Dog Temperament Evaluation Service 

One of the services that we offer at Acadia Canine Academy in Ravena, New York, is a dog temperament evaluation. This is a very important service in that most people do not know what they have for a canine. Canines have eight instinctual drives, three of them being defense drive, fight drive, and aggression drive. These three drives are very important in relation to canine and human relationships. Particularly with large breed dogs, owners should be aware of what the thresholds are for their canines. When we say thresholds, what we mean is at what point will the dog go into defense drive and bite in defense of what it feels threatened for whether it be it’s personal safety or whether it be what it believes is it’s possession such as food or toy. Will the canine go into aggression drive directly or through defense drive? Does the canine have the potential to easily go into fight drive and what triggers that? Is it safe for a child to walk over to your dog while the dog is eating or has a bone? Can the child or any human being for that matter reach down and take from that dog what it believes is his or her possession?

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All too often we read in the newspapers or will see on television about children being mauled by large breed dogs and even medium breed dogs. Even small dogs have this potential. Does the average pet owner even know what to look for? Warning signs such as body posture? More often than not, they do not have a clue until it is too late. We all like to believe that our dogs are good dogs, but we forget they are animals first, then our pets. In the animal world, particularly in the canine world of the pack hierarchy, it is all about dominance and submission. These attacks by canines are totally avoidable through a dog temperament evaluation by a qualified animal behaviorist who will explore what the triggers are in your canine and the threshold limits that will put the canine over the edge where he or she can be deemed dangerous. All canines have this potential. An ounce of prevention is better than a ton of regret. 
 

Through this dog temperament evaluation, we will advise you on how to handle your dog in future situations with interactions with other dogs, other people, and other environmental changes. Many people adopt canines from shelters, and they do not have a clue of what they have for a dog. Unfortunately, many of these animals have behavioral issues that are not adequately explored by the shelters before being placed in homes. Personnel at Animal Shelters are not always adept at analyzing a canine’s temperament, this is the expertise of an Animal Behaviorist. Hence, many families have no idea of what they’re getting into when they are taking home that fluffy furry friendly dog until the dog is placed in the kitchen with a bowl of food and the dog becomes a Tasmanian Devil snarling at anyone who attempts to enter the kitchen. It is highly advisable to have an evaluation done of your canine before or after purchase. Even as your canine matures that you may have had from a pup, development of the instinctual drives of defense, fight, and aggression will occur and may present to be problematic in your home or outside the home. Call us before it is too late resulting in human injury and possible disfigurement. Dog bites are serious! If you aren’t in the Albany, New York, area, we offer telephone consultations on dog temperament evaluation at the Private Instruction rate of $120.00 per hour but it is always recommended to do a detailed evaluation of your canine in person and while the canine is exposed to the very stimulus that sets the canine off, be it other canines, food defense, toy defense, or environmental/territorial defense or aggression.