The parents

What a puppy’s parents tell you

We say “ask about the parents” on almost every page of this site, which is not much use without explaining what to ask for or how to tell a good answer from a practised one. So here is the whole thing — and it applies to any seller, not only to us.

Ask about a puppy’s parents How to read the records

Start here

Why this is the question worth asking

An eight-week-old puppy tells you very little about the dog it becomes. It is small, round and appealing, and it will be none of those things in a year. Almost everything you actually care about — how big, what coat, what temperament, what it is likely to struggle with — is inherited.

So the parents are not a nice extra detail. They are the closest thing to a preview of your adult dog that exists, and they matter more for a cross than for a purebred, because a cross has a wider range of possible outcomes to land in. Why a cross is a range.

Both parents, not one. A puppy inherits from each, and sellers who volunteer information about only one are usually volunteering the one that flatters the puppy. If the sire is not discussed at all, ask why.

The four things

What the parents actually predict

Some of these carry across strongly. One of them does not carry the way people assume.

  • 01

    Adult size

    The most reliable of the four. Knowing the height and weight of both parents narrows the range more than any label on a listing will.

    Ask for figures, not adjectives. “Medium” means nothing; “the mother is 38 cm and about 8 kg” means something.

  • 02

    Coat, and therefore shedding

    What the parents’ coats are actually like tells you far more than a generation label does — especially in a first cross, where littermates can differ.

    If low shedding is why you are buying this type of dog, this is the question to press on. Where the coats differ.

  • 03

    Temperament, in tendency

    Nervous or reactive parents are a genuine warning; settled, handleable parents are a genuine reassurance. It is a tendency rather than a guarantee.

    How the mother behaves around a stranger in her own space is the single most informative thing you can watch.

  • 04

    Health history — with a caveat

    What is known about the parents’ health is worth asking, and an honest “we do not know” is a better answer than a confident vague one.

    But healthy-looking parents are not a health guarantee for the puppy, and nobody should offer you one on that basis. Why we publish no health guarantee.

The practical bit

What to ask, and what a good answer sounds like

You are listening for specifics. Vagueness is not always dishonesty, but it is always worth a follow-up question.

  • “How big are both parents?” A good answer has numbers in it. A poor one is “normal size” or a comparison to another dog you cannot see.
  • “Can I see the mother?” On a visit or on the same live video call as the puppy. If she cannot be shown, ask why — there are legitimate reasons, and there are evasive ones.
  • “What is the father, and where is he?” The sire is often not on the premises, which is entirely normal. Not knowing anything about him is less normal.
  • “What are their coats like as adults?” Curly, wavy, straight; how often clipped; whether either mats badly.
  • “Has either had any health problems?” Listen for a specific answer. “Both completely healthy, no issues at all, ever” is a sales line more often than a medical history.
  • “How many litters has the mother had, and when was the last?” A dog producing back-to-back litters is a welfare question, and it is a fair thing to ask about.
  • “What are they like to live with?” Anyone who genuinely knows these dogs can talk about them for a while without effort. That fluency is itself the answer.

Be careful here

What a photograph of the parents proves

On its own, almost nothing. A photograph of two handsome adult dogs establishes that two handsome adult dogs exist somewhere. It does not establish that they are this puppy’s parents, that they belong to the seller, or that the picture was taken this year — and parent photographs are among the most commonly reused images in this trade.

  • A photo you were sent proves the least. Assume nothing from it.
  • A photo on a listing site proves less still, because those pages are frequently assembled by people who have never met the dog.
  • A live video call showing the mother with the litter is worth more than any number of photographs, because you can ask for the camera to be moved. Why live matters.
  • Seeing her in person, in the place the puppies live, is worth more again — and it is the only version that is genuinely hard to fake. What to look for on a visit.

A reverse image search takes ten seconds and is worth doing on any parent photograph you are sent, from anybody. If it appears on four other websites, you have learned something important for free.

Our side of it

What we tell you about the parents

What we know about a particular puppy’s parents — type, size, coat and temperament, and any health history we hold — is shared during the enquiry, before anything is paid, along with whatever records exist for the puppy itself. What comes with a puppy.

Where we do not know something, you will be told that rather than given a confident guess. That is less satisfying than a tidy answer and considerably more useful.

There is deliberately no gallery of parent dogs on this website. Photographs of adult dogs presented as “our parents” are exactly what section five tells you not to trust from anybody, and we are not going to ask you to apply that standard to everyone except us. Ask about the parents of the specific puppy you are considering, and judge the answer.

FAQ

Questions about the parents

Can I meet the mother?

Ask, and ask early — on a visit or on the same live video call as the puppy. Where she can be shown, she should be. Where she cannot, you are entitled to a specific reason rather than a shrug, and you can weigh that reason yourself.

Why can I not meet the father?

Because the sire very often lives elsewhere, which is completely normal in dog breeding and not a warning sign by itself. What would concern us is a seller who knows nothing about him at all — not his size, not his coat, not his temperament.

Do healthy parents mean a healthy puppy?

They improve the odds and they guarantee nothing, and anyone telling you otherwise is overselling. Good parents are a reason to be more confident, not a warranty — which is part of why we do not publish a health guarantee.

Does the mother’s size tell me my puppy’s adult size?

Both parents together give you a range, and it is the best guide available. For a purebred Poodle that range is narrow. For a first-cross doodle it is wider, which is exactly why the parents matter more there. How wide that range gets.

Why are there no photographs of your parent dogs on this page?

Because this page spends five paragraphs explaining why photographs of parent dogs prove very little, and it would be inconsistent to then ask you to be persuaded by ours. Ask us about the parents of a specific puppy instead, and judge the answer you get.