[SadieFern]

I was just wondering 'cause the breeder that I got Sadie from just had a litter (of another breed) and they only got one puppy out of it. I don't know how many there were but here's my question...with everything that a puppy learns from it's mother AND littermates in the first 8 weeks...how does it make out when it's an "only"?
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~Julie~ Mom to three kids and two furbabies!
Sadie is a labradoodle, born 10/07, Jonas is a cockapoo born 6/08.

[Jac]

Hi Julie,
I have not had that issue come up, thankfully, but from the breeders who have, I think that the main issue is health and weight...that one pup can nurse any time and anywhere! It gets pretty big, quite fast! If it is a large breed, controlled growth is best...and the mother may get mastitas, but other than that the emotional health seems fine.
Puppies do learn so much from their litter mates but their mother teaches them valuable things too and I am sure that the mother will play with the pup and teach it the things it should know.
Still, I would try to find other puppies near that age...it may be hard, due to the fear of disease...but putting puppies together may help. On the flip side, they need to get used to each other gradually or at an early age because when we had two litters, born 4 days apart, they did tend to gang up on one of the "other" pups when we tried to introduce them.
I would just work hard at socialization with the one pup...it may be a great time to take it and tether it to a human to learn good behavior and potty habits.
Nothing replaces the lessons of life that they learn from mother and siblings, but they can be just fine so long as the breeder is aware of the things that may be lacking.
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jacque.bayley.lexie.chase.rosie.nitos.amelia.dupree.madison.sherwood.gerry www.backporchlabradoodles-jacque.blogspot.com www.backporchlabradoodles.com