She did it! (barely)

by **pitbullmamaliz** » September 29th, 2007, 2:38 pm

Inara passed her Temperament Test this morning!!! I thought she did awesome, the testers well, their version of good temperament is different than mine. But she passed. I'll give a rundown of the test, and then at the end I'll tell you all the LOVELY (that was sarcasm) comments the chief tester said to me.

Subtest 1 - Neutral Stranger
The person came over and shook hands with me, ignoring Inara. Inara sniffed the ground a bit and then jumped on the tester, looking for attention.

Subtest 2 - Friendly Stranger
We moved to the next station, and Inara was again sniffing when we stopped. The person had to call Inara to come over, so I'm sure we lost points for that. Once Inara was by the stranger, she jumped all over and just had a love-fest.

Subtest 3 - Hidden Noise (bucket of rocks)
The person shook a metal bucket with some rocks in it. Inara dragged me over to it to see what it was.

Subtest 4 - Gunshots
For this one you face away from a blind, and the person fires bang *pause* bang bang. On the first shot Inara jumped a little and whirled around to face the blind. She didn't run towards it or away from it. The next 2 shots she just looked at me.

Subtest 5 - Umbrella
A person opened an umbrella towards Inara. She jumped away but immediately went over to investigate it.

Subtest 6 - Plastic footing
We both walked along 15 feet of tarp - I'm not sure if Inara noticed that the ground had changed.

Subtest 7 - Wire footing
Inara walked along 12 feet of a wire crate stretched along the ground. Once again, don't know if she even noticed the change of footing.

I'll combine the last 3 (non-threatening stranger, threatening, aggressive).
Subtests 8, 9 and 10: The guy was wearing a trench coat and fedora hat, stumbling along, yelling and banging a stick on the ground. First he crosses in front of you, then he starts coming closer, getting more aggressive as he comes. He gets within 10 feet, all while hollering and banging the ground. Inara just looked at him, then sniffed around, then looked at him, then sniffed around some more, completely unconcerned.

So, I then go sit in a chair and eavesdrop as best I can while the testers compare notes. The only comment I catch is one tester gave Inara a low score for the gunshots because she "looked at her mommy which is a fear response." Well, she's a dog who's never heard gunshots before. I thought it was great she looked to me, but they want the dog to act like you're not even there. I guess they wanted her to go towards the gunshots to investigate. Whatever, I liked that she looked at me for direction.

Then the chief tester came over. He gave me the thumbs up, so I got excited and said, "she passed???" He said yes and then paused. He then told me that "she's not bad, but she's not good." Um, what? He very snottily told me that I have a horrible guard dog. I told him that I didn't get her to be a guard dog. It took all I had to not ask if he was aware that this breed is not supposed to be a good guard dog, but I didn't want to piss off the guy with my test. He then tells me that Inara has no attention span and desperately needs some obedience classes. He sighed and said, "well, she's still young, so she SHOULD get better. Hopefully she'll get better."

By that time, I was about to demonstrate that her temperament was a lot more solid than mine, so I simply asked if we were done and could we go. I was pissed! He was so condescending towards us! There were only 6 dogs there, and Inara was the only "house dog", so I'm wondering if that had something to do with it. Regardless, I was extremely insulted by him.

But I don't care, that's one more pit with a TT behind her name!

Inara, CGC TD TT

by **Marinepits** » September 29th, 2007, 4:48 pm

by **HappyPuppy** » September 29th, 2007, 5:26 pm

Woo hoo! Congrats! :helloClap:

I'm sure she did great and he was being crotchety. Well done guys!

by **cheekymunkee** » September 29th, 2007, 7:11 pm

WooHoo!!!!!!! Congrats!!

by **iluvk9** » September 29th, 2007, 8:08 pm

Give Inara a BIG KISS for me!

:congrats:

by **pitbullmamaliz** » September 29th, 2007, 8:37 pm

Thank you all!!! And Joyce, Inara says thank you for the kiss and sends a sloppy one back your way. :yum:

by **lovemypits** » September 29th, 2007, 9:13 pm

Congrats Inara!!!!!

by **Wyldmoonwoman** » September 29th, 2007, 11:17 pm

GREAT JOB

by **gayrghts** » September 29th, 2007, 11:33 pm

WTG Inara and Liz

btw

can you do TT with a choke chain training collar?

as long as you are not jerking with it?

by **pitbullmamaliz** » September 30th, 2007, 12:14 am

You have to use a slip collar, nylon or chain.

Thanks for the congrats!

by **gayrghts** » September 30th, 2007, 12:15 am

On September 29 2007, 11:14 PM, pitbullmamaliz wrote:You have to use a slip collar, nylon or chain.

Thanks for the congrats!

ummm slip collar? = choke aka training?

by **pitbullmamaliz** » September 30th, 2007, 7:08 am

Sorry, yeah! lol

They may let you use a martingale, but nobody had one when I took it. They let a couple people use thick agitation collars after about 15 minutes of discussion. I'm like, for god's sake people, just put a freakin' choke on your dog for the 10 minutes this test will take.

But on the actual application for the test, it says slip collar (AKA choke/training) and 6 ft leash required.

Here's the website: http://www.atts.org

by **luvmypitties** » September 30th, 2007, 9:02 am

Congrats!!!!

by **gayrghts** » September 30th, 2007, 9:06 am

On September 30 2007, 6:08 AM, pitbullmamaliz wrote:Sorry, yeah! They may let you use a martingale, but nobody had one when I took it. They let a couple people use thick agitation collars after about 15 minutes of discussion. I'm like, for god's sake people, just put a freakin' choke on your dog for the 10 minutes this test will take.

But on the actual application for the test, it says slip collar (AKA choke/training) and 6 ft leash required.

Here's the website: http://www.atts.org

well, since we use chain/choke and 6 foot for training, and he won't pull me on it... i should be fine...

by **babyreba** » September 30th, 2007, 10:31 am

great work, you guys! i'm very surprised that they even commented on her obedience--that's total b.s. because you are not allowed to give a single command during the test, so how would they even get an accurate picture of what her obedience is like? grrr. sounds obnoxious.

but good for you guys for passing the test and getting that TT!

by **CinderDee** » September 30th, 2007, 10:38 am

I'm so happy for you & Inara! Congrats!!!

by **SisMorphine** » September 30th, 2007, 11:38 am

Congrats!!! Even if the chief tester didn't know what he was looking for in the breed . . . idiot . . .

by **ellie@ny** » September 30th, 2007, 1:56 pm

Congrats to both of you!!!
I would get in contact with the ATTN and let them know about the chief tester comments...

by **Jenn** » September 30th, 2007, 2:10 pm

Congratulations!!

by **DropkickPA** » September 30th, 2007, 6:42 pm

Wooohoo! WTG Inara!! Congrats to you both!!

She did it! (barely)

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