Picking up puppies at the age of 6 weeks?

[solowolf]

Originally Posted by elf

Some more info to be a little more puzzled on what's the best :

"Hi Anthony,

With dogs, 49 days is the average time to leave the breeder. With pure wolves, they normally would be bottle-fed by the person who wanted to bond with them. We're talking really early on here. So it depends how much wolf is in this wolfdog. It'd say the wolfier the animal, the earlier you might want to have it, but if someone was taking a wolfdog really early they need to know how to care for it.

Take care,
Nicole"

bottle feed wolf cubs barbaric practice same on breeders who do this to the wolf////////pacino

[elf]

Originally Posted by solowolf

bottle feed wolf cubs barbaric practice same on breeders who do this to the wolf////////pacino

I don't know what's the best for wolves or wolves-hybrid but looking at the US stats of the numbers of these poor animals ending euthanazied or living cages closed, I would say that the best is in the wild far from humans and breeders.

Originally Posted by elf

I don't know what's the best for wolves or wolves-hybrid but looking at the US stats of the numbers of these poor animals ending euthanazied or living cages closed, I would say that the best is in the wild far from humans and breeders.

The practices of taking the pups away from a wolf mother is done by researchers working in conservation efforts, who are working with all captive-bred wolves, and never, ever release these wolves into public ownership. It's not done with pets, it's done with research wolves, and they are taken away and handled at a young age so they can bond with humans. That way, when they are adults, they can be properly handled for things like vaccinations and health checks. Also, in many practices, not all of the pups are removed, 2 are routinely left with the mother so she isn't grief-stricken with loosing all of her pups. However, the pups left with the mother will never be able to be handled by humans, and therefor are not good for research efforts, or for relocating to other research projects to help with genetic diversity.

However, I agree that anyone breeding wolf HYBRIDS, or wolves as PETS, are very irresponsible, and should not be breeding at all, regardless of how long the pups are left with the mother. There is absolutely no need to breed these animals, when 99% of people looking to "buy" one haven't the slightest clue as to the care these wild animals actually need. The only instances where wolves should be bred is for research purposes on reservations, not at all by the general public, and never back to dogs just to produce pets for profit.


As another aside, in the US it is illegal to sell anyone puppies removed from their mothers and littermates before 8 weeks old, so anyone removing pups any younger than that and selling them in the US is breaking the law, anyway!

[z Peronówki]

Originally Posted by Vicky

As another aside, in the US it is illegal to sell anyone puppies removed from their mothers and littermates before 8 weeks old, so anyone removing pups any younger than that and selling them in the US is breaking the law, anyway!

It is also breaking of the European Law. And also the Kennel Club law. In the most cases it is not allow to sell puppies younger than 8 weeks (7 weeks in Czech Republic as far I know).
Why breeders are still breaking it? It is because of the Urban legends..... Old breeder are talking over and over again about the times when CzW were bred by the army. The puppies werte born in the kennels and had VERY limited contact with people. So the puppies get more bounded on other dogs than on the people. It was the reason why it was better to take the CzW puppies away from the mother than it was by other breeds.

Now it changed a lot - the puppies are born at homes, they have much better contact with people - they grow up as family members. And it is no more needed to separate them before they are 7-8 weeks old. It is even better not to do this because it is clearly visible that puppies which leave mother earlier have huge problems to come clear with other dogs later. Such puppies have also much worser bite control (they didn't learn from other puppies that it is "allowed" to bite too strong).

Of course there are still kennels where the dogs live in the same or even worser conditions than 30 years ago. In such cases it is really better to pick up the puppy as soon as possible. Also if the mother of the litter is shy or over reacting (agressive) - it is better to separate the puppy sooner.
BUT there is always the question - if it make sence to buy puppies from a breeder who is not carrying for the puppies and not socialising them.
And if it is good (responsible) to breed (or buy offsprings) of extremly shy or agressive dogs...

Anyway: if you want to get a NORMAL Czechoslovakian Wolfdog it is really better to keep to this 8-weeks rule and not to pickup the puppy to early or too late...