Separating puppies from the dam

I know it's considered normal for puppies to go to their homes at six to seven weeks old, but I chose to keep mine with their mother, all the time except for when I had her out with me, until they were closer to nine weeks old. The puppies who went at nine weeks old went to homes with other well-adjusted adult dogs. The one puppy that went to a single dog home didn't go until he was ten weeks old. The reason why I kept the puppies past seven weeks old was because I wanted to do the puppy aptitude test which is ideally done at seven weeks old and because usually at seven weeks old puppies go through a fear period and placing them in a new home at seven weeks old can be a problem. I felt that I needed to keep them with me, where they felt safe until they were a bit older.

I kept the puppies with Midge because puppies learn a lot from their mothers. I can't help but wonder about the temperaments of puppies who are taken away from their mothers at such a young age. In addition, I didn't forcibly wean my puppies off their mother. I let them continue to nurse until Midge stopped them herself. I did the same thing with my cats. I didn't let my kittens go to their new homes until they were twelve weeks old or even older. Many kittens that stayed with me longer were still nursing off their mothers when they were twelve, thirteen and fourteen weeks old. They were likely not getting a lot of milk at that time, but it was a comfort for them. If the mothers were allowing it, I wasn't going to stop it.

I wish more people would respect the natural order of things.