When does a dog’s personality start to show?
This is a great question and often misunderstood. Let’s say, for example, you go to the home of a breeder and you have your pick of 8 different puppies. The breeder allows you to evaluate them all and pick the one you want. You’re there for 30 minutes, with a very hard decision. You’re looking for an outgoing, but not obnoxious puppy. Bentley, over in the corner, just got done playing, and he is worn out. He is super tired. You pick him up and he is like Jello. You pass on Bentley because you say, “He’s too calm for us; we want a dog that is more outgoing.” Little do you know, Bentley could be the perfect dog for you; he’s just super tired right now. And vice versa, ALL puppies at 7-8 weeks old have “puppy crazy time” a few times a day, where they run around like idiots, growling and biting pant legs. If you happen to be evaluating puppies and one is having “puppy crazy time,” you’ll never pick that puppy. The point is, one can’t spend an hour with a with a puppy and evaluate it’s personality, especially at 8 weeks old when personalities aren’t even formed yet.
A dog’s “personality” doesn’t really blossom until after adolescence (around 12-14 months old) but at 7 weeks old, we do start to see who is more outgoing and who is more submissive. We’ll tell you about YOUR puppy and what behaviors we’ve seen in it so far.
Personalities can vary, but temperaments are very balanced.
You can have two human kids, raise them the same way, and they have different personalities. However, the temperaments of our AussieDoodles, BerneDoodles and SheepaDoodles are very balanced, and puppies always take after mom and dad. If we don’t love the temperament and personality of mom or dad, they don’t get to make puppies. Meeting mom when she has puppies, does not give an indicator of the personality of mom. Even when pups are 8 weeks old, moms are still very protective of their puppies. Like any dog, they need time to warm up to you, before demonstrating any kind of natural behavior. And that’s why we make videos for all our mom and dad dogs. Click here to see our mom and dad dogs. You won’t find another breeder with a more comprehensive description (not to mention a video) of their mom and dad dogs.
We’ve sent home over 800 puppies since AwesomeDoodle started, and families rave about their puppy’s personality and temperament.
When puppies go home, we keep in touch with families and get lots of feedback. You can read a few hundred reviews here. When families describe the temperament of their AwesomeDoodle, it always sounds like they are describing mom or dad. At AwesomeDoodle, puppies are picked at about 2 weeks old. At 7 weeks old, we make every owner a personalized video and tell them what we’ve seen in their puppy.
