temperament

I've been reading about how people say, before you get your puppy, check the mother and father for good temperaments, and the puppy too. So what's a good temperament for both? Bad?

Both parents should be happy to be met by you and well mannered. The puppy evaluation should have already been done by the breeder, for them to tell you what scores each got. If you don't have this and want to narrow it down ( how many do you have to pick from ?) to one. I can post what to look for. How long do you have before you get your pup ?

I've actually already got my pup, for about a week now. I don't know anything about evaluating his temperment. So any help would be greatly appreciated!

Here is a site for you to look over.
http://www.kerryblues.info/index.html?http://www.kerryblues.info/KB/TEMPTEST.HTML

Ahh.. My puppy scored mostly 1's. I'm not sure if that means he's "extremely dominant and has aggressive tendancies", or if it's just in his breed and age. I've heard everywhere that Lab pups bite like nuts.. so I'm not sure.

You already have him and I doubt you're going to give him back! The one way to tell a great dog is lay him on his back and see how he reacts-a good dog will calm down and lay

And if he is wound, he's a puppy I'm sure he'll calm down with age! If not, work on his temperament and train him

Hey, wait a second. A lot of good dogs were puppies who wouldn't take kindly to being flipped like a turtle. The test means something - that the puppy is pretty easy-going and not going to be as big a handful as the puppy who pops to his feet snapping like a barracuda - but the test has nothing to do with how good a dog he'll be. It tests how suitable the puppy is for a novice, casual (or just plain tired) human, since the mellow puppy is going to be much easier to live with.

being place on the back is something that is taught gently not something that comes naturally..the first time i tried to hold Victor like a baby he flipped..really flipped right out of my arms. I would not place any credit to that..Victor is very gentle and good with everyone two and four footed. A complactent dog might do it naturally but most likely it means that a puppy has been handled by people from a very young age..

Staring contest is the way to do it.

Whoever doesn't look away is dominant.

I don't really agree with alpha rolls, I think they're stupid. I like Nothing In Life Is Free to teach dogs that humans are above dogs. NILIF involves things such as the dog must obey a command before receiving his dinner, he has to wait until the humans have gone in or out of the door, and that he must obey a command for any loving or a treat. I don't make my dogs obey a command before they get some loving, but if I'm petting another dog, and the others want attention, I usually make the two others sit and wait until I'm ready to pet them.

I hope you don't get bit when you do it next time!!

i swear it is such a guy thing to feel the need to dominate..i have heard it over and over again and it still makes me physically ill..a dog is a child, teach it with tenderness and understanding. you want to dominate something take up a sport and compete. go dominate yourself. My old boss trained some of the best dogs that walked the earth he made them want to do it because of love..because it was fun..because they trusted him. There was no bs like alpha rolls or staring or whatever.there was guidance and repitition, building up desire and trust TRUST IS NOT BUILT BY DOMINATION!!!!!!!!! Oh gack i hate this so much i am just gonna go.

I agree with Smkie, staring down a pup does nothing IMO neither does throwing it on its back, if you were assessing a pup, lay it in your arms on its back, making sure the pup knows its safe, you want a dog to actually look into your eyes not turn away, a dog that actually looks into your eyes will be an easier dog to train, but any dog in the right hands , with the right training, can be fairly sociable, one of my dogs was acording to the "test" was aggressive. dominant, probably least likey to bond with, she has turned out to be the most friendly sociable, easy to be with dog I have.and thats not just down to my handling her or training her, its down to the fact that sometimes the test are wrong IMO.

Mo

Well, when a dog rolls on it´s back it Supposedly means that it wants no trouble, that it is accepting you as its boss, exposing its most vanuable parts as a gesture of good will.
A good thing when you want to have the respect of your dog, but a small puppy is not exactly going to tell you much is it. In a land of giants I mean.

Oh, didn´t read the rest, but if you have ever had a "street dog", one that has had no real owner, no real home, you have to dominate it(with love of course). Otherwise it will controll your life and be extremely aggresive towards other people/dogs.
I dont know if anyone has had anything to do with horses, but try riding a horse with love, not dominance (with love of course). Then try being bucked off that horse and kicked in the teeth. Domestic animals don´t really follow the rules of human society, something to keep in mind.

Well, in many cases the horse is a mild schoolie who just drifts into the center of the ring and falls asleep as your instructor yells at you to KICK HIM!!!! LEG! LEG! LEG! and dances up and down in a fury. Not that I'd know anything about it. Nobody ever shouted "You're too passive!" at me and then spent 20 minutes explaining to the entire class how passive riders ruined horses and wasted everyone's time. Forget the horses, it's my riding instructor who scares me.

It's true what you say, though. Where you can get away with a lot of sentimental junk with dogs, who share human's predatory confidence, horses freak out and get dangerous really fast if you try to wuv them into compliance.

I think that test is BULL. I just took it for my lab puppy and is said she wouldn't be a good pet to have around children or the elderly, and she'd be hard to train. Well she is the EASIEST dog to train and she LOVES children and older people. She is jumpy right now because she's a puppy but that's to be expected (we're also working on that). I don't think that test is TOO accurate but maybe it's just me.

anybody seen the pbs special where the real horse whisperer goes into a wild herd of mustangs and works his way in (with out domination but by understanding the true nature of horse's communication) and in the end rides the stallion out??????????? if you haven't i would seriously seriously suggest that you do!