When
Emily Bray, M.A., Ph.D., CAAB
Assistant Professor
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Arizona
Deciphering the minds of our canine companions: an in-depth exploration into their cognitive development
Abstract: Better understanding how dogs think is a valuable endeavor: their cognition bears similarities to our own, and it enables them to perform diverse roles in our society, leading to them partnering with humans in more ways than any other animal. In my talk, I will provide an overview of our long-term research into the development of canine cognitive skills. For over a decade, we have been implementing a battery of standardized tasks in over 1,000 individuals from a population of assistance dogs. These tasks are designed to measure cognitive traits, such as impulse control, memory, and interest in humans, as well as temperament traits captured from dogs’ initial reactions to and subsequent recoveries from being exposed to novel objects and unexpected events. By testing dogs at different ages, we can begin to determine when skills of interest start to emerge and how they change over development. By testing many of the same dogs at multiple timepoints, we can look at the extent to which puppy behavior predicts adult behavior. And by testing dogs with known pedigrees, we can calculate how much of the variation that we see in any given trait is due to genetics (i.e., the heritability of each trait).