I'm never going to buy another dog without looking at the litter. You can tell a lot by handling a pup --especially if you can visit a couple of times.

I think all the herding/working type dogs are much more into following than hunting dogs and setters and hounds who tend to be more easily distracted by prey and scent.

I think some of it is instinct and "in the genes". My Dog Tibby was from a litter of only 4 pups, so I didn't really get a choice in the litter. Fritzi came from a litter of 9 and with her we did get the 3rd pick and was able to see the puppies 3 times before we brought her home. Alot of breeders don't want the inconvenience of allowing you to go see the litter anytime you want.
I know right off some will say they would never buy from that breeder then, but you could miss out on a pup from a good litter with that attitude. Just because the breeder won't allow it does not mean they are horrible breeders.

Rotties are by nature very high pack structure dogs, as are many breeds. But I do believe it has much to do with your bonding and just being a good honest/fair pack leader. YOU make them want to be around you.

On the other hand I also believe it can be trained. If you have a dog who has a high prey drive there are ways to keep them interested in you all the time.

One way would be to carry a favorite toy/tug everywhere you go. and at random all of a sudden whip it out and start a game of tug. Play for a couple minutes then stop and put it in your pocket, but where the dog can see it or at least knows you still have it and at any moment you might whip it out and play.
I started doing that with mine in the house when they were only 9 weeks old.

My Rotties follow me everywhere, if I move from room to room they move with me. When I go into my room at night to sleep they are right there. Outside they wander around a bit but if I start doing something that makes them think I may start playing with them then they stick right by me. alot of times they get in my way.

Tibby thinks everything is hers, even my tools, I have set down my cordless drill and she picked it up and offered it to me as if it was a tug toy lol. The things weighs like 5 pounds.

I never take them outside of the fence without a leash I would never trust them not to see something more interesting than me and decide to bolt so I can't say in that case. We have leash laws and seeing as they are Rottweilers ... I adhere to the law just to be safe.

Some good comments in this thread, I enjoyed reading them.

As a kid growing up in the city, my dog followed me everywhere. It's just what she/I did. Didn't matter if it was on foot or on a bike all day. If she was with me and I had to go somewhere she couldn't then I just sent her home. Never gave a thought that she wouldn't be there when I got home. This was back in the 50s.
I don't think the opportunity is there today unless you live in a rural area. Between the traffic and leash laws it's not even a safe thing to do any more.

Thanks for all the posts. Very interesting stuff.

There is certainly lots of things that you can do to train your dog to follow you around and that is probably more important than genes. However, for this particular topic I am particularly interested in the genetic/not learned stuff.

For example, are retrievers and Collies more prone to the kind of behavior I described?

I have been reading about puppy testing online and it seems that the retrieving object test is a very good indication of a dog that would follow you very easily.

Also, can you have an idea of the energy level that the dog will have when he's 6-8 weeks old?

IMHO, JMO

The behavior you describe is more related to individual personality than genetics. I bought several lab puppies when I was a young guy, and have adopted out of litters of mixed breeds several times since. The one thing I loved about it was visiting the litters and observing differences in their behaviors. I basically looked for certain traits that I personally favored.
In every litter there were puppies who were more human-oriented than others. If you saw them when they were tired, you could really get a sense of which dogs were interested in people, because some pups would ignore you. When they were fresh, you'd get mobbed by the whole litter. I tried to spend enough time with them to see who would stick close when the others eventually got distracted and wandered off. This held true whether they were purebred labs or mutts.

As far as predicting energy level, about the best you can do is to observe the whole litter and kind of rate them amongst themselves. Other than that, you're best bet is to go with breed guidelines. Predicting anything about a specific 6-8 wk puppy is an educated shot in the dark, at best.

ETA... The pack dynamics also influence litters. The higher ranking puppies were usually more independent than the more submissive dogs.

Edited by Duane Hull (01/15/2013 06:07 PM)
Edit reason: eta

In an effort to keep learning about this topic, I'm going to post a few videos and wait to see how you would evaluate the different puppies tested in these videos.

Puppy 1

Puppy 2

Puppy 3

Puppy 4

All pretty low drive pups.

#1 Couch potato. Nice pup for some little old lady that wants a easy going companion.

#2 A step up from one because of interest in paper ball.

#3 A little more attitude because it didn't like being held down. Best with retrieve. Just ok with the umbella

#4 Just ok with retrieve. not much interest in rag

As to the following the person around, that's pretty natural for most 6 wk old pups. It's easily used to develop a good recall. At six weeks old a pup that is more interested in what's around it rather then follow you could be an independent pup in the log run.

As to the tester. I don't like the way she was leaning over the pups. That's a dominant posture and these pups definitely didn't need that. When I test a puppy I lay flat on the ground to be at there level and I look for a pup that would happily climb all over me and just as happily chew on my head and try to tear my shit off.

A good natural retrieve shows me a pups willingness to work with a human. Aside from a pain in the ass attitude that's my #1 criteria for an obedience prospect.

All in all they are nice, easy going pups. Possible potential with the right person. Not something I would choose for me but that's to many yrs with terriers and now two working line GSD.
I want a puppy that's more willing to bite me in the ass then cuddle on a couch.

 Quote: Bob Scott

As to the tester. I don't like the way she was leaning over the pups. That's a dominant posture and these pups definitely didn't need that. When I test a puppy I lay flat on the ground to be at there level and I look for a pup that would happily climb all over me and just as happily chew on my head and try to tear my shit off. .... As to the following the person around, that's pretty natural for most 6 wk old pup....

Yes, that tester posture was really weird to me, but I'm no puppy expert.

Doesn't that taint any results pretty badly?

http://leerburg.com/pickpup.htm

IMHO, the info in this article makes WAY more sense than the testing in the videos you posted. 6 weeks is too early to test the temperament of a pup, IMO. He has no experience with external influences. Isolating a six wk old pup from his littermates could be disconcerting and cause abnormal reactions. Also, the test would be useless to me if it wasn't repeated several times. There are too many variables.


The first pup could have just awakened from a nap, or it may be two hours overdo, whereas the other pups could be fresh. You just don't know from a single run.


OTOH, the first pup has the trait that you originally asked about, but is the pup that I would least likely choose, based solely on this single test. IMHO, he may turn out to be an insecure, dependent mess.

BTW, what IS a Mini Goldendoodle? What makes them "mini"? What breeds are in there?