Puppy age for new home - Page 2

As a buyer, I prefer to get my pup at 7-8 weeks for many of the reasons Don C already posted.  As a breeder, I prefer to place the pups around 8 weeks (if possible).  Not because I want rid of them... I feel it is best for them for the same reasons I prefer to get the pup at that age.  I do A LOT with my puppies, I expose them to a lot, socialize, do a lot of foundation, etc... However, when I have a litter of 6-8 puppies, there is no way I can give each puppy as much individual socialization/work as a new home can.   Raising one 8 week old puppy is a lot of work, starting foundation, socializing, starting crate training, house breaking, leash training, etc... There is only so many hours in a day and it is impossible to do the same (at least to the level that I prefer to do) with 6-8 puppies!  
With that being said, if I have pups left at 8 weeks, they obviously stay here.  My pups stay here until that perfect home is found.  But if I only have 1-2 at 8+ weeks it is a lot easier to give them the proper start with everything then it would be a whole litter of 6-8 pups.  I do not think they benefit any more from staying with the litter after 8 weeks, I prefer to get them away from littermates and let them begin bonding with their new person.

Well, I think that it depends on the breeder and his way of dealing with puppies and how many dogs he has. If the breeder can give a lot of time to introduce the world to puppies, then I think it's fine to let them stay with a breeder. The breeder of my 11months old working gsd is a trainer (German Red Cross) and knows a lot how to socialize the pups. He was preparing them for bite work an was takind the whole litter for little trips, places like kindergarten, school, car service, the neighbour who has sheeps and cows etc. Since I live in the middle of a big city I could never give my puppy what the breeder did. That's why I picked my dog up in the "serious" age of 9 weeks :-)

I let them go and 8 weeks and I like to buy a new pup at 8 weeks. At 8 weeks I separate any unsold pups and start crate training them and they all get individual attention, in my opinion its important for the pup to bond with people now, and not their littermates anymore. I also agree with Don, it gets to a point where they can get pretty brutal with each other. Before I learned better, I bought a female gsd from a crappy breeder who had let them run as a pack and they were 12 weeks. What a disaster crate training her, she had no interest in people at all, only our other dogs, and 0 confidence whatsoever- then again, this was also a poor female, nonetheless it soured me quite a bit on older pups.