tolerant.