Were we too early?

[MacBarnes]

My wife and I recently purchased a boxer puppy. Where we think we went wrong is we brought him home at 6 weeks of age. From everything I have read, 8 weeks seems to be the right age to bring home a puppy. I am wondering what I should expect from my six week old now that he is away from his mother and littermates. Also once he reaches 7-8 weeks of age will he be more succeptible to learning some of the basics, most importantly the come command.

 

[Valantar]

MacBarnes -

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8 weeks of age is usually the recommended age to bring puppies home due to valuable socialization and behavioral skills learned from mom and littermates.

 

[Jill's boxer]

The importance of being with the mom/littermates from 6-8 weeks is that there is major socialization and interaction that occurs during that time between the mom and the pups and among the pups themselves. They learn alot of the "puppy manners" from their interactions with each other and where the limits are when it comes to playing and dominance/submission, etc. Bite inhibition being one of the biggest! You will need to be a bit more attentive to working with your pup on learning the bite inhibition. Yes, at this point it is a bit early to try to begin teaching basic commands, I would wait until he is at least 8-10 weeks old to begin any "training" but certainly you can plant the seed by beginning to reward him for coming to you--most likely he will be following you around anyhow, so reward and praise him when he does come to you on his own for now!

 

[Louise501]

I wouldn't say you went wrong, I would have thought the breeder would have not let him go untill he was around or 8 weeks old. I don't know if he would react any differently now but you might notice a bit later that he is not as well socialised, having been taken away at 6 weeks. I wouldn't expect a 7/8 week old puppy to learn the 'come' command. Ruby is 20 weeks and she is only just getting good at that!

 

[Valantar]

As for what to expect now that your puppy is away from his mom and littermates, the first few days may be frightening for him as he is in a strange environment with new sounds and people. Introduce him right away to the schedule that you have set up so that he becomes used to the routine. For more specific questions, there is a lot of great info in the forums that should be very helpful.

A puppy kindergarten class would be great for teaching the foundations of training as well as providing excellent opportunities for your puppy to socialize with other dogs and people.

Puppyhood is one of the easiest times to teach the come command because most puppies want to be near you! Take advantage of this natural reaction - whenever your puppy decides to run to you, just give him the come command to start the assoication of the action with the command. A great game we played with Samson when he was a puppy was to take a few food treats and have family members in different rooms/locations. Take turns calling your puppy. Each person should celebrate the dog's finding him with a treat and lots of happy praise. Samson loved this game :D