I had N'Stein at 10 weeks. It was important to me to stimulated and socialized him. And as long as the period of time allowed to do that he's very short I prefered to bring him home at 10 weeks.

I let my puppies go only when they are spayed or neutered .

Wow bettyanne, I didn't realize that Toto was so small!

When we had our puppies, and they were all fat little butterballs, our last ones were six months old when we sold them. That was my fault because I was so picky about their new homes....they were certainly socialized and spoiled rotten by the time they left here :D

I agree. There is a big difference between 8 and 12 weeks. We happen to be picking Snickers up at 11 weeks 2 days because we want time with the dog before craziness happens. i was able to take time off. Another consideration was he is big. at 8 weeks he was already 2.4 lbs and now he's almost three lbs. We also visit every weekend to make the time pass.

I got Kelsey when she was 3 months.

:) Yep ... she looked larger until we got her home and let her get down on the floor! Then I realized ... she was smaller than my foot [which is small!]!! We began to look at each other like .... OMG! what have we done!? :eek: Ava had wanted to keep her two more months and it just seemed like an eternity! It took us a long time to overcome our fear ... and as she began to thrive even more, we just let her boss us around and she has become absolutely spoiled rotten!! We also let her get way overweight ... it was so easy. When we realized what we had done, she was almost double her recommended weight for her tiny frame!! Her bone structure is so small that our vet at home [Dr. Lucy] doesn't want her over 3 lbs. ... she was 5 lbs. 9 oz.!!! She was so fat that she waddled when she walked. It was cute since she was young but Dr. Lucy was looking out for her long term health. It's very dangerous to be that much overweight as they get older. She has been on a "tough love" diet since last December and we are now at 4 lbs. .14 oz. and hopefully by this time next year will have shed a little more. So, you really can just "love them to death"!! :( Sorry this was long, but just wanted to share the "weight thing". ;)

Excellent post and I don't think people understand that the longer the puppy stays with their mother the easier it is on the people. Mom's can help with housetraining, social skills and many other issues. Glad you posted this :)