SELECTION PROCESSES
PUPPY MATCHING
From the moment our puppies are born, our team is getting to know them. While there is no guarantee that a puppy’s temperament at three weeks will be the same as their temperament at three years, we can begin to get a sense of what makes a puppy happy and successful from fairly early on.
Our lead trainer takes behavior notes on every puppy and updates them on a regular basis to develop a sense of the puppy’s temperament over time. This ensures that any momentary changes in behavior are not mis-identified as lasting personality traits. Over the weeks, we begin to develop a clear sense of what behavior the puppy consistently displays and what type of home will help the puppy thrive.
When you first inquire about a puppy from On The Bluff Labradors, we will ask you to fill out a questionnaire. We ask you to take your time in answering these questions, because this in-depth questionnaire is designed to help us understand your lifestyle and needs from a companion.
Finally, our lead trainer considers puppy temperaments, wait list placement, and your needs in an effort to find the perfect match for you! We match puppies when they are 6 weeks of age, and puppies either go to their homes or enter the Puppy University at 8 weeks old.
Puppies with an especially calm, confident, or focused temperament will be admitted to Puppy University when they reach 8 weeks of age. These puppies will go on to be our therapy and service dog candidates. Learn more about Puppy University here.
TRAINED PUPPY SELECTION
Our training team begins assessing the puppies at 5 weeks of age. We engage in multiple lengthy observation sessions to get a sense of each puppy’s temperament. The qualities we love to see are:
- Responsiveness to other dogs’ social cues
- Polite and appropriate behavior with the other puppies
- Willingness to make soft eye contact and sustain an interaction with the handler
- Tendency toward stillness and focus on one stimulus for a meaningful duration of time
- Soft mouth and gentleness toward the handler’s hands
- Ability to engage with toys at an appropriate excitement level
- Ability to calm down easily after an exciting event
- Resilience to mildly startling events, such as hands clapping or a door closing loudly
Many of the puppies show these qualities; some show all or nearly all of them. These are the star students we choose for the puppy university.
