Temperament Testing in Dogs
Let’s say you want to adopt a puppy from a litter of ten. How will you decide which one to bring home? Based on gender, color, or markings? Based on how sleepy or active or smitten with you they appear during your brief visit? How can you confidently choose which one will be the right fit for you and your household?
Temperament Testing
The best way to predict the adult behavior of young puppies is through temperament testing. This assessment is best performed on 7-week-old pups (give or take a little bit) by someone with temperament testing experience.
Pups are exposed to various situations and are scored based on their confidence level, social behavior, desire for play, and reactions to play stimuli, prey stimuli, loud noise, and separation.
Here’s a fun video of temperament testing on a litter of beagle puppies.
Looking for a chill family dog, a long-distance running partner, a hunting dog? Results of temperament testing can help guide you.
Temperament Testing Based on Saliva
A study published earlier this month on adult dogs documented that the amount of cortisol (a stress hormone) and serotonin (a feel-good hormone) in their saliva correlated with behavior patterns.
Concentrations of salivary cortisol and serotonin were measured in 24 dogs before and after standardized temperament testing. Findings showed that the dogs with higher stress reactivity, based on temperament testing, had higher cortisol levels. Serotonin levels were increased in those with greater emotional regulation (stability).
This study has a very small sample size (24 dogs) and I look forward to results of more studies to validate these findings. I wonder if, some day, such testing might be practical enough to allow shelters to better match dogs with their forever homes.
Have you had experience with temperament testing? If so, did you (do you) find it helpful? I’d love for all my dog trainer/behaviorist readers to chime in.
Best wishes to you and your four-legged family members for abundant good health,
Dr. Nancy
DrNancyKay.com
I adopt dogs — often older puppies, but middle-aged dogs as well — from shelters and rescue groups. I’m not purchasing “from a litter of 10.” The cortisol theory makes sense to me, based on my experience with an extremely reactive dog.
When adopting, it is immensely helpful to “foster to adopt,” where that is available. But there are things you can do even at the shelter, in the get-acquainted room or play yard. Observe the dog quietly. Call him over. Throw a ball, but also let him have time to be calm. Don’t get him riled up. Sit on the floor with him. One dog I adopted curled up in my lap. Another interacted so well with some young kids outside the yard that I decided he was a keeper. Observe. Take the time.
How interesting. We did a bit of the tactile temperament testing before picking JD who was to be our girl's private play buddy.
That said, we just adopted a small Rottie mix girl pretty much based on a single glance. It was all it took. And she is exactly what we saw in her face when we first laid our eyes on it. Shy, smart, sweet ... Sometimes one just knows.