Phoenix pups: Temperament Evaluations

It’s been a big week for the puppies! Life is getting more and more interesting and varied for them. Last Wednesday they had their first major car ride all the way to the vet’s office, where they were prodded and poked. Nobody complained very much about the poke, and did very well with all the handling by strangers. 

Then on Monday we did the puppy temperament evaluation. This was a new process for us and I had been eagerly anticipating it, hoping it would prove a useful tool in matching puppies to families and identifying possible issues a puppy might encounter in a certain situation, and conversely that the family might encounter with a certain puppy. 

To date we have relied on general, unstructure observations of how the puppies react in various situations, how adventurous they are when taken to the school classroom, the vet, or outside in the fields, how ready they are to explore when they first emerge from the puppy corner and venture into the rest of the house, and so on. While these observations have been helpful, they are fairly vague and generally based on seeing the pups with us and as members of a pack. Furthermore, while we do notice differences among puppies, it has been hard to exactly frame them and put them into words that might be helpful to a family in making a selection. One still ends up using general terms like playful, cuddly, adventurous, and so on.

Having now gone through the evaluation process once, I can say that I wish we had been doing it all along as it provodes a framework and a vocabulary to, first, identify clearly the different personality characteristics of each pup individually and, second, to identify possible ways of handling the various personalities and the types of situations in which the pups will thrive and where they might have more difficulties. 

The format of the test is this: one member of the evaluation team interacts with the puppy while the second takes notes. Each puppy is evaluated individually, in a strange setting by a person it has never met before. These factors in and of themselves are stressors that provide a context to identify how a puppy reacts to new environments and the things it looks to for comfort and security. Each element of the test is designed to evaluate a specific characteristic – patience, biddability, courage, confidence, pain tolerance, sight and sound reactions, and so on. It also identifies what the puppy is more focused on – what readily catches and holds its attention – such as food, people, other dogs, objects, etc. Then there is the motivational element: does it seek to be rewarded with food, contact with people, touch, praise, play, other dogs? Put all of these together and you get an idea of what makes this specific dog tick, how it might react in certain situations, what can be done to motivate it to do what you want, and so on.

It was fascinating to watch the six pups go through the test. Each is indeed distinct. The three females, in particular, were all so different. First we put Gold Girl through her paces. She was a little “wild child” – very active, investigating everything, playing with the objects, eager to explore, not particularly attentive to the person doing the evaluation, but very attentive to the new and strange things all around her. She hardly stopped moving, and didn’t care too much about new noises and sights.

Next came Chocolate Phantom girl. She was almost the exact opposite of the first! She pretty much shut down in the face of all these new things, trying to find a safe, secure spot to hide. The instant we brought another, older dog into the room, however, she was a different puppy – active, playful, happy. She was also very motivated by food, coming out of her scaredy-dog mode somewhat for treats. She will be a good snuggler, but she’ll want a bit of time to get used to new people and places.

Black Phantom Girl (Katniss), was third to be tested. She was pretty much right in the middle of the other two – balanced, happy, active but not wild, alert but not startle-prone, courageous and confident but still attentive to people. She is the one we will be placing in a Guardian Home as a breeding prospect puppy – her type of balanced temperament is exactly what we aim to produce and reproduce!

The males also showed distinctions, though they didn’t range across the scale the way the females did. Caramel Boy is quite vocal, courageous though somewhat lacking in confidence, thoughtfull but a bit insecure. Gold Boy is probably the most people-oriencted of them all and seeks to orient himself by his humans. Mocha Phantom Boy (Cumin) again is quite balanced – smart, courageous, not overly reactive but very attuned to his environment. He is the one we will be placing in A Guardian Home (still needed!) as a prospective stud.

Over the next few days, the families who have reserved puppies will be making their selection. Once this has happened, I will post more details on each and highlight the two pups still in need of homes.  Sorry I didn’t take any pictures during the evaluation process – I was too busy just observing!