Personality Test

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I've seen a few of these around but not recently.  Thought this one was interesting.

To read the complete article:

http://www.angelfire.com/ky/bestfriendsobedience/drives.html

 

The Personality Test (a test developed by Wendy Volhard)
Let’s see how your dog’s personality is arranged. Each category in this test has a set of questions. While taking the test for your dog you will need to answer each question honestly. Answer according to what your dog would do if presented with the situation described in each question. If your dog would almost always react this way, score 10 points; for sometimes, score 5 points; or if you believe your dog would hardly ever do what the question says, score 0 points. Points are neither bad nor good. The total score will simply give you the proportions of the three Drives that your dog possesses. Notice that Defense Drive is divided into two categories, so they each get a set of questions.

Canine Personality Test

Always: 10  Sometimes: 5  Hardly ever: 0

Personality / Behavior Questions

Prey Drive. Does your dog:

1. Sniff the ground or air a lot?______
2. Get excited by moving object, such as bikes or squirrels?______
3. Stalk cats, other dogs or things in the grass?______
4. When excited, bark in a high pitched voice?______
5. Pounce on his toys?______
6. Shake and kill its toys?______
7. Steal food or garbage? ______
8. Like to carry things?______
9. Wolf down his food?______
10. Like to dig and bury things?______

Total for Prey Drive Section:______

Pack Drive. Does your dog:

1. Get along with other dogs?______
2. Get along with people?______
3. Bark when left alone?______
4. Solicit petting, or like to snuggle with you?______
5. Like to be groomed?______
6. Seek eye contact with you?______
7. Follow you around like a shadow?______
8. Play a lot with other dogs?______
9. Jump up to greet people? ______
10. Show reproductive behaviors, such as courting or mounting other dogs?______

Total of Pack Drive Answers:______

Defense/Fight. Does your dog:

1. Stand its ground or investigate strange objects or sounds?______
2. Like to play tug of war games to win?______
3. Bark or growl in a deep tone?______
4. Guard its territory? ______
5. Guard its food or toys?______
6. Dislike being petted?______
7. Guard its owner(s)?______
8. Dislike being groomed or bathed?______
9. Like to fight other dogs?______
10. When your dog was young, was he picked on by other dogs?______

Total of Defense/Fight Responses:______

Defense/Flight. Does your dog:

1. Run away from new situations?______
2. Hide behind you when he feels he can’t cope?______
3. Act fearful in unfamiliar situations?______
4. Tremble or whine when unsure?______
5. Crawl or turn upside down when reprimanded?______
6. Reluctant to come close to you when called?______
7. Have difficulty standing still when groomed?______
8. Cringe when someone strange bends over him?______
9. Urinate during greeting behavior?______
10. Tend to bite when cornered?______

Total of Defense/Flight Responses:______

As you can see by the questions themselves, each category tells a little about your dog’s psychological make up. Pack Drive shows your dog’s willingness to be part of a pack or group which includes you. Prey Drive shows the instincts that helped dogs get food when they lived in the wild. Defense/Fight shows just that, the behaviors of defending with courage your dog’s territory or space. Defense/Flight shows dogs' has concern for their well being and that they would preferably leave during stressful situations if they could, just as you might wish the floor could open up and swallow you at times.

With few exceptions, dogs will have some of each Drive. They need all the Drives to survive in Nature. And even though we now provide their food, they still need Prey Drive to play and retrieve. We secure their safety, but they need Defense/Fight to be able to cope with pressures from hard work, like learning new things. And they need Pack Drive just to live in harmony with us. The need for Defense/Flight is not really evident in a domestic situation, but if a dog has a lot of Defense/Flight it is important to know it, because how we act towards a dog with a lot of Flight Drive will make or break that dog. A dog with high Flight Drive can be easily stressed and might live in constant turmoil if not provided with a consistent and stable environment.

The level of each Drive is what helps you to see into your dog’s personality. Any number above 50 is considered high. Obviously the closer to 100 the higher the Drive. A dog can be high in all the Drives: Prey, Pack and Defense (either Fight or Flight), or a dog can be high in only one, or in none. Lower then 30 is considered low in any Drive.

Being low in a Drive is not necessarily bad. Being high is not necessarily good. The numbers are simply teaching you about your dog. True, some Drives are more desirable for certain tasks. High Fight Drive is needed for a task requiring lots of confidence to work alone, like a guard dog or a guide dog. High Pack Drive would be desirable for a family pet or a therapy dog. High Prey Drive is needed for a good herding dog.

But as already mentioned, high is over 50 and too much of a good thing may not be so desirable either. A high Prey Drive dog may not be able to concentrate on the job at hand if the leaves in the trees are rustling. Learn your dog so you can be prepared for any situation that you are putting your dog into. Know what to expect from your dog so you won’t be surprised or disappointed when your dog acts a certain way. Learn to anticipate how your dog will react by knowing your dog’s Personality Profile.

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

ooh interesting got to do this!

