what puppy tests todo?

[trudy]

As previously mentioned I don't breed but a new friend does and has asked me what tests to do to determine best matches for puppies and owners. She has bred a few litters and is trying to do better for herself and learn more. I have given her this site and suggested she look but in the mean time what tests would you recommend she do with her litter she has just had, she has xrayed all breeding stock and is looking for puppy temperment tests. She has temperment tested and titled parents.

Her current litter is a working (check line girl) to a I think show line male, and she doesn't want to sell working hard drive dogs to unexpected people. Thanks

[BlackGSD]

Most of the breeders I now don't do ANY formal "puppy testing" they just watch and interact with the puppies from birth.

[angelaw]

I do formal at 7 wks, but I pretty much already know what I'm going to get. It's more for the owner's benefit than mine.

[Janine16]

Hi

The breeder we got Hardy from did a form of aptitude test on the pups, and like previous poster said she knew what the results would be but did it more for the buyers to see why she had selected each pup for each owner.

If you google puppy aptitude tests you will find different links, and the Monks of New Skete puppy book has one in the back too. But here is a link to one
http://workingdogs.com/testing_volhard.htm

Hope that is of some help
Janine

[selzer]

I had someone in to test this litter at five weeks. She came and checked the puppies to see if they were sound sensitive, whether they would come up to her, she crackled up a plastic bottle and dropped it in there and watched which puppy came away with it, and which puppies were not interested. She noted which puppy brought it back to us.

I do not remember everything she did, but it was interesting to watch. Scarlet was the one that took the bottle and fought her tooth and nail when she tried to get it from her.

Skye, grabbed the bottle and climbed over the whelping box so she could have it where her buddies couldn't get it. (Scarlet kept taking it through the doggy door to the outside.) Pinkie was the first to bring the bottle back to her. Violet really wanted nothing to do with her or her bottle.

She came back at seven and eight weeks old, and it was interesting to see how the different pups acted on different days.

[lhczth]

I usually know which pup is going where, but I do want to see how the pups react to stress. I want to see how they handle being put into a strange environment alone with a person they don't know. Do they still show the same drives, grip, soundness, etc as they did when with their littermates in familiar surroundings.

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

For rescue, I used to get to help doing the puppy tests. I LOVED doing that. The person who did the tests was a Delta pet therapy evaluator. She had the foster take the puppies to another volunteer's house where they had never been, and would not meet the puppies prior to doing the test. Which meant I also could not play with them until after the test-difficult!

Then their foster/any known persons would have to leave-we tried to have setups where they could watch without the puppies seeing/sensing them.

So there were the puppies, all alone in a place they'd never been with two total strangers. It was really interesting and I loved doing it, no matter how tired I was. She used the Volhard puppy test. It was amazing in some of the litters the variations, and in others the similarities. And the idea of genetic temperament.

One group...oh my...they had a hard time with the tests themselves.

And my poor Mariele, who I ended up adopting (who was neither a GSD or a baby puppy during her test-but was very small ), was the one we laughed as the first ever to actually fail the tests-she went catatonic for all of them, it was actually heartbreaking.

So your friend would want to find someone experienced in doing the tests in addition to her own careful observation of the puppy's behavior, as well as her ability to read and understand purchasers (not what they say they want necessarily, but what they should have), in order to make the best matches.

[Chris Wild]

We do formal puppy testing at 7 weeks old, but it is only a small part of the evaluation process. By that time, we already have a very good idea of the drives and various personality characteristics of each pup from just watching them and interacting with them over several weeks. Our main reason to do the puppy tests is to see how the pups react in a strange environment and interacting one-on-one with a strange person to compare to what we see at home in a familiar environment surrounded by well known people, littermates, etc... It is rare for a puppy test to reveal a surprise about a pup, and the majority of the time they just confirm what we already knew.

Originally Posted By: JeanKBBMMMAANSo your friend would want to find someone experienced in doing the tests in addition to her own careful observation of the puppy's behavior, as well as her ability to read and understand purchasers (not what they say they want necessarily, but what they should have), in order to make the best matches.

I agree 100% with this. Puppy tests are useless if not done by someone who knows how to test properly and knows how to correctly interpret the pups' behavior. Great harm can come from misinterpreting puppy behavior and then using that incorrect information to place pups in homes.

It would be best for someone experienced with puppy testing to test the litter for 2 reasons: First, puppy tests are best when done by a strange person (and in a strange location), as familiarity with the tester can skew the results. Second, this is a great way for the breeder to learn more about puppy testing from someone with the knowledge and experience to teach her.