Dog breeds even personalities within a litter

2020hindsight · 6 October 2007

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/waggingschool/
great website

- good on you aunty !!
personality test for dogs

Chrissie used a puppy personality test on a litter of seven, 49 day-old Weimaraner pups, to find which would be the easiest to train. Have a look at the video to see which one she picked, or download this lesson's pdf for a table of results.

The test included:

Social attraction
Tests a puppy's attraction towards people, its confidence or dependence.

Following
Measures a puppy's willingness to follow a person.

Restraint
Indicates whether a puppy has a dominant or submissive tendency.

Social dominance
Shows whether the puppy will accept social dominance by a person.

Elevation dominance
Tests whether a puppy will accept the dominance of a person when it’s not in control (e.g. like a vet or dog groomer).

Retrieving
Measures a puppy's willingness to do something for you.

Touch sensitivity
Indicates what type of training equipment is required.

Sound sensitivity
Tests how sensitive a puppy will be to loud noises or thunderstorms.

Sight sensitivity
Shows how likely it is that a puppy will chase bikes or cats.

Stability
Measures how startled a puppy is by strange objects (e.g. an umbrella).

The key tests which determine how easy a dog will be to train are:

social attraction
following
retrieving
Your dog's trainability – quick quiz
If you want to find out more about your dog's personality, here are 4 quick tests you can do at home.

NOTE:
It's really important that the puppy personality tester is very experienced with dogs, like Chrissie. Children should NOT attempt the test unsupervised and/or with an unfamiliar dog!

1 - Social interaction:
In a confined area, kneel down and then get someone to bring out the pup or dog and leave it in the same area. You stay still and call the dog to you. Lean back, not forward, and encourage the pup or dog to come right up to you.

How to score pup/dog:
Came readily, tail up, jumped , bit at hands (1)
Came readily, tail up, pawed , licked at hands (2)
Came readily, tail up (3)
Came readily, tail down (4)
Came hesitantly, tail down (5)
Didn't come at all (6)

2 - Following:
Next stand up and slowly walk away encouraging pup to follow – make sure pup is watching you, encourage pup to follow/clap hands lightly, don't lean over pup.

How to score pup/dog:
Followed readily, tail up, got underfoot, bit at foot (1)
Followed readily, tail up, got underfoot (2)
Followed readily, tail up (3)
Followed readily, tail down (4)
Followed hesitantly, tail down (5)
Didn’t follow and went away (6)

3 – Social dominance
Next let the pup (or dog) stand or sit, have pup/dog at side and both face same direction and gently stroke it from head to tail while crouching beside it. (Be very careful with an adult dog – it may feel threatened and want to bite). Does it want to lick your face?

How to score pup/dog:
Jumped, pawed, bit, growled (1)
Jumped, pawed (2)
Cuddled up to tester and tried to lick face (3)
Squirmed , licked at hands (4)
Rolled over, licked at hands (5)
Went away & stayed away (6)

4 – Retrieving
Crouch down beside pup or dog and attract its attention with a piece of paper crumpled into a ball. When pup shows interest in the paper, throw the ball of paper a short distance and encourage the pup to retrieve it.

How to score pup:
Chased object, picked it up and ran away (1)
Chased object, stood over it, and didn't return (2)
Chased object, picked it up, returned to tester (3)
Chased object, returned without it to tester (4)
Started to chase object, lost interest (5)
Doesn't chase object (6)

So... how did your dog do?

Mostly 1's:

This dog has a strong desire to be pack leader, very pushy
Predisposed to aggression to people and dogs, will bite
Should be placed in very experienced home where it will be trained
Mostly 2's:

This one has leadership aspirations
May be hard to manage and may bite
Has lots of self confidence
Too unruly for children, elderly or other animals
Needs strict schedule, lots of exercise and training
Potentially great show dog for experienced handler
Should be placed only with very experienced owner
NB: Stay away from pup or dog with lots of 1's and 2's. It wants to be leader, and will be very difficult to manage. Not good with children.

Mostly 3's:

Can be high energy dog, may need lots of exercise
Good with people and other animals
Can be bit of a handful to live with
Needs training, does it well, learns fast
Great dog for second time owner
Mostly 4's:

This dog can make the perfect pet
Best choice for first time owner
Easy to train and rather quiet
Good with elderly, and children (may need protecting from kids)
Choose this pup or dog, train it and you’ll be a star without much effort!!
The pup with mostly 3's and 4's should be good with children and does well with training. Needs lots of exercise.

Mostly 5's:

Fearful, shy, needs special handling
Will run away if slightly stressed
Upset with strange people, places, some ground surfaces
Often afraid of loud noises, thunderstorms
May submissively urinate
Needs special quiet home, no kids, not much change
Best for quiet elderly people
If cornered and unable to escape might bite
This pup or dog needs a quiet, stable environment. Training and a controlled setting will help build its confidence. Good for older people.

