American Temperament Test Society

October 23, 2009

Tomorrow morning, Chase and I will venture forth to take a Temperament Test.  I’ve wanted to try this with him ever since Janet took Spencer through the test (and Spencer passed and earned his TT — Good Dog!).  Most of the test exercises are everyday normal occurrences — events you might encounter if you were taking a walk through the park.  A few are not what you’d expect.  The American Temperament Test Society has a description of the Test exercises on its web site.  I’ve been joking that the thing Chase might completely fail is the sudden opening of an umbrella.  Our high desert dogs don’t know squat about umbrellas.  However, the testing is not based only on the dog’s initial reaction, but also on how the dog recovers.  The test is being held at the park that is about ten minutes from the house.  There is a walk-through at 9:00 and all the males that are entered will be tested in the morning.  The ladies drew afternoon.  We seldom have a test in Albuquerque — we were planning to go to Colorado Springs to try it — so are grateful to the Central New Mexico Rottweiler Club which is sponsoring the event here.

I hope there will be someone there to whom I might hand the little Olympus.  We need some photos of the Chase-man walking a 15 foot long strip of plastic — ewww!


5 Comments

  1. Lani says:

    Good luck!! And don’t worry about the umbrella. After all, Chase was born in Oregon!

  2. Holly says:

    Have fun and good luck! I did the TT with my GSDs and Doberman. It is a lot of fun!

  3. Sandy says:

    Have fun! I want to learn more about all these new things I can do with Creel. TT-ing sounds good for a boy who has spent his entire life around a bunch of Greyhounds, huh?

    • myeye says:

      Well, he probably won’t be frightened by the firing of the starter’s gun — though you may have to try to catch him!