American Temperament Test Society
“A sound mind in a sound body”
About Canine Temperament
Because of breed-specific dog legislation and negative publicity associated with many breeds of dogs, temperament testing has assumed an important role for today’s dog fancier. The ATTS Temperament Test provides breeders a means for evaluating temperament and gives pet owners insight into their dog’s behavior. It can have an impact on breeding programs and in educating owners about their dog’s behavioral strengths and weaknesses as well as providing a positive influence on dog legislation.
What is temperament?
W. Handel, German Police Dog Trainer, in his article, “The Psychological Basis of Temperament Testing,” defines temperament as:
“the sum total of all inborn and acquired physical and mental traits and talents which determines, forms and regulates behavior in the environment”
The ATTS test focuses on and measures different aspects of temperament such as stability, shyness, aggressiveness, and friendliness as well as the dog’s instinct for protectiveness towards its handler and/or self-preservation in the face of a threat. The test is designed for the betterment of all breeds of dogs and takes into consideration each breed’s inherent tendencies.
The test simulates a casual walk through the park or neighborhood where everyday life situations are encountered. During this walk, the dog experiences visual, auditory and tactile stimuli. Neutral, friendly and threatening situations are encountered, calling into play the dog’s ability to distinguish between non-threatening situations and those calling for watchful and protective reactions. *ATTS website
To start the test your dog needs to be on a 6 foot leash with a flat collar, no training devices can be used. You walk to each station without talking or correcting your dog. You complete a station and you are asked by the chief tester to continue on to the next station.
You are asked to come onto the field to start the test, before you start the chief tester and the testers have a brief meeting to discuss the application you filled out, on the application it asked what events your dogs had done and if any titles and your dogs disposition and health. Each breed is tested differently so they go over that breeds criteria.
Once they are done with their discussion then you are asked to start the test.
Station #1 – Neutral Station: I was at this station so I didn’t get any pictures. I’m a pretty neutral person, eh? I was actually chosen to be at this first station because of my work and experience with dogs. I was to get a feel for the dog first off so that if I picked up on anything or got mixed signals from the dog I could alert the next person in line to be careful with the dog. Luckily all the dogs were great and showed me no signs of being wary of them. The neutral stranger walked up to the person ignoring the dog, shook hands had a brief conversation and then sat back down.
Station #2 – Friendly Stranger:
The friendly stranger came up and approached the dog and started petting it and talking to it.
Station #3 – Hidden noise: A person behind a blind shakes a bucket with rocks in it as the dog is approaching and then sets the bucket on the outside of the blind so the dog could look into it.
Station #4- Gunshots: The handler stops at the station with their back to it and waits for the gunshots.
Station #5 – Umbrella: You walk up to this station and a person opens an umbrella and you keep on walking and the dog should go and check out the umbrella.
Station #6 – Plastic footing: You have your dog walk across a strip of plastic.
Station #7 – Wire footing: Your dog walks across a wire fence (ex-pen) that is laying flat on the ground.
Station #8 – Non threatening: A weird stranger comes out from behind a blind mumbling softly.
Station #9 – Threatening: The weird stranger walks closer to you talking loudly.
Station #10 – Aggression: The weird stranger gets really aggressive with his words, tone of voice and has a whip stick that he is snapping.
At the end of the test the handler will receive a critique of the test and will be told if they passed or failed. If they passed a certificate will be mailed out to them.
This was Roxann and her dog Lobo that took the test while I took pictures of them at each station. Lobo did great and passed. Thank you Roxann for being my blog post test subject.
Guilty and Riggs were the Sand Spring dogs that I took. They both scored evenly right down the middle of the score sheet meaning they have an even temperament which is a good thing. They passed the test.
Riggs
Riggs made the testers laugh, when he was at the gunshot station he started squatting to take a pee, he was peeing when the gunshot went off and he continued to pee until he was done then he turned around to see what he should be fetching up.
Guilty
Guilty’s highlight of the test was when she came upon the umbrella she was like yea whatever my mom used to open these things when I was a little puppy and she sat down in front of it and stared off into space waiting for some birds to fly on by.
I enjoyed working this test because I got to watch how each dog completed the test. Thanks to Canine Solutions LLC for hosting this event and to the club members that volunteered their time to help make this a successful day I thank you all.
The family of three that started out the new year gained a new member(s) on July 11, 2015.
I can’t thank Linda from 
Gambler had many up’s and down’s again this summer. I continued to train him for his hunt tests and John continued to handle him at his tests. It seems to work best for John to handle him, he tries to get away with to many things if I run him. He respects John during the tests. John was gone practically every weekend during the summer either running AKC or UKC tests. Gambler passed 4 out of the 5 needed passes for his AKC Master title. There were a couple tests where Gambler ran all three series clean and then went out on the last bird which happened on the last test of the year. John thinks the last tests was handler error or else said Gambler knew it would be the end of running tests so he failed so he could keep running. Gambler also ran UKC finished tests and passed one test and again failed the last test he needed for his finished title. Whatever the reason(s) it was a major disappointment not to get those titles at the end of the summer, but all in all we shouldn’t be disappointed as he has really come along ways being amateur trained and handled. Gambler went to Saskatchewan again this past fall. He also hunted in WI, he just loves to hunt and does it very well. This year we will continue our training and hopefully get those 2 passes so we can move on to some field trial training. Gambler continued to visit the elementary school doing his therapy work, the joy it brings the kids to see him makes me smile. We will continue our therapy work too in the new year.
Nellie turned 11 in 2015. She is doing great for a senior dog. She brings so much joy to the family with her puppy like antics, you would never guess she is 11. She still goes hunting with us, goes out and plays with the other dogs, still runs off and finds dead animal carcasses because she thinks she is starving and needs to eat all the time. Despite running off and eating everything in site this old gal has a stomach of steel and nothing bothers her. She really has not had any health problems which is great for her longevity that she is taking on. She has been a great step in mother to Preacher she teaches her about space and respect for others.
