ATTS Temperament Test

[rottsnroses]

I am very proud of my boy tonight. Max took the ATTS temperament test this afternoon and he passed with flying colors! Anyhow, he now can add a TT certificate behind his name.

We watched several dogs go through the course. Some passed, some failed, some were excused. Several pitties and amstaffs, also mastiffs and cane corso's, but surprisingly we only saw a few rottweilers, even though the test was sponsored by the Dogwood Rottweiler Club. I thought the rottweilers did the best overall, even if I put my breed bias aside.

Luna spent the day in doggie daycare, and she also got excellent marks on her doggie report card. They are both exhausted and sleeping soundly. It's been a good day.

[MontanaRott]

Congratulations Audrey, you must be very proud of Max, and Luna for being a good girl at daycare!

[Judi W]

Well............ I'd expect no less!!!!! Nice job and it was good of you to drive the car because we know they could do the rest by themselves.

[macho rottie]

Congratulations Max & Rottsnroses.

[Brooke&Ryan]

Congrats to you & Max. It sounds like you all had a wonderful & very successful day!!


Brooke

[rottsnroses]

Thanks everyone! You are right Judi, we humans were really just along for the ride on this one. All you really do is hold on to the end of the leash and walk through the course. You are not allowed to talk to your dog at all during the test, or to make leash corrections. It is 100% on the dog.

When the tester described the purpose of the test on the walk through, and went over what the scores mean in terms of your dog's mental soundness and social skills, it really gives you insight into your dog's strengths and weaknesses, and how best to manage them.

Even though Max reacted pretty much how I expected he would, there were definitely people there who were surprised at how their dogs reacted (or didn't react) to the stimuli, and it was a worthwhile 6 hours drive for us.

[frontierrots]

They did not let you talk? I've done several TT tests and they all have let me praise and encourage the dogs where applicable (things I've said have been "Good dog", "come on", "what's that" and "go see and / or say hi")

[rottsnroses]

Nope, we were not allowed to talk to the dog at all. We were instructed on the walk through that there was to be no commands, no praise, no encouragement, no using the dog's name, and no corrections. No talking unless instructed to do so. On two of the test items (the bucket of rocks and the umbrella) we were allowed to talk to the bucket or to the umbrella (not the dog), but only after the tester told you to do so, and this was only if the dog did not approach/inspect these items on it's own.

The test was done on a six foot lead, with the handler holding on to the end of the lead. The only time the lead was shortened was to go over the plastic tarp and the fencing, and on both of those test the lead had to have noticeable slack in it. We were not allowed to pull on the leash other than to walk the path of the course. If your dog got tangled in the lead, you had to wait until the tester told you to untangle your dog.

We also were not supposed to look at the dog during the test.

If you did any of these things, we were told that 20 points would be deducted for each occurrence.

The way the tester explained it was that the test was 100% on the dog's social skills and mental soundness, and that as the handler, we were supposed to be a post to which the dog was tethered, nothing more. The tester was very good about going over the scoring and what the results meant to the individual dog as well as the difference in appropriate responses by different breeds.

[spidey]

Sounds like a great experience, well worth doing. Congratulations!

[frontierrots]

How strange. I've done 1 ATTS test with someone elses dog and several USTTA tests with my ownand other people's dogs. I was allowed to say all of the things I listed, no points were deducted for tight leashes as long as the dog was not refusing anything (well at lest no one said anything about deductions) there was no walk throughs and you never were told how your dog scored only if you passed or failed.

This is over many year's time at many different locales and with different testers. My last one was about 4 years ago so maybe things have changed? OR dfferent tester's have different rule interpetations?

The ATTS and USTTA tests were identical at that point also

[RottiMomCT]

WOW...not allowed to talk to the dog AT ALL??? Very wierd! Ben passed his TT three (four?!) years ago and we were encouraged to talk to the dogs, but could use no treats.

Just this past may I attended an event where the TT was offered and people were talking to their dogs during the test....

You must have had one strict tester!!


Oh yeah - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

[frontierrots]

Originally Posted by RottiMomCT

WOW...not allowed to talk to the dog AT ALL??? Very wierd! Ben passed his TT three (four?!) years ago and we were encouraged to talk to the dogs, but could use no treats.

Just this past may I attended an event where the TT was offered and people were talking to their dogs during the test....

You must have had one strict tester!!


Oh yeah - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

I went to the ATTS website and they have indeed changed their description to say NO TALIKING. This is NEW since 4 years ago

Anne most (BUT NOT all) of the temperament tests we see here in New England will be USTTA tests and they do still allow talking.

I think the ATTS changed so they could be different. They were very nasty about sharing TT status with the USTTA. They even sued (and lost) the USTTA to make them stop issuing TT certificates. The ATTS is non profit, the USTTA is not a non profit

The current differences are good to know since I train all my dogs to NOT go up to strangers unless I say "Say hi" and to not approach any distractions unless I say "Go see" I'd hate to have my dogs lose points for something I trained them to do!

I almost entered Bea in an ATTS test in Maine. I waited because she's in heat. I guess I'll wait longer now so I can find a USTTA test because she is very very well trained to ask permission first before acosting people and objects

[debbiej]

After reading the posts here, I too went to the website to learn what is involved. Congratulations on your guy passing with flying colors. I'd love to watch that testing. Do people kind of prepare their dogs for the things they come across in the test?

[Judi W]

Well, the talking to the dogs was something that came and went then, because back when I was a tester, handlers were not supposed to talk to the dogs UNLESS instructed to by the chief tester. We would instruct them to do so if the dog needed to be encouraged to examine bucket or umbrella, but that was about it. We wanted to see the dog's response not whether they can be talked into something by the handler.

[rottsnroses]

The tester was very strict, but he was also very nice. No way I got it wrong on this as one gal taking 4 amstaff's through told the tester there was no way she would be able to make it through without talking to one of her dogs, and he told her he had a roll of tape if she needed it. She actually taped her mouth with duct tape before she went through.

Also the leash could be tight on all but the walk over the fencing and plastic. On those two the leash had to be slack so that it was clear to the tester that the dog was going over the surfaces willingly and on it's own accord. On the other tests you just had to walk the course, with the dog following along however it wanted to. The dog could pull on the leash, wander around, but could not refuse anything or spook without recovery.

Max was much more interested in smelling the scents of the other dogs than in the tests themselves, so he didn't spook at anything. About the only test that captured his attention was the weird stranger, on which he advanced and barked.