So When Should You Part with Your Puppies?
By Paul Jensen

Over the years that I have been breeding I have often been asked if I would let my puppies go at seven weeks of age. I have always resisted for several reasons. First, I come from Denmark where it is against the law to sell a pup until he is eight weeks old. This law is also enforced in other states. Secondly most of the people I have sold puppies to over the years don't necessarily have the time they need to commit to a seven-week-old pup. Often, this is their first dog. My pups are being socialized and exposed to car outings, walks in the woods, swimming, etc before they go to their new owners.
I am fully aware of Richard Wolters' writings in his books and magazine articles preaching for a 49-day separation from the litter. Wolters heralded this idea in 1964 based on scientific experiments on training guide dogs for the blind that had been carried out by Dr. J. Paul Scott, Director of the Animal Behavior Laboratory at Mount Desert Island in Maine.
But I am also aware of the Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in Massachusetts Book of Wellness and Preventive Care for Dogs by Darlene Arden published in 2002, which states that no pup should leave before 12 weeks of age!

I have kept pups of our own breeding and I have obtained pups from other breeders at ages from eight to ten weeks and not found any difficulties or significant differences in socializing and training them. When the studies were conducted more than fifty years ago most pups were kept in kennels. Today most owners breed their dogs in the house, so that by the time the pups are leaving they have been exposed and individually coddled. With that, I cannot subscribe to that big difference between Wolters' thoughts and a more prudent 56 days.

The pups are getting a bedtime story

The pups on their first woods outing