From the first time a curious wolf approached fearful humans and managed to befriend them, dogs have been a big part of the human experience. For over 15,000 years, they’ve been our co-workers and companions. Since then, we've learned a lot about dogs and our relationship to them (as you'll learn if you watch Inside the Mind of a Dog, a new documentary on Netflix that includes research based on citizen science contributions). And yet there’s still so much we don’t know about them! To celebrate the Dog Days of Summer, try some of these dog-centric citizen science projects with your canine buddy. And, for your feline friends, we include a couple of cat projects, too!
A whole pack of slobber-worthy dog projects
This team at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest has totally gone to the dogs, with a half dozen different dog related citizen science projects currently running within their Family Dog Project. There’s one on how dogs age, one on how they react to different sounds, and even one for genius dogs who know hundreds of different words. The project was founded in 1994 to study the behavioral and cognitive aspects of the dog-human relationship, and they now claim to be the largest dog research group in the world.
How does your dog compare to others?
The C-BARQ (Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire) is a survey covering how your dog behaves in a variety of situations, along with your dog's personality and problem traits, like sampling your food, burying your car keys and making crank phone calls to the vet. Not only will you be contributing valuable information to a dataset used by hundreds of researchers, but you’ll also get back a report on your dog and how it compares to other dogs of the same breed and age. There’s also a survey for cat owners called Fe-BARQ!
Doggy DNA Collection
As with C-BARQ, Darwin’s Ark asks you to complete a survey about your dog’s behavior. But for a fee, you can also submit a small amount of DNA from your dog– your dog won’t even miss it– and will then send you a report with genetic and ancestry information about your pet. That information also gets stored in a large database, for use by researchers all over the world.
Send your dog ('s data) to Harvard!
Harvard researchers want to know how life experiences affect a dog’s behavior. Do traumatic experiences have profound effects? Do frequent changes of environment? The Dog Life Experience Study is in the first of three phases, with dog owners filling in a short online survey. The researchers are particularly interested in dogs that have some history of adversity or that are unusually fearful or otherwise reactive, but also need to hear about a variety of dogs with different experiences.
How do dogs age?
How do dogs age, and what can be done to help them live longer, healthier lives? That’s the aim of The Dog Aging Project, a collaboration between over 14 universities, including Texas A&M, University of Washington and Tufts University. To participate, just sign up and complete a survey. There is also a clinical trial studying the effects of the drug rapamycin on aging. The requirements for participating are available at the project website.
Help protect Doberman health
Like many dog breeds, the Doberman suffers from a variety of ailments due to inbreeding. The Doberman Diversity Project is compiling a comprehensive database of Doberman DNA, trying to find and understand genetic associations with diseases. As with Darwin’s Ark, participating in the study requires purchase of a DNA kit, and you will receive a detailed report about your dog. Your Doberman doesn’t need to be purebred to participate.
Does your cat fetch?
If you’re wondering why there are no Cat Days of Summer, you’re not alone! Maybe because cats are naturally cool? In any case, the Fetching Cats project will be running for only the next two months or so, through September, so if you have a cat that likes to fetch, please trot on over to the Fetching Cats project page and let them know all about it. You’ll answer a few surveys and submit videos of your cat’s fetching activity. The goal is to learn about feline social communication and play behavior.
And now, a dog's perspective
The domestication of wild humans thousands of years ago enables dogs today to live a life leisure. In this video a grateful dog shares some words of appreciation for loyal humans everywhere.
Even more canine content
C-BARQ is an online survey you can take with your dog. To learn more about it from lead researcher James Serpell, check out this encore presentation of SciStarter LIVE.
