What is the training cost for the Posh litter?

Tell me more about Candy and Shahi’s health testing.

How do Likert scales help evaluate a dog’s temperament?

Training Cost for the Posh Litter In 2021, the training cost for three puppies from the Posh litter that participated in the Puppy Program was $23,050

Candy and Shahi’s Health Testing Candy and Shahi are the Doberman parents of the Sith litter, and both underwent rigorous health testing. Candy originally passed every health test required for her own role as a working service dog, which prompted the decision to breed her

Specific testing results for the pair include:

Joints and Organs: Both dogs received OFA Good hip clearances and OFA Normal clearances for their eyes, hearts (via echo and Holter monitor), and thyroids

. Shahi additionally received OFA Normal clearances for his liver and kidneys, and tested normal for Troponin I and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide

Genetics: Both dogs tested completely clear for several genetic mutations via Embark (and Gensol for Shahi), including Degenerative Myelopathy (DM), Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM1 and DCM2), Von Willebrand Disease, and Deafness & Vestibular Syndrome

How Likert Scales Help Evaluate a Dog’s Temperament Likert scales are a core component of handler surveys, which are one of the most common methods used to evaluate a dog’s innate temperament

. Because true temperament cannot be measured directly, service dog agencies use Likert scales to quantify and standardize behavioral observations

Animal caretakers use the scale (typically ranging from 1 to 5 or 7) to rate how likely an individual dog is to exhibit specific behavioral traits across a variety of situations

. Once the survey data is collected, inter-rater reliability is assessed to filter out any unreliable adjectives

. Finally, researchers apply dimension reduction statistics to the remaining Likert scale data to cluster the behavioral observations into measurable, quantitative temperament components

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