Quote:
Originally Posted by Mardelin  Gail at 8 weeks of age, one will only be evaluating temperament/personality....then go back at 12 weeks of age and begin the evaluation in earnest....and as a breeder that evaluation goes up and down for months. |
Yes it was what I thought for Yorkies, but I've been reading Tricks of the Trade, by Pat Hastings Revised edition. She has a preamble to the first statement on evaluating puppies; which covers the research process they went through, to glean the best practices that she elaborates on in her book vs a vs evaluating puppies. Here is Step 1 quoted exactly from her book: 1.
For structure evaluate puppies only at eight weeks, give or take three days either way. This is crucial. Before eight weeks, soft tissue is not sufficiently developed to hold the bone structure in place, which means you are able to "mold" a puppy into the picture you want to see.
As all bones grow at different rates, it is important to realize that the proportion of bone growth is as similar to the adult structure at eight weeks as it is ever going to be during the growth of the puppy. Therefore, what you see and, more importantly, what you feel at eight weeks is what the puppy will grow into as an adult dog.
This applies to all breeds across the board. The only exceptions we have found are premature puppies and puppies that have not had a good start. We've never had consistent results evaluating these two exceptions.
End quote.
I've had quite a lively discussion with my friends on this subject. We are going to try out the eight wk timeframe on Yorkies, and repeat at twelve weeks. Of course as you say the evaluation goes on as time goes by for the Yorkies. With our Blackies, they go through some ugly stages, somewhere around 7-9 mths many look like they are up on stilts. Head growth is very variable, you can have a pup at around the 7 - 9 mth looking like either all head or no head. Oh and musculature is a real crap shoot as a pup, we have chest first developers, or rear end developers. Furnishings can be frustratingly slow to grow (and this is a major fault if they don't grow), many lines don't fulfill their furnishing potential until 3yrs old. Musculature, develops slowly as well, somewhere from 20 to 24 mths old, all of a sudden with no change in exercise, those boys pack on the muscles.
I also have the video Dog Steps an excellent one on presentation of different structural problems in dogs. I'm having a senior moment here, and the author's name escapes me, but one of her statements has stuck with me to this day; what you see as a puppy, baring accident,illness, or injury is what you will see as an adult. I believe one example in her video, was an afghan pup, you saw the pup at 8wks, at 4months, and as an adult, and oh boy, the problems evident at 8 wks were more so at 4months, and as an adult quite severe.
There is so much to know. So much to learn, and learning is always going on.