We are a group of researchers at Brown University who are interested in understanding how dogs think and learn. Our lab is currently looking for dogs and their owners to participate in studies!

Our canine cognition research explores dogs’ learning and reasoning abilities. We investigate dog’s learning in a variety of contexts including dogs’ physical problem-solving abilities (e.g., how to get treats out of puzzles) and their understanding of social information (e.g., following a pointing gesture or learning from a demonstration). Our research takes the form of short, interactive games and training exercises that are designed to be fun and engaging to dogs. We record dogs’ actions when interacting with people, toys, and puzzles, and the choices they make to learn more about their understanding of the world. We run studies both in-person at our lab space and virtually over Zoom! In our virtual studies, one of our researchers will video conference with you and your dog and guide you through one of our studies. In your new role as a canine cognition experimenter, you will engage in one of our short, interactive games with your dog while one of our researchers observes over video conferencing. In our in-person studies, you and your dog will come visit us at our lab space on the Brown University campus and engage with our activities with the help of one of our researchers.