3.5 weeks old - would you know which puppy to pick!

[Helen]

we saw jarv at 3.5 weeks - we went to choose a liver and white bitch and chose a sold liver male instead.....well, actually he chose us.

we had no idea at that stage what temperament we were going to end up with - we chose so early because the litter was 'promised' and if we didn't get in quick we wouldn't get one.

we ended up with a puppy that became the smallest in the litter (he was fine on mum's milk, bored when weaned onto puppy food so ate less than the other fat piglets - not a runt in the sense of the word).  he was what some would call the most submissive...but actually he was just chilled out and relaxed. he was happy to let the others rule the world and as a result he has turned into a mellow happy young man who is an absolute joy, and has a great personality. (with the one blip of disliking the new un-neutered rescue dog next door on his turf but new dog is antagonising a lot of dogs and getting into scuffles so i can't blame jarv for this....and we're working on it )

i guess what i'm saying is that if the one you choose turns out to the most submissive, as long as it's not an overt problem i really don't think it is a major issue.  what would be more of a concern in my eyes would be to have the most assertive dog - to maintain this top dog position with other dogs on walks, in the home etc is quite stressful for this kind of dog (and even more so for an owner coping with a very confident and pushy pup), and jarv has it easy as he doesn't have any power aspirations.

have a wonderful time visiting, and please take some pics

[Ben's mum]

I read all the books about how to choose the right sort of personality i.e not to submissive and not too bossy as we were first time dog owners and wanted an easy going pup.  Looked at Bens litter at 3 weeks, and 6 weeks, totally ignored Ben as he was all black and we had come for a black and tan.  We couldn't decided they were all georgeous.  But Ben at 6 weeks was chasing the others out of the food bowl, biting and very assertive - you just couldn't ignore him.  He climbed into the food bowl and sat in the middle and wouldn't let the other pups near it!!  He bit us and made a squeeky growl when we picked him up - all the signs of being bossy, but we couldn't resist - i knew we were getting trouble, but hes worth it .

I think you will love whichever one yoyu end up with - so just enjoy!!

Bens mum

[AnnB]

When we chose Bella there were only two girls left out of a litter of nine. We weren't really bothered too much whether we had a girl or a boy, although we had previously had girls.

We were taken by Bella's independence however; all the puppies were playing in the garden with their mum, and Bella was the only one 'doing her own thing', wandering off from the rest, sniffing where she wanted.  Maybe that was just her on the day, because apart from Fred on here, we have met two others of her siblings and they are all very confident pups, but it certainly gave us good vibes.

we saw her twice before we picked her up (and that was just in the last week before we picked her up) and I'm sure it must also help if you get to see them earlier.

[Wendy G]

When we chose Badger we had the pick of the litter as Raisen was the Dad, we wanted another dog as apposed to a bitch as we already had 2 dogs.There were 4 dogs, 2 black/white, one liver and 1 black.My OH said I think we will have the black one and that was that (he was my 40th birthday present)
I didn't actually choose Murphy either, he was the last in the litter and I looked after him for my Brother for the week-end and he didnt go back (I wasn't supposed to have another dog, but got my own way in the end).

Murphy would not have been my choice of the litter, there was another black dog that I would have picked, Murph seemed to be the sort of dog that would be abit of a wimp, but he certainly didn't turn out that way.

My advice would be if they all appear healthy just pick that one that catches your eye.

[Birtles]

can't help sorry but we didn't get a choice... when we rang there was only one dog left so when we went to look he was fine, at 4 weeks I couldnt really tell and difference apart from colouring.  'Blue' was left I think because he was very very pale blue roan whereas all the others had patches all over.... 'blue' has a white body at the moment but sure his colour is coming through slowly.
We get him next Saturday 

[clairep4]

Bella was 3.5 weeks when I picked her, she was a 3 hour drive from me so couldn't go more than once unfortunately. There were two girls to choose from. They were both put on the rug in front of me and one of them came over very confidently but then after having a sniff of me wasn't remotely interested and just kept wandering off. The second pup wasn't quite so bold, but when she came to me I picked her up and she sucked away on my finger and just settled back in my arms gazing up at me  When I put her back on the rug, she had a little look round and then came and snuggled right into my leg and went to sleep. So that was that - a completely unscientific happening but I couldn't have hoped for a lovelier girl. The breeder was great as she kept sending photos of her over the next weeks and also let me know what her personality was turning out to be like (teeny weeny but fiesty and very playful - same as she is now!  ).

[Joelf]

I think Domino was about 3.5 weeks when we first saw him; as he was the only male dog in a litter of 4 we didn't actually have a choice! He was also the nicest marked of the 4 but he appeared to have a very timid personality so I was a bit worried to start with although we didn't want a bossy dog as he had to fit in with our other dogs. However I visited him twice more between first seeing him & taking him home & each time he was becoming more confident due to his breeder & family playing with him & generally socialising him.

Spike was much more difficult; he was one of 9 & apart from one dog we had a choice of 4 males. They all appeared to be very similar black puppies but there was one very bossy one so after playing with them for a while I picked Spike who appeared to be fairly middle-of-the-road temperament wise. They were only 4 weeks at that time so it was a little bit of a gamble!

[kizzy]

Our blue road has had six puppies 4 weeks ago, we are going to keep one and we just cant decide which one. its so difficult they all have their own little ways etc 1 we had to resusitate 1 is so tiny etc etc Good Luck with the  new puppy

[ali]

good luck in your decision. barkley was the last available in his litter when we saw him at 5 weeks old, and we went very determined that we wouldn't say that we'd have him unless it felt completely right. in the end, we're pretty sure that we'd have picked him even if we'd had the choice of all six. don't know why, we just think we would have...

what surprised us though was that the sister-in-law of the breeder had chosen her pup when they were only 24 hours old!  happily, she's been very happy with her but she really couldn't have been able to tell anything about her pup other than it colouring and sex at that point, surely?