Mostly 6's:

So independent that he doesn’t need you or anyone
Doesn't care if it’s trained or not
Unlikely to bond to you – doesn't need you
Great security guard dog
Don't take this dog or puppy! You can't change it.

Julia · 6 October 2007

Thanks, 2020. That's a great test for choosing a puppy.
My present four year old Shepherd would have scored a 6 in a couple of areas when I got her, and yes, she has been a huge amount of work compared to the other softer natured dogs, but she is now probably even more bonded and attached than the previous dogs, and is very territorial and protective.

2020hindsight · 6 October 2007

lol - Julia
reminds me - I picked out a dog (before discussing with family and committing) from the RSPCA pound last time (have had a few now)
was an absolute GIANT of a thing - half shepherd half great dane or something - maybe 18 months old.

I put my finger through the cage, half expecting to be one finger less after the experience - but it just melted against my hand - (#3 so far on social interaction at least )

so I reckoned he would do just fine.

Trubel was, when I brought the family to check him out, he had been put out in an exercise yard - and no way would he come when called,lol . I suddenly realised I would spend the rest of my life calling this damned thing to come to me. (I suspect he was a #6 as you say).

In the end opted for a Rotty / Doberan puppy - what a brilliant bitch she is

But I can imagine your problems with your "#6 strong-willed Shepherd" lol. - good luck.

2020hindsight · 6 October 2007

a previous dog was one of a litter who had been badly treated - like some of the litter had cigarette burns

He was never happy unless hiding under things - sideboard was favourite.
seriously mentally scarred - liked kids - didn't like adults.
He died about 3 yr old - was kinda happy to get another dog to be honest :2twocents

(bitch whatever)

(Just pleased I didn't get two of that litter as I originally intended)

Whiskers · 6 October 2007

2020hindsight said:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/waggingschool/
great website - good on you aunty !!
personality test for dogs

The key tests which determine how easy a dog will be to train are:

My tripod (avatar) cat

scored 2,2,3 & 2.

Although all my cats are desexed, he is definately the leader of the pack and defender against strays.

2020hindsight · 6 October 2007

Whiskers said:
My tripod (avatar) cat scored 2,2,3 & 2.

Although all my cats are desexed, he is definately the leader of the pack and defender against strays.

sounds like he'd make a reasonable watchdog - well better than a Pomeranian anyways

Julia · 6 October 2007

Re the "No. 6" type dog. When I was battling with Libby in her first year, an animal behaviourist/trainer I consulted said: "This type of dog is the toughest you will ever take on. But if you can persist, and manage to get that dog to accept that you are unquestionably the pack leader, you will never have a better dog". In my tears and frustration (this after having had no trouble training several German Shepherds in the preceding 30 years), I doubted this could ever be true. But it turned out to be so.
When you do eventually win the heart of one of these dogs, you will have the most astonishing level of commitment from them. The challenge is not for the faint hearted though!

Whiskers, I like your cat.

2020hindsight · 16 October 2007

Meet 'Blue' An Australian Alpine Dingo

mmm think I'd prefer a retriever :2twocents

Whiskers · 16 October 2007

Julia said:
Whiskers, I like your cat.

Thanks Julia. I like your dog too. My brother had a shepherd when his kids were babies. It was such a docile thing. Those kids could do anything with it or to it, but it never hurt them.

My kids were given a sydney silky as a pup when they were about 8 and 10. Thats him below in his older age, not long before we lost him. This dog was a 2,2,2,3. He had real big ambitions. He went missing one day and I found him with a neighbours great dane that was on heat and wandering all over the place. A couple of days later the dumb so and so was gone again never to be seen again.

The cutest and cuddliest cat I have had was this one, an older brother to the cats I have now. He would sleep anywhere, on my bed in a box on a shelf literally anywhere. I could go to sleep on the lounge and wake up with him snuggled in beside me and the back of the lounge. But in this shot he was sitting on the chair gorking around... and next thing I knew he was asleep.

Pat · 16 October 2007

2020hindsight said:
sounds like he'd make a reasonable watchdog - well better than a Pomeranian anyways

Great thread 2020. Where do you find the time? Do you even trade? Kidding

Nothing wrong with a Pomeranian watch dog, my sisters little orange ball of fur, gets real fired up and you'd think twice about taking your hands out of your pockets. He looks like a devil with shark teeth when angry, and no one but our family will go near him LOL!

