Re: [pyrnet] Evaluating puppies

[Ingraminthegame@wmconnect.com]

Well, I'm sure different people have their own way of doing things but I do know of a few who evaluate the pups at eight weeks using "Pat Hastings' method".  Maybe some don't base permanent decisions on it, but it at least helps.

We had a female pup who would've been a nice show dog, maybe even breeding.  She's going on three now and really nice but according to the evaluation, her pelvis was shaped in a manner that may have been difficult to have pups.  Since we had no real show people interested and didn't want to breed her knowing that, we had her juvenile spayed and placed her in a pet home where she guards flowers, of all things, from the deer.....although her owners did have to teach her not to dig them up.  {smile  :)  }

Here's some links showing the method, although our good friend and mentor Gloria Stubenrauch is the one who first introduced us to it.

http://www.sonic.net/~cdlcruz/pompier/First18Weeks.htm
http://www.geocities.com/cdlcruz/WhiteDog/Sage8Weeks.htm

Chrissy


In a message dated 3/20/2005 8:08:26 AM Eastern Standard Time, lmweisser@comcast.net writes:


> I've been breeding for years and I don't evaluate my pups at 8 weeks. Surely not
> permanently.  Really too young. If pups at that age have *clear* problems.  Bad
> bites, REALLY bad east/west fronts, I may be ready to alter them.  If I have x
> numbers of people who want pets and I have to decide who stays and who goes
> beyond that, I may chose which I think are "better".  Making end point choices
> is a long process.  In some cases I have kept a dog months.  Or I have kept two
> until I decded between them.  I also think that there are people who have NO
> idea of how to evaluate pups doing exactly that.  At any age.