The pain scale includes six categories. Each category contains descriptors of various behaviors that are assigned numeric values. The assessor examines the descriptors in each category and decides whether a descriptor approximates the dog´s behavior. If so, the value for that descriptor is added to the patient´s pain score. Certain descriptors are mutually exclusive (eg. a dog cannot be in sternal recumbency and standing up at the same time). These mutually exclusive descriptors are grouped together with the notation “chose only one”. For category 4, mental status, the assessor must have completed a preprocedural assessment of the dog´s dominant/aggressive behavior to establish a baseline score. The mental status score is the absolute difference between preprocedural and postprocedural scores. The minimum possible total pain score is 0 points, the maximum possible total pain score is 27 points.

The examples of behavior referring to each item on the scale do not necessarily correspond to those considered by the authors of the article that developed the scale.