How Can I Get Involved?
The Dog Lab depends on a lot of people—and a lot of dogs. Whether you’d like your dog to participate in research or you’re a Transy or Berea student interested in joining the team, we’d love to hear from you.
Sign your dog up for science!
We’re always looking for dogs to participate in our research. Our eligibility requirements are pretty rigorous:
- Your dog will eat treats.
- Your dog will not eat our students.
That’s pretty much it.
Dogs don’t need special training or impressive credentials. We want to study dogs as they really are, which means we need dogs of different breeds, sizes, ages, backgrounds, personalities, and training histories. More than 700 dogs and their people are already in our participant database, and we’re always happy to add more.
You can add your dog through our enrollment form. Signing up doesn’t commit you to anything. When we’re recruiting for a study that might be a good fit, we’ll contact you with information and you can decide whether you’d like to participate.
I have a nervous dog, I’m not sure they will participate.
Most dogs have a great time visiting the lab—there are, after all, a lot of treats involved. But your dog’s comfort comes first. We pay attention to what each dog is telling us and won’t push a dog to participate if they aren’t comfortable.
Sometimes a dog arrives for the first time feeling a little nervous, so instead of doing research, we have a treat party, let them explore, and invite them back another day. We’ve had dogs return for their second visit much more confident and ready to play.
Dogs can also have opinions about individual studies. A dog who is perfectly happy participating in one project may tell us that another isn’t for them. That’s okay. We want enthusiastic participation, not just usable data.
Are you a Transy or a Berea student wanting to work in the dog lab?
Students from any major are welcome to get involved in the Dog Lab. You don’t need previous research experience, you don’t need to be planning a career with animals, and you don’t need to have taken a particular class first.
If you’re curious, email us at the dog lab and tell us you’re interested.
We don’t always have an open spot immediately, but reaching out is the best place to start. Students enter the lab in lots of different ways and at different points in their college careers.
During the academic year, students may help with research in the Dog Lab, at Canine Club, or at the Lexington Humane Society. Depending on the project and their experience, that might mean working directly with animals running research sessions, coding video, managing data, helping with training, or working on presentations and papers.
Students interested in spending more time on research over the summer should also look at Transy’s GAC or Berea’s URCPP program. Several of our students have received grants that allow them to work in the lab full-time during the summer—and summer is often when some of our biggest data-collection efforts happen.
Not sure whether the Dog Lab is for you? That’s okay, too. Send an email and come talk to us. Curiosity is a perfectly good place to start.