# Tracking a litter



## hunterisgreat (Jan 30, 2011)

I was making a spreadsheet and document to methodically track and assess all puppies from my future litter. Obviously weight, teeth, ears and such would be recorded. What about temperament or behavior related things? I was thinking of some environmental tests to do and assess each pups response, but what else? I was thinking something along the lines of the Wertmessziffer... the DDR Rating System for dogs, but specific to puppies. Want to ensure I put the right dogs with the right people.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

I would get them up on top of objects, see if you can find a rubble pile or something similar though puppy appropriate. Grated stair case or something like that if possible. Test hunt drive too. Obviously look at grip, prey drive, sound sensitivity, how they handle and react to being put into a new environment. I essentially do a working dog test and when I took the pups to Indy for a long training weekend what I saw in my testing was exactly what I saw when we traveled. The one pup that showed a bit of environmental sensitivity during testing showed it during the trip. The others acted like they had traveled their entire lives.


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## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

Have you already seen this link? I thought it was pretty helpful when I was initially trying to get a handle on how people match dogs to homes in the world of IPO. 

Breeding Philosophy - Making the Working Temperament Match: Part 4 Sprite Working Belgian Tervuren

Obviously I have no idea whether it's representative of what breeders actually _do,_ but... at the least it seems like some good points to take into consideration.


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## lhczth (Apr 5, 2000)

You can also see fight drive and some social aggression in pups if you know what you are seeing. Look for a pup that when a bit of pressure (eye contact while on the rag from the tester) either gives a good counter into a full grip, bites harder or maybe torques the rag (not pulls away). In some of these later maturing pups it can be very subtle.


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