Harry passed his Temperament Test
For anyone wanting to know what is entailed here is a picture log of his test with some background. Very long - skip it if this holds no interest. The test subjects the dog to everyday auditory, visual and tactile stimuli where neutral, friendly and threatening situations are encountered, calling into play the dog's ability to distinguish between them. The dog is allowed to react to the stimuli (act scared, etc.) but will fail if it shows panic without recovery, strong avoidance or unprovoked aggression. The test consists of 10 sub-tests in five categories. The dog is given the full length of a six foot leash. It is supposed to simulate a walk in the park. There should be no outside influences or controls to affect the dog's response to the stimuli - so there is no talking to the dog, no leash corrections or hand signals. Basically throw all training out the window. The judge was very thorough on the walk through (30 minutes) and said the stress level should rise throughout the test. If you look at the pictures carefully you can see Harry getting stressed. But all of the tests are or simulate something you can encounter (examples in parenthesis) while out with your dog. Here we are starting the test, notice how loose Harry's leash is. You can see the main judge back and off to the right. 
Category: Behavior towards strangers (people who approach you when walking your dog) Sub-test 1: Neutral stranger interacts with you not the dog. Harry's response: You won't pet me than I can ignore you too. 
Sub-test 2: Friendly stanger interacts mostly with dog. Harry's response: I like this lady she is petting me. He followed her when she was done to get more petting. 
Category: Reaction to Auditory Stimuli (fireworks, a car backfiring) Sub-test 3: Hidden noise - person rattles a metal bucket with rocks that the dog should then check out. Harry's response: He jumped at the rattling but then immediately went to stick his head in the bucket to check it out before I could approach it. Tim did not get a picture of that but here we are heading to the next station. 
Sub-test 4: Gunshots - person fires off 2-3 shots with a starter pistol that the dog can react to but must recover. Harry's response: Startled and tried to get away but didn't pull me from where I was supposed to wait. Look at how taut the leash is and how he is looking around for the source of the "popping" noise: 
Category: Reaction to Visual Stimuli (flags flapping in the wind, shaking open a plastic bag) Sub-test 5: Umbrella - person pops open the umbrella and than the dog should check it out. Harry's response: He was startled when it opened, once he saw what it was and I bent down to "inspect" it he took a sniff. 
Category: Reaction to Tactile Stimuli (grates on sidewalks, etc.) Tim did not get pictures of the following but you can see Harry moving towards the next tests on a much tauter leash than he started. Sub-test 6: Plastic footing Harry's response: He was still stressed from the gunshots so he pulled me across the plastic. Sub-test 7: Wire footing Harry's response: He was still pulling but walked across it no problem as he will walk over almost anything since I have always made him do it for his benefit. 
Category: Self Protective/ Aggressive Behavior (drunken people at a festival, etc.) Sub-test 7: Non-Threatening - a loud person 38 feet away. The guy hit the tarp with a stick and stumbled towards us. Harry's response: He was startled at first and ran around the back side of me but came up on my side to get a better look. I think he was more startled by the noise of the stick on the tarp than the stumbling "drunk" 
Sub-test 8: Threatening - a loud person 28 feet away Harry's response: Still watching Sub-test 9: Aggression - a loud person 18 feet away Harry's response: Still watching - the judge did not think the "person" was loud enough and so you can see the "person" and me looking towards the judge who is telling him he will need to be noisier than that in the future. 
Post test summary: The judge talked to you after your individual test and he mentioned that Harry has issues with popping noises (you think?)  But that was his only issue.
Afterwards I felt he was still stressed until we stopped with him for lunch where he got to eat a burger and a few fries. Another person opted out of the CGC test afterwards because they felt their dog was still stressed. He would have stressed less if I could have talked to him to reassure him as we went through. Because while he was startled about the gun shots before his test - if I kept on walking or if told him it's okay than he took his cue from me. But I can see why they do not want my control influencing the outcome. A note to Kerry: at least two people wanted the test done for liability purposes - so you are not the only one to question that. |
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| wonderful pictures!!
And so nice to know there are others caught in my own peculiar type of thought processes  |
| Wonderful detail on this test for 'us' who have not...(but will in the future) take it. |
 Congratulations Harry! Thanks for the pictures Judi - very informative! |
| Interesting......but kind of weird!!!
I love the pictures, the body language is very interesting. Congrats on passing.  |
great job harry!!!!!!!!! heck, id be startled if i heard a gunshot from nowhere.......  |
| Cool! So do you get a score like a number? If so, how is that score interpreted? |
ButtersStotch wrote: Cool! So do you get a score like a number? If so, how is that score interpreted?
When we get our certificate I will get his scorecard. But I already saw it when they went over the results with me. Each subtest gets a score of 0-10 with zero being a failure and 10 being the highest. But as the guy pointed out the score is irrelevant since they want most dogs being in the 5-6 range on each part. A 10 could mean a dog would be a little too exuberant and that is not always ideal. So a dog could fail with a score of 90 - perfect 10's in nine subtests and get a zero (failure) on one subtest. Or pass with a score of 10 - a one in all of the subtests. Harry got a 4, 5, or 6 in all of his except the gunshot - he received a 2. It turns out that the main judge I had is the president of the ATTS. That explains why he was so thorough. |
Great pictures, well done gorgeous Harry.  |
| Very interesting! Thanks for sharing. |
Congratulations to Harry and thanks for posting all that information! I'm hoping to be able to use Kenai as a therapy dog in the nursing homes and I imagine he will need to go through something like that too.  |
| Congrats to Harry! u go fur ball! |
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