Oh Yeah, You Blend

So the usual old-school “Puppy Aptitude Test” has been shown to be pretty unreliable in terms of predicting the temperament of an adult dog.  It can give you a general idea about things like recovery times and forgiveness, but it’s more a snapshot of how the puppy was on that day rather than a scientific predictor of future temperament.  Plus, these tests are all very subjective.

So Miranda at Purrfect Paws came up with a test that incorporated many of the old test ideas, along with some tests used by guide and service dog trainers, and with some new ideas as well, some from Janet Robles, a long-time Malinois breeder.  Still not science, but an idea of things, and I mainly really wanted to get Miranda’s opinions of the puppies, and get a general sense of what they were like under relatively controlled conditions.

All the puppies were very people-oriented in a general sense, I was very happy overall with them, unlike just before we left, when we had a huge poop disaster here just before we were supposed to leave.  The poop disaster meant we ended up in a bit of a rush, so the first couple of puppies didn’t have as much time to settle in as the ones who went later.

The test involved general things like how quickly the puppy approached the tester and whether encouragement was needed, willingness to follow the tester away from the “safe zone” near where they entered the room, restraint (a hug), elevation (holding the puppy up off the ground), retrieving a toy, touch sensitivity (pinching an ear and then a toe), sound sensitivity (throwing a metal bowl), prey drive (chasing a moving toy), and problem solving (x-pen in a “v” shape and the puppy has to figure out how to get out to get to the tester, they have to move away from the tester to get out and then get TO the tester).

After the testing, they got to play with Miranda and two of the people who work at the Center.  They do doggie daycare there as well, so there were lots of new sounds and smells for the puppies, including cats and reptiles.

The puppies also got to meet some friendly adult dogs, including Miranda’s JRT/Bulldog (who looks exactly like you’d expect a JRT/Bulldog to look, no lie, he couldn’t be anything else!), Miranda’s female Dutch Shepherd Artemis, and a lovely black German Shepherd who loves puppies.

One thing I really liked was that every single puppy went to the nearest person to them when they were worried about the big dogs being boisterous with each other, they didn’t feel like they had to find me or Jim, any person was good and safe, they didn’t care that a person was a stranger, they just cared that it was a person.  They all seemed very secure that people in general were a good thing.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 9:49 PM and is filed under breeding, dogs, Nina, puppies, vallhunds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.