 

Canine Personality Test

Always: 10  Sometimes: 5  Hardly ever: 0

Personality / Behavior Questions

Prey Drive. Does your dog:

1. Sniff the ground or air a lot?_5_____
2. Get excited by moving object, such as bikes or squirrels?___0___
3. Stalk cats, other dogs or things in the grass?____0__
4. When excited, bark in a high pitched voice?____0__
5. Pounce on his toys?___5___
6. Shake and kill its toys?__5____
7. Steal food or garbage? __0____
8. Like to carry things?___5___
9. Wolf down his food?___5___
10. Like to dig and bury things?__0____

Total for Prey Drive Section:__25____

Pack Drive. Does your dog:

1. Get along with other dogs?___10___
2. Get along with people?___10___
3. Bark when left alone?___0___
4. Solicit petting, or like to snuggle with you?__5____
5. Like to be groomed?___5___
6. Seek eye contact with you?___10___
7. Follow you around like a shadow?__10____
8. Play a lot with other dogs?___10___
9. Jump up to greet people? ___5___
10. Show reproductive behaviors, such as courting or mounting other dogs?___0___

Total of Pack Drive Answers:___65___

Defense/Fight. Does your dog:

1. Stand its ground or investigate strange objects or sounds?__0____
2. Like to play tug of war games to win?____0__
3. Bark or growl in a deep tone?___0___
4. Guard its territory? ___0___
5. Guard its food or toys?____5__
6. Dislike being petted?___0___
7. Guard its owner(s)?____0__
8. Dislike being groomed or bathed?___5___
9. Like to fight other dogs?___0___
10. When your dog was young, was he picked on by other dogs?__0____

Total of Defense/Fight Responses:__10____

Defense/Flight. Does your dog:

1. Run away from new situations?____0__
2. Hide behind you when he feels he can’t cope?__0____
3. Act fearful in unfamiliar situations?___0___
4. Tremble or whine when unsure?____0__
5. Crawl or turn upside down when reprimanded?___5___
6. Reluctant to come close to you when called?__5____
7. Have difficulty standing still when groomed?___5___
8. Cringe when someone strange bends over him?___0___
9. Urinate during greeting behavior?__0____
10. Tend to bite when cornered?____0__

Total of Defense/Flight Responses:___15___

  Low prey, high pack and low defense – this is a real charmer. He will follow you around all day and it is doubtful that he will get into trouble.  Likes to be with you and is not interested in chasing. 

 

 Pack - more than sixty.  Responds readily to praise and touch.  Your dog likes to be with you and will respond with little guidance. 

[F, Calla & Luca]

I find that these kind of standardized tests always try to shoehorn subjects into categories, often with poor results. For people, an interview is worth much more than a test, IMHO. When I looked at the questions I realized I'd have trouble answering some of them for my dogs.

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

Oh Joanne this is fun! Thanks for posting... Finnegan got;

Prey Drive 45  (the cat said "score higher")

Pack Drive 65

Defense /Fight 25

Defense/Flight 10

Sounds pretty close to Spud and Camus

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I enjoyed seeing this from the perspective of looking at both my girls and their differences:

Prey                       Pack                   Fight                 Flight

S - 35                     S - 60                  S - 25                S - 0

L - 15                      L - 45                  L - 20                L - 15

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Looks like Luna is an extremely driven dog ;)  

Prey Drive Section:71 - Pack Drive Answers: 65 - Defense/Fight Responses:26 - Defense/Flight Responses:23

She has a VERY strong prey drive.  She has decided that all birds are outlawed, especially crows.  Every stray feather she encounters gets an especially long sniff.  If a stray leaf blows in the wind, she tries to eat it.  She hunts crickets with her paws, stamping them until she's sure they're dead.  She stalks almost every dog she sees ahead, but since she's so submissive she often changes her mind before she gets to them if they're big.

According to this assessment, Luna would make a terrible working dog because she's too easily distracted either by prey instincts or by her packmates.  

Also - from Joanne's extra info:

" Prey - more than sixty.  Your dog will respond well to use of treats or a toy during the teaching phase.  May need a firm hand, depending on strength of Defense drive (fight), to suppress Prey drive when in high gear, such as when chasing a cat or spotting a squirrel.  Easily motivated, but also easily distracted by motion or moving objects. 
    Signals will mean more to this dog than verbal commands.  Premium on using body, hands and leash correctly so as not to confuse the dog. "

 

This is SO Luna.   Easily motivated by treats, but she needed a LOT of "time outs" as a puppy.  She also responds extremely well to hand signals - and often won't respond to just a verbal command without the hand signal, but will respond to just the hand signal.

Fun test!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

J, how are you getting numbers like 71, 23, and 26? The only scores you can give for any item are 0, 5, or 10. Therefore, any total score would have to end in 0 or 5. Did you do it on a scale of 0 to 10?

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

I did, yeah - I thought it was a continuous scale, with the 0, 5 and 10 as guidelines.  I doubt it would change the results much, I only had a few that were not 0, 5 or 10.  Oh well!  I thought like it was one of those numerical Likert scales (never, sometimes, always).

[Heather & Jake]

I haven't been on DK in a while but I'm glad I saw this today!  I had done the Volhards puppy test on Jake before we got him but had not heard of this adult test.  Now that he's almost 2 it was fun to see how he scored... the descriptions for his scores describe him perfectly.  But I definitely agree that scores will change with the dogs age.

Total for Prey Drive Section: 60

Total of Pack Drive Answers: 75

Total of Defense/Fight Responses: 60

Total of Defense/Flight Responses: 25

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Seems to me, we have some very well adjusted pups on this site!  No wonder.  We all help raise them and keep them healthy!

[Robyn, Greg and Snickers]

Being that my DH and I are type A's all the way we took the puppy test version of this with us ( two copies one for me and one for hubby so we could independently evaluate-as I said Type A's) when we picked out Snickers, our breeder was more than accommodating however you could see he thought we were being a bit structured.  And honestly Snickers fell asleep before we could finish our "checklist" I think these are interesting guidelines, but personality I believe is formed from nature and nurture. Here are his scores which totally fit, he totally has a pack mentality!

Prey-40

Pack-70

Defense Fight-35

Defense Fight-10

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Robyn, I must admit, if I were ever to again select a puppy, I will also be taking a copy of the puppy version with me and certainly my husband will have a copy also. I'm not type A though :)
Good job. Sounds like Snickers is a heathy, well-adjusted dog!