Current Studies
All of our studies are a part of a greater interest we have in understanding the umwelt of dogs.
Vertical navigation - CLOSED
Dogs, like humans and other land-based mammals, are not highly skilled at vertical navigation. We take advantage of the ubiquity of apartment buildings in New York City to examine whether dogs living in those buildings can learn to distinguish which floor they are though using novel landmarks.
Ongoing Studies
Social function of shaking behavior
We have all seen dogs “shake-off” in contexts beyond being physically wet. By observing natural rapid oscillatory behaviors of dogs in social contexts (dog parks and doggy daycares), we aim to identify patterns in dog-dog and dog-human social behaviors surrounding “shaking” episodes.
Interspecific play behaviors
This citizen-science study explores the self-handicapping behavior and signals of interspecific play behavior in domestic cats and dogs. This is done in hopes of characterizing and understanding the social interactions between animals of different size, species, and methods of communication.