Question About Puppies/Breeding

[elizabethann]

I went to PetCo last night and saw THE CUTEST puppy in the world. It was one pound. It was a Pug/Shitzu cross. It was so cute, grown men were talking to it like a baby! However, it was owned by some pathetic woman. She kept bumping into it with her giant sneakers and almost stepped on its toes.

My questions:

1. The woman said it was 8 weeks old. Isn't that too young to be separated from its Mother and too young to be out in public?

2. The woman said that the puppy's parents were brother & sister! Is that normal? To in-breed dogs?

I swear, if that woman turned her head for one minute and I could do this without getting caught, I would have taken that poor puppy and ran right out of the store.

[Freedom]

Gawd, I would have scooped him up, too!

No, dogs, cats, etc. should NOT be inbred. Just like humans, it leads to tragic genetic disorders.

Most puppies are weaned between 8 and 10 weeks. Most responsible folks won't remove a puppy until 12 weeks, I believe, but I am not an expert on that.

[Canis-Lupess]

Hello

8 weeks isn't too young to be taken from mum and siblings. 7 weeks is the ideal age with regard to psychological development because it gives the pup equal amount of time to learn how to be a dog with mum and siblings and then the same amount of time to learn how to behave in a human environment and learn how to bond with people which takes place from 7-14 weeks. Taken away from mum and siblings too early, they miss out on learning how to be a dog and become too attached to people which can be a major problem and left too late, especially after 9 weeks, it misses out on learning how to be a dog in a human environment and becomes too attached to other dogs and less able to bond with people.
Pups should be weaned by 6 weeks and breeders often take mum away from them at this time although they keep the litter for a week or two longer so that isn't an issue with any pup 6 weeks or over. No pup younger than 6 weeks should be taken away from mum...ever!!!!

However, 8 weeks is too young to be out in public. In the UK, a pup can have it's first innoculation from 6 weeks but can't have it's second until 10 weeks and has to wait another week before it's safe to go out so 11 weeks is the earliest age a pups should be out in public if it has had it's proper jabs. If not, it risks picking up a number of possibly fatal infections.

Breeding a brother and sister is definitely risky in my books. They are too closely related. I have heard of an accidental litter of staffies who's parents were siblings and nearly all the pups died very early on. I'm not sure what happened to the remaining. This type of breeding definitely shrinks gene pools and contributes to genetic disorders in my opinion.

[Ginger's Mom]

Are you sure when she said brother and sister she didn't just mean they were both owned by the same irresponsible people who didn't spay/neuter their dogs and had an accidental litter, as opposed to two Pug/Shih Tzu mixes who were breed by some backyard breeder?

[elizabethann]

Are you sure when she said brother and sister she didn't just mean they were both owned by the same irresponsible people who didn't spay/neuter their dogs and had an accidental litter, as opposed to two Pug/Shih Tzu mixes who were breed by some backyard breeder?

She said the dogs parents were brother & sister, that's it.

[Danegirl2208]

no, 8 weeks old is not to young for the pup to leave the mother, generally 7 weeks old and up is the acceptable age for a pup to leave.

inbreeding IS acceptable when breeding dogs and is not uncommon. BUT this should not be attempted by a novice breeder as there are risks involved...and obviously anyone who is breeding Pug/Shitzu crosses purposely, shouldn't be breeding at all.

[Canis-Lupess]

I'm thinking it was either an unplanned litter or that they are irresponsible backyard breeders. The staffies I mentioned were unplanned.

Still, some people come out with alsorts of rubbish that isn't even true. They say stuff like that just to get peoples attention sometimes and it turns out to not be true. I've come across this kind of thing so many times, not always about breeding dogs or even about dogs but about alsorts generally. People have a habit of making up stuff like this sometimes although I don't think this woman was definitely lying about the parents, it wouldn't surprise me if you found out they weren't brother and sister after all.

[Ginger's Mom]

no, 8 weeks old is not to young for the pup to leave the mother, generally 7 weeks old and up is the acceptable age for a pup to leave.

inbreeding IS acceptable when breeding dogs and is not uncommon. BUT this should not be attempted by a novice breeder as there are risks involved...and obviously anyone who is breeding Pug/Shitzu crosses purposely, shouldn't be breeding at all.
I know that breeding granddaughter and grandfather is rather common, but I didn't think it got much closer than that.

[Sophist]

I can't imagine it possibly having all its shots by 8 weeks. I certainly wouldn't take it out into public and let it run around a petshop floor!

[luvofallhorses]

IMO, ideally the pup should be taken from it's mother at 8 weeks and adopted out at 10-12 weeks. that is just my opinion and I am with you, Sophist. I would not let an 8 week old pup on the floor of a pet shop!