The dog is confronted with an unfamiliar person, the test leader, in three main steps: meeting with the unfamiliar person while guided by the owner, contact with the unfamiliar person whereby the unfamiliar person takes over the dog’s lead and being handled by the unfamiliar person.

Both the dog owner and the test leader play with the dog (retrieving and tug-of-war, respectively). Thereby two different toys are used: a toy the dog is familiar with and a standard toy provided by the test operators.

The dog is presented food whereby the difficulty level to access the food varies from being freely available over being covered with a cap to being inaccessible for the dog (unsolvable task). Besides evaluating the dog’s general interest in food, this test intends to measure the dog’s commitment and persistence in trying to solve the task and its attempts to get help from its owner or the test leader. 

A silhouette of a person’s torso jumps up quickly three meters in front of the dog when it comes walking with its owner and the test leader. With the raising of the figure the owner releases the dog’s lead.

The dog is exposed to the loud, rattling sound generated by a motor-driven rotary drum. The sound starts three meters in front of the dog when it comes walking with its owner and the test leader and lasts for three seconds. With the start of the sound the owner releases the dog’s lead.

A person dressed in a long coat, wide-brimmed hat and dark sunglasses is slowly approaching the dog .The person starts from a distance of about 25 meters, comes closer in several steps until a distance of six to seven metres from the dog, then turns around and stands still. After three seconds the dog’s lead is released.

The dog is supposed to walk with its owner over a surface the majority of dogs have not experienced before. The surface is made of a plastic disk placed on a plywood board.

Two gunshots are fired at a distance of about 50 metres from the position of the dog and its owner: the first when the dog and its owner are in motion and the second when they are standing still.