Well, this week has been eventful in the little life of Kiley!

On Saturday before Easter Sunday, we had a very gracious visit from a renowned Golden Retriever breeder/AKC judge, who kindly looked over Kiley and gave me feedback on her structure.  Kiley was 7 weeks 5 days old. While we kept in mind that no assessment at 8 weeks is definitive, she gave me lots of  positive feedback on Kiley’s structure.

She listened carefully to her heart, and examined everything visible. According to this judge, she has excellent bone, coat, beautiful head, eye, tail set, rear assembly and front.  Her ears are slightly long, and we’ll see how that develops as her back skull grows, and she’s slightly straight in the shoulders.  This lovely lady was very encouraging about Kiley, and thinks she’ll be an excellent example of the Golden  Retriever breed standard!

Then, on Tuesday (exactly 8 weeks), we tested her temperament using the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test. I was most impressed by her responses to noise and the introduction of sudden stimuli.  She was unflappable.

Here are her scores:

Social Attraction = 3

Following = 3

Restraint = 3

Social Dominance = 3

Elevation Dominance = 4

Retrieving = 3

Touch Sensitivity = 3

Sound Sensitivity = 4

Sight Sensitivity = 3

Stability = 3

This testing confirms our experience of her as a cheerful, confident little puppy, ready for adventure, yet very responsive to human interaction.  She seems easy to train so far, and the clicker training to her name, and to the sit as people approach her, is going very well.

We’ve all been training her to not nip at ankles and feet, and the uniform response we all are giving is working quite well.

It seems that her strong bonding with the humans in our house (and the visitors that come through), is paying off in her desire to please us all.  She’s entering her terrible teen phase now, so we’ll keep this blog posted about her adventures!