4/15/23 7w – Volhard Temperament Testing

See Also Volhard Testing Explained, M1/Green Collar 7w pics, M2/Blue Collar 7w pics, M3/White Collar 7w pics, & M4/Red Agouti 7w pics

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Covid was rough on puppy socialization and puppy testing. But now that people are traveling again, we could again do official Volhard testing.

I set it up in a place the pups have never been (the agility play yard.) We show the pups things they have never seen (like grass mats, and knobby yellow balls, and an orange pop-up tunnel courtesy of gramma Pam.) With people they have never met (Nannette Clark, Aimee S., and 8yo Sloane), a person they met once weeks ago (Pam Weed, owner of their sire Chill and our photographer), and also a person they know very well Sherry Gile (taking notes & who they see every week.) Also me, who whelped them into my hands and guided the test out loud. We do things to them they have never done, like Nannette testing for the Upside-down-a-mute gene (which I call the dishrag gene, as in do they go limp as a dishrag when a stranger holds them upside down.) And will they chase a fuzzy toy dragged behind a leash?

And I have an 8yo (my niece) Sloane do the testing. Yeah, she’s 8. I guide her through what we need her to do, but she is a farm girl who has dogs, cats, chickens, goats, pigs, and a pony. She jumps off fence posts and high rocks into deep cold water pools. She can slide a 50# sack of feed off the shelf onto a cart. The kid is a super hero, she was raised with the idea that she should be encouraged to do dangerous things cautiously. So i figure she was perfect for puppy testing. She rocked the house!

A test I conducted after the whole human crew had left in exhaustion, is the Chicken Test. I take the pups out of the puppy kennel and feed them, like I normally do. Then I let the adult hens loose. Who promptly came to the location to clean up any spilled kibble. Only the pups were still eating the kibble. All four heads down in the giant stainless bowl. The hens joined. No one did anything. They were still eating. Once they were full, and stepped away from the bowl, they noticed the hens.

Chicken Test

• M1/green kept eating while the others noticed the hens.
• M2/blue said, no way, no how, I’m not dealing with this, and he went and sat at the kennel gate where mom was telling off the hens. He joined her in telling off the hens.
• M3/white said, Hey, this is my — the hen clucked at him, pecked the air in front of him, and he joined M2 at the gate, abandoning the bowl.
• M4/red agouti said, my bowl and I’m not backing down, Henny Penny! And boffed at her with a foot stomp. Henny Penny puffed up her feathers and flapped her wings at him. And he retreated like the good mute he is.
• M1/green is still eating. Henny Penny and her sidekick started pecking kibble out of the bowl next to him and he noticed, fell on his backside in surprise and rolled until he was clear of the mini dinosaurs.

This is much the same reaction they have to the Cat Test, Smitty & Ms. Jones. Smitty rolls all over puppies, literally, rolls on them, rubs on them, and bats at them with his paws. Jones swats and hisses if they get pushy, otherwise co-exists with them peacefully. (The opposite reaction they have to strange people, by the way. She is stranger friendly, he is a fraidy cat with perfect strangers.) Once puppies are BIGGER than the cats, and corpulent Smitty is in the double digits, the cats correct pushy puppies and ignore quietly behaving puppies.

The Test is 10 steps (plus Upside-down-a-mute)

M1/Green Collar

• Social Attraction, come when called/clapping – 3 came readily, tail up
• Following – 3 followed readily, tail up
• Restraint, roll puppy on his back – 5 no struggle
• Social Dominance, let stand and stroke pup – 4 squirmed, licked at hands
• Elevation Dominance, hold suspended in air 6″ – 5 no struggle, licked at hands
• Retrieving yellow knobby ball – 2 chases object, does not return
• Touch sensitivity, pinch webbing between toes lightly – 1, 8-10+seconds before response
• Sound sensitivity, drop metal bowl full of metal objects – 3 listens, locates, walks towards (these pups hear power tools, highway traffic and trains at all hours)
• Sight sensitivity, drag a toy on a leash – 3 looks and investigates
• Stability, open umbrella, in our case a large orange pop-up tunnel – 3 looks, investigates
• ADDED Lure thru tunnel – halfway
• ADDED Upside-down-a-mute – yes, dishrag, completely limp
• Summary: a dishrag puppy, big bone, big coat, people oriented and mellow to the point of marshmallow. He’s a teddy bear, like his many great grandpa Cherokee.
• M1/Green Collar 7w pics

