Shiloh Shepherd Temperament, part 2

Is a Shiloh Shepherd Right for Me?

With all that we’ve written in our previous section about the basic Shiloh temperament, though, all pups are not the same and neither are all owners! Our breed founder, Tina Barber, used to ask, “Good temperament? Good for what?”

It’s a perfectly good question. There is no perfect temperament for every household, or every person! Your ideal dog might be too submissive for your wife who has a very strong personality, and he may end up being timid with her. A puppy that would do great with a busy family would be too much of a handful living with a quiet couple, and a puppy assertive enough to be a great match to a person with a strong personality would rule the household if matched with a permissive or inconsistent owner.

The Shiloh Shepherd Puppy Owners' Manual

With all that, there are some things a Shiloh Shepherd owner should do to set themselves and their new pup up to succeed. If the Shiloh was a computer program, the system (owner!) requirements might read something like this:

RULE ONE:

Owner must be willing to socialize their new pup, exposing them to positive new experiences. Shilohs are shepherds, and herding breeds are extremely intelligent but can be suspicious or shy of new things if not introduced to them early and in a way that creates a good experience. Socialization is about giving your pup positive experiences with the strange places and things that you would like them to be confident around as an adult. You’re essentially setting them up for success!

What’s good socialization? Not-so-good socialization is taking your pup to the dog park and introducing her to a random group of dogs. You have no real control there over whether your pup has a good experience or a bad one. The better way would be to sit outside of the park for a while and identify a couple of calmer, friendlier dogs with good manners. Then, approach their owners and ask if they would allow their dogs to meet your pup separately.

Socialization is key for the first year especially, but it is a lifelong process (so if you socialize up to a year and then your dog spends two years without leaving home, don’t be surprised if some of your work is undone).

RULE TWO:

Owner should set firm ground rules for acceptable behavior from the beginning, and encourage good behavior from the start! These pups are not as challenging as many GSD’s, but remember, this dog will likely be a hundred pounds or more when he’s an adult. Wouldn’t you rather set yourself up to succeed by teaching your pup good manners when he’s only twenty pounds?

Shilohs are SMART, even as babies, and they will read you. If you laugh when they jump up on someone as a cute little puppy, you are sending a signal that the behavior is GOOD and will have a harder time derailing it when the dog is 80 pounds. If you snap at your pup because you’ve tripped over him when he hesitates at the door to let you go first, you’re not encouraging that respectful behavior. Be conscious of your reactions, because your Shiloh certainly will be—every second of every day!

Also important is consistency. If you make your pup sit nicely at the door before going out, but your significant other or children don’t, that’s going to undermine the behavior you’re trying to teach. Make sure that everyone in the family is on the same page with how you’re raising your new pup. If you have kids, encourage them to help train the pup in obedience commands, and then graduate to something like trick training as a fun way to teach patience and structure.

RULE THREE:

If the owner wants a pup that will be great with children, small animals, or strange dogs, then the pup should be exposed to these things in their new home as early as possible. Many of our breeders do start out socializing their pups with visiting children or their own cat (and sometimes even with horses or chickens!), but this should be reinforced in the new home or the earlier experience will quickly fade from the mind of a baby puppy. Remember to supervise interactions between pets first meeting each other, and interactions with small children to make sure they are fun for both parties.

How do we know which pup will be the best fit for each new owner?

  • First, it depends on you giving the best answers you can when you fill out your application. Please be honest about your family, your other pets, your situation and lifestyle, and what an average day in your home is like! All of these things will be taken into consideration when offering you a choice of the pups in the litter that best fit the needs of you and your family.
  • Second, it depends on the observations of the breeder, who is very familiar with the pups’ personalities in their home. These observations give us a window onto the puppies’ base personalities in their comfort zones: similar to the way they will likely act once they adapt to your new home.
  • Third, it depends on how the puppies each score on our puppy temperament testing! the Litter Evaluation Report (LER) is done on the pups at eight weeks. A certified evaluator scores each pup, with a tester running the pups through their paces. The tester is a stranger and the testing is done in a strange place. This gives us the puppies’ base personalities OUTSIDE of their comfort zones: how they are likely to react when you first bring them to a strange place like the vet’s office or for a walk in a strange neighborhood. We’ll have more information for you to read about the LER process, coming soon!

After the LER is finished, we score each pup on its physical and personality traits, and then we consult your application to determine which pup has the right base personality for your lifestyle and the things YOU would like to do with your dog!

But wait—how do you know what to ask for on your application to get the pup that will be perfect for you?

GREAT question! Here are links to two pages detailing terminology we utilize, along with explanations. Using this, you can communicate exactly what you would like to your breeder and the temperament evaluator when you fill out your application!

Read on for “Shiloh Temperaments: Soft, Medium, and Hard” in part three, and "Shiloh Temperament Terminology: How to describe your perfect pup" in part four!



© 2016 International Shiloh Shepherd Alliance, Inc.