The four core dimensions
| Dimension | What it organizes | Useful situations to observe |
|---|---|---|
| Social energy (E / I) | Approach, interaction, stimulation, and recovery | Visitors, busy walks, play groups, quiet time after activity |
| Exploration style (S / N) | Familiarity, novelty, sensory investigation, and route preference | New objects, changed routes, unfamiliar rooms, repeated games |
| Emotional responsiveness (T / F) | Response to tone, household mood, and social feedback | Calm correction, family tension, praise, recovery after excitement |
| Daily rhythm (J / P) | Preference for schedule and ability to adapt when plans change | Meal timing, delayed walks, travel, moved objects, changed routines |
The two Pro dimensions
| Dimension | What it organizes | Important limit |
|---|---|---|
| Separation response (A / S) | Owner-reported behavior around departure cues and time apart | It does not diagnose separation anxiety or rule out a medical cause |
| Cognitive style (C / R) | Preference for novelty, varied problems, or familiar learning patterns | It is not an intelligence score and does not rank trainability |
Why context belongs next to every score
Age, pain, medication, sleep, environment, reinforcement history, recent moves, household changes, and the observer's available examples can all affect an answer.
Use a score to generate better observation questions: Where does this pattern appear? Where does it disappear? How quickly does the dog recover? What changed just before the behavior changed?