Selecting Your Dog

RUFF work

Selecting Your Dog 
for Avalanche Rescue Work

Some background on temperament and characteristics associated with working dogs is a good place to start. The ideas and suggestions in the articles listed below can give you a basis for starting your selection process. It also gives you some benchmarks to judge the litter parents, a key indicator of what the litter should present in size, gait, structure, health, and other traits.

How to Choose a Puppy for Search and Rescue, C.T. Moore http://www.k9web.com/kennels/waggery/sarpup.html

Selecting a Dog for SAR, Dan Comden http://www.drizzle.com/~danc/SAR/choosing.html

How to Selection Test and Pick a Working Puppy, Leerburg Kennels http://www.leerburg.com/pickpup.htm
Law enforcement, protection and Schutzhund emphasis but informative

TESTING DOGS-A PERSPECTIVE ON SELECTION http://www.uspcak9.com/training/testdogsselection.shtml

Selecting a Puppy for Obedience Trailing and Other Sports http://users.bigpond.com/winron/puppyselect.html

PICK A PUP FOR A WORKING DOG PROGRAM http://siriusdog.com/wrknpup.htm

FAQs About Selecting a Working Dog Puppy http://siriusdog.com/working_puppy.htm

The TESTING/SELECTION TOOLS are the Volhard Test and other evaluations. These tests are found on a number of sites but take a look at "Evolution and Interpretation of the Puppy Test" http://www.leos.net/puppy_test.html then go to the test-- http://www.leos.net/pup_test.html

The profile for a Search Dog can be different than for a seeing-eye candidate, an obedience ring candidate or a easy-to-live-with pet. Higher scores in 'Hunt" and 'Prey" drive, and stronger "Tug" and "Possessiveness" have been good indicators of overall desire to work and are traits that can be used to train for our specific needs. The PAWS test is definitely worth adding to your selection process. PAWS - A Modified Test for Working Dog Evaluation by Jona Decker, http://www.wtp.net/ASDK9SAR/articles/paws.html

Here is an example of a composite score sheet for these various tests.

DISCLAIMERS REGARDING PUPPY TESTING Not everyone is 100% sold on puppy testing. It isn't a foolproof guarantee of what a mature dog will become, so in fairness these are noted so you can form your own opinions and formulate your own selection methods. A couple of well known authors address this quandary.

James Lamb Free, TRAINING YOUR RETRIEVER (New York: G.P.Putnam's Sons, 1991) p. 53-56

Nicholas H. Dodman, DOGS BEHAVING BADLY (New York: Bantam Books, 1999) p.195-199

Now all of this could be enough to make someone, new to puppy testing, dangerous. So here are some more background recommendations. There is some repetition but there is enough of value in each article so that reading all of them will be helpful in learning how to perform the tests and interpret the test results.

"A Novice looks at Puppy Aptitude Testing", Melissa Bartlett, Pure-Bred Dogs American Kennel Gazette, March 1979

"Puppy Aptitude Testing", Melissa Bartlett, Pure-Bred Dogs American Kennel Gazette, March 1985

"Puppy Personality Profile", Gail Tamases Fisher and Wendy Volhard, Pure-Bred Dogs American Kennel Gazette, March 1985

"What Age Puppy To Buy", Wendy Volhard, Pure-Bred Dogs American Kennel Gazette, February 1987

"DRIVES" A New Look at an Old Concept Part 1", Wendy Volhard, OFF-LEAD, September, 1991

"DRIVES" A New Look at an Old Concept Part 2", Wendy Volhard, OFF-LEAD, October, 1991

THE SOURCE FOR REPRINTS OF THESE ARTICLES IS JACK AND WENDY VOLHARD TOP DOG TRAINING SCHOOL, 30 Besaw Rd.,Phoenix, NY 13135 phone 315-593-6115 fax 315-593-0763 or their web site http://www.volhard.com

ARRANGEMENTS TO VIEW AND TEST LITTERS Call ahead and arrange to view litter when the pups will be active. Find out when their most active time is and ask that they not be fed or involved in active play for a couple of hours prior to viewing.

TESTING PARAPHERNALIA 
Have at least one helper/scribe to assist you and have them at a position that will not be distracting.
Score sheets and pens. 
Method for marking puppies. Electrical tape comes in a variety of colors. 
Suggestion; mark males and females then individual pups. 
Small towels or strips of rag for tugging. 
Strong string to tie an object (rag or chew toy) and drag it on the ground. 
Pie pan or metal bowl and a large spoon to strike it for sound sensitivity test. 
Scrap paper to ball-up for retrieve test. This lets you see the retrieve and prey shake without any struggle to manipulate a ball, 
a problem in some very young litters, [then try a tennis ball to see how hard they work to control a more difficult object].

SELECTING AN OLDER DOG Definitely 2 schools of thought - puppy vs. an older dog. Jack & Wendy Volhard have developed a scoring system to evaluate temperament and drive characteristics in older dogs that may help in identifying suitability for rescue work. link-- And another article regarding the selection of an older dog http://www.cofc.edu/~hunte/july98.html