I understand that the popular thought is that dogs need to be of a certain age to start serious training.My question is does someone have a somewhat formal test to determine if a 8 week to 24 week puppy would possibly be a descent candidate to invest the time and money into. Also i understand the parents influence on this so i am asking about a actual test not just candor. THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS

Originally posted by Peter K. Burian:
I understand that the popular thought is that dogs need to be of a certain age to start serious training.My question is does someone have a somewhat formal test to determine if a 8 week to 24 week puppy would possibly be a descent candidate to invest the time and money into. Also i understand the parents influence on this so i am asking about a actual test not just candor. THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS LOL - I have a puppy who I found on top of the washing machine at what - 6 weeks old? - because she could smell the empty sardine can I left there for 10 minutes! She also walked into the kitchen, stuck her head up in the air, sniffed, and tried to climb onto the stove where I was making soup. Extreme hunt drive is evident early!

Object prey drive can be tested for and seen in different degrees very early. Like within the 8 to 10 week range, especially in Malinois.


A pup that has a lot of drive for a ball or a tug early and who has the natural desire to retrieve are the first good signs I'd look for.

Then natural ability/desire to look for things with their noses, not just their eyes.

Any number of the working puppy selection tests would be well suited for picking out a detector dog. Hit a google search and you'll come up with about 20 of them I'm sure.

Peter,
I have the used one here on Leerburg's website and add a few of my own personal quirts. Still not a quarantee - but I have used it on the present 2 dogs I have ---- and I am pleased.

Take your time and do it properly - also if you have an honest breeder, they can help greatly, afterall they have been around the litter.

My last pup, I got @ 8 weeks old (malinois)- now 4 mos. and the pup was everything the breeder told me. My present 15 mo old GSD - I got @ 9 weeks old has turned out more than I have bargained for - but love it.

From a working perspective, we don't have time to raise puppies. If I was in a business of training dogs to sell to departments, it would be a great way to go. That way pups could be imprinted and socialized properly. Being a trainer for a state agency, we don't have the luxury, finances or infrastructure to raise litters to be working dogs. We select dogs that are between 1 and 3 years old and they are entered into training as quickly as possible. So it's not always a matter of what is preferred, but what is workable.

DFrost

Two pups from my males last litter are trained and used for detection. One explosives and the other narcotic. The litter was first 'bred' for thier noses. Both sire and dam have extreme ball search and hunt drives. At 5 wks. the litter was outside and off went a couple of pups into the 'forest' using thier noses. Within a few min. out came one with a dead bird in its mouth. The breeder took the bird away and put it up high on a shelf. Within minutes all the pups noses were in the air, smelling/scenting and all came to the place where the dead bird was trying to get on top of the shelf. With this litter the pups noses were constantly on the ground. Most were also very tug/ball oriented. The breeder would take a long thick rope and pull it on the ground. The pups would all run after it , grab on and tug away. A couple of pups would let go after a bit but several were not about to loose this 'prey'.

The first thing to look for or at is the sire/dam. From there watching the pups closely for the best potentials. From there you take what you have and do a LOT OF WORK with them. As mentioned it takes a lot of time with pups.