I love dogs. I've had dogs around me since I can remember and have learnt to respect them like children, maybe teenagers... people! They are so intelligent and surprise me with the strangest things. With the dogs I've had, what I still find to be the most amazing thing is there sense of emotion. With my sisters dogs, lived with them since they where pups, they know when I'm angry, happy, sad, and seem to know the right thing do whatever I'm feeling. They have souls.
Dogs are friends forever and I love spoiling my dogs. I can't wait to buy a house and get a few little furry friends. At the moment I'm renting so anything but fish are out of the question.

2020hindsight · 16 October 2007

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/27/2015865.htm

Feral cats on bush tucker menu
Posted Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:06am AEST

Feral cats are on the menu in a bush food competition in Alice Springs.

The competition requires people to use ingredients found in the Australian bush - including feral animals.

Children's book author and entrant Kay Kessing says cats can taste great.

"It's a white meat, they vary a lot; the first cat I cooked didn't have a strong flavour and I put a lot of ingredients with it and that made a beautiful stew," she said.

"This cat that I've cooked is a slightly larger cat; it's got a slightly stronger flavour but it's not as strong as rabbit."

But Ms Kessing draws the line at cooking pet cats.

"It should always be wild cat, it should always be wild camel because that's creating a terrible problem out bush now, especially in the dry times," she said.

"And we should be eating donkeys and horse meat like the French do."

Whiskers, Knew you'd be pleased with the emboldened bit

speaking of which ,

ahh cripes there was a terrible program on TV tonight - starving refugees in Africa have taken to eating Chimps - despite the 99% plus chromosome match

2020hindsight · 16 October 2007

Pat,
I've posted elsewhere that I love dogs - but Byron says it better

https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=98641&highlight=newfoundland#post98641

(PS I tolerate cats I guess - until they look twice at a bird

)

but what about seeing-eye-dogs -

- beautiful beautiful creatures
https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=183895&highlight=wagging#post183895

His determination won me and right now I’m on a high
I’ll (in future) take the splinter (and the log) out of my eye,
and I doubt this man will see this well-brushed-tail wag 'fore they die
- but I’m sure they “feel” that poem as he whispers “which way Skye?”
- and I’m sure they “feel” that footnote… “love you Skye!”.

Julia · 16 October 2007

Whiskers, gorgeous photo of the sleeping cat. I'd love a cat, but fear Libby would make its life, uncomfortable, short, or probably both!

Whiskers · 16 October 2007

2020hindsight said:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/27/2015865.htm

Whiskers, Knew you'd be pleased with the emboldened bit

Thanks 2020, I really needed that bit of news.

Pat · 16 October 2007

2020hindsight said:
Pat,
I've posted elsewhere that I love dogs - but Byron says it better

https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=98641&highlight=newfoundland#post98641

(PS I tolerate cats I guess - until they look twice at a bird )

but what about seeing-eye-dogs - - beautiful beautiful creatures
https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=183895&highlight=wagging#post183895

I know what you mean about those feisty felines, but that’s just what they do. They are so refined, athleticism at its best.
I don't mind seeing a cat eat a pest, like an Indian Minor bird.

2020hindsight · 31 October 2007

Pat , you're right - no problems with Indian Minor birds - but .. (then there'e the rest ).

Great story just in ... a doberman no less...
4 days in the family (picked up from the animal shelter), and already protecting the baby

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=312887

Doberman saves toddler from deadly snake bite
Wednesday Oct 31 14:00 AEDT
By ninemsn staff

A Doberman has saved a toddler from a deadly snake bite in what has been described as an unbelievable act.

As 17-month-old Charlotte Svillicic frolicked in the backyard of her Far North Queensland home on Monday, a king brown snake — the world's third most venomous — approached, The Cairns Postreported.

Khan, a Doberman new to the Svillicic's Atheron home just four days after rescuing it from an animal shelter, was alerted to the danger and miraculously flung the little girl from the snake's reach, and earned a poisonous bite on the leg for its troubles.

"If I had not seen it with my own eyes I would never have believed it," Charlotte's mother, Catherine Svillicic, told The Post.

"Khan was really concentrating and was acting aggressive towards Charlotte and kept trying to nudge her but it wasn't working, so he grabbed her by the back of the nappy and threw her more than a metre.

"Charlotte looked pretty shocked and then Khan screamed.

"I realised quickly it was a snake and Khan had been trying to get in between her and the snake before he threw her."

Khan received a shot of anti-venom from a local vet and apart from being very sick of the night of the attack, will make a full recovery.

https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=82435&highlight=patch#post82435

THAT’s why we call them “Man’s best friend” - THAT’s why they sleep on the hearth,
And those warm echoed bonds so bountifully mend Through the years as they sleep in our heart.
THAT’s why we treasure their every pricked ear As they “walk the watch” up the street
Cos they teach us love’s rhythms, just they can hear - And they’re here to help give us that beat.

