Puppy Temperament

[Jack's Dad]

What age can a puppy's temperament characteristics show?
Also, how old before you have a really good idea of temperament and nerve?

[wolfstraum]

you start to see it when they are nursing LOL the more dominant, food driven ones push the others away to get the best nursing positions....by 6 weeks, you should have some basic understanding of the ranking of the pups for dominance, food drive and prey drive...also possessiveness - ie the pup that growls at the others while straddling the food dish for example....prey drive with a flirt pole, sound recactivity....lots and lots of little behaviors are apparent and indicate character very early on

Lee

[Jack's Dad]

Thanks:

So, if you have a litter and you know that some buyers want pups for schutzhund or some type of sport and others family companion. Then can you place them fairly accurately at 8 weeks?

Also how do you or others feel about the breeder picking vs the buyer.

I personally would rather the breeder pick after receiving input but I'm curious about this.

[Packen]

Originally Posted by wolfstraum

you start to see it when they are nursing LOL the more dominant, food driven ones push the others away to get the best nursing positions....by 6 weeks, you should have some basic understanding of the ranking of the pups for dominance, food drive and prey drive...also possessiveness - ie the pup that growls at the others while straddling the food dish for example....prey drive with a flirt pole, sound recactivity....lots and lots of little behaviors are apparent and indicate character very early on

Lee

Very well said. A pup really telegraphs what he/she will grow up to be (to those that can read it).

[Jack's Dad]

Originally Posted by Jack's Dad

Thanks:

So, if you have a litter and you know that some buyers want pups for schutzhund or some type of sport and others family companion. Then can you place them fairly accurately at 8 weeks?

Also how do you or others feel about the breeder picking vs the buyer.

I personally would rather the breeder pick after receiving input but I'm curious about this.

I hope someone will address this.

[carmspack]

the pups that I select for service are picked (from my litters) at around 8 weeks. You see active aggression early with resource guarding. You can see instinctive tracking , hunt . You see the temperament first encounters with something. Pop them in the van in a crate , take them out to "Mike's" -- first ride, first away from home base and they behave as if it is all old hat.
Introduce them to stairs. Little female "Reve" at 7 weeks pointed her nose up and followed it without a peep 12 steps plus landing , dark . She got out of her whelping room and the next thing I know there she is coming in to the family room happy to see us.
Same thing going downstairs . One of the males has to take a flying leap from the 3rd step down. He is very bold --
Some lines such as those that were very recent to U litter Kirschental took a long time to mature . Everything was there to see but not on full stream.
Even Fritz Biehler and Glenn Bennett (name from the past ) who had Buck v d Pfalz (article GS Quarterly plus phone conversations) spoke of slow maturing , don't push them, then one day it is like a new dog .
One of the pain in the butts with the U Kirschental is that it the dog did not come into his maximum potential till they were around 3 years of age.
Same with DDR dogs, some you just leave , and then work after when they are mature.
Dogs can be ruined if they are fit into a format or agenda that is rigid by calendar .
This is NOT to say that they are lacking , meaning a deficit or negative , just that the "volume" is not on full blast.
Herding dogs traditionally had a long apprenticeship often not working till they were around 3 years , which is what was suggested in the article interview of Biehler .

You have to have a feel for the animals

how's that
Carmen

[Jack's Dad]

It's good as far as it went.
Lets say you have a litter of seven and ten people who want pups.
Out of those ten people with different interests, from schutzhund to tracking and SAR, plus family companion how do you pick which pups go to who by 8 weeks? Common time for pups to go. What if buyers want a say?

[PaddyD]

"The child is the father of the man"
so I guess
The pup is the father of the dog.
Ever hear of Lecky's theory of self-consistency?
Could very well apply to dogs.
The other thing is nature vs. nurture. With nurture you
can make the most of what nature provided.

[carmspack]

Jack's Dad , the rest comes from familiarity with your lines. Familiarity with the tasks . Experience . x 's 3 .
no short cuts
Carmen

[PaddyD]

I think the OP was going by the pup, not knowing the lines.
But I don't speak for him.