Its a dogs tail!! Pig dog selection - Part 1

As you might be aware I was off to Sydney over the weekend to look at a new puppy to be my new hunting partner.  I packed the wife and the daughter into the car and off we went.  3 1/2 hours later we were there and were face to face with my new friend, but before she was to come home with me she had to pass a few tests.

I wanted to determine if she has what it takes to hang out with me and chase feral animals around the Australian bush. 

She had to have a bit of guts, have a good sense of sight, sound and smell, she also have to be able to bounce back from some knocks and most of all she had to fit in with the family.  To determine all these I had to perform some tests on not only her but her brothers and sisters, as there might be another one that is more suited for the work that I need from her.

The first test was to determine how forward/smart she was going to be, and although this might sound hard to tell it is quite easy.  All you have to do is watch what the puppy does, it should be walking around trying to look at everything and understand everything.  It also should be approaching everything without any fear.  I was pleasantly surprised that before I could even get out of the car the new puppy was standing at the door wanted to have a look around and a good sniff.  She also didn't seem intimidated by either the car or us, and if anything wanted to find out more.

I now wanted to test her ability to be able to come when called.  This would test her hearing, visual cues and intelligence.  It would also give me a good indication on her ability to learn and be taught.  The process goes like this.  Take the puppy away from distractions and sit it down, put your hand in front of its nose and slowly move it away while moving left to right and clicking before you more it back to the other side.  The dog should follow your hand with her eyes and head, while moving forward trying to grab/touch you.  This test was a walk in the park and she was very focused and determined to follow my hand, while responding to every click of my fingers.

The smell test is very similar in nature, but you drag your hand on the ground and then see if the puppy follows the scent that you just laid, while sniffing the ground. Bingo 3 out of 3.  She was going well.

The next was to see how she reacted to being scared and to see if she bounced back or hid away like a 6 week old puppy.

You can do this in many ways, but because I really didn't want to scare the crap out of her, it was a simple process of turning her on her back while moving her around and handing her to other people.  Most puppy don't like being picked up as they have a fear of falling, now adding that fear with being on your back and moving from person to person creates a situation that is not normal.  The dog should show courage and try and right itself while still having some guts about it.  It shouldn't whimper and run away when you put it down.  Although she did OK in this test (moved around and clearly didn't like it) she didn't show any signs of fear, and with her eyes covered it still didn't matter.

The next test was a bit of a shoe in really.  Did she fit into the family...  Well what can I say here.  Kristy and Kali weren't going to leave without her.  There was no way they had just sat in the car for 3 1/2 hours to go home emptied handed, especially after I had complete my tests and she passed with flying colours.

So we swapped $380 and before we knew it we were back in the car for another 3 1/2 hours to come home....  What a way to spend a Saturday...

And so begins a Dogs Tail!!!

Come back to see how she fits in when we get her home to meet our two poodles....

Oh, just as a note, I also performed these test on the other puppies but all of them failed the alert test and didn't even register my hand movements and clicking.