Dog Training Party Roles: An Adventuring Companion Guide

Reframing behavior through RPG-inspired roles for deeper understanding and personalized support.

Note for Trainers: Dogs may shift classes over time, or carry traits from more than one. This framework isn’t diagnostic—it’s an invitation to get curious about who your dog is, what motivates them, and how you can train in a way that feels like play.

Inspired by RPG systems and grounded in temperament insight, this guide turns your dog’s learning into an adventure worth sharing.

Want more information on evaluating your dog’s temperament? I highly recommend learning more about CARAT:

CARAT is an assessment tool that creates a detailed profile of the individual dog as a unique combination of many traits working together to influence, exacerbate, mitigate and enhance each other.

CARAT is not a test. There is no PASS or FAIL. CARAT is a scoring system, based on observable behaviors and patterns of response.

The goal is the creation of a profile for an individual animal. That profile may then be used to provide a deeper understanding of the individual and to evaluate suitability for a task, lifestyle or handler.

CARAT accurately describes temperament in a clear behavior profile for that individual dog. Those trained in CARAT will be able to consistently produce profiles that are reliable and reflect a high degree of agreement with others also trained in CARAT.

Additionally, CARAT profiles are predictive. Anyone trained in CARAT will be able to predict from a CARAT profile what a dog’s possible responses might be for a given scenario. CARAT profiles thus provide a way of understanding and sorting dogs efficiently and with clear, consistent organization of information about the dog.

-Suzanne Clothier