First how old is the pup? Some folk will try to tell you they can tell a good dog and what he'll be able to do as young as a few months... I personally like to wait at least until 9 at a minimum, let the dog mature a little.
How's his prey drive? Is he crazy for anything that moves/bounces fast? Tennis balls! Does he focus well? If so, he'll be easy to train wherever he fits. I stay away from using tennis balls in training with EOD and bite dogs, it can easily be used against them... but you can use less common toys and such as a substitute very easily. Make sure he's confident... shouldn't shy away from new situations/areas, eager to explore. If he isn't yet, encourage him. If he's shy and nervy it makes any work tough.
Watch the dog... he'll start to tell you early on what he may excel at. If you can you want to follow his natural bent... you can tell by observation how he 'hunts' for bits of food, toys... eyes or nose? Explore that. You can make a board with holes cut in it, and coffe cans or PVC pipe on the back side... cover each hole with cloth... place a favorite toy other item he's interested in and see if he seeks it out. If he does, and easy, you have a potential detection dog. Some say being nuts for the ball is enough to start, I like to see them hunt by nose first, a little more assurance for you time... It sucks when they wash out
. Nice thing is you can use the board to get your training going too... Do you have access to psuedo scent?
For the PP work, Sport, family protection, and LEO work... I don't evaluate a PP the way I do sport and LEO. Sport and LEO is mostly flee bite work, run down the bad guy... Prey drive. Some easy rag work can be done, or a tug on a flirt pole, with a pup to see how willing they are to engage that odd thing harassing them
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For PP, because for my training it is more defense oriented (the dog is in a more defensive position, drives are trained in balance), I evaluate with more threat to the dog. If a very young dog, a rag tug or taped up towel roll will do, have a stanger 'agitate' the young one, starting in a game fashion and working up to a dominating/threatening manner. The dog should raise in intensity as it shifts to a more threatening 'game'. If he doesn't, he may be more suited for apprehension style work.
Remember you can train a dog for Narc and bitework, but I highly discourage cross training an EOD dog... EOD needs to be his sole focus.
I seperate LEO and PP work because fundamentally they are very different, being that it is rare that an LEO will ever stand and defend his handler, he's usually chasing the bad guys down... and a PP should not be sent away from the handler except in extraordinary situations... so they really have two different jobs requiring slightly different training styles.
I don't know how clear that was, it can be tough to answer such generalized questions, but I can always give you my # if you want to chat about it.
... you went a little too far with the sumac .... very rare around here
