Puppy Tests - Page 1

I have a question for the board.

Are there particular types of activities you can do with your dog that best indicate their suitability towards pursuing more formal IPO training?

An example- if my year old puppy seems to have a natural inclination for playing tug-of-war and shows particularly strong desire to engage the tug and continue engaging the tug until told to stop, does that necessarily translate into suitability for IPO training?

Where I’m trying to go with this is to see if there are simple tests / observations / indicators / etc. to indicate her suitability for pursuing training.

How do you know (can you know) if a puppy has the drives/instincts? Maybe the bigger question is how do you know if the puppy doesn’t have them and would be better suited to not pursue such training?

Puppy tests are imperfect. All dogs mature at different rates. Most of the " high level " IPO trainers and competitors don't even choose a dog until 10 months to one year old because they know that the dog may change greatly from 8 weeks to 8 months. The best dogs for bite work have competitive or "fight" drives which are different from ball or even tug drive. These type pups are not so interested in possessing a ball or tug but are very interested in winning. You see dogs trained on sleeves that will go after the sleeve if tossed on the ground or slipped to them but the competitive dog is not so interested in possessing the item as in the process of fighting and winning the item. These type dogs may not be fun to live with however and may be not so good with other dogs as they are dominant, aggressive, and single minded. I have had pups that at 6 months would not even flinch if a ball is thrown turn out to be demons for a ball or tug at 1 year. There is no "free lunch". The more aggressive, competitive, and obsessive the dog is the better for IPO and biting sports but that comes at the cost of handling the dog and training the dog carefully to prevent unwanted events with you, the dog, other dogs around your dog, and other humans.

This is a great explanation. Can you clarify what you mean by single mindless?

Single minded means they do not necessarily think as much as act or act primitively. Some dogs ( and people ) think before they act and some act before they think. A dog properly trained to do one sport or police work does not always need to contemplate their actions .. just go immediately or bite immediately. These type dogs are very fast and seemingly decisive in their actions. Then the single minded action to dig a hole through your couch to get to a ball underneath or the single minded will to hunt for a ball for 30 minutes comes to mind. Also these single minded dogs will eat a hole in your chain link fence or wreck their teeth trying to get to another dog through a metal kennel fence. Tenacious and stubborn these single minded dogs want what they want and they want it now and will sometimes harm themselves or other to get their way. In a sport or police training and use context this single minded obsessive compulsion can be channeled into productive use, however in your living room it can be a disaster. This single minded compulsive behavior is why some sport and police dogs are kennel dogs and not house dogs. A dog that is so obsessive that he will run into a tree chasing a ball will not be a good play mate for your 4 year old.

"Are there particular types of activities you can do with your dog that best indicate their suitability towards pursuing more formal IPO training?"
Your dog is one year old, in my language that´s no "puppy", but a dog that already either learned how to track, how to bite, and how to behave...
That said you should go to a club and train as soon as possible, either your pup is doing well or not ( same with you ... ).
Even within an IPO career there are different levels - Club level, Regional level, National level. Trained well your dog will like it, no matter its personal level, and for you it´s learning by doing, getting experience and knowledge.
Good luck!

At a year old you should have well imprinted in the dog what job u want him to do as susie said that not a pup get to a club fast

In two months of work you can know what you have with some serious work with the one year old dog. Michael Ellis has an excellent set of videos ( Leerburg ) on food and tug training as well as preparing your dog for the helper. These videos if followed will help your dog develop if you want the dog to be more sport oriented. If you want to train with your dog for fun and just to give your dog a job then this will get you ready for most of what is needed for intro club level sport work. At one year the dog is still immature. My toughest dogs don't get serious until after one to two years of age and get really mature between 2 and 4 years old. The club people always want to rush the dog because they have a time table and "their" goals but the dog has no calendar or watch with which to tell time. Some of my sweetest females were nice and gentle at one year but at 3 years will bite a plug out of someone and are very protective. If the dog has the desire and more importantly if the dog trusts and has confidence in the owner then training is successful at any age.

Thank you for the insight bubba. That's the type of information I was looking for.

I was not looking to start an international discussion about what constitutes a puppy, perhaps someone would like to start a new thread on that topic. I'd also like to point out that my original question was not about a one year old puppy.

Beeker, at least I didn´t want to start " an international discussion " but tried to help.
You are able to train for yourself for years, but this won´t help much - for IPO you need a club, the sooner, the better.
A dog doesn´t need to be an "adult" to learn the basics, on the contrary, the younger the dog, the easier.

Now for Bubba, IPO is not "bitework" only, but tracking and obedience, too.
At least in my country children go to school at the age of 5/6, not at 15, and before that they go to kindergarten - guess, why.

Back to Beeker - a dog not interested in "playing" needs to be trained different, but it´s no problem. As long as you have access to a club, any "video training" is second choice. You can´t train a dog for IPO without help.

Don´t be afraid.

Thanks for the effort, but your comments aren't helpful when they don't pertain to the topic posted.