[Wylie's Mom]

Placing the puppies
After the puppies are born, if not before, you must consider placing your puppies. Time and time again, people breed a litter because friends and family want one of their dog's puppies -- and then none of them will take one.

At six weeks is when even seasoned breeders wonder why they do this. A healthy active litter of six will run you ragged at this age. They are so curious, they want to explore everywhere, and they are at the prime age for socialization and exposure to many things that you, as a responsible breeder, want to give them a head start on.

At eight weeks, you may begin placing those pups that are ready to go to their new homes {edited: it is recommended that pups should be kept a minimum of 12 weeks and weighing over 2 pounds}. Insecure pups may need more time, how are those puppy tests coming? You can't place puppies earlier than 7.5 weeks or so (no matter how much you may want to).

Are you prepared to do some legwork to find GOOD homes for them, not just hand them off to the first person who comes by? You are aware that you won't always be able to sell all of your puppies locally, aren't you? What assurances do you have that the puppies will not wind up filling animal shelters, facing death because their parents were thoughtlessly bred? Suppose you wind up keeping more of the litter than you intended to? Suppose some of your puppies are returned? Can you keep the extra puppies?