PS Pat
Can't see a cat doing much to help lol - except making sure it (personally) was safe

2020hindsight · 31 October 2007

...
here's photo of that one.

meanwhile I found this from 4 years ago lol...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2003/03/04/797307.htm

Doggie in the window deceives woman
Posted Tue Mar 4, 2003 8:06am AEDT

Gold Coast police rushed to the aid of a terrified woman who told them a masked bandit was looking through the window of her home this morning.

Police kept the woman on the phone trying to reassure her as she described how the man, wearing a balaclava, was peering into her home.

When the police arrived they discovered a doberman standing on his back legs, looking through the woman's window.

Tags: offbeat, southport-4215

2020hindsight · 8 November 2007

not dissimilar to my dog

here she is pretending the lead is a snake, trying to say she wants to fetch, and biting her way through someone's leg.

PS

I still get a chuckle with the article from years back (2003, previous post) ...
"When the police arrived they discovered a doberman standing on his back legs, looking through the woman's window" lol

Lucky · 8 November 2007

ORIGIN OF THE DOG? How, When & Why???

Found a few very interesting articles regarding the Origin of the K9 species. Quite fascinating as it seems that scientists and paleontologists are just a little stumped when it comes to actually determining how the faithful pet dog has become just that. When you look at a few theories it makes you question the whens, hows and whys; they do seem to be a bit of an enigma - as one of the articles mentions a miracle of evolution; ancient man's first genetic engineering experiment? The more I read about this the more fascinating I find this whole thing.

The Origin Of Dogs – Biogenetic engineering

Now we turn to a mystery that nearly equals the pyramid, though it is a little known conundrum hidden in the mists of remote antiquity. Let us start with a simple question that appears to have an obvious answer: what is a dog? It turns out geneticists in the past decade have shown the answer is not so obvious. In fact, generations of anthropologists, archaeologists and wildlife biologists turned out to be dead wrong when it came to the origins of “man’s best friend”.

Prior to DNA studies conducted in the 1990s, the generally accepted theory posited that dogs branched off from a variety of wild canids, i.e., coyotes, hyenas, jackals, wolves and so on, about 15,000 years ago. The results of the first comprehensive DNA study shocked the scholarly community. The study found that all dog breeds can be traced back to wolves and not other canids. The second part of the finding was even more unexpected – the branching off occurred from 40-150,000 years ago.

Why do these findings pose a problem? We have to answer that question with another question: how were dogs bred from wolves? This is not just difficult to explain, it is impossible. Do not be fooled by the pseudo-explanations put forth by science writers that state our Stone Age ancestors befriended wolves and somehow (the procedure is never articulated) managed to breed the first mutant wolf, the mother of all dogs. Sorry, we like dogs too, but that is what a dog is.

The problems come at the crucial stage of taking a male and female wolf and getting them to produce a subspecies (assuming you could tame and interact with them at all). Let us take this one step further by returning to our original question, what is a dog? A dog is a mutated wolf that only has those characteristics of the wild parent, which humans find companionable and useful. That is an amazing fact.

Think about those statements for a moment. If you are thinking that dogs evolved naturally from wolves, that is not an option. No scientist believes that because the stringent wolf pecking order and breeding rituals would never allow a mutant to survive, at least that is one strong argument against natural evolution.

Now, if our Paleolithic ancestors could have pulled off this feat, and the actual challenges posed by the process are far more taxing, then wolf/dog breeders today certainly should have no problem duplicating it. But like the Great Pyramid, that does not seem to be the case. No breeders have stepped up to the plate claiming they can take two pure wolves and produce a dog sans biogenetic engineering techniques.

The evolution of the domesticated dog from a wild pack animal appears to be a miracle! It should not have happened. This is another unexplained enigma.

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/11_02/dog.shtml
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/06_02/dogs_review.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2498669.stm
http://www.workingdogweb.com/DogOrigins.htm
http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/Articles/Ancient_Civilisations_Six_Great_Enigmas.html

Julia · 8 November 2007

I don't quite see what is so hard to understand. I have a book on the history and development of the German Shepherd. The early photographs of the Shepherd show an animal very like a wolf. Sometimes even now, in the advanced development that is my current dog, in certain stances and moods, she very much resembles a wolf.
Even if you look at a breeder's dogs over a couple of decades, you can clearly see differences in body shape, colouring etc., but more importantly in recent years a trend to breed for excellent and reliable temperament.

What about the ghastly recent fashion of breeding hybrid dogs, e.g. the "labradoodle " ( cross between a labrador and a poodle for god's sake).

Dog breeds even personalities within a litter

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