About Us
Our Mission
The Honored Dog™ exists to improve the lives of dogs by helping them be understood, appreciated, and celebrated as the unique individuals they are. Through education, storytelling, and community partnerships, we strengthen the bond between dogs and the people who love them while helping more dogs find and remain in loving homes.
Understand the dog you love
Every dog is an individual with unique personality traits. Understanding your dog’s personality can help you understand and relate to them in ways that ease tensions and strengthen the bond you share.
One quiz. Four personalities.
Your dog, seen clearly.
The Honored Dog experience centers on four Personality Profiles, each inspired by a real dog — a real personality — observed closely over the years.
The Doggy Diva. The Goodest Boy, or Girl. The Bossy Pants. And the Social Butterfly.
Each profile is a complete portrait: how a dog moves through the world, how they connect, what they need, what frustrates them, what lights them up. It’s not a label to stick on your dog. It’s a lens that helps you see them (and yourself in this relationship) more clearly.
The transformation isn’t in the profile itself. It’s in what happens when a dog parent reads it and thinks, “That’s my dog. That’s my dog.”
Then suddenly, the behavior that felt like a problem becomes something else entirely. Personality. Communication. Who they are.
That shift from frustration to understanding, from confusion to compassion is what The Honored Dog™ was built to create.
Our Time is Limited
We don’t get enough time with them. The years are short. The moments, the ordinary ones, the loud ones, the quiet ones, are the ones we’ll carry.
The Honored Dog exists because those moments are richer when you truly know the dog you’re sharing them with. Not just their name and their breed and their quirks. Their actual self.
Founded on Personal Strengths, Education, & Experience
As a dog personality expert grounded in years of hands-on shelter experience and a career built on reading how individuals communicate, Kimberly Jo DeVault built The Honored Dog™ from the inside out.
Born from A Love for Animals
Kimberly Jo DeVault, founder and Honored Dog Facilitator, created this framework to help pet parents make the most of the time they have with their dog.
While developing, delivering, and leading humane educational programs at the Arizona Humane Society, Kimberly taught and coached hundreds of students. Throughout her personal and professional life, she has seen firsthand what happens when pet parents “click” with their dogs, and the heartbreaking results when they don’t.
While working at the Arizona Humane Society, Kimberly Jo interacted with thousands of animals moving through the world of animal welfare, reading both their stress signals as well as their joy. She experienced first-hand the power behind the human-animal bond as she helped animals make their way through this system. From the education department, she created programs designed to inform and improve the relationships people form with their pets.
These first-hand experiences in animal welfare are woven into every part of the Honored Dog™ experience.
Supported by a Broad Educational Background
Kimberly Jo studied developmental psychology before getting her Master’s Degree in Journalism at the University of Arizona. She later continued her professional development through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching.
Kimberly Jo helps individuals and families see their dog for who they actually are.
When you have language for your dog’s personality, you stop reading their behavior as a problem and start recognizing it as a signature. What once felt like a quirk or a frustration becomes something you can appreciate, work with, and relish.
For more than 26 years, Kimberly has coached leaders and teams while championing organizational change. She has designed, developed, and delivered transformational programs focused on building more humane workplace cultures, strengthening collaboration, and fostering continuous improvement.
An Intersection of Skill, Education, & Experience
Now, after 20 years championing change across organizations, teams, and leaders, Kimberly has pulled together everything she knows about behavior, psychology, and interpersonal relationships to create an experience for pet parents seeking better relationships with their dogs.
Through her interactive experience, Kimberly Jo helps families connect with their companion animals at new and rewarding levels; by seeing them for who they are.
Overall, Kimberly’s work is grounded in one of her top five strengths according to CliftonStrengths. A quality that has defined her entire career: Individualization — the ability to see and appreciate what makes each person distinctly, irreducibly who they are.
Now, the parallel to The Honored Dog™ is not an accident. Reading a system, whether it’s a corporate team or a household pack, requires the same foundational skill: seeing individuals clearly and giving them language for who they actually are.
The relationship you have with your dog is one of the most special relationships in your life. Isn’t it worth honoring?
The Honored Dog is where Kimberly Jo’s education, profession, and love for animals all intersect. The Honored Dog is where she brings her whole self to help people make the most out of their relationship with their dog.
The Honored Dog™ Personality Profile Experience
Why it exists.
The Honored Dog™ Personality Profile experience exists to improve the bond you share with your dog. See, understand, and relate to your dog more compassionately.
What it is.
The four Honored Dog profiles are grounded in established theory, curated into an experience that is accessible and meaningful to pet parents.
While born out of experience, The Honored Dog Personality Profile Experience is supported by research across a variety of disciplines.
What it is not.
This is not a clinical assessment and it should not be used to predict behavior or replace veterinary, training, behavior modification, or other professional guidance.
How it came to be.
Before becoming a corporate educator and personal, team, and leadership coach, Kimberly Jo spent several years at the Arizona Humane Society, first in animal intake, then developing and delivering humane education programs for the community. Working in a shelter taps into a level of authenticity and vulnerability not commonly found in a job. It was in that environment where she first experienced what it really means to see and accept a dog for all that they are.
Partnering with The Honored Dog™
The Honored Dog partners with trainers, veterinarians, groomers, doggy daycares, boarding facilities, rescue organizations, and other canine professionals who believe dogs deserve to be understood—not just managed. Through our personality-centered experiences, we help pet parents recognize the deeper motivations, communication styles, and emotional patterns that shape how their dogs move through the world.
These partnerships create a shared language that strengthens client understanding, trust, and follow-through. By helping people better recognize the dog in front of them, The Honored Dog supports the meaningful work professionals are already doing—creating stronger relationships, more informed care, and deeper connection between dogs and the humans who love them.
Honored Dog is not training advice, behavioral analysis, or expert classification. It is simply a way to notice the personality already living in front of you.