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Originally Posted by Jespah
I have only ever brought in 8 week old puppies and molded them from the start. What's your experience and the pros and cons of an older puppy? One of my main concerns is this one will be house trained - normally a good thing, but I'm at work all day and had my dogs paper trained until they were old enough for their bladders to make it through the day. I can't afford $10 a days for someone to take them out midday. I may have to train the new one to use the paper until she's old enough to go all day, without going.
Thoughts?
Deb
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Deb,
Not a problem on any of the fronts you have concerns about. At six months, even with her being house trained the breeder's "way" I seriously doubt you are going to have to worry about any paper training. I have a 7 month old rescue boy here and on the days I have to be out all day - not accident one in his crate! And I can say with relative confidence, he didn't have the beginning this girl you are looking at did.
Older puppies are great, you don't have to worry with all the baby training things, chewing (at least as much), there are a lot of benefits to going the older puppy route.
As far as Foxy's standoffishness at first - I don't think her age had anything to do with it. Just some puppies are that way, it was just in her genetic make up. One puppy in a litter we had was an independent little thing. While the others would be in a pile wrestling, she'd be off exploring and doing her own thing. She wasn't a particularly affectionate towards humans either even though she'd been held and smooched and cuddled as much as the others in the litter had from day one.
Another advantage of her being older is that Rupe isn't going to view her as a baby puppy and will be more tolerant as she won't be as obnoxious as baby puppies can be.
Good luck! We're pulling for you!
Debbie