Have you ever wondered how you can ensure that a puppy will thrive in a home they are being placed in? Have you ever thought about what personality traits are needed for an Emotional Support Dog? Have you ever considered your role in helping your puppies find a home where they can thrive? Puppy Evaluations are a great place to start!
Often breeders get into working with Emotional Support Animals and breeding through personal experiences of animals helping them through difficult times, that’s how I got into it! From there it is not a far leap to want to help others experience this same relief and unconditional love. One of the best ways to prepare your puppies to be an Emotional Support Dog, a Service Dog or even just to promote connection of the dog with their owner is to use the Badass Breeder Puppy Curriculum and Evaluations, work of Jeanette Forrey with 4E Kennels. In developing these evaluations Jeanette began with the work of Wendy Volhard who pioneered the way for breeders to evaluate their puppies. However, after doing that for many years she felt that there was still something missing in her evaluations and that she was not getting the full picture of who her puppies were growing into. Through years of watching and evaluating hundreds of puppies and seeing many of them as adults, she was able to decide what factors were really impacting a dog when they were puppies and how to determine if a dog could be a good fit as an emotional support animal or service dog.
Puppies have two parts that come together to make them who they are, genetics and how they are raised, commonly called nature and nurture. Just like children are each individually unique from a very early age, puppies also develop individual personalities very early on. While many of the traits that we see in the puppy evaluations early on are adjustable or can change completely depending on the human the dog ends up with, the puppies still deserve to be heard and seen for who they are and what they are and there is so much they can tell and so much we can see even from this young age. For example, a high energy puppy will grow into a high energy dog. If they are assertive as a puppy they will always be assertive. There are also things we can prepare our families for. If a puppy lacks confidence, their human can be given resources and learn how to help them develop confidence.
This is not just a benchmark for the puppy, it is a tool for whoever the owner will be. If used properly they can know how to handle the dog so it can develop into a thriving member of the family.
The BAB Puppy Assessment gives the puppy a voice in their placement.
Breeders all over the country have used this program and love that it helps them understand when the puppies are telling them who they are. It helps breeders understand what is best for the dog. They love that they are able to bring out the best in what the puppy already has and shape the puppy in a way to make it the most successful in its new home. They are able to provide resources to the family so that if there is a trait that could become problematic they can manage it early on. They are also able to determine if a specific dog will be a good fit for a family, if it will be good with kids or if it could be better in a home without kids, for example.
One big difference between the BAB Evaluations and other evaluations is the focus on how tenderhearted a puppy is. This is not a measure of how much a dog will love you, it is more a measure of how influenced a puppy is by intense human emotions. If a dog is more tenderhearted it would be very difficult for it to be constantly under human pressure over and over all day every day, they feel responsible, get burnt out and are not able to come back from that as easily. These puppies need to be protected and put into a home that can nurture them and will not put too much pressure on them. People with depression and anxiety are naturally drawn to tenderhearted puppies, however, what often happens is the dog will draw their energy from the human, they will feel responsible for their human’s emotions and, in turn, become depressed and not provide the desired motivation for their human. This is not the desired outcome for either the dog or the human, so it is great to know beforehand!
An important part of the evaluations is how you use them. They should be used to have a conversation with the people who are ready to buy a puppy. Not everyone is willing to just share everything, so trying to pick up context clues and ask questions in a way that will allow them to open up, instead of shutting down is key. Using your gut and letting people know what a dog is or is not capable of and what their needs are is a good place to start. You’ll want to start this conversation as early on as you can, however, a lot of times this cannot happen until Go Home Day, after the evaluations are complete, and the new owner is ready to pick their dog. Then you, as the breeder, have the ability to act as a representative, a voice, for your dogs to help them get to a home where they can thrive. The people who are buying the dog should always know that the happiness of the puppy is of utmost importance to you as it will help create that bond with the humans and ultimately, become a situation where both dog and humans are happy.
While we strive to make great pairings of dogs with humans, no one is perfect, no breeder is perfect, no dog is perfect and no human is perfect and sometimes mistakes happen, so it is important for the buyer to know that they have your support even after the purchase is complete. And if it comes to the point where their dog really is not working out for them it is important to always be professional and non-judgemental. If a puppy needs to be returned it is up to you, as the breeder, to determine on a case by case basis how you would like to handle the situation, whether that be a refund, a swap, or maybe a refund of everything except the deposit. You want to keep the puppy’s health in mind first and foremost as their voice and try to give them the best life possible.
As a note, you should never take a dog directly back into your home, they need to go directly to the vet and get cleared before you bring them back.
If you want to be treated like a professional, you need to act like a professional. Those puppies are tied to you as a breeder, so you need to follow up with people who get dogs from you.
How can you get that accurate of a snapshot (90% correct) in a 20 minute test? Over the course of the BAB curriculum we guide emotional responses, we empower the puppies and give them the gift of the word yes. Everything is built on trust and respect and we meet their needs in order. Their first need is rules, boundaries and limitations. Their second need is mental and physical stimulation. Their third need is love and affection. We are empowering them, not enabling them. So we set up our schedule to make sure their needs are met in order. We are there to guide their emotional responses. Around 6 weeks the traits of the dogs start becoming more stable. A human baby’s development in 6 months is equivalent to 24 hrs in a puppy’s life, they are growing and developing and learning rapidly. And the evaluations have been made as fool proof as possible to see the traits immediately and hear what the puppy is telling us at a time that their personalities have become more stable.
I
f a dog with certain personality traits is not managed or handled properly those traits can develop into long term problems like anxiety, confidence issues, etc. But those are almost always human issues, not a problem with the dog. How a dog is understood and trained is something that a human has to determine, and being able to understand how dogs communicate and what their basic needs are is an important place for any person to start when training a puppy.
And that is why it is so important for you, the breeder, to be the voice for that puppy when they are finding a home.
As a breeder, it is not just “ok, that puppy is sold, my part is done,” it should be “I want to make sure that dog has a good life, so I am checking in on them and their families throughout its life.” If all breeders were consistently checking back in on their dogs, it could do a lot to improve the PR issues that breeders are currently facing.
What makes a good therapy dog, service dog and facility dog is complicated, there is a lot that goes into it, but Badass Breeders is working to simplify it. Jeanette has created an algorithm to determine if the dog would be a good fit as a therapy, service or facility dog. Other factors outside of the dog’s personality include how the trainer is going to train it and how the handler will be with the dog. The BAB Evaluations are kind of like an application for a dog, based on their personality traits they are speaking to us and telling us if they would like to be a service dog, a therapy dog, a facility dog or if that would be a very stressful life for them.
Personality testing is a great opportunity to listen to your puppies so you can be their voice and help them find a forever home that will be a place where they can thrive and give all the love in their hearts. It is a way that you as a breeder can ensure that you are truly giving your puppies the best life possible! If you are interested in learning more about Personality Testing, we will be holding a Breeder's Summit in April 2023 where Jeanette will be one of the speakers. There are options to join in person (near Ft Worth, TX) or online. For more information or would like to register, click
here.
Please comment below and let me know if you have used the BAB Evaluations and what your thoughts are on personality testing your pups!