Temperament Testing - An Important Safeguard when You Adopt a Used Dog

Most municipal animal control shelters and Humane Society shelters will test the incoming dogs for behavior and temperament before they're released for adoption. These tests are necessary for the protection of the volunteers who work around the animals in the shelter, and for the protection of the people who come to the shelter to visit the dogs and take them home.

According to Lora Goode, an animal care technician at the Multnomah County Animal Control shelter in Portland, Oregon, these standardized tests can't guarantee that your new dog will be safe �â'¬" but every care is taken to release only sound, calm, people-oriented dogs that will not nip or bite at the slightest cause. People who work in animal shelters are there because they love animals. They want every dog that walks out their front door with its new owner to be happy and content in its new home.

However, they know that some dogs are brought to the pound because of temperament or behavioral problems that are too dangerous for most pet-owners to handle, and these animals must be put down. Other animals have been mistreated or neglected, and have learned behaviors that make them unadoptable. Still others have characteristics that may be appropriate for a working dog or guard dog, but which are unacceptable in a home.
For this reason, they use behavioral assessment tests, such as the Assess-A-Pet�"žï¿½ test created by Sue Sternberg, to measure a dog's adaptability and temperament. These tests are not perfect, but they help match families with pets that can become lifelong companions

There is, admittedly, some controversy over the use of assessment tests by animal shelters. Some breed rescue organizations believe that generalized tests don't take specific breed characteristics into account, and they believe that perfectly sound dogs are put down because they exhibit the aggressive or dominating characteristics of the breed. Other people believe that the tests are too demanding, or may believe that the dogs are put through some sort of torture (this is not the case, but rumors persist). To see the many opinions about this issue, simply do a search on google.com for �â'¬Å"shelter dog temperament assessment.�â'¬ï¿½

In spite of the occasional objection, these assessments give potential owners more peace of mind than they could have any other way. The dogs are tested to see if they bite or snap when someone approaches their food bowl (an important issue if you have small children). The shelter tests the dog's ability to tolerate handling, brushing, and holding (an important issue if you ever want to hug your dog, or take him to be groomed). They test his behavior around other dogs (an important issue if you have an older dog at home or if you ever want to take your new dog for a walk in the park).

Unfortunately, they probably don't test the behavior of the dog around cats, but the previous owner may have given the history of the dog when it was released to the animal shelter. And there are shelters that will test the dogs with cats - the shelter here in La Grande Oregon simply walks the new dogs past the cat cages to see what happens. It isn't perfect, but it does give an indication of how strong their predator instinct is.

If the shelter does testing, they may include a test for the dog's interest in people. Some dogs don't have any interest in people at all. Dogs who inherit this extreme independence may be beautiful, and may even be safe, but they won't offer the love and affection that most pet-owners are looking for. Other dogs may have lost their genetic potential to be people-oriented by being housed in a kennel all its life, without socialization during the critical weeks of puppyhood. If the dog can't ever love you, isn't it far better to know this before you take him home?

Please don't assume that an animal shelter does temperament testing �â'¬" ask! Also ask what they do with the results of the test. Some shelters will discover that a dog is aggressive or assertive, and then simply put �â'¬Å"not good around kids�â'¬ï¿½ on the dog's kennel papers. What neighborhood is completely barren of kids?

If the shelter doesn't do any temperament testing (or even if it does) you will want to do at least rudimentary testing on your own. This is also true even if you find your pet through a newspaper ad or adopt one from a breed rescue group. Sue Sternberg, the creator of the shelter temperament test called Assess-A-Pet�"žï¿½ outlines the testing you can do on your own in great detail in her book Successful Dog Adoption.