Choosing a Sch puppy prospect - Page 2

As said in above posts, it is a combination of many little evalutations of the pup as it matures even from birth to 8-12 weeks before they go to a new home. 

1.  puppy must be one of the first out ot the kennel, and eager to engage in what ever you are doing.

2.  I like to put obstacles in the way to see how the pups handle the new challenge and who has the most desire to figure it out. Who is willing to keep trying even if the obstacle is blocking them.  Like slides , tires, a piece of plastic, a cluster of plastic bottles, a little flat tub of water, a canopy,  I trie to have something different every day, and Music playing,  banging metal pans at feeding time.  See who follows you the farthest away from the group.  going into a dark garage or barn.  Going down one or two steps, who is first, who is tentative?   I feed them on a peice of sheet metal.

3.  I like to see which puppy gets pissy with the others about the toys,  who plays with the toys the longest, though this can vary day to day, just take a total of who seems to be more consistant.  take a stuffed toy and tie it to a buggy whip flick it around and drag it ,  see who likes this game the most, who lasts the longest, who will keep tugging even if you haven't let him win yet.  Squeek a toy and see who is the first to get excited or interested in the new noise. 

4.  who likes to rough house a bit, if you squeese the cheeks , who gets ornery when you do that and who cares or doesn't care. 

5.  Which puppy is the first after your shoe laces, or your pant leg?  who really enjoys hearing you squak in pain.  which one comes back even faster when you try to block from biting your pant leg again.  Which one bullies the other pups more just to get the toy?

6.  Which one do you have a gut instinct about , being the strongest of the group?

7. which one was always a hog when nursing? 

8. which one seems to demand your attention?

9. Which one looks at you with ears forward with intention , and purpose? 

All the things above and MANY MORE are daily evalutions, all the way up to the day they leave.   You have to take all of the above and average it out, and the one that has the highest Mean  to the average is the canidate that I would go with.

And still this is not a guarantee, but will get you closer to what you want right off the bat. 

9 months down the road , one of the pups that didn't do well, in your initial evalutations, may turn out to be one of the best.

Good luck !