Has anyone used the Volhardart Puppy Apptitude Test (PAT) to choose a puppy from a litter??

[Davidh]

At that age, some of the things on the list are hard to evaluate in my opinion. The biting part, is no signs of aggression at that age. All puppies bite, that's how they explore the world and play. If a 7 week old shows true aggression toward a human, there is something seriously wrong with that pup. They will have little temper tantrum toward each other if they play too hard, and they will usually throw the fit and walk off, then 5 minutes later be playing again. I say which ever one connects with you the best is usually the best one for you. The pup will usually puck their new family. I pick them for a different reason, because I am looking for the one I thing will do the best in the show ring, which includes, personality, body structure, and who I think will fit the standard the best when it matures. But an 8 week old pup sometimes is very hard to pick because they still have so much growing to do and will change as they do grow. That's why I like them to be a little older when we are picking one to show.

 

[cefe13]

Looks very advanced! I would think a test like that requires a professional to assess the puppy; to us it was very important to see the parents, the breeder's facilities and how the puppy interacted not only with his litter mates but also with the breeder. When looking at the type of personality issues that the test measures, I can see that Castor has fully lived up to our expectations/hopes, but there is no way I could have assessed that when we first saw him at seven weeks. And we didn't actually choose him - the breeder selected him for us from the litter. We wanted a male and there were, I think, three males still available, and already before we went there the first time the breeder had picked Castor, saying he was the one they assessed as being most suitable for our family.

In hindsight, I know that looking at his parents was a good way of judging what would become out of him; Castor is a slightly smaller version of his dad who totally swept me off my feet when we first visited the breeder.

 

[rjisaterp]

Crap my bullies would have flunked this test. Bullies are family companions not getting ready to go to Harvard or even Crap gold

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk