Last Updated on 04/09/2024 by Arun jain
Most students in Duke University’s Biological Sciences Building are trying to master the finer points of cellular biology, genetics, or evolution.
However, in a classroom, students simultaneously learn different lessons, such as how to sit politely and walk quietly on a leash. These furry students are enrolled at Duke Puppy Kindergarten, A research project Examining how dogs become who they are.
Each semester, a new class of puppies arrives from Canine Companions, a nonprofit organization that trains service dogs. Over the course of 12 weeks, the dogs play games designed to assess their temperament and cognitive abilities. The goal is to learn how to breed and identify dogs that can perform tasks such as assisting disabled children or veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The project is led by Brian Hare, an evolutionary anthropologist and cognitive scientist who directs the Duke Canine Cognition Center.
Dr. Hare and his wife, Vanessa Woods, a research scientist at the center, describe the study in their new book, “Puppy Kindergarten.” They spoke to The New York Times in a video call while a 10-month-old Labrador retriever named Neutron was at their feet. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
You have been studying dogs for a long time. What prompted you to focus on puppies in particular?
Brian Hare: This is a big problem in the working dog world, because the current approach is that you breed a lot of dogs and you don’t really find out if they can do these jobs until they’re 2 years old. Old If we could predict, before the dogs began their training, which dog would be most likely to make it?
And you raised these dogs in two different ways?
Vanessa Woods: We had 101 puppies. Half of them had a normal upbringing: they went home with the family and came for tests every two weeks. Another group was raised in this “supersocialized” state. We know that if you deprive puppies of socialization, it has all kinds of negative effects. What if you supersocialize them? That’s when we started Puppy Kindergarten.
At puppy kindergarten, each puppy has three to four “parents” — students they go home with. They move through the dorm. Then they go out in the same morning as kindergarten and we have about 100 volunteers. They moved into the Duke community with puppies. He went to the library. They visited the pediatric nurses at the hospital. They went to the dining hall. And then we compared the two groups.
Hare: For our cognitive measures, it had absolutely no effect, the two different ways we raised them. I would not have predicted it.
How do you explain it?
Hare: is a threshold. Our finding is not that “it doesn’t matter how you raise your dog.” But when you get above the threshold of responsible socialization—which is “I’ll take my dog outside, and they’ll meet new people and new dogs”—exaggeration that doesn’t really add up to anything measurable. benefits
the woods: There is good news. You are enough to raise your puppy. You don’t need 100 undergraduates.
Running a puppy kindergarten can seem like a dream job. Was it?
the woods: All the puppies come, and it’s great. Towards the end of the semester, you’re like, “Oh, my God, I’m so tired.” Nobody raises puppies this way for a reason. Their self-control does not take effect until they are about 10 to 12 weeks old. Then they start teething, and then they will have this increase in puppy energy. And it’s crazy.
Hare: You wake them up, they’re finally sleeping, they can go outside to the bathroom. And then they graduate, and we do it all over again. It was a dream job, but it’s a boring dream.
the woods: The whole point of the project was to see what effect we would have on dogs. What we didn’t expect was what it would do for the campus community. People loved these puppies. We have before and after survey data. Puppies are just the key to happiness.
Hare: Ten percent of the student body volunteer. It ended up bringing together people from all over campus, people who had never met but had this shared interest in dogs.
You see that different cognitive abilities develop at different times. Can you give me some examples?
Hare: Things that come online when puppies are 8 to 9 weeks old are following human gestures, basic memory and perceptual abilities. At about 10 to 12 weeks, puppies begin to have their first successes with a simple self-control task. They also start making eye contact with people.
Then, at 13 or 14 weeks, two things happen that are more complicated. They undergo a really tough self-control task. And they begin to pass the task of causal reasoning, where they have to understand that solid objects do not pass through each other.
Then there is the question of when they reach what adult-level performance will be. Their ability to follow gestures, for instance, reaches that of an adult within a week. It’s amazing. Self-control takes many, many weeks.
Not only do different skills emerge at different times, but individual dogs have different strengths and weaknesses.
Hare: Sure. There were dogs that were remarkably good—
the woods: Genius Puppies.
Hare: – who were really good at everything. And there were some puppies who weren’t very good at anything. Maybe this person is right here [gesturing toward Neutron].
the woods: Olfactory!
Hare. He was the only one. Neutron gets a perfect score on olfaction. But for most dogs, the scores were all over the place. Part of our job now is to follow these dogs as they grow up and see which cognitive profiles are most predictive of success.
What’s the takeaway for pet owners?
the woods: One thing I learned is that playing games with puppies is very interesting. Even with our old dog, Tessie – we ran her through experiments because we needed a pilot subject. Tessie had a terrible memory.
Hare: But he was very sympathetic. And I think that’s one of the really important things: love your dog for who they are. They will all be different. But who they are is a wonderful thing.
Post What a puppy kindergarten revealed about raising exceptional dogs appeared first New York Times.