Having been a trainer for as long as I have, and with as much interaction as I have with my babies, I get to know the temperaments and personalities of each puppy pretty solidly as they grow. However, there is something to be said for someone who is a complete stranger to them having a look at them with fresh eyes! I do not feel that someone who knows the puppies as well and closely as the breeder does should be doing the temperament test. There is natural human bias as play, as well as the fact that pups show different thing to those they know well. So I have a long-time trainer that I respect a lot come in at about 7-7.5 weeks, and she meets each puppy individually in a room/area they have never ever been before. She does a modified temperament test that is heavily reality-based, which helps me tremendously in final placement decisions. Her results don’t make my decisions for me, but they do add another piece of valuable information to my decision-making!
