Here We use the Avidog Puppy Evalution Test as a tool to help us best match puppies’ to owners. The test also helps to capture each puppy's characters and talents but also provides a tool to enable us to best inform and guide us, and then the puppy's new owners with training and socialization. It is a vocational test for our pups; it helps us understand what work or living situation each puppy is drawn to. Of course, we take other things into account as we match puppies, such as structural/conformation evaluations, health examinations, and tests of natural working ability, observations of each pup since birth, at the puppy party and more. The evaluation also helps us create the individual training plans that we create for
each puppy to help its new owners make it the best it can be. It also helps us to examine each litter overall. Did we get what we expected from a breeding pair? If not, how did the pups differ from what we expected? What were the litter’s overall strengths and weaknesses? If we see a
consistent area that we are not happy with, is there something we can do to tweak our puppy rearing to address this?

"There Is No Perfect Puppy Only a Puppy That Is Perfect For You." Despite what you read on the Internet or in dog books, there is no list of perfect canine
temperament traits for all owners. So the evaluation does not identify “correct” or “ideal” scores on any characteristic because we do not believe there are any. What is “ideal” for one owner is likely to be far from ideal for another. In fact, each of us will thrive with a puppy with a different combination of traits even if we have the same goals for our dog. However, there are patterns of temperament traits that work best for the kind of work a dog may do best and type of partner he may become. Dogs can be trained to do many things but they do best those things that come naturally to them, that feel good to them. At the most basic level, we know that a puppy that has eyes only for people may work well in an obedience home but would be at a real disadvantage in a hunting home. A high energy puppy is likely to be a poor match for a quiet pet home but is perfect for an agility or fastcat or active home. The sound sensitive puppy will thrive with a quiet elderly couple but might struggle in a home with young children. Yet it is at the more complex level, where multiple traits are combined into patterns where the best matching between owners and puppies occurs. An ideal dog‐owner partnership depends upon many complementary characteristics rather than just one or two. The temperament evaluation helps us as breeders and then the owners capture these characteristics in an objective way so they can be used to place puppies with the owners they will do best with.

Puppy eHarmony.com! Not only does the puppy’s future “work” dictate which traits are most important but its new owner’s characteristics and desires do, too. Some people love an intense, opinionated dog while others would be overwhelmed by such an animal. Some owners are loud, excitable trainers while others are quiet and unemotional. In addition, each of us has traits in dogs that we do not care about and others that we cannot live without. A highly independent puppy is likely to fit companionably with a similarly independent owner but will confuse a more physically demonstrative owner.
The temperament evaluation allows us to examine each puppy in detail to see what traits will work well with owners and which will not. At the same time, it enables us to examine our own (breeders and owners) needs and desires in a dog because the goal is a good match, not a perfect puppy.
So the evaluation is sort of like eHarmony because it helps owners find deep, meaningful dog love!

We also realize that there are no perfect matches between puppies and new owners across all temperament traits. Some canine temperament traits are relatively stable, even as early as seven and eight weeks. These traits, such as energy level and forgiveness, will change little over the puppy’s lifetime. Sometimes, a pups' personality will change, grow, blossom, evolve once they are away from their littermates.  Thus the pup’s new owner must either want a puppy with that trait or be willing to adapt to it. Because the evaluation lays out traits without judgment, it paints a rich picture of the puppy for breeders and new owners so the best possible match can be made. BUT, puppies can also BE TWEAKED.  Other traits, such as play drive and sight
sensitivity, can be influenced with well‐designed training and development opportunities early in the puppy’s life. These traits are most easily changed
during the Sensitive period, before sixteen weeks of age. However, with concerted effort on the owner’s part, tweakable traits can be further influenced
up till six months of age and then again, to a lesser degree, till twelve months of age. After that, a dog’s personality is relatively rigid and can only be influenced slightly through experience, training and socialization. Thus if there is a mismatch between puppy and owner on tweakable traits, the
new owner can influence the trait somewhat as soon as it gets his pup home.  The Puppy Primer e-book and The Pug Bible has suggestions on how to address different things new owners will encounter. The temperament test helps us create and develop plans that allow new owners to tweak these more flexible traits in the direction that they want using thoughtful, focused development, socialization and training experiences. The most important thing to remember is that one size does not fit all in developing young puppies. Instead, tailoring development to the match will
produce the best outcome for puppy and owner.

The evaluation consists of 23 subcomponents or tests that flow easily from one to another. Some are brief, taking only a second or two, while
others are longer, typically taking around 30 seconds. 33 Temperament Traits. Since our puppies go to a wide array of homes from active pet homes to National‐level dog sport competitors, therapy homes, agility homes, as well as more typical companion homes, we wanted an aptitude test that would examine a broader collection of puppy characteristics than found in other temperament tests. The Avid dog test evaluates 33 temperament traits (vs 12 with some others). The test is relatively long, typically 20 minutes per puppy so it requires more of a commitment from breeders. But as a result,
puppies get all the time they need to warm up to the tester and test environment. Slow starters are still able to show their strengths. Sprinters will usually show if they lack the ability to concentrate for long periods. If stress is going to build in a puppy without a release through play or relationship, it will show during the test.

Once it goes to its new home, a puppy will live in a stimulating and distracting environment. The test enables breeders to see if pups are over stimulated, overwhelmed or unduly stressed by distractions. In addition, a puppy’s engagement with specific distractions gives important clues to what will attract or repel it over the long term. Puppies that love to smell interesting scents are likely to make great tracking dogs but challenging agility dogs.

Equal to (and possibly more important than) the temperament evaluation providing guidance to finding the best matches, it provides a training plan. This plan provides long‐term guidance to puppy buyers regarding their pup’s unique temperament and how they should either adapt to or work with it. Although relatively short, each training plan highlights the most important aspects of a pup’s temperament and how they may show up in daily life. This focuses each owner’s efforts in training and developing their pup, as well as reminds them of why they might be facing specific challenges.

With large litters (or when we have had 2 litters at the same time) we actually split the group up and did on 2 separate days. People (and pups) tire after so many hours of focus!

Here are some videos of different AVID evaluations, including excerpts from some at Pickwick pugs:

This is a different test, Volhard Temperament Test (more common, easier and faster):