iv heard that when the pups are 7 weeks old we are supposed to seperate them from there mum , is this true ?

i didnt seperate mine they were with her right up until they went to new homes, even when pups left home she was ther to say bye

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I have never bred dogs but my understanding is that it is better for the pups to stay with mum as long as possible as she teaches the pups social skills and the litter mates learn social skills from play etc..

I could be wrong but it sounds logical.

Sue

I never did, but many people do, however I did make sure mum had some time to herself away from the pups

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I think that is the age (8 weeks ish) at which most pups are ready to be sold. I don’t think that they need to be separated from their mother.

Yeh 8 weeks is the acceptable age...

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To leave mum pemanently 8-10 wks , no sooner, many breeders do give mum time out and it's good for the pups to get use to not having her there, generally only for an hour or two .

My experience of pups is mum gets fed up around 5 weeks when they are biting,and chooses to stay away,i have to put her in to feed pups,and ignore pleading eyes,when finished she cant get away quick enough!

I've found this too, Clare. Evie didn't want to leave the pups' side for about three weeks, then she gradually wanted to spend more and more time away from them.

In general, I think that as the pups have more and more solid food, they don't need as much of mum's milk. It's also better for the mum if she is gradually put in to feed them less and less, as her milk starts to dry up gradually and she isn't left with huge teats full of milk and no puppies to feed.

With Evie, I started the pups on solid food at about 4 weeks, and aimed for Evie to stop feeding them altogether at about 6 weeks. That seemed to work - Evie's milk production dried up naturally and then the pups had two weeks for us to make sure they were ok on solid food before they went to new owners.

i agree when i started weaning mine just took mum away when i offered food to pups eventually i kept molly away slightly longer intervals so she could dry naturally