Favorites and Testing

We all know that Theodore has been my favorite of the puppies since I first laid eyes on him all those weeks ago. It was a shallow love at first, but I'm told he's got the personality to match. It's apparent from my poll that Theodore is the favorite for most of you as well. I'm happy to report that Theodore is also the favorite of my breeder! She emailed me yesterday saying that Theodore is an "amazing pup" who is "still her favorite", and he grows "more gorgeous by the day". He is "charming and sensitive at the same time".

Those all sound like ringing endorsements to me! It makes me so excited to meet him! Two more weeks from today. Woohoo!

She also told me that she'll be doing Volhard puppy aptitude testing on the puppies tomorrow. I'm really interested in the results. Cross you fingers for mostly 3s and 4s! For those who don't know, the Volhard test is a personality test that is supposed to give you a good idea of the puppy's personality and suitability for the "average" person. It tests things like social attraction, following, restraint, etc. I was actually planning on doing some of these tests myself because I think it's just a great idea. It consists of things like turning the puppy on his/her back to see if they freak out and struggle or if they relax and except the restraint. Or pulling on their ears and touching their feet to see how they do with being handled. This website explains the test pretty well, I think. As you can see, each reaction is given a score 1-5. Mostly 1s or 5s means the puppy is more "undesirable" to the average person, and should probably be placed with people who are aware that they're not getting a usual cuddly dog. Not to say that they're bad dogs, just that they might require more special care. Personally, if I had a choice between a dog who got mostly 3s and a dog who got mostly 5s, I'd want 3s all the way.

If the breeder is kind enough the share the results with me, I'll keep you posted.

Post Script: I know my other blog is usually reserved for the complaining, but I just want to point out that my dog blog has been rather barren this week because I was made to slave away at work for an ungodly amount of time this week. Between last Saturday and this Saturday (yes, I had to work them both), I worked almost 65 hours. Ick! Come puppy day, I'm dropping back down to 80 hours per two weeks, no more and no less...ok maybe less sometimes, but that's a good thing!