Pre-symposium seminar Wednesday (20 April)
Kerri Rodriguez
PTSD service dogs for military veterans: Current knowledge and future directions
PTSD service dogs are becoming increasingly popular for military veterans with PTSD. But what exactly do they do, and are they effective at treating PTSD? Dr. Rodriguez will discuss her research in this field, discussing current findings on how PTSD service dogs benefit military veterans and their families and future directions for research.
Symposium (21-22 April)
Anindita Bhadra
A dog's life in the human jungle
A large body of research is focused on understanding the ability of dogs to communicate with humans. However, these studies are based on pet dogs, which are raised and cared for by humans. Free-ranging/stray dogs that are present in many parts of the world, on the other hand, depend on humans as resources and interact with people on a regular basis. Hence, they can provide interesting insights into the nature of dogs and give pointers to how dogs might have evolved from wolf-like ancestors to become man’s best friend. The Dog Lab at IISER Kolkata has been engaged in studying the free-ranging dogs in India for nearly 13 years, delving into their ecology, behaviour and cognitive abilities. I will give an overview of our understanding of how free-ranging dogs survive in the human-dominated urban environment, co-existing with our species, with the keyword for their survival being flexibility.
John-Tyler Binfet
Dogs on campus: Lessons learned from 10 years overseeing canine-assisted interventions and programming
As the Director of the University of British Columbia’s canine therapy program “B.A.R.K.”, Dr. Binfet typically leaves work covered in dog hair. His research explores and examines how spending time with therapy dogs elicits a host of well-being benefits for students on campus. His talk will share insights and lessons learned from 10 years overseeing the B.A.R.K. program. Discover key findings from randomized controlled trials, hear heartfelt insights from participants in studies who share how therapy dogs enriched their post-secondary experience, and learn about what makes a strong dog-handler team. In addition to findings from his on-campus research with college students, Dr. Binfet will share findings from the Building Confidence through K9s program, a program that bolsters children’s social and emotional skills through interactions with therapy dogs.
Brian Hare
Is dog cognition the secret to working dog success?
Dogs have more jobs than ever, but the demand for the best trained dogs far exceeds the supply. The challenge is identifying dogs that are most likely to succeed with working dog training. Here I will present data on individual differences in dog psychology that demonstrate that dogs have different types of cognition and these abilities vary independently. I will then explain the potential of cognitive profiles in dogs to enhance the selection, breeding and rearing of working dogs. To tell the story I will share what we have learned so far about puppies, service dogs, bomb detection, genes and even some wolves. The ending we are working toward is one where 1) we can train a dog for the job it is most likely to succeed in and 2) more people in need can benefit from a larger supply of well trained dogs. I will conclude by sharing how we are currently working toward these goals.
Jeffrey Katz
Dog, human, and robot bonding: Past, present, and future
This presentation focuses on a series of studies related to attachment bonds in dogs, humans, and robots. A multimodal approach to understand interactions between these species integrates findings from behavioral tasks, surveys, and awake and unrestrained dog functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Findings from the object choice task, unsolvable task, secure base test, paired attachment test, C-BARQ, and fMRI findings in relation to attachment will be presented supporting the evolution of an attachment network in dogs. Experiments conducted to induce attachment between humans and dogs or robots in the form of play over a period of four weeks explore the formation of the attachment network. The neural correlates of human-dog attachment in comparison with putative human-robot attachment will be discussed with implications for ethorobotics.
Patricia Pendry
Conceptual and pathway models guiding research on identifying active treatment components of AAIs on stress-related outcomes
Initial randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining the efficacy of university-based AAIs have shown positive effects on university students’ physiological, socioemotional and cognitive functioning. While promising, the extent to which these findings can inform future implementation is still limited as the characteristics of the AAIs under examination varied considerably by type of interaction, dosage, frequency and intensity of animal touch or presence, context, target population, species, and ‘source’ of animals. In addition, because few study designs measure unique contributions of relevant comparison conditions, we do not know what the active treatment components of AAIs are, which outcomes and/or populations are most affected, and under what conditions. In this presentation, I will discuss a conceptual model - the Human Animal Interaction - Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HAI-HPA) Transactional model - which describes links between HAI and HPA-axis activity across multiple contexts of HAI exposure (e.g., pet ownership, presence). Next, I will present a pathway model - Touch Expect and Support Theory (TEST) - derived from the HAI-HPA transactional model – designed to guide research designs to test the active treatment components within the context of university-based AAIs and their effects on physiological regulation and associated outcomes. In addition to presenting the features of both models, I will present new findings from recent RCTs that incorporated reactivity sampling paradigms to capture immediate physiological responses indicative of HPA-axis activation and downregulation in response to participation in various AAI program sessions. Results provide initial support for the HAI-HPA Transactional Model of stress and coping in HAI contexts, particularly regarding the hypothesized direct effects of physical petting or touching on cortisol down-regulation and recovery in the face of a perceived stressor.
Friederike Range
Wolves-humans-dogs: How did domestication change the human-canine relationship?
Dogs are arguably human’s closest animal companions. Recent hypotheses have proposed that changes in their temperament (e.g. sociability, tameness and/or increased submissiveness) and cognitive abilities during the domestication process might be responsible for their ability to interact and cooperate with humans. Moreover, it has been proposed that alterations in their endocrine system during the domestication process may be the underlying mechanism of at least some of these changes. By comparing the social abilities and hormonal profiles of wolves and dogs that have the same life experiences, we can start to understand what changed in dogs during the domestication process. In this talk, I will give an overview about our research on human-canine interactions showing that dogs and wolves are very similar in many aspects, but also differ in some crucial ways, which make dogs definitely the better partners in daily interactions.