This past Saturday I took Tasha to a "Temperament Test" that was being held near Kansas City. The president emeritus of the organization himself was one of the judges (there are three), how exciting! He said he tested over 9,000 dogs. Yeah...OVER 9 THOUSAND!!! You can read more about the test, and past results, etc, here: www.atts.org (looking through the statistics for various breeds is really interesting). I entered Tasha as a mixed breed, due to her unknown parentage - she was the only mix there, actually. About 26 dogs were tested, we were in the second half, so we spent alot of time sitting around. Which was fine because there were CHICKENS nearby. Including a rooster that looked just like my mom's rooster Mr. Stripey. I gave him cookie pieces when no one was looking. Hopefully.
Here is a description of the test itself:
http://www.atts.org/testdesc.html
You can also see people take the test on youtube, just search for atts dog, some should come up.
The test is kind of scored on reactivity, with a low score being the dog didn't have much of a reaction to anything, a moderate (average) score being the dog had appropriate reactions, and a high score being the dog was very highly reactive. Ideally dogs would have scores in the average area, as far as I understood.
The one part of the test that I really had no idea how The Pie would react was the last item(s) where the "wierdly dressed stranger" appears with his whip/stick thing and begins acting aggressive before charging at dog/handler. Would she try to run? Would she try to play with him? Would she bark? Would she even notice? She's been around some pretty chaotic things so I thought that if she was not facing the correct direction she might just not even notice the guy. I just didn't know.
Also I had not thought this would be a problem, but the judge said one of the main areas dogs fail is the 'walking over wire cage footing'. You can guide the dog onto it, but they have to choose to stay walking on it and not jump off to a side. That is basically the only time in the test you can guide the dog at all other than just walking from one cone/station to the next.
During the test, Tasha did great. The only thing that was not perfect was the umbrella, where she tried to investigate the person behind it instead of the umbrella, but then she did, so it was fine. She walked right over the wire mesh, no problem. When it came for the aggressive stranger, fortunately she approached the station and faced where he was going to come from, so she did notice him right away when he emerged. And she did not try to run away or do anything silly! She watched him, with her head and tail in the upright position, and when he started approaching she moved a little closer, and when he charged at us she did not run or back away - she either stood still or moved even closer. Then as he walked away she just stood and watched him. I'm not sure exactly what her intent was, we weren't really even supposed to LOOK at the dog during the test, instead look at what the station is, so I was actually watching the dude. So, she passed her test with all scores in the 'average' zone except she got one higher score for being above-average interested in the 'neutral stranger' - considering her 'job' this is not surprising, ha ha. The judge said she was very well adjusted. Yay! Hopefully that will stand her in good stead for her Therapy dog "disaster stress relief dog" test NEXT weekend. Stay tuned for possible blog update following it...though it will be a busy couple of weeks!
