Japanese version of the Dog Personality Scale: Reliability and validity based on owner and dog instructor evaluation and behavioral observation

Abstract Dog personality scales are used to assess the behavioral traits of dogs working in various situations. The purpose of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the Dog Personality Scale (JDPS) of Kubinyi et al. (2009), in order to serve the small-dog-oriented society of Japan. In Study 1, we conducted a pilot survey and factor analysis was performed on the collected data. As a result, four factors were extracted: “Calmness,” “Dog sociability,” “Boldness,” and “Trainability,” which were similar to those in the scale developed by Kubiny. Moreover, we confirmed the reliability of JDPS (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.69–0.79). In Study 2, the concurrent validity of the JDPS was confirmed by examining the relationship between the JDPS and the Problem Behavior Checklist (|r| = 0.02–0.55), as well as evaluations by dog owners and dog instructors (r = 0.65–0.88). In Study 3, the predictive validity of the scale was partially confirmed by examining the relationship between JDPS scores and actual behavior of the dogs (Calmness: r = 0.42; Trainability: r = 0.36). The newly developed JDPS has good reliability and validity and can easily be used to assess the behavioral traits of dogs in Japan.