About Pawsona

Our Story

Pawsona was born from a simple but profound observation: every pet owner knows their animal has a unique personality, but very few have the language to describe it. We all recognise that some dogs charge headfirst into every adventure while others hang back and observe. We know that some cats are chatty and needy while others are serene and self-contained. But until Pawsona, there was no structured, accessible framework to capture these differences.

Our founders — a team of product designers, animal behaviourists, and developers based in Los Angeles — built the first version of the CPTI quiz during the pandemic, when millions of people were suddenly spending more time with their pets than ever before and discovering, with fresh eyes, just how individual each animal’s personality truly is. That version had four questions and lived on a spreadsheet. The response from friends and family was overwhelming.

Over the following year, we worked with animal behaviour consultants to refine the framework, expanded to dogs and cats separately, added multilingual support, and built the platform you see today. Pawsona now supports over 16 CPTI dog personality types, 16 FPTI cat personality types, and a growing Breed Personality Explorer covering 60+ dog breeds and 30 cat breeds.

We are independent and bootstrapped — no venture funding, no corporate agenda. Our only goal is to help pet owners understand their companions better, and in doing so, build happier, healthier pet-human relationships.

Our Mission

To make pet care more personal, playful, and insightful — one personality at a time. We believe that when you understand how your pet thinks, feels, and processes the world, you become a better caretaker. You stop fighting against their nature and start working with it. You make smarter training decisions, create better environments, and forge deeper bonds. That’s the Pawsona promise.

The Science

The CPTI (Canine Personality Type Indicator) and FPTI (Feline Personality Type Indicator) are original personality frameworks developed specifically for companion animals. They draw on decades of animal behaviour research, including landmark studies by researchers at the University of Edinburgh on canine personality dimensions, work by Dr. Samuel Gosling on animal personality assessment, and the growing field of anthrozoology — the scientific study of human-animal interaction.

Both frameworks measure personality across four dimensions: Sociality (outgoing vs. selective), Exploration (adventurous vs. perceptive), Cooperation (affiliative vs. independent), and Emotionality (relaxed vs. vulnerable). These four dimensions emerged from factor analysis of observed pet behaviours and map reliably onto differences that owners and trainers observe in real-world settings.

The combination of these four dimensions yields 16 distinct personality types per species — analogous to how human personality typologies work, but grounded in the actual behavioural biology of dogs and cats. Unlike simplistic “energy level” assessments, the CPTI and FPTI capture the why behind behaviours, not just the what.

Our Methodology

Each quiz presents a series of situational questions that proxy real-world behavioural patterns. Instead of asking “is your dog energetic?” (which is hard to answer objectively), we ask questions like “how does your dog respond when meeting a stranger on a walk?” — a scenario with observable, described response options that reliably map to specific personality dimensions.

Owners are naturally the most accurate reporters of their pet’s behaviour in everyday contexts. Our questions are designed to tap into that knowledge — capturing patterns the owner has observed across weeks and months of living with their animal, rather than a single-session behavioural test. This proxy-reporting methodology is well-established in comparative psychology and produces results that are both valid and highly meaningful to owners.

Each question response increments scores on one or more personality axes. At the end of the quiz, the four axis scores are translated into the four-letter type code that forms the core of your result. The result page provides a full description of your pet’s type, including characteristic traits, behavioural tendencies, enrichment tips, and compatibility notes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Get in Touch

We love hearing from pet owners, trainers, and animal lovers. Whether you have feedback on a result, a question about our methodology, or just want to share your pet’s type — reach out at info@pawsona.xyz or find us on Instagram at @pawsonaapp.