Best way for a strong young male pup to learn to get along in a family environment...

...is to be brought in under a pre-existing female of strong enough physicality and good temperament to essentially, aid in the socialization and maturity started by Mamma Dobe up until the Hooman takes over at 8-10 weeks.

---and what about best time to bring the dobe pup home? 10, maybe 12 weeks if the ethical preservation breeder has begun the crop with a known skilled dobe crop vet?

Just starting a conversation here to avoid going OT elsewhere...

What do YOU all think?

BGpa said:

is to be brought in under a pre-existing female of strong enough physicality and good temperament to essentially, aid in the socialization and maturity started by Mamma Dobe up until the Hooman takes over at 8-10 weeks.

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Our breeder and many others interact with the pups from the day they are born. Of course the pups have their mom to nurture them but by the time they come home they pretty much have the confidence to start their new life with their new family. Della was a bit standoffish when Albert first came home so we kept a gate between them so they could get to know each other through the gate.
Less than 24 hours later we had this.

BGpa said:

and what about best time to bring the dobe pup home? 10, maybe 12 weeks if the ethical preservation breeder has begun the crop with a known skilled dobe crop vet?

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I think most have them done between 6 and 8 weeks and ours have come home at 9 - 11 weeks.

I got both of ours between 10-12 weeks.

I really had no issues from Ragnar tbh (was 3yrs old). I had more of an issue width the young pup going DoberShark on him.

I am envious of you. Wish I had a new pup coming in….

Ddski5 said:

Wish I had a new pup coming in….

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You could always fix that!

JanS said:

I think most have them done between 6 and 8 weeks and ours have come home at 9 - 11 weeks.

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Agree, and it should be up to the breeder to know when the timing is right. If the ears are cropped most breeders won't let them go until ears are completely healed and ready to post unless you have previous history of posting.

I picked up mine at 10 weeks, posted the ears together with the breeder (it had been 20 years since I'd last posted ears and wanted the tutorial!). If the breeder is doing a good job, the litter will be getting daily exposure to lots of environmental enrichments as well as the litter playing with each other and learning on their own about bite inhibition, rough play, mother saying no by snapping etc. I personally would rather see a puppy from 8 - 10 weeks getting this additional education from its canine family as long as the breeder is adding in exposure to non-canine environmental challenges like crating, household noises, outdoor grass, rocks, climbing, surface textures and the like. Lesser breeders may just raise them to the age to wean and get them out to their new homes as fast as possible.

I'm sure there are way better in depth articles, but I just grabbed this one for a general overview. Key tip, is if the breeder is going over & beyond with their litters, I'd rather see my puppy get all that plus the sibling/mother lessons. If they are being raised without the extra mile I'd rather get the puppy home where you could insure that it gets plenty of exposure to new and different things as young as possible. Hope that makes sense.