Temperment Testsing - Page 2

I breed one litter every summer.  Doing that allows me to train my dogs the rest of the year, and still have the time and energy to hugely interact with the litter of puppies.  I keep a logbook, with one page per week for each puppy.  It has seven columns, one column for each day of the week. 

The logbook starts, with one page for each week, from 4 weeks till they are ready to go to their homes at 9 weeks.
I document all health incidents:  date of worming, weight checks, vaccinations, trimming nails, tattooing ear and the individual puppy's response to the treatment. 
I document interactions noticed between the littermates:  dominance, inquisitiveness, leader, follower, etc.
I daily play ball with each puppy.  I give half a point for his chasing the ball, and a full point for bringing the ball back to me.  Doing this daily from 4 weeks of age, by 9 weeks of age, they will often get 4 or 5 points out of 5.
I document their response to other toys, tugs, and vary the toys that we play with daily.
I document their response to being in a small crate by himself, (the crate is covered with a blanket, and cave like).  At first they are only in there for 15 minutes.  By 9 weeks, they are quite content to be in the crate over many hours.

I also document what I can see of other behaviors that indicate character and temperament of the puppies... so many things to look for.

I encourage the prospective buyers to visit and see the puppies before the final day; also, take a video of the puppies weekly, so that everyone has a good idea of each puppy's behaviour.

When the puppies are taken home, the future owner has 5 weeks of puppy notes to compare, to help him with his choice.  Of course he gets his 5 weeks of puppy notes to take with the puppy.

I have had huge compliments from the buyers of my puppies, that they are easy to housebreak, and don't fuss when in the crate overnight, and have great willingness to learn.  i know the breeders of many litters a year don't have the time or energy to do what I do, which is why i limit my litters.  For me it is a labor of love, and a joy to do.

Mirasmom .. i found you post  extraorinarily interesting ... that is the first time i have seen anyone do or have the ability to do that ..
                SandraW -- wow ... again very impressive !! - i hope you two are a tribute that ther are amny responsible , conscientious breeders in the GSD .. job well done !! Mira and Sandra [ let's give acknowledgement /credit for them they deserve it ]

Has anyone created a good video that covers temperment testing?

I really do lack expertise in this area.

What do you look for in an 8 week old puppy when you want to guage confident defense and protectiveness?

Any one have video that displays these characterists?

 I disagree puppies are a crap shoot, IMHO.

But champions tend to come from champions, rather than slouchbags.

 daryl:

         There are more levels of dogs then Champion or slouchbags. I really don,t thinkg there are slouchbags out there, You can have a tree full of beautiful apples and the one that tastes the sweetest is the one picked and preparied by a master chef.

I believe there are many very good dogs out there that are only lacking good training and handleing. Every dog has a useful purpose in it,s life whether it,s a top competition dog,police k9,search & rescue, therapy, or just a loved couch tater. they all have a purpose that just needs to be developed.

    

There are more levels of dogs then Champion or slouchbags.

Exactly why you shouldn't oversimplify with the crapshoot analogy.  It serves no purpose.

 I agree, I don,t believe puppies are neccisarly a crap shoot.

I do temperament testing on my babies.  However, the results of the test on the individual puppy seldom surprises me.  The reason being is that while they are still in the whelping box, I spend countless hours and hours playing with the pups, molding their behaviours if necessary, studying their interactions with each other and their environment, introducing them to circumstances that they will more than likely experience as both a working dog and family companion, etc., etc.  So I know these little guys intimately. 

So why do I do temperament testing?  To confirm what I already know.  Further, the new owner gets a copy of the test results and it educates them as to why a specific puppy was selected for them.

Cassandra

Over the process of raising pups for the first several weeks, we as breeders end up making observations on each pup that leave little surprise as to what might be expected in testing results.  One of the greatest benefits to temperament testing IMO, is having a long term record of exact results that leave little doubt as to a specific pup's expected potential, when several years or several litters later, your memory will be quite a bit fuzzier.  With larger larger samples of a given  producer's results among different mates over a longer timespan, you can identify particular trends that occur when 'this' is bred to 'that', or expectant results if a repeat breeding is conducted.

Of course, the new puppy owner would enjoy having a puppy 'report card', I'm sure.  But even more special IMO, would be providing them with a series of video footage of the puppy interacting, and perhaps toss in some detailed descriptions of particular dogs from their heritage.