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Dogged Justice


Oct 15, 2021

Have you ever wondered what it looks like to be an Animal Behavior Researcher? Emily Bray from the Arizona Canine Cognition Center joins Colleen and Jim in this episode. Emily takes our hosts through her process of working with puppies, tells them how the research is functionally applied and shares some of the activities she takes the working dogs through as well. 

Episode Highlights 

1:26 - Meet the first guest of Season 2 Emily Bray from the Arizona Canine