Research Foundation
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.
Foundations Informing The Honored Dog’s Personality Profiles
The Honored Dog™ Personality Profile Experience is grounded in established theory across several disciplines.
What follows is a plain-language overview of the foundations that inform the four Honored Dog profiles.
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Attachment & Bonding
Dogs form genuine attachment bonds with their humans. Research in animal behavior and attachment science consistently shows that dogs seek proximity, show distress at separation, and use their humans as a secure base for exploring the world.
The way a dog expresses that attachment varies widely. Some dogs are demonstrative and proximity-seeking. Others are steadier and less outwardly expressive. Neither is more attached than the other. The Honored Dog profile experience reflects these differences rather than ranking them.
Sources:
Bowlby, J. — Attachment and Loss (1969, Vol. 1; 1973, Vol. 2; 1980, Vol. 3) The foundational work establishing that bonds with caregivers shape emotional and behavioral responses throughout life.
Ainsworth, M. — Patterns of Attachment (1978) Expanded Bowlby’s framework through the Strange Situation Test, identifying distinct attachment styles later studied across species.
Topál, J. et al. — Attachment behavior in dogs (Canis familiaris): A new application of Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Test (1998) First major study demonstrating that dogs form genuine attachment bonds with their owners.
Howell, T. et al. — Attachment and bonding in the dog–human dyad (2015) Found the bond between dogs and their human caregivers to be mutual and emotionally significant.
Horn, L. et al. — Secure Base Effect: Attachment Theory in Dogs (2013) Demonstrated that dogs use their owner as a secure base from which to explore, mirroring the behavior of young children with primary caregivers.
Rugaas, T. — Calming Signals: The Art of Survival (2013) Documents the behavioral language dogs use to communicate stress, comfort-seeking, and social intent.
Wanser, S. & Udell, M. — Human–Dog Attachment and Behavior (2019) Examined how the quality of the human-dog attachment relationship influences behavior, attentiveness, and responsiveness.
Konok, V. et al. — Attachment Styles in Dogs (2019) Identified individual differences in how dogs express and seek proximity to their owners.
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Individual Temperament
Animals are not behaviorally interchangeable. Research in animal temperament going back decades establishes that individual dogs have stable, observable personality traits that persist across situations and over time.
These traits influence how a dog responds to novelty, stress, social interaction, and routine. The Honored Dog profiles are built around these observable temperament differences.
Sources:
Amirhosseini, M. H. et al. — An artificial intelligence approach to predicting personality types in dogs (Scientific Reports, 2024) Applied machine learning to data from nearly 8,000 dogs, confirming that stable, distinct personality types can be identified and predicted with high accuracy.
Salonen, M. et al. — Breed, age, and social environment are associated with personality traits in dogs (iScience, 2023) Found that personality traits are shaped by genetics, age, and social experience — stable but individually variable.
Somppi, S. et al. — Dog–Owner Relationship and Stress Response (2022) Examined how the dog-owner relationship influences physiological and behavioral stress responses.
Sundman, A.-S. et al. — Long-term stress levels are synchronized in dogs and their owners (Scientific Reports, 2019) Found that dogs and their owners share long-term cortisol patterns — the emotional climate of the household shapes a dog’s baseline stress level.
Svartberg, K. — A possible basis for personality in dogs: Individual differences in affective predispositions (Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 2022) Proposed that stable personality traits are rooted in emotional predisposition — temperament reflects inner emotional life, not just learned behavior.
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Sensory Sensitivity & Stress Response
Dogs vary significantly in how they process sensory input and how their nervous systems respond to stimulation. A dog who withdraws from crowds, resists handling, or becomes reactive in certain environments may be responding to a genuinely higher level of sensory input rather than being difficult or poorly trained. Understanding a dog’s sensitivity threshold changes how you interpret and respond to their behavior.
Sources:
Beerda, B., Schilder, M. B., van Hooff, J., & de Vries, H. W. — Manifestations of chronic and acute stress in dogs (1997) Documents the physical and behavioral signs of acute and chronic stress in dogs, including withdrawal, tension, and restlessness.
Franzini De Souza, C. C. et al. — Use of behavioral and physiological responses for scoring sound sensitivity in dogs (2018) Establishes measurable differences in how dogs process sensory stimulation at a physiological level.
Grigg, E. K. et al. — Household sounds and dog stress responses (2021) Found that owners frequently underestimate their dog’s stress responses to everyday sensory input, mistaking sensitivity for misbehavior.
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Communication & Behavior as Language
Dogs communicate continuously through body language, vocalization, and behavior. What looks like defiance, neediness, stubbornness, or bossiness is almost always purposeful communication. The research base in animal behavior and cognitive ethology supports the view that dogs are active communicators with intention behind their actions. The profiles help translate that communication into something their humans can understand and respond to.
Sources:
Gaunet, F. — Dogs respond differently to human emotional expressions (2014) Found that dogs adjust their communication in response to human emotional cues — active and intentional.
Horowitz, A. — Inside of a Dog (2009) Explores how dogs perceive the world and how their behavior reflects an inner life humans often misread.
Miklósi, Á. — Dog Behavior, Evolution, and Cognition (2007) Comprehensive examination of dog behavior, communication, and cognitive abilities, establishing dogs as sophisticated social communicators.
Morrill, K. et al. — Ancestry-inclusive dog genomics challenges popular breed stereotypes (Science, 2022) Found that behavioral traits are not reliably predicted by breed, supporting individual temperament over generalized assumptions.
National Canine Research Council — The Indispensable Human-Canine Bond Documents the depth of the human-dog relationship and why understanding individual dog behavior matters.
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Shelter Dogs
Research shows that behavior is one of the leading reasons adopted dogs are returned to shelters. Even more striking, more than a third of behavior-related returns occur within the first week, and the median time before return for nuisance behaviors is just three days. These findings suggest that many dogs are surrendered before they’ve had enough time to adjust—and before their new families have had the opportunity to truly understand them. By helping people recognize what’s normal, set realistic expectations, and better understand their dog’s personality, we have an opportunity to strengthen the human-animal bond and help more dogs stay in the homes that chose them.
Sources:
Powell, L. et al. — Predictors of Dog Adoption Returns (2021)
Analyzed nearly 24,000 dog adoptions and found that behavioral concerns were the leading reason dogs were returned to shelters, accounting for 36.1% of returns.
Human Animal Support Services (HASS) — Data Insight on Reducing Returns (2024)
Found that nuisance behaviors are among the leading causes of adoption returns, with 37% of behavior-related returns occurring within the first week and a median return time of just three days, suggesting many dogs are returned before they’ve had sufficient time to adjust to their new home.
The Honored Dog™ Personality Profile Experience
A language you can use.
Canine cognition + Animal temperament + Human-animal bond = Language You Can Use
When you can name what you’re observing, you stop second-guessing it. The behavior that felt like a problem becomes something you recognize. Something you can work with. Something, often, you can begin to appreciate.
Learn your dog’s personality profile.
