Nitya Talreja #2: Border Patrol Tests

This week at the Penn Working Dog Center, I got to see a 5 week old puppy in Delaware. Beginning at 4 weeks old, Border Patrol Tests are conducted on donated puppies to test their confidence, drive, and ability to succeed as working dogs. The puppy’s name is Rigo and he is a black lab, and not to mention a singleton. The term singleton is used to describe a puppy that was the only puppy in its litter. Due to Rigo’s circumstances, as a fetus he received the nutrients equivalent to that of 6 puppies, hence he was twice the weight he was supposed to be, but nonetheless adorable J.

Border Patrol Test stimuli include keys, toys, and unstable surfaces. Rigo’s reaction to each stimulus is rated on a scale of 0 – 6. 0 being the least driven or lacking confidence, and 6 being the most driven or reactive to the stimulus. It was quite difficult to keep Rigo’s attention and he did not seem very interested in most of the toys for the test, however, the keys did seem to scare him. He did not seemed bothered by the unstable surface we had placed him on, which was a good quality for a working dog. Otherwise, his reaction to most of the objects were accurate with that of a 5 week old puppy.

Because Rigo was extremely obese, we often called him the meatloaf because there was barely any room between him and the ground :-). 

The other puppy at the PWDC was named Lucas and he was an 8 week old lab when I first arrived at the center. Lucas’s border patrol (BP) tests were also conducted on a weekly basis. Lucas has excellent drive and confidence for a puppy of his age, and Dr. Lorenzo has great confidence in his success as a working dog. Even at his young age, Lucas expressed strong vocalizations and was not intimidated by any of the stimuli. On his 8 week BP test, Lucas scored a 6 in all of the categories! And his strong drive did not waiver on subsequent BP tests (he was so excited one time that he actually bit my hand instead of the toy).

*One interesting fact I learned this week was that Labradors make such excellent working dogs because they lack the gene that makes them feel full after a meal, which is why they are often overweight and always food-motivated to complete tasks. Not to mention that they are retrievers by nature, which makes the toy-motivated as well.