The Dog Lab is a collaborative group involving faculty and students from Transylvania University and Berea College. Some of us study psychology, some biology or neuroscience; some are headed toward research careers, some toward veterinary medicine, and others are still figuring that part out. What we share is an interest in animals, behavior, and asking good questions.
Drs. Ellen Furlong & Rebecca Singer
Co-Principal Investigators | Transylvania University & Berea College
Ellen and Rebecca’s collaboration started long before there was a Transy Dog Lab.
They first met when Ellen was an undergraduate at Transy and Rebecca was a Ph.D. student at the University of Kentucky working in Dr. Tom Zentall’s comparative cognition lab. They weren’t studying dogs, though—they met while volunteering at the Primate Rescue Center. They became friends, but their careers took them in different directions: Ellen left Kentucky for graduate school and was gone for nearly 20 years chasing her career from Ohio to Connecticut to Illinois, while Rebecca finished her Ph.D. and began teaching at Georgetown College.
When Ellen accepted a position at Transy and moved back to Kentucky in 2022, catching up with Rebecca was high on her list. Reuniting over brunch turned into talking about research, talking about research turned into making research plans, and before brunch was over the two were collaborators as well as old friends.
Today, Ellen, a comparative psychologist at Transy, brings a research background spanning primates and dogs. Rebecca, a comparative psychologist at Berea, brings experience with marine mammals and behavioral neuroscience—as well as a lifelong interest in cats that may help explain the Dog Lab’s recent feline expansion.
They also share a love of teaching and mentoring undergraduates and very similar ideas about what they want a lab to feel like. Students take on meaningful work, develop their own ideas, make mistakes, solve problems, mentor one another, and gradually become collaborators themselves. The result is a lab that Ellen and Rebecca are very proud of—and, just as importantly, one where they genuinely enjoy spending their time.
Senior Lab Members
Katherine Judy ’27
Biology | Pre-Veterinary Medicine
Katherine joined the Dog Lab before she had ever taken a class with Dr. Furlong and has been a cornerstone of the lab ever since.
She works across nearly every part of our program: running research on campus, working on our long-term project at Canine Club, training and conducting research at the Lexington Humane Society, and helping newer students learn the ropes. She has received multiple grants supporting her summer research and has presented the lab’s work at both the Conference on Comparative Cognition and the Animal Behavior Society.
Katherine’s particular superpower is making things work. She builds experimental materials, troubleshoots studies, trains other students, and often has a solution to a problem before the rest of us have fully realized there is one.
Julia Whorton ’26
Neuroscience
Julia first found the Dog Lab through interest in Dr. Furlong’s work —and brought her own dog in to participate in our first study before becoming a researcher herself.
Since then, she has worked on research in the lab, at Canine Club, and at the Lexington Humane Society and has presented alongside Katherine at both the Conference on Comparative Cognition and the Animal Behavior Society.
Julia has become particularly interested in writing and science communication. She works on both research manuscripts and writing for public audiences and is often the person pushing us to think carefully about not only what our results mean, but how we should explain them.
Katherine + Julia
At this point, it’s difficult to tell the story of one without the other. Katherine and Julia work together across most of our major projects, co-lead work at the Lexington Humane Society, mentor newer researchers from Transy and Berea, travel to conferences together, and have had a hand in creating many of the traditions that have become part of everyday Dog Lab life.
They also bring very different strengths to the partnership. Katherine is frequently figuring out how we’re going to make something work while Julia is asking what it means and how we’re going to explain it. They’ve spent enough time working together that those roles overlap plenty, but the combination has served them—and us—very well.
Student Researchers
Our student team changes as students graduate, new researchers join us, and people’s interests take them in new directions. Our current researchers work across projects in the Dog Lab on campus, at Canine Club, and at the Lexington Humane Society.
Braden Antle
Transylvania University| Sophomore | Psychology | Spanish Minor
Braden joined the Dog Lab during his first year at Transy. Curiosity is his top VIA character strength, which seems appropriate for someone who enjoys watching dogs work through our studies—and especially watching their owners react to what their dogs do. After just one year in the lab, Braden presented at the Animal Behavior Society conference in 2026.
Braden is firmly on Team Small Dog and would choose to be a dachshund because “they can do everything and everybody loves them.”.
Caitlyn Buchannan
Transylvania University | Psychology | Sociology Minor | Class of 2028
For Caitlyn, one of the best parts of the Dog Lab is meeting all the new people and furry friends who come through our doors. She especially appreciates large dogs who haven’t quite realized they’re too big to be lap dogs.
Caitlyn’s interest in animals also extends beyond dogs. She traveled to Gibraltar with Dr. Furlong to study Barbary macaques and has continued putting her enthusiasm for travel to good use—including a recent trip to Italy.
Baylie Dixon
Berea College | Psychology | Sociology Minor | Class of 2027
Baylie is one of our Berea College researchers and has worked with the Dog Lab across multiple summers. She has also presented our research at the Conference on Comparative Cognition in Montreal.
One of Baylie’s favorite parts of the lab is meeting breeds she has never encountered before—and she’d happily meet all of them. She’s firmly on Team Large Dog: ideally, a dog should be big enough to knock her over. Given the opportunity to become one herself, she’d pick a husky: powerful, beautiful, active, and very, very loud.
Sophia Krohn
Transylvania University | Psychology / Music minor| Class of 2027
Sophia has been working in the Dog Lab since April 2026. She received a grant to spend the summer conducting research with us and especially enjoys meeting all the dogs who participate—and getting to know breeds she hasn’t encountered before. Having always lived with larger dogs herself, Sophia is firmly Team Big Dog. After graduation, she plans to pursue experimental psychology, and her time in the Dog Lab has already given her plenty of hands-on experience with the research process.
Molly Robinson
Transylvania University | Psychology & Political Science | Class of 2027
Molly has been part of the Dog Lab since her sophomore year, receiving a grant to support her research with us this past summer. One of her favorite parts of the work is meeting the many different people and breeds who come through the lab. Molly presented at the Animal Behavior Society conference in 2026.
Outside the lab, Molly competes on both Transy’s swim and soccer teams and lives with Bernese Mountain Dogs—which may explain why she’s firmly on Team Big Dog. If she could ask dogs one thing, though, she’d skip the research apparatus entirely: she’d just like to be able to talk to them.
Skye Struwig
Transy Alum | Psychology | Creative Writing
Skye joined the Dog Lab with an unusual qualification: a mild fear of dogs. Working in the lab gave her hands-on experience with the scientific process while also giving her plenty of opportunities to become more comfortable with its canine participants. As more of a cat person, she particularly appreciated Andy Joe, a slow and quiet dog she described as a “dog-shaped cat.”
Skye has now graduated, but we aren’t saying goodbye quite yet. A former Writing Center tutor with a minor in Creative Writing, she’s spending part of her gap year working with us on writing projects—putting a different set of skills to work as we turn our research into papers.
Ethan Winn
Transylvania University | Neuroscience and Philosophy | Class of 2027
Ethan joined the Dog Lab during the summer of 2026, while also working in a lab at the University of Kentucky and in the admissions office here at Transy. Ethan is a busy guy! Ethan is always interested in learning more: he’s a great addition to our Comparative Cognition Collaborative because of his curiosity and ease in talking to philosophers and scientists. Ethan is planning to pursue clinical psychology after he graduates.