Thinking about registering your dog to participate in our studiest? Looking for more information? Look no further! Here we will provide answers to some of your questions and tell you how to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
Almost any kind! We have two basic requirements:
1. Your dog will eat treats.
2. Your dog will not eat our students.
We want to understand dogs as they really are, so we welcome dogs of different breeds, sizes, ages, backgrounds, personalities, and levels of training. Your dog does not need to be especially well trained or particularly good at puzzles to participate.
Dogs do need to be able to see treats for these studies.
Nope. Different studies have different requirements, but in general we’re interested in what ordinary pet dogs do—not in finding canine geniuses. If a particular study requires something specific, we’ll tell you when we contact you.
Most dogs have a great time. Research in the Dog Lab usually involves exploring a new place, interacting with friendly humans, solving simple problems—and eating quite a few treats.
More importantly, if your dog isn’t having fun, we stop. We pay attention to each individual dog throughout a visit. A dog might be comfortable with one activity but not another, and that’s okay: if they aren’t comfortable with a particular activity, we stop.
Sometimes a dog arrives for a first visit feeling nervous about the unfamiliar room or people. In that case, we may skip the research entirely, have a treat party, let them explore, and try again another day. We often have dogs come back for visit number two ready to go!
It depends on the study! Most visits involve you and your dog coming to the Dog Lab on Transy’s campus, meeting our research team, and giving your dog some time to get comfortable.
We’ll explain the study to you before we begin. During the study, your dog might make choices between objects or treats, wait for something they want, interact with a researcher, or solve a simple problem. You generally handle your dog during the visit, which means you will see everything that your dog does.
If you’d like to see what studies generally look like you can visit our instagram or facebook pages. We have pinned videos highlighting some recent studies.
Studies are typically 45 minutes to an hour. That includes plenty of time for your dog to get comfortable in the space and sometimes time for you to fill out surveys about your dog.
We have dozens of treats. Most of our treats have ingredients that tend to be allergen friendly (salmon, venison, lamb) and we will ask you about allergies before we give your dog any food. We are always happy to use your treats if you prefer.
You will be with your dog at all times. You can take pictures and videos of your dog and post them on social media. We do not have any media embargos.
Then we’ve learned something!
There usually isn’t a “right” or a “wrong” way for a dog to perform in our studies. We’re interested in what dogs actually do, including what they do when they surprise us. Your dog’s job isn’t to impress us, and participating isn’t a test of whether you have a “smart” dog or whether you’ve trained them well. It’s not a day in the dog lab until someone has done something to make us laugh!
Complete our enrollment and we’ll add your dog to our participant database. When we’re recruiting for a study we’ll get in touch. Signing up doesn’t obligate you to participate.
Of course! Just be sure to fill out an enrollment form for each dog individually. Then when you hear from us about scheduling for a new study be sure to schedule an appointment for each dog. For most studies you may schedule back to back appointments and bring them together.
No! Different studies need different groups of dogs, and our research schedule changes throughout the academic year. Being in the database means we can contact you when we have a study for which your dog might be a good fit.
We are able to collect a lot more data in the summer when we and our students aren’t in the classroom – than during the academic year.
Despite the name on the door—apparently not!
Most of our research focuses on dogs, but we’ve recently begun studying cats at the Lexington Humane Society as well. That work is still new, so we’ll have more to share as it develops. We do not currently study pet cats, however.
We study dog learning, behavior, cognition, and training, and some of our teaching and research involves hands-on dog training. But we mostly stick to training in the context of our research. If we have a training study you will see it advertised and we’ll be happy to have your pup sign up!
Students from any major are welcome to reach out. You don’t need previous research experience or a particular career plan.
Email us and let them know you’re interested. We don’t always have an open position immediately, but we’re happy to hear from interested students and see what we have to offer.
Students can apply for support through Transy and Berea for summer research grants. Several of our students have used these grants to support their work full-time in the Dog Lab over the summer.
Maybe! The Dog Lab works closely with students through the Comparative Cognition Collaborative and other collaborations. If you’re a student or researcher elsewhere with an idea or interest that overlaps with our work, feel free to contact us.
Yes. We regularly give public talks and work with community organizations on animal behavior, cognition, welfare, and related topics.
If you’re looking for a speaker, have an animal-related project or problem you’d like help thinking about, or represent a shelter or nonprofit that could use some help, get in touch. We can’t take on everything, but we’re always happy to hear what you’re working on and see whether there’s a way we can help.
The lab is in the Mitchell Fine Arts building on Transy’s campus. A day or two before your appointment you will receive a text message with parking information. The building is locked and requires key swipe access so we will come and meet you and bring you to the lab. Please do NOT try to access the building without us. Not only is that against Transy policies, but we also want to ensure dogs do not meet face to face. This is for the safety of all of our participants.
If Transy closes due to weather we will reschedule appointments. We also will also reschedule appointments due to thunderstorms. The acoustics in the dog lab are such that thunder often sounds very loud inside the lab, and that plus being in a new and unfamiliar place can often unsettle even the bravest pups. We want dogs to have a good time and not be scared in the lab and will often err on the side of caution and reschedule if it looks like there will be bad weather.