Puppy or adult dog, kitten or adult cat: which is right for your family?

The first question is who is at home

A puppy at twelve weeks needs a person in the house for most of the day for its first two months; an adult dog of two or three years copes with a working day from the first week. A kitten needs company for its first fortnight; an adult cat adjusts in a weekend. Before you compare temperaments, compare calendars.

Families with one parent at home, retired couples and people who work from home are the households where a puppy or kitten thrives. Two people who leave at eight and return at seven give a far better life to an adult pet that already knows how to spend a day alone, and the adult pet gives them a calmer home in return.

If you are undecided about the breed as well as the age, the method in our guide to choosing a breed answers that question first; this guide answers the age question.

What a puppy or kitten gives you that an adult cannot

You shape it. A puppy raised in your home from twelve weeks learns your children, your other dog, your car, your stairs and your city in the window when it learns fastest, and an adult that grew up elsewhere arrives with habits you did not choose. For a family with small children or an elderly cat, that first year of shaping is the whole point.

You also know its history, because with a puppy or kitten from a visited breeder the history is on the pet page: the parents, their health tests, the vaccinations, the weeks with the littermates. A Ragdoll kitten raised in a living room with children is a known quantity; an adult cat from an unknown home may be just as sweet, but nobody can tell you in advance.

What an adult dog or cat gives you that a puppy cannot

Sleep, mainly. An adult dog is house trained, has stopped chewing, walks on a lead and sleeps through the night from the first week. An adult cat uses the box, scratches the post rather than the sofa and does not need four meals a day. The first six months with an adult are the sixth to twelfth month with a puppy, without the broken nights in between.

The size and the temperament are also settled. With a puppy you are told the parents' weight and character; with an adult you can see them, and for an owner with a bad back or a small flat that certainty is worth a great deal.

Time and cost compared over the first year

Here is what each age asks of you across the first twelve months, for a medium-sized dog or a short-coated cat.

• Puppy: 3 to 4 hours of active care a day for the first two months, then 1 to 2 hours
• Adult dog: 1 to 2 hours a day from the start, mainly walks
• Kitten: 1 hour of play and feeding a day for two months, then 30 minutes
• Adult cat: 30 minutes a day from the start
• Puppy or kitten first-year costs: 1,200 to 2,000 EUR on top of the purchase price
• Adult first-year costs: 700 to 1,200 EUR, as vaccinations and neutering are done

Children: which age suits which family

With children under five, an adult dog of a patient breed is often the easier choice, because a toddler and a puppy are two creatures that both bite, grab and cry, and a parent cannot supervise both every minute. With children of six and over, a puppy is the better teacher: the children learn to feed, walk and train it, and the dog grows up seeing them as family.

For cats the rule is simpler. A kitten and a toddler should be kept apart until the kitten is four months old and the toddler has learned to stroke, not squeeze; an adult British Shorthair tolerates a two year old with more grace than any kitten.

Adding to an existing dog or cat

An adult dog accepts a puppy of the opposite sex more readily than a second adult, because a puppy is not a rival. An adult cat accepts a kitten within one to two weeks and a second adult within one to two months, if at all. When a pet already lives in the house, the younger newcomer is the safer choice almost every time.

The exception is an elderly pet. A twelve year old dog with sore hips does not need a Retriever puppy climbing on it, and a calm adult dog of three or four years is the kinder companion for its last years.

Training: what each age can learn and when

A puppy learns its name in a day, sit in a week and a reliable recall in two to three months; it also learns to be alone, to travel and to meet strangers, and those three are hardest to teach later. An adult dog learns commands just as quickly, but changing a habit it already has, pulling on the lead, barking at the door, takes longer than teaching a blank page.

Kittens learn the box and the scratching post from their mother before they arrive. Adult cats rarely need teaching anything, and rarely accept it either.

Where to find each, and what we offer

Our site lists puppies at 12 weeks and kittens at 14 weeks, from breeders we have visited, with the parents' tests on each page. We do not sell adult dogs and cats, but we do keep a waiting list of young adults from our own buyers whose circumstances changed, and an advisor can tell you what is on it in your country.

To see who is ready to travel now, open the available puppies list or the current kittens; each card shows the ready date, the delivery estimate for your country and the breeder's city.

Frequently asked questions