1. Response to a Unique Stimulus. The puppy should be placed alone in its pen. A new toy (visual stimulus) can be placed in with it. The puppy’s confidence and interest in the new object are recorded. A similar record of the dog’s response to a loud sound (auditory stimulus) can be recorded as well. Ideally, the puppy expresses interest in the novel stimulus and shows a desire to investigate it.
2. Response to Isolation. The puppy is left alone in its pen and its responses are noted. The most desirable pup will show a great deal of exploratory behavior.
3. Response to People. Again the puppy is evaluated while left alone in its pen. A stranger enters the pen and then squats near the puppy but remains silent. The degree of anxiety or caution that the pup shows in approaching the person is noted. Is the puppy indifferent to the person or does it seek attention? After remaining still for a short time, the handler should stand up and walk around the pen. Does the puppy respond by following or is it instead very timid or retiring? The ideal puppy is friendly and gregarious.
4. Competitive Spirit. An aggressive play situation can be set up easily. The handler wiggles a strong piece of cloth or a rag in front of the puppy and initiates a tug-of-war game with it. A strong biting and pulling response is extremely desirable in a Schutzhund prospect. It is interesting to note the reaction of the pup when the handler shouts or beats the ground during the tug-of-war. Does the puppy fight more strongly for the possession of the rag, or does it begin to nervously chew and shift its grip on it? Does it let go altogether and retreat from the handler? The ideal puppy is so caught up in the fun of biting and struggling for the rag that it is virtually oblivious of anything that the person does. At the end of the game it is important to surrender the rag to the puppy so that it feels as though it has won.
5. Intelligence and Problem Solving. The puppy can be placed behind a barrier of chicken wire, sixteen feet long and four feet high. The handler then calls the pup from the opposite side. The degree of desire to get to the handler as well as the dog’s persistence in finding a way around the obstacle is noted.
While the selection of a puppy can be made with some reliability based on puppy tests administered during the six- to eight-week-old age level, according to Dr. Fox it is important to understand the problems involved in the selection of the adolescent dog. Many dogs experience a period of vacillation and instability during the adolescent phase (roughly from four through eighteen months of age). For this reason character tests can be administered again with a higher degree of confidence after the puppy’s adolescent stage.
Another important person in the field of working dog character evaluation is Dr. Bodingbauer, an Austrian Doberman enthusiast. He was a professor of veterinary medicine in Vienna and wrote extensively discussing character and temperament in the working dog. He utilized the research of many notables, including Scott and Drs. Rudolf and Rudolfine Menzel, animal psychologists at the University of Haifa. Bodingbauer employed a number of tests in order to look closely at the temperament of the potential working dog. His tests served as the core of the Doberman Pinscher Temperament Evaluation Program under the leadership of Vic Montelion and the American Temperament Testing Society. The German Shepherd Dog Club also adopted some of Dr. Bodingbauer’s tests.
Courage is a quality that is highly desirable in the Schutzhund dog. Dr. Bodingbauer spent considerable effort in his book discussing what courage is and is not, and how it can be evaluated. First he differentiates between courage and fearlessness. He stresses that the fearless dog is not afraid. Therefore this animal will react indifferently or impassively in the face of danger because it does not recognize the danger. This can be because the dog has a poorly developed self-preservation instinct or because of insufficient reaction preparedness (in Schutzhund we call this dullness). Bodingbauer taught that the courageous dog is fully aware that it is in danger, and that the essential quality of courage lies in the dog’s willingness to confront a threat to its handler with disregard for its own safety. The courageous dog faces a threat even though retreat from the situation is possible.
In contrast to this somewhat romantic view of canine courage, we observe that Helmut Raiser, an important modem working dog theorist and trainer, defines courage simply as “a high threshold for avoidance behavior.”
Dr. Bodingbauer describes the most common canine responses to stress by picturing the reactions of three different dogs to gunfire (see illustration opposite). The dog at the bottom has an extremely high level of awareness for its environment and a very low threshold for auditory stimuli. It will react either by behaving aggressively or by fleeing. In contrast, when the same stimulus is applied to the dog with an extremely high threshold, no reaction takes place. The animal has a very low level of awareness and potential danger is often ignored.
Each of these extremes—very low nervous thresholds as well as very high nervous thresholds—are undesirable in nearly any sort of working or companion dog.
By contrast, the middle dog is alert and aware of all events taking place around it. It takes note of the gunfire, but is neither frightened nor made hostile by it. This sort of stability is one of the most important characteristics of a Schutzhund or protection dog, and therefore the nervous threshold level is an important consideration in selecting a dog for work.
Inherited, inborn characteristics, Bodingbauer believed, can be evaluated with the help of several tests administered to the young dog. During the testing, however, there are several important considerations. First, the age of the dog must be taken into account. A response that is developmentally normal in a dog of one age can be either extraordinarily advantageous or even extraordinarily disadvantageous in a dog of another age (for instance, very defensive or aggressive behavior may be acceptable or even desirable in a dog of eighteen months, but it is a very bad sign in a puppy of four months). In addition, the test should be performed on territory that is unknown to the dog. Some animals will respond confidently or favorably when on their own territory but will not have adequate character to react equally well elsewhere. At the conclusion of the evaluation the dog receives a ranking of its potential for work of “very promising,” “promising,” “less promising” or “unpromising.” The following are some of the tests that Bodingbauer employed.
The first test that he used involves five-week-old pups. A motorized toy is set off in front of them. The more courageous ones go resolutely forward to investigate, while the less bold ones wait. A noisy chain can be tossed loudly in front of the pups and their reactions noted to this stimulus as well. By inviting puppies of this age to bite a leather strap or piece of cloth, he received clues to their fighting spirit. He noted that particularly talented dogs are so enthusiastic in their zeal that they often can be lifted off the ground while still holding fast to their bite.
Scenting potential for tracking work can be ascertained early as well. The tracking test is conducted by having the dog’s owner engage in light play with the pup. Then he runs abruptly to a hiding place (a hedgerow or large tree, perhaps). When he is hidden from the dog’s view, he prepares a scent pad. He lays down a strong scent by treading down a surface about a yard square. After a minute or two on the scent pad the tracklayer sights on a second hiding place and walks in a straight line to it. The wind should be at his back. He then returns on exactly the same path back to the scent pad, and then once again retraces his steps to the hiding place. Thus the track has been walked on three times. When the dog’s handler has reached his hiding place, the dog is led to the beginning of the scent pad and encouraged to find its master. The evaluator observes whether the dog uses its nose or its eyes during the search. Did it pick out the scent at the pad and attempt to follow the scent? Did it complete the track quickly and with concentration or slowly and with disinterest? When it finds its master the dog should be praised enthusiastically and rewarded with a piece of food.