we kept in touch with all the owners, sadly one of them handed their pup into dogs trust after they split up despite having an agreement with us that should anything happen they would contact us so we could take the pup back, by the time we found out about this the pup was about to be rehomed. dogs trust have kindly let us know how she is doing and have sent us copies of pictures they received but we now have no contact with this pups owners so she was the only one not to get a birthday card last year. sometimes no matter how hard you try to find a good home things don't work out and this puts me off having any more litters. from what we have been told she has a lovely home now but whenever i write to dogs trust i always write that if she came back to them to please let us know, i feel very bad that she spent 5 weeks in kennels and we didn't even know and will never forgive her previous owners for this.
we saw a couple of the pups just before christmas and they are much loved by their owners and doing really well, we also looked after one of the others for a week at the new year while his owners were on holiday, he is now enormous but very loving and has a lovely temperment. its a shame we wont be having any more as the litter have turned out to be lovely dogs.

Personally I never try and force the pace of weaning. A bitch will wen her pups when she chooses and most breeders I know never restrict a bitches access to puppies except at meal times.

Of course the bitch must always be able to get away from the pups when she wants.

Despite this I have had my bitches fit to be shown as regards undercarriage and body condition at 12 weeks after whelping, though in my breed the earliest they will have any coat will be 4 months after whelping.

Unfortunately the 6 to 8 week stage when final weaning occurs pups can be very noisy and not want to accept that they cannot feed from Mum, and have not yet learnt that screaming like demented seagulls does not get them the desired attention. This is the stage I live on a knife edge regarding neighbours.

I have found by 10 weeks they are much quieter as their training and socialisation progresses, and of course some or most will have gone to their new homes by then.

This is one reason I have all my pups ear tattooed and impress on the new owners that they can be traced to me, so they are less likely to try and get rid of the pup without reference to me as per teh contract.

If they did the rescue can easily contact me, or I can check it is one of mine if one appears at a centre.

My mentor advised me to do this after a bitch pup a dear friend of hers bred ended up in a rescue where fortunately one of the workers knew that the breeders were mostly ethical.

With the small numbers we breed it was easy to work out who bred her from her age and location, and she came to my friend who had bred the mother, and was made into a champion within her first three shows.

I agree entirely I have found there is no way I can keep pups in my breed even when the litter is small penned up beyond about 4 1/2 weeks.

They simply need more space and they need to get outside to run about and get fresh air.

I do have a kennel and safe run adjoining the kitchen where growing pups can spend time while most lively coming in for chilling out and socialisation throughout the day. This also means that pups are largely house trained, especially for poos by the time they leave me. It is also easier to keep puppy quarters clean if you can swap them between outdoor and indoor quarters while you do it.

A friend last year reared a litter without any outside shelter for the pups but a secure patio, and found it really hard going as the pups wanted to be outside, but would fall asleep on the cold concrete rather than come back inside.

So he built them a little house to use, so they could lie up off the ground, some of them still insisted on piling into the stone planters for a kip.

It was also freezing keeping the back door open all the time, or in his case the patio doors.

They absolutely hated being put into their puppy pen, which was a good large one, and I have seen people with different/smaller breeds use until the pups have gone to new homes.

This is why I find it so hard to advise on actual puppy rearing as it can vary so much depending on breed.

My Bitch weaned when she was ready.
she had the chance to leave the puppies when ever she wanted and even when they where on soilds they still tried every now and then to have a suck but mum would just walk away ,yes some times dragging them along.
They soon stopped sucking on her and are great little guys and gal now at 13 weeks old and don`t even bother with mum now.
Instead they love their dad and play with him all the time.