Hi Just had my first litter of puppies and was wondering when do you start letting people come to visit? How old generally do you start letting people come to see them and hold them?

and I am very strict about hands washed, feet/shoes dipped in solutions so as not to track in a problem etc...

At 6 weeks also, after they receive their first shot.

Not until they come to pick them up, don't want anyone bringing any diseases to my puppies, it's just not worth it.
Aloha,
Jackie

I don't let them come until after the first shots. 6 weeks. Keep Clorox water in a pan handy to step in to clean shoes. Don't want them to have run by any pet stores first and not have been to visit any other pups. Not worth getting the pups sick. If they can't understand where you are coming from, they will not be a good home. They are your pups and you call the shots.

They can come and see them any time, and I follow sensible precautions including leaving shoes at the door and washing hands. Depending on the age, they may or may not handle them. Most puppy people don't care about seeing them in person until their eyes are open and they are walking. Pictures seem to satisfy them just fine.

How do the puppies get socialized if you don't allow them to be handled early?

I like a good cross section of people visiting any time after 3 weeks. I figure the puppies experience anywhere from 50 to 100 people (properly "sanitized" of course :-) before they go home. They are well socialized!

Nobody comes to see the puppies until after their first vaccinations around here. Our family spends a lot of time with the puppies and every puppy is very well socialized by the time they go to their new homes. We don't feel it is worth risking their health and safety with visits from others before they are protected from disease.

It all depends for me. If someone contacts me about adopting one of my puppies in my litter I happen to have in the whelping box, and I really like these people, I will let them come over to see puppies as early as 3 weeks. They have to take their shoes off at the front door and not visit any other kennels before coming to my house.

The socializing is good for the puppies and it's good for the dam to see this interaction going on with her puppies around this time. My girls get used to strangers holding her babies early on . They seem to connect the new smells on their puppies to the new visitors better than if you take the dam away when the company comes over.

after 6 weeks here too. My puppies are always well socialized with family before that. They are well adjusted when they leave here.

I have been reading the new protocol for giving puppy shots, and see that they (vet schools ) are recommending to give the first puppy shot at 8 weeks. If that is true then some of you would not let people come see your puppies until they are ready to go home. I personally would not want to give the first shot at 8 weeks and send the puppy home the same day. I think it would be just to much for their little systems to handle - stress of the shot and stress of leaving Mom and going to a new home.

So, what do you all think about the recommendation for the first puppy shot at 8 weeks?

I try to give the shots as close to 8 weeks as practical. I always leave a few days to "recover" before they go home. Anytime after 7 weeks is O.K. for shots but keeping the pups until 9 weeks is fine too. Many breeders are keeping pups until 10 weeks now anyway.

I know a lot of people give them shots at 6 weeks old but my understanding is that shots at 6 weeks have no effect for the vast majority of pups. I was taught that most pups still have immunity from their mother until 8 weeks. That is why I let puppy people in at 3-4 weeks. People I know visit after the first few days. All follow reasonable precautions....no shoes, wash hands, no other kennel visits before, etc.