Mental Description
It’s an important part of what we do.
We conduct a mental assessment of puppies when they are 7-9 weeks old, which provides a description of the puppy’s behavior in specific situations.
This mental assessment gives us valuable insight into the puppy’s early development. An adult dog’s mental assessment is conducted when the dog is at least 12 months old, and this is one of the tools we have in Sweden to systematically describe the mentality of dogs. For us as breeders, this is invaluable for evaluating our breeding practices and observing how our dogs develop.
We only breed mentally stable, confident, and socially adapted dogs, which means we never have fearful puppies, as this is an inherited trait we carefully consider in our breeding work. By providing the puppies with a secure and stimulating environment, we ensure they have the best possible conditions for a healthy and balanced development.
The mental assessment helps us to map the dogs’ behavioral repertoire without trained responses,
instead observing spontaneous reactions that are unaffected by handler commands. From an animal welfare perspective, it is crucial that dogs are confident and stable to handle daily life and the tasks they may encounter.
The mental assessment, for example, shows how social the dog is towards strangers. How the dog behaves in encounters is influenced by both breed characteristics and individual personality. The dog is also assessed regarding playfulness, food motivation, activity level, and curiosity, which plays an important role and reveals the dog’s motivation to explore its surroundings in both familiar and unfamiliar environments. Our goal is for each dog and its owner to have a long-lasting and happy relationship, and mental assessment is one of the tools that help us achieve this goal.
Behavioral traits are often quantitative, meaning that both genetics and environment play a role in how the dog develops mentally. For puppies that have not met people early on, for example, before 12-14 weeks of age, the ability to form strong bonds with new family members may be limited. So, in addition to hereditary traits, the first weeks in the breeder’s home can be highly influential in their development.