Comparing two canine personality assessments: Convergence of the MCPQ-R and DPQ and consensus between dog owners and dog walkers

Despite the number of emerging questionnaire-based canine personality assessments, there is still no consensus on the content and number of broad personality dimensions in domestic dogs. In the current study, we compared two canine personality questionnaires: The Monash Canine Personality Questionnaire-Revised (MCPQ-R) and the Dog Personality Questionnaire (DPQ) to further clarify the structure of canine personality. To determine how the components of each assessment aligned with one another, target dogs (n = 60) were rated by two knowledgeable informants, the dog's owner (n = 60) and the dog's walker (n = 10), and their ratings were examined according to the following criteria: 1) convergence between MCPQ-R dimensions and DPQ factors, measured by correlations among seemingly analogous personality traits, and 2) consensus of ratings between owners and walkers, measured by inter-rater reliability of the pairs. For both owners and walkers, there were substantial significant positive correlations between seemingly analogous personality traits: Neuroticism (MCPQ-R) and Fearfulness (DPQ), Extraversion (MCPQ-R) and Activity/Excitability (DPQ), and Training Focus (MCPQ-R) and Responsiveness to Training (DPQ). Amicability (MCPQ-R) and both Aggression factors (towards People and towards Animals, DPQ) were significantly negatively correlated, as was Amicability (MCPQ-R) and Fearfulness (DPQ). Significant inter-rater reliability was observed for the MCPQ-R dimensions of Neuroticism, Extraversion and Amicability, as well as the DPQ factors Fearfulness, Aggression towards People, and Aggression towards Animals. Motivation (MCPQ-R) showed no consensus among raters, and was not well-supported as a high level trait in this study. Further research should 1) determine whether separating Aggression into two separate measures improves the validity of a canine personality instrument, and 2) if low inter-rater reliability for the MCPQ-R dimensions Training Focus and Motivation and the DPQ factors Responsiveness to Training and Activity/Excitability is a result of differences among raters in dog-related experience and/or the context in which the dog is typically observed. Further standardization of canine personality assessment tools and recognition of the factors that influence rater assessments are critical to the application of canine personality evaluation in real-world contexts, such as shelter re-homing and selection of working dogs.