WHAT IS TEMPERAMENT TESTING AND WHAT DOES IT HELP CLARIFY FOR NEW OWNERS?

Your puppy is 6-weeks old and they received their BAB Puppy Evaluation--but what does it mean? 

Assertiveness with Humans - how comfortable a puppy is with humans. Do they try to impose their way (high) or naturally submit to human authority (low)? 

Confidence - how confident is the dog in their own abilities in new environments.

Motivation Level - does the dog naturally want to do what the person wants, or they want to do what they want? 

Nerve Strength - How does the dog handle stress and react in different situations? Low is easily stressed, high means they are able to adapt more easily in stressful situations.

Touch Tolerance - How does the puppy react when they are roughly touched (have their tail tugged, toes touched, etc.)  Low scores mean the puppy doesn’t handle unwanted touch well, and high scores mean the puppy wasn’t stressed and enjoyed being touched the whole time. 

Energy Level - how energetic is the puppy throughout the test.

Sound Sensitivity - Does the puppy startle easily with loud, unexpected noises. Low scores mean the puppy has a high tolerance for loud noises, and high scores mean the puppy is sensitive to loud noises (fireworks, etc). 

Sight Sensitivity - How stressed is the puppy when there’s an unexpected movement. Low means they are not stressed by visual stimuli and high means they are more easily stressed and may hide when they see something surprising. 

Prey Drive - How interested is the puppy in chasing, stalking, pouncing small animals. Low means the puppy doesn’t have an interest in hunting and high means they can be trained to hunt and should be watched around small pets (birds, ferrets hamsters, etc.) 

Human Focus - How interested are they in ‘following the pack’ and giving attention to the human. Low means they want to discover on their own, high scores mean they are attentive to people and focus on them.

Tenderhearted - How overwhelmed is the puppy by human emotions when they have an outburst. Not tenderhearted scores mean the puppy is not stressed and is still able to focus on the task at hand (could be a good emotional support animal). Extremely tenderhearted dogs will “feel” with their humans and can’t handle emotionally charged environments. An extremely tenderhearted dog should not be an emotional support animal because it will be as overwhelmed as the human. 

Dog friendliness - is this dog assertive (confident in greeting) or submissive (hesitantly waiting for dog to approach) when meeting a new dog. 

This information is meant to help choose a puppy that best suits your lifestyle and at this age you can still socialize and train them to overcome these fears. If your puppy is submissive with other dogs, you can practice having them meet other dogs that you know are friendly and vaccinated to help them gain confidence. Or a puppy who scored high on sound sensitivity can work on introducing loud, unexpected noises until they are more comfortable and realize their is nothing to fear. The first year of life is critical to making sure they are adaptable and the training needs to continue with their forever family. Baxter and Bella is an amazing online training program you can follow and have live Q&A sessions with trainers. Click here to learn more and use code ZINK25 for 25% off!