Not sure if its the same where you are but every dog that gets put up for adoption at our local pound has to pass a behavioural test. My mum has rescued many dogs from the pound. Her lab is from the pound and he is just gorgeous, he just happened to get out of his backyard and his family never claimed him.

Also before we chose him we took a few dogs into the play area and had them on a lead and let them off and watched how they were with us and Brock (the lab) was gorgeous he found a ball and wanted to play fetch. We also took a few days before deciding on him.

The pound rangers would all know what each of the dogs are like so just tell them what you are looking for.

HTH