One area we at Eastern Companion Dog Training get a lot of calls about is whether we can temperament test a dog. Due to us being one of the premier dog training organisations in Australia who specialise in behaviour analysis and modifications and our understanding of topics such as aggression to the point that we are active in lecturing to other dog and animal training/handling organisations means that we are able to accurately assess a dog and give you are realistic idea as to whether it is a dog you or your family wish to own and also what is the realistic chance that we can alter/modify the dogs behaviour so that you as an owner can be comfortable with owning such a dog.

There are three basic areas that we temperament test a dog or dogs for our customers.

1) The first is in temperament testing either a puppy or whole litter of puppies to check the overall soundness of what these pups can be as adult dogs.  With dog bites on children being so prevalent this is one more way people can get a more realistic idea as to what someone is breeding and in term what they as puppy buyers are realistically purchasing.  We further also ask the relevant questions needed from a breeder regarding their breeding practices both regarding temperament as well as the health issues surrounding the puppies they are breeding. As we are totally unbiased and have no emotion or allegiance to one breeder or another and as we are paid by you the consumer we have no interest in protecting or giving advice that is not accurate and beneficial to you. We have an extensive testing mechanism regarded throughout the world as one of the most complex and well regarded temperament tests in operation today.  In this test we can with a reasonable degree of accuracy predict the temperament type of the litter or individual puppy, it's strengths and weaknesses, it's ability to process and handle stress (the most important part of any dogs temperament), it ability and ease at being handled, it's trainability, it's propensity to anxiety behaviours, amongst many other things.

2)  The second type of temperament test that we are requested to do is to assess a dog that is looking for a new home either in a animal rescue group or from a friend or colleague.  This is a test we conduct after not only seeing the dog but also speaking at length with potential new owner and what they seek within their new dog.  Again we also look into whether the dog can also under go some training to be successfully matched with the new home.  Again we assess many temperament qualities including activities requirements, propensity for anxiety behaviours, propensity to fear related behaviours, propensity for aggressive behaviours including human, dog and other animal aggression as well as many other things including propensity for destructive or escaping behaviours.

3)  The third type of temperament testing we are requested to do is when an incident has occurred that has either caused an injury to someone or another dog or animal or that has concerned the owner enough to be question the dogs temperament.  At this time again we test many attributes of the dogs temperament including it's threshold to show aggressive behaviours and it's level and threshold to anxiety behaviours.  The two areas that cause the most concern to owners.

How much does such an assessment cost?

Whilst there is some variance as to how much a temperament assessment costs on average the fee for such a service is $110.00 which includes a full run down as to what the dog is like in terms of it's overall temperament, how likely and what is involved in changing the dogs behavior if necessary, what further training the dog will need, what are the dogs thresholds to stress and anxiety, how likely is the dog to have behavioral problems and what you as owners can expect from such a dog.

If you are interested in talking to one of our trainers about conducting a temperament test on a dog or puppy that you are looking into and the costs of doing such a test please give us a call on

(03) 9723 4387 anytime.