Originally Posted by
mrsgrumpy49:
“My neighbour's dog had puppies and the last one went to a new home today. The neighbour is a bit upset about it and had dithered about keeping it. But watching Mum playing out with the last of her brood before today's handover, I was more concerned about how she would take it. Do dogs feel any loss when their puppies disappear one by one? 
The other thing is do you check out the homes they are going to or do you just rely on gut instinct that people seem OK ?”
No, dogs aren't like humans. By the time puppies reach around 8 weeks old, the mother is fed up of them and glad to see them go. It's people anthropomorphising that think their seeing sadness in the mother, that she doesn't want to lose her babies, that she'll miss them and so on, which we as humans like to believe, but the reality isn't that warm and cuddly. A bitch will look after her pups of course, but only for the first weeks of life that nature tells her to. Once the pups reach the point of not needing her, normally 8-10 weeks, she becomes indifferent to them, her job's done and she's not bothered if their there or not, and if they stay around for too long, she can start snapping at them and fights can break out, which is why most breeders (apart from the tiny toy breeds) like puppies to be gone by around 12 weeks, as the mum really would be getting fed up by that point.
Good breeders always check homes. They would not sell you one of their puppies unless they knew what sort of home it was going to. Gut instinct helps, but they wouldn't rely on that alone. A good breeder will vet you as thoroughly, if not more than you do them, they'll ask you lots of questions and wil expect you to ask them many too and they'll do home checks, some will even visit you if your close enough.
