marylouz
New member
A word to Breeders:
More on C-BARQ - Full Instructions are at: http://www.ncanewfs.org/cbarq.shtml
Over 400 Newfs have already taken advantage of this great tool AND contributed to the pool of data for the NCA CTMB - a WIN- WIN. Please take a moment and enter your dogs and then - as an ethical, reputable, responsible preservation breeder who cares about the future of our breed- SHARE the link with your puppy families and encourage them to participate! (Dogs need to be 6 months old to be entered).
Here are some thoughts from Pat Randall -
The Newfoundland standard strongly emphasizes the importance of temperament, referring to sweetness of temperament as the “hallmark of the breed,” the “most important single characteristic” of the breed. Occasionally, usually based on reports of isolated incidents at Dog shows or other, e.g. working, events, breeders and owners will question whether we are in danger of losing this ideal temperament. The reports are clearly anecdotal rather than systematic, and highly subjective. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the reports are amplified by the now more dominant social media. With these tools alone it is unlikely we will ever to make any educated judgment about anything other than the most blatant sudden changes in our population of Newfoundlands.
There are three issues that stand in the way of making objective observations of our population. First, is finding (or devising) an instrument to provide systematic and repeatable measurements of various aspects of temperament. Second, is our ability to apply the instrument to a well-defined population. Third is being able to provide absolute anonymity while still being able to access the raw data for individual dogs.
The C-BARQ questionnaire has been administered to thousands of dogs of different breeds and behaves with sufficient reliability and validity to serve as our instrument. It has already been used with service dogs and shelter dogs, in addition to the general pet population. It has a complex factor structure with the main data base having 12 factors (traits), 6 of which have proven repeatable across different populations. It is likely that we will be able to use all twelve in our more restrictive populations, though it is always possible that the Newfoundlands will have insufficient variance to make meaningful measurements on some.
Third, the questionnaire is being collected by a completely independent organization with high credibility.
This can be a game changing development in our ability to track one important aspect of our Newfoundlands, temperament.
- provided by Pat Randall
More on C-BARQ - Full Instructions are at: http://www.ncanewfs.org/cbarq.shtml
Over 400 Newfs have already taken advantage of this great tool AND contributed to the pool of data for the NCA CTMB - a WIN- WIN. Please take a moment and enter your dogs and then - as an ethical, reputable, responsible preservation breeder who cares about the future of our breed- SHARE the link with your puppy families and encourage them to participate! (Dogs need to be 6 months old to be entered).
Here are some thoughts from Pat Randall -
The Newfoundland standard strongly emphasizes the importance of temperament, referring to sweetness of temperament as the “hallmark of the breed,” the “most important single characteristic” of the breed. Occasionally, usually based on reports of isolated incidents at Dog shows or other, e.g. working, events, breeders and owners will question whether we are in danger of losing this ideal temperament. The reports are clearly anecdotal rather than systematic, and highly subjective. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the reports are amplified by the now more dominant social media. With these tools alone it is unlikely we will ever to make any educated judgment about anything other than the most blatant sudden changes in our population of Newfoundlands.
There are three issues that stand in the way of making objective observations of our population. First, is finding (or devising) an instrument to provide systematic and repeatable measurements of various aspects of temperament. Second, is our ability to apply the instrument to a well-defined population. Third is being able to provide absolute anonymity while still being able to access the raw data for individual dogs.
The C-BARQ questionnaire has been administered to thousands of dogs of different breeds and behaves with sufficient reliability and validity to serve as our instrument. It has already been used with service dogs and shelter dogs, in addition to the general pet population. It has a complex factor structure with the main data base having 12 factors (traits), 6 of which have proven repeatable across different populations. It is likely that we will be able to use all twelve in our more restrictive populations, though it is always possible that the Newfoundlands will have insufficient variance to make meaningful measurements on some.
Third, the questionnaire is being collected by a completely independent organization with high credibility.
This can be a game changing development in our ability to track one important aspect of our Newfoundlands, temperament.
- provided by Pat Randall