M2/Blue collar

• Social Attraction, come when called/clapping – 2 came readily, tail up, pawed
• Following – 3 followed readily, tail up
• Restraint, roll puppy on his back – 3 settled, then struggled, a little eye contact
• Social Dominance, let stand and stroke pup – 5-6 rolled over, licked at hands, left, then came right back
• Elevation Dominance, hold suspended in air 6″ – 3 no struggle, relaxed
• Retrieving yellow knobby ball – 1 chases object, picked up and left
• Touch sensitivity, pinch webbing between toes lightly – 1, 8-10+seconds before response
• Sound sensitivity, drop metal bowl full of metal objects – 3 listens, locates, walks towards (these pups hear power tools, highway traffic and trains at all hours)
• Sight sensitivity, drag a toy on a leash – 3 looks and investigates
• Stability, open umbrella, in our case a large orange pop-up tunnel – 3 looks, investigates
• ADDED Lure thru tunnel – all the way through
• ADDED Upside-down-a-mute – yes, dishrag, completely limp
• Summary: also a dishrag, relaxed, big coat, big bone, more compact than M1, not as much as M3 & M4. But a happy-go-lucky kind of puppy and pretty easy going, and happy to tell you about it, too.
• M2/Blue Collar 7w pics

M3/White collar

• Social Attraction, come when called/clapping – 3 came readily, tail up
• Following – 3 followed readily, tail up
• Restraint, roll puppy on his back – 5 no struggle
• Social Dominance, let stand and stroke pup – 5 squirmed, licked at hands
• Elevation Dominance, hold suspended in air 6″ – 3 no struggle
• Retrieving yellow knobby ball – 4 chases object, returns without ball
• Touch sensitivity, pinch webbing between toes lightly – 1, 8-10+seconds before response
• Sound sensitivity, drop metal bowl full of metal objects – 3 listens, locates, walks towards (these pups hear power tools, highway traffic and trains at all hours)
• Sight sensitivity, drag a toy on a leash – 3 looks and investigates
• Stability, open umbrella, in our case a large orange pop-up tunnel – looks, investigates
• ADDED Lure thru tunnel – halfway then popped back out
• ADDED Upside-down-a-mute – yes, dishrag, completely limp, plus KISSES
• Summary: this charmer gives kisses when cuddled upside-down. He was Nannette’s pick for the smooth moves he made towards her. But I’m still partial to M2s conversational style.
• M3/White Collar 7w pics

M4/Red Agouti

• Social Attraction, come when called/clapping – 4 came cautiously at first
• Following – 3 followed readily, tail up
• Restraint, roll puppy on his back – struggled, then settled
• Social Dominance, let stand and stroke pup –
• Elevation Dominance, hold suspended in air 6″ – 3 no struggle
• Retrieving yellow knobby ball – 2 chases object, does not return
• Touch sensitivity, pinch webbing between toes lightly – 1, 8-10+seconds before response
• Sound sensitivity, drop metal bowl full of metal objects – 3 listens, locates, walks towards (these pups hear power tools, highway traffic and trains at all hours)
• Sight sensitivity, drag a toy on a leash – 2? looks excitedly, tail up playfully
• Stability, open umbrella, in our case a large orange pop-up tunnel – 3 looks, investigates, paws at it
• ADDED Lure thru tunnel – all the way through
• ADDED Upside-down-a-mute – no, not today
• Summary: this one we call the Engineer, because he kept figuring out ways to be with people. He wasn’t content to wait his turn in the holding pen with his brothers, he wanted to be in the middle of things. He’s adventurous, intelligent and street smart. And needs a home that understands Mals, not a starter Mal.
• M4/Red Agouti 7w pics