Hi everyone,
I'm working with researchers at the University of Texas at Austin's Animal Personality Institute ( www.animalpersonality.org ). They are looking at the viability of using a questionnaire to assess personality in dogs. The questionnaire being used is about 75 items long and takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. Once the questionnaire is completed and submitted, the dog owner/guardian will receive feedback on how the dog was rated (e.g., a personality profile) and be asked to give feedback about how well the profile fits the dog.
Right now they are looking in particular at two questions:
(1) When people rate their dogs' personalities on the Dog Personality Questionnaire (
http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/group/animpersinst/DPQ.html ) once, then rate their dogs' personalities again a while later, how much do the two ratings agree? (This is a largely a function of how well and how clearly the questions included on the questionnaire are written -- not how much the dog owners remember what they said!) This study is online, and we need dog owners who are willing to complete the questionnaire now and again in a month (a reminder will be sent out). The questionnaire is online at
[linkhttp://survey.psy.utexas.edu/API/dpq4.php]http://survey.psy.utexas.edu/API/dpq4.php[/link] .
(2) When multiple people who know the same dog rate that dog's personality on the Dog Personality Questionnaire, how closely do their ratings agree with each other? This is affected not just by the fact that a dog may behave differently around different people, but also by how well and clearly the items are written. So, we are looking for pairs or groups of people who are all familiar with the same dog and are willing to rate that dog using the online questionnaire. This questionnaire is posted at
[linkhttp://survey.psy.utexas.edu/API/dpq4.php]http://survey.psy.utexas.edu/API/dpq5.php[/link] .
Thank you for your interest and your help! In the long run, we hope that this questionnaire or one like it will be useful to a wide variety of folks interested in dogs' personalities, including researchers, rescues, shelters, and working dog programs.
-Amanda