have loved each dog instantly and even though i have known that some have come to me with health problems that their previous owners felt they could not cope with they are now in their forever home paws well and truely under the table they never replace a dog but they come with their own characters and unconditional love

I agree that the love you have for a dog that you have had for years is quite different to the love of a new puppy

With My dogs, the first one was 7 months old when I got him, no it was not instant but within a week I would not be without him, with Willow it was instant, with the two puppies I have now, well that was strange, I bred them, and I fell in love with one of the pups, this was the one I thought I would end up keeping, but after assessing them at 8 weeks, it turned out the pup I thought from the offset was going to a couple in Bristol, turned out to be the most comformationally correct out of the litter, so I had to keep her, which was a little difficult as I had not really bonded with her even though I had bred her, the other pup, wnet to someone that had been on my puppy list for 12 months, they took him home, and realised they could not be firm with the pup, plus their situation had changed whereby the pup would have been on its own for quite some hours during the day, on finding this out, I asked them to return the pup to me and gave them a refund. I was going to pass him on to another person on my list, but felt, he had had enough messing about in his short life, so all the family discussed the matter and decided we would keep him too, but now we have all totally fell in love with both of these pups and although its hard work, we would not be without them now, sometimes I think its instant, other times they just creep into your hearts.

MO

when we went to see Archie and his brothers and sisters, we fell in love with all of the puppies!!



My mum wants to keep 2 from the litter, lol lucky the breeder is only letting one go!!

[quote]If you have lost a much loved companion that you have shared your life with for many years it can take a while to bond with a new puppy/kitten. There are inevitable feelings of guilt that you are somehow trying to 'replace' the irreplacable, and it may be that you will expect too much of the newcomer and be disappointed that it does not have exactly the same reactions & behaviours as you came to expect from the lost one. It is important that we realize that they are all individuals, and that the new pup/kit does not 'replace' the oldie, but that we do honour to the memory of the departed one by choosing to bring a new life into our homes.

I agree with you totally ShadowBoxer, when we went to get Blackie, the farmer brought all the pup's out to my mum - whe couldn't get out of the car, and this one came to my mum and sat on her knee, that was it, he had chossen her, it wasn't until we got home that she really took in his details, if you know what I mean, we loved him but it took a while to bond together.

Ian