Interested in having your dog TTed?

[oc_spirit]

Calling all people located near Niagra!!!! Are you interested in getting your dog Temperament Tested (TT)? Me and a person from another forum (SummerRiot) are taking our dogs to Sandon Kennels in Sherkston, ON (near Niagra) to get our dogs TTed on Spetember 23, 2006 and we're extending the invitation to YOU!!! We are allowed to take up to 30 dogs so this is going to work on a first come first serve basis. Not first to show interest, but first to CONFIRM. Cost is roughly $35/dog. Any dog of any breed or mix is welcome. Not sure what a TT is? Read on...

The Temperament Test is designed for dogs
at least 12 months of age. Two evaluators
measure the dog's strength of response at
each of the 10 sub-tests. All officials
conducting the evaluation are schooled
centrally and registered with the
Temperament Test Associates. Procedure
and equipment are standardized in uniform
fairness to each dog participating.

Just prior to the test beginning, the Chief
Tester gives an introduction to the test and
then walks with the test participants through
all of the course test stations, explaining step
by step the stimuli that will be presented and
the various reactions a dog may show, how
to handle your dog in a positive way, and
what the handler must avoid during the test.
During the test dogs are on a 6 foot leash.
They may not be under any kind of command
or attempted influence by the handler.

The character and/or disposition of all breeds
of dogs varies depending on what they were
meant to be used for. ie., herding,
obedience, sleding, hunting etc. But GOOD
TEMPERAMENT IS GOOD
TEMPERAMENT; and BAD TEMPERAMENT
IS BAD TEMPERAMENT IN ANY BREED IN
ANY DOG. In these evaluations all dogs are
judged according to their age, breed and
socialization. ie. house dog, kennel dog,
working in conformation, tracking, obedience
or schutzhund.

The owner of each dog passing the testing
requirements will receive a certificate with the
dog's name and breed designation. The
dog's name may now be listed with the letters
TT after the dog's name. A central registry
will record all breeds and individual dogs
passing these tests. These records will be
available to National and Regional breed
clubs. The TT Qualifies as 5 points towards a
working title for a Canadian ROMC.

The Ten Subtests are as follows:

Test 1, 2, and 3 - Behaviour Toward Strangers
Objective: To determine the dog's reaction to
strangers in a non-threatening situation.
1) Neutral Stranger - A stranger to the dog
approaches the handler, shakes hands and
ignores the dog for 10 seconds. 2) Friendly
Stranger - A Stranger to the dog approaches
happily and briskly and is exuberantly friendly
to the dog. Petting for 10 seconds. 3)
Crowd Scene - Approximately 8 people
come from many directions and walk toward
the dog and handler to create a circle around
the team. The diameter of the circle not be
be less than 8 feet.

Test 4, 5 - Reaction to Acoustic Stimuli
Objective: To test the dog's reaction to two
acoustic stimuli, and to measure the dog's
investigative behaviour. This test shows
alertness and curiosity. 4) Hidden Clattering -
as the dog and handler approach the wellhidden
assistant, the assistant begins to rattle
a galvanized metal bucket filled with rocks.
The dog should investigate otherwise the
handler may encourage the dog. The
handler's focus must be on the stimulus, not
on the dog. 5) Gun Test - Dog and handler
have their backs turned to the unnoticed and
well-hidden assistant. Team and assistant
are 15 feet apart. The assistant fires three
shots.

Test 6 - Reaction To A Visual Stimulus
Objective: To test the dog's reaction to a
sudden visual stimulus. To measure the
dog's investigative behaviour and the startlerecovery
time. 6) Umbrella Test - When the
dog is 5 ft from the umbrella, the catch on the
umbrella is suddenly but smoothly released
so that the umbrella will open at a 90 degree
angle to the path of the dog. The dog should
investigate the umbrella within 15 seconds.
Otherwise, the handler may encourage the
dog for 15 seconds to approach the umbrella.

Test 7 - Reaction to Unusual Footing
Objective: To measure the dog's reaction to
unusual footing. 7) Grate Footing - the
Handler-dog team both walk over a 15 ft. x 4
ft. length of 9 guage chain-link fencing laid
flat on the ground.

Test 8, 9 and 10 - Self-
Protectiveness/Agressive Reaction
Objective: To test the dog's capacity to focus
1) on an unusual stimulus, b) to recognize a
threat, c) to react in the face of a threat. 8)
Recognizes Stimuli - as the team comes to
within 30 ft of the well hidden unfriendly
stranger, the unfriendly stranger emerges
from his hiding place making unusual sounds
and motions. The unfriendly stranger
crosses the path of the team. 9) Recognizes
Threat - The unfriendly stranger turns
towards the team raising his riding crop,
continues the unusual noises and motions
and advances to a distance of 20 ft. 10) Dog
Is Threatened - The unfriendly stranger then
pounds his riding crop six times on the
ground as he advances to within 10 ft of the
team.

It takes about 10 minutes for the team to
move through the ten test stations. At the
conslusion of a test, each handler will receive
a verbal critique on the dog's test
performance. A test is failed if the dog at any
time shows extreme avoidance, hides behind
the handler or panics, shows aggressiveness
when not provoked, or exhibits obvious
avoidance at the footing test. At any of the
tests the dog may startle, but it is the
recovery time that we are interested in.
If the dog passes all of the sub-tests, he will
receive a certificate, the day of the test, with
his Temperament Test Number.

What constitutes a fail is if the dog does not recover. This means either the dog gets startled or scared and fails to gain confidence and investigate or at least approach OR the dog displays aggression and after the threat leaves fails to stop acting up and after the threat comes back but makes no move towards them, starts acting up again. BAsically the aggressive dog should be able to forgive and forget (AKA settle down) when the threat is no longer threatening him.

This is the kennel that will be doing the testing. http://www.sandonkennels.com/temperament.html

Hope to get some of you out! If you need more info feel free to contact me!!!

[mrsgrubby]

wish I lived closer. This sounds very interesting. Please post your results and your impression of the experience when you get back!

[briarlow]

Sounds a good idea, but I would be worried that if certain breeds were there that they didn't know about and didn't understand the way they worked that this could cause a problem?

Yes all dogs should have good temperaments, but there are certain things that they are trained for and even in the different groups different breeds work differently.

[oc_spirit]

If the evaluator doesn;t understand a breed they wouldn;t be a qualified evaluator for this test. If you are worried about the evaluator understanding your breed then you should bring along a copy of your dog''s standard which dictates it''s temperment and be sure to discuss it with the evaluator before the test begins. All breed specifics are taken into account before and during testing. This would mean that it is expected for a guarding breed to act out when the stranger approaches aggressively however for a breed such as the Siberian Husky to react in such a nature it could be frowned upon (depending on the situation and circumstance (ie. when exactly the dog acted out). The test is a lot more in-depth than what has been written up here. It''s a wonderful test to determine the dog''s actual temperment as opposed to simply how well the dog has been trained (since the handler is not allowed to give the dog ANY cues at all)