We are set up to start with a trainer to hopefully help with Kenzis dog aggression but before we do any sessions she has to be temperament tested and I was curious what to expect when going into such a thing. I got a mixed batch of information when I did a google search and most didn't seem like they lasted much more than 15 minutes but the trainer said it would probably take him closer to 45. Most of what I saw was just pulling ears and making loud noises. I was wondering if anyone had ever done/had a temperament test and what all happened?

A temperament test is about finding what she is reactive too, what the causes are, and then coming up with a strategy to work with those issues. A lot of times it will involve loud noises, but also general handling, testing resource guarding (using a fake hand and putting it in a bowl while she's eating), seeing reactions to children, or large dolls that look like children, testing with other dogs, etc. Will you be around when the testing is going on?

Temperament is a fascinating issue to me. A large part is genetically determined and then influenced by environment.

I'm not sure if he will want me in the room for it or not. I would assume he would since she has a completely different attitude with strangers when I'm around vs. when I'm not. When I'm with her at the vet's office she is more natural acting with the workers. When I just hand her over she just turns to putty.

Are owners not usually around when they test? I never thought about not being with my dog every moment.

A trainer would probably want to see both Kenzi alone with the trainer and with you. Inside and outside. What type of trainer is it?

I have never worked with a trainer before so I'm not sure of the different types there are, but he has around 25 years experience training dogs for police work, FEMA, and coast guard doing all sorts of things. He talks a lot about communicating and understanding the dog. He's not a shock collar trainer.

I was just curious. I agree with Kristina, that he will probably want to see her with you and without you in various situations. I personally would want to be there or at least be allowed to observe at a distance in the beginning, just because you never know what someone will do. Anyone can call themselves a trainer. It sounds like you have found a good one, but I would observe how he interacts with her. To me aggression is such a touchy issue that I would want to make sure he's not going to make it worse before I trusted him alone with her. You know her best. Watch him and trust your gut.

He mostly observed her and questioned me. He touched her a lot and ran her through the tricks that she knows. We walked past some dogs in a pen to get a feel for how she responds and he walked her some with me standing off in the distance to see how she did going away. She was nervous thinking she was going to be left. She would get anxious walking away from me but go back to her normal self when he would walk back. He didn't do any startle tests yesterday because he didn't want to give her a negative first experience at the facility and make her scared of him since we will be doing the training there. His main comments were that she was very well mannered with people but was definitely a dominant personality. She's submissive to me but very confident when I'm around but gets less confident when taken away. We go back saturday for our first actual training session.

Keep us posted! I would love to hear how it goes!

Me too! That's really great that you are able to work on this now!

So far we've only had two sessions. The first we worked on heeling. She picked up very quickly and has been doing great at that. The second session we worked on sit/stay which she already knows pretty well so he introduced a puppy and a little yappy dog into a pen near where we were doing her training then attempted to get her attention back. Kenzi is very ADD, even the trainer mentioned she was more ADD than the other dogs he had worked with. Getting her attention back required a lot of about-turns fairly quickly to refocus her but once it was back she ran through her tricks well unless the two dogs just got extra noisy, then it was like starting from ground zero.

The plan is to drill her basic obedience into her, working through varying levels of distractions and eventually to dogs that aren't in pens and instead on leash and eventually off leash. He hasn't done the startle test yet or the food aggression test. I'm not sure what he will be looking for when he startles her though.

It was nice out yesterday and due to car troubles we moved our training session to last night in the evening. Now that Daylight savings has started it's not such a pain to do evening session. We worked on long stays and lay down and stay. He put her on long line and did off leash stays toward the end of the session. We were working outside in the parking lot where there were a ton of distractions and after the first 10 minutes or so she settled right in. Our homework this week is working more on long stays and staying when toys or treats are being thrown out in front of her. The pain on her face staying when food is hitting the ground is evident but she can do it. The trainer has been really impressed with her.

I think the startle test will be to see how quickly she recovers from being startled, does she react fight or flight, and where she looks to for security from the startle. I think they look for things like does her tail go down or up, ears back or stiff and erect, hackles up, lips tight or relaxed, and more explosive reactions like growling, barking, jumping. How long she affected by the stimulus and does she look to you for cues on how to react. It's awesome she's making so much progress so quickly!

I will be interested to know what her reactions say about her. Usually if I drop something at the house she comes right over if she sees it go down, but if it drops and she isn't looking she scoots away fast then turns and comes over to check things out. Never makes any noise and isn't in the least hesitant to approach afterwards, but then she's never been hesitant of anything since I got her. Gunfire and fireworks are a different story tho.

We are up to staying at 20+ ft away and are getting better at downing from a distance. Laying down has been a hard one for her. She just doesn't like to do it, but I can be about 10ft away now and motion for her to lay down and she will do it. This week we work on her staying mid heel. We walk, I tell her to stay, she stops walking, I keep walking. Right now she slows down more than stops but she will get the hang of it. She is now capable of sitting and staying when another dog is being walked around. She won't take her eyes off the dog but at least if I put her in a sit she will hold it.

Excellent to hear! Keep us updated, this is very interesting.

Lovely to hear Kenzi is making such progress Keep up the good work and definitely keep up the updates please it's a realy interesting topic

Now that we are nailing down the basics I'm curious what will happen next. The trainer is great at thinking on his feet so even if we have a plan it might change as he observes something. It's a surprise every time.