
Originally Posted by
dandelos
I'm going to go against the grain here by saying that if my wife and I had to choose between bringing Skippy home as we did when he was 8 weeks old, vs 16-20 weeks of age, we would not hesitate to do it all over again. Yes, it was extremely tough and life-changing, especially during the first 3 days, but I'm glad we were there together with him and got to witness and participate in his development and growth (as we all know, puppies grow so much more rapidly during their first few weeks/months). Just the extra 7 weeks' worth of memories alone would be priceless to me.
One important caveat though -- we didn't have kids to worry about at the time, as it sounds like many of you who have posted, do.
Personally I would always choose a puppy all other things being equal. I don't have any kids at home though and I don't find the puppy stage "work" at all. I agree that it is very time consuming and it's exactly like having a toddler in the house (with the exception that you can put pup in a crate and go to the grocery store or have a shower) but for me the time is just plain fun. With young kids around though it's often impossible to devote a set of eyes purely to the pup and sometimes it's just one more drain on a finite resource (your attention).
Mindy Tri - Feb/97
Max - Ruby - Sep/08
Rylie - B&T - June/09
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