Evaluations

(This post is part of the April A to Z blogging challenge.)

When searching for a partner, either for sport or assistance/service dog work, knowing yourself, your needs, your household and making lists of what you want, what you need, and what you must have in a dog means you’ll have a clearer picture of what to look for. The better you can look at yourself, the better you can match a dog to your life.

IAADP has a good video on assessing your life, your needs, and what to look for in a dog, including a promising looking shelter dog at: http://youtu.be/s1jwM98iWns

Now, my focus is on service dogs, but the Volhard Puppy test is very popular, and meant for people looking for obedience prospects. The thing is, it tests a few behaviors and responses without looking at temperament and emotion behind the behavior. A pup with its tail up taunting the littermates with a toy may not be the boss puppy. It may be trying to get the boss puppy to chase it. You need experience to see the body language and understand it. 

Experience is a huge part of doing an eval correctly, and a lot of that is observing what doesn’t work out in a match up. I had a lot of experience with the dog club we belonged to, and watching a couple litters my parents bred. I still drag my dad along as a second pair of eyes. If you haven’t done a lot of picking and learning, this is where it is absolutely worth it to pay a trainer to came look at the dog before you buy, or video tape the pup and run it past someone with more of an “eye” to get a second opinion. The next best thing to hard experience is a good mentor.

Puppy evaluations are similar to the adult evaluations, but harder to rely on. With adults, the chances are “what you see is what you get”- the size, physical type, energy and drive levels, most of the temperament and reactions are set. A happy-go-lucky adult will likely remain happy-go-lucky, barring physical issues or trauma.

Puppies are trickier. Most pups are gregarious. They don’t really enter their first fear imprint stage until they’re about 8 weeks old (just as most people bring them home.) Fear imprint stages, developing drive and maturing temperament can change a dog drastically. The same livestock guardian puppy who loved the dog park and played with every dog they met will likely grow into a canine wary or aggressive adult.

There’s a lot of things to think about, and a lot of research to do before settling on a dog. A good breeder, one who knows their dogs and watches their puppies or young adult dogs, is an invaluable tool for knowing what the pup or dog is like day to day, whereas you only see it while you eval it. Shelter staff may or may not have a better idea of the dog’s temperament than what you can pick up in an eval, depending on what they’ve done with the dog.

And, in the end, an evaluation is a snapshot. Until you’re living and working with the dog, you won’t see the whole picture.