How a litter is scored at seven weeks, and how a puppy is matched to a home

The photographs arrive at five or six weeks, and they carry the same caption: this one is the boldest, he is always out in front. It is honest and a poor way to choose a dog. At seven weeks the kennel does something less photogenic: each puppy is taken out of the box on its own, away from the litter and the dam, and put through a short sequence of situations in front of someone who writes down what it does. The line it leaves has a date on it.

Why is the evaluation done at seven weeks?

Seven weeks is a date with a reason, not a tradition. By then a puppy is weaned, coordinated and deliberate: it can walk away from a person on purpose rather than by accident. The template most kennels work from is the aptitude test the Volhards published, and seven weeks is the age it sets. Run earlier, the sequence is read off puppies that mostly sleep; run at twelve weeks, the kennel is reading a dog that has already learned about people from its own household. The FCI standard for the Rottweiler sets behaviour beside bone (self-assured, steady, fearless, alert to its surroundings) traits judged again in adult life at a breed suitability test. The sheet is the earliest honest look at the material.

What happens in the session

Ours is run in the yard, away from the box, so nothing there is familiar. One puppy at a time, the rest left with the dam, and the handling done by a person the litter has not been raised by: the reaction has to be to a stranger, not to a familiar hand. Hour, order and handler stay the same across the litter: a score means nothing if the conditions moved.

Each puppy meets the same short sequence. Set on the ground and called once. A person walks away, and the choice is recorded, follow, or stay. Cradled on its back in a hand for a counted moment. Lifted clear of the ground under the chest, held until it stops moving. A flat object dropped behind it. How long it takes to come back to itself is the last entry.

What goes on the sheet

One line per puppy, one column per situation, a score in each on a short scale: at one end the puppy that yields at once, at the other the one that does not yield at all. Most land in the middle, which is not the good end of anything. The sheet carries the date, the litter's age in days, who tested and who wrote. It is filled in by hand at the time, not from memory afterwards.

The last column carries the most weight. A puppy that startles at a dropped pan is unremarkable; what the kennel reads is what happens next, whether it comes back to the middle of the yard, whether it returns to the person, whether it is at the food bowl a minute later. Recovery, not the reaction, is the trait written down. A puppy that does not react at all gets a second look, not a good mark.

Does a bold puppy make the easiest family dog?

No. The puppy at the front of the photograph is usually the one scoring at the far end of the cradle and the lift: the one that pushes back against the hand holding it on its back, and hangs in the air without settling. That is not a problem dog, and not a guard dog in waiting. It is a dog that will test the rules of a household, and it needs a person who does not negotiate twice. In a home that trains and walks it, it is the best dog in the litter. Left in a yard and spoken to when convenient, it gets passed on. The quiet puppy watching from behind the box is not the damaged one either. The sheet does not rank quality; it describes what a dog will need.

How a puppy is matched to a household

The matching starts before the litter is born, with a questionnaire that goes to every family on the list: who lives in the house, the hours the dog would be alone, the garden, other animals, previous dogs, and what they want to do with this one. Those answers are read against the sheet.

A household that wants a dog underfoot gets the puppy that came to the stranger at once and followed. A quiet household, or one that will be at a training class twice a week, takes the puppy that hung back and recovered slowly: that dog will be steady where there is little noise and someone consistent. The family that asks for the boldest puppy because they want a dog for the yard is not given that puppy, and usually not one from that litter. Position on the waiting list does not buy the choice of the litter. The kennel places the dog.

What a family sees on the visit

At seven weeks a litter is loud, mobile and everywhere at once, which is not the moment to choose from the group. The session is run before the families arrive; what the visit shows is the record and the dogs. The dam first: her weight and coat at the end of nursing, and how she is with the litter now that they mob her. How the puppies are when they are picked up and set down again. The weight chart on the wall, a line per puppy from the first day. The litter record, with the scoring sheet in it. Then the question worth asking, which is not about your puppy: which of these would you keep, and why.

What the contract fixes before the puppy leaves

Four things, none of them a formality. The dog: sex, colour and markings and the litter it comes from, so the puppy described is the puppy in front of you. The papers: the identification it will carry, and which registrations come with it. The dates: a range in which the puppy leaves, set by the vaccinations and the identification the buyer's country requires rather than by a family holiday. The terms after that: what health cover is attached and for how long, and the return clause, if the placement fails, at any age, the dog comes back to the kennel rather than being passed on.

One line to ask for before the deposit

Ask for one thing before any money moves: the line on the scoring sheet for the puppy you are being offered, with its date beside it. It answers two questions at once: whether the evaluation happened before anyone knew who would be asking, and whether the person selling you the dog keeps records or tells stories. Then, on your own visit, take the puppy into the yard, sit down on the ground and wait. Count the seconds until it comes to you, and ask whether that number matches its line. It is the same test the kennel ran, in worse conditions and with a better witness.