I'm looking for the most outgoing, takes charge kind of guy. Then we go from there.

In the working dog world there are several tests that check for nerves. Wait for a group of puppies to be off doing their own thing and toss a set of keys amongst them. (or a drink can with rocks in it, a rattle box of sorts). The puppies that hear it and react by going to check it out is always a good sign. A bunch more. Visit Leerburg.com there is as much dog information there as any other site on the web.

The real issue of choosing puppies is prior knowledge. The guy that bred all the dogs in the pedigree should have a leg up on choosing than the guy that shows up to 'get a puppy'. If the breeding of Great Dog Spot is done then the guy that raised Spot, his littermates, parents and grandparents can basically say Spot did this and that and this little guy is doing this and that so this is my reasoning for picking Spot Jr.

If I show up at someone's yard to make a pick it is a gamble. By going to the right yard the odds are increased, but a gamble nonetheless.

DTA's Kasai was a Bolio bred dog that threw mouth. No matter what he was bred to he created mouth or amped up mouth if it was there. After a number of litters there was only one dog that had below average mouth. His two littermates could really shut it down (guess which one was mine). So after seeing each litter with above average to freak mouth we knew we would get mouth. But in reality we THOUGHT we would get it based on what we had seen previously. We really did not KNOW.

EWO