Almost everyone who wants a small dog will call and ask about teacup puppies.  Did you notice that the puppy beside the jar of peanut butter looks very tiny? However, I can zoom in on this same puppy and make it look HUGE! Although we have done pets here since 1982, I am still trying to figure out what a teacup puppy is.  HOW BIG IS BIG AND HOW SMALL IS SMALL? The answer to that question is that it depends on who you ask. Many people are so in love with the idea of holding and carrying a puppy that they think they want the smallest one they can get! Puppy sellers frequently use the word teacup to describe small dogs because this description attracts more buyers, even though this is an ambiguous description that makes communication difficult.  If it were up to me, the word teacup would be banned from dog language because the size of a puppy can only be accurately represented in poundage. Many people have the idea that they want the youngest and tiniest puppy that they can take home because it is the cutest and it will fall in love with me more quickly, since younger puppies are likely less inhibited.  A wise puppy buyer would seek out and be willing to pay MORE for a slightly older puppy because it is a more secure and less problematic investment. Most puppy buyers are deceived to believe that it is okay for any puppy to go home as soon as it is no longer nursing.  This is true for many large breed puppies but can be a recipe for disaster for toy size puppies.  Especially in the summertime when children want puppies, 90% of the buyers will choose the smallest puppy we have. However, we have replaced many puppies from other sellers after children killed their puppy after a few days. Those buyers didn't choose the smallest one next time!  The wise way to choose a small puppy is to consider the weights of the parents and then choose a puppy that's old enough and strong enough to survive your children! The most common cause of puppies being taken to the emergency vet for thousands in emergency IV's, etc, is being taken home too soon or too small to endure the stress of travel, being handled excessively, and adapting to a new home.  This happens most often when families try to make puppies fit into their vacation, work schedule, or special event gift giving plans.  More and more parents try to give their children what the child wants with no regard for what works, so the children almost always pick the tinest puppy and the larger one is left to grow bigger and older.  A small child will often take home a puppy that would fit into their pocket if the breeder and their parents would let them; very often to watch it die after about 3 days from stress related issues or to have ongoing fail to thrive problems. The parents of the child, rather than accepting responsibility for their poor choices, parenting and puppy care skills, will get online to blame the breeder through attack blogs and leave negative reviews. Their vet will look for even an isolated trace of a bacterium or parasite and blame the breeder because he doesn’t know how much stress has already occurred.  Most vets do not understand the relationship between microorganisms and dogs.  Handling stress, being vaccinated to early or too small, going home when too small, etc, can weaken the immune systems of too tiny/too young puppies and can cause blooms of parasites, especially giardia lamblia, that can make puppies sick very quickly.  Experiments of scientists have proven that ALL adult dogs AND HUMANS are carriers of worms and protozoa.  Like HUMAN CHILDREN, puppies born to moms that have just been dewormed and medicated are still born with parasites, even in sterile laboratory environments.  Blooms of parsites do not mean that the breeder did not do a good job. It means that the puppy was not large or strong enough to handle the stress at home that it was subjected to, or that it was vaccinated too soon or too often.  Anything that weakens the immune system of the puppy will allow parasites to grow stronger. Puppies must build their own immune responses,  after which they become an asymptomatic carrier like the mother that they inherited them from.  Puppies should not be vaccinated until they are at least 3 lbs, as severe reactions and giardia blooms may result. DO NOT allow your vet to vaccinate your puppy until 3 lbs!  Although larger breeds can go home sooner, most smaller to tiny breeds should be at least 10-12 weeks old and at least 3 lbs before going home.  Any age up to 6 months is an ideal time to take home a puppy. Every puppy needs to be old enough and strong enough to endure the stress of going to your home, playing with an existing pet, or with your child.  Slightly older puppies at reduced prices are sometimes available because they were not taken due to vacation season and October syndrome- when hundreds of families won't buy until Christmas, then they all land here to fight over them at the same time.  Yes, we will work with you to reserve a pet to go home at a specific time.  Please remember that a gallon of milk weighs almost 9 lbs. Most people think a gallon of milk is pretty small.  Why would anyone want to go home with a puppy that only weighs 1 lb? A puppy that can have stress related sugar drop, get stepped on, carried away by a bird, jump off the sofa and kill itself, have liver/kidney failure by 5 yrs old, and requires assistance even when you're busy because it's too small to get up and down by itself? Is a tiniest teacup puppy the best answer or a potentially bad decision that will always be dependent like a child who never outgrows his diapers? Small is good for a lap dog, but too small can be heart breaking! We will be glad to facetime with you to get a live look at a specific puppy before you place your deposit so you get a better idea of how big it really is. All puppies look much larger in videos than they actually are. We often have people choose pets from the videos and want a larger puppy after being shocked to see how tiny it is when they see it in person. Is it really worth risking that your puppy die after being "loved to death" from taking it home too soon when it will have in most cases accomplished most of its adult size in as little as 6 months after you buy it? Please call with any questions!  Irvin Blackburn, nursery manager. (336) 957-3609