Personality assessment for dogs in AAI Erasmus Project

Project Title

Personality assessment for dogs in AAI

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Quality Assurance; Research and innovation

Project Summary

Personality Assessment for Dogs in AAI (PADA) is a project that responded to the needs of dog therapy organizations in Europe. We have presented a reliable, science-based tool for testing dogs for work in dog therapy.
The dissemination of the result has contributed to its increasing popularity and implementation in more and more countries.

A scientifically based, standardised protocol for testing dogs for suitability to work in dog therapy has been developed. In addition to a comprehensive description of each test scenario used, the protocol includes a theoretical section summarising the scientific basis that allowed the tests to be developed in their final form. The protocol is accompanied by tools to facilitate the evaluator’s work – a test evaluation sheet with detailed scores. The tests are designed to test the dog’s personality and determine its suitability for work in AAI. As the correct assessment of a dog’s behaviour, the interpretation of its signals and the drawing of appropriate conclusions require specialist knowledge, a blended-learning course has been developed together with the test protocol to enable the proficient use of the protocol, the correct interpretation of the dog’s behaviour and to explain how to use the test evaluation sheet. The course is aimed at professionals – ethologists and dog trainers – who, building on previous experience and knowledge, wish to acquire new professional competencies. The course ends with an examination to become a certified PADA test evaluator. The certificate is uniform for all partner countries, and ultimately used by organizations around the world.
The project started with a research phase during which, by observing the behaviour of 96 dogs (from three countries) and the repeatability of this behaviour over time (after 6 months) a testing protocol was developed.
Then the final results were developed – the finished test protocol with appendices, blended-learning course curriculum and course materials.
After the development of results, there was a pilot phase, during which 22 participants were trained as evaluators. The training was addressed to professionals with a minimum of 3 years of experience working with dogs. The pilot phase allowed us to evaluate the results, their transparency and usefulness. Participants also took exams to test their knowledge and competence in dog testing. Based on the feedback from participants we have made corrections in the final shape of the results.
The project ended with an online dissemination conference attended by 180 people (including 97 from abroad). The participants were professionals and representatives of organizations working in the field of dog therapy. The aim of the conference was to inform a wide range of people from different countries about the results developed in the project and encourage them to implement them in their organizations.
The results of the project are also disseminated on the websites of the organizations, on the project website, and in an actively moderated discussion group on Facebook. The recipients of the dissemination activities are primarily dog therapists, organizations that bring together professionals and train dogs to support therapy and education. Due to the scientific nature of the results, the dissemination is also addressed to universities (as well as employees and students of these institutions) with majors related to animal therapy, education or behaviour.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 242415,4 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stowarzyszenie Zwierzeta Ludziom & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Dyrebar Omsorg AS
• EOTVOS LORAND TUDOMANYEGYETEM