Ahead of the starting the telephone assessment:

Now I have a few questions about [DOG NAME] to help me get to know them better and identify if he/she is showing the foundations that we look for at this stage, which will form their PAWS temperament assessment.

The Temperament Assessment has been specially designed for individuals who are interested in joining a PAWS Therapy Dog Programme, and it helps to determine if your dog might be a good candidate for training as a PAWS Therapy Dog.

The assessment scores your dog over 5 key areas; Temperament, Other Dogs, Training, Behaviour and Health. 

Whilst all dogs are incredible, I’m sure you can understand that not every dog has the right temperament or attributes to be a Therapy dog. Only a small percentage of the dogs we assess are suitable - but you should know that we're not looking for perfection, it's all about potential!

As we work through the questions together, I'll be inputting your answers into our system and at the end of the assessment once submitted, it will produce a compatibility score - a percentage out of 100 - which I'll talk through with you.

After our call, you will also be emailed your personalised report which has your dog's compatibility score and recommendations, so that you can see your dog's results and have a physical copy of the assessment that we've completed today.

It's important for the score accuracy that you answer the questions as honestly as possible. If there's anything you're not sure about or you're not sure how to answer a question, just let me know and we chat it through more.

Is that all okay and are you happy to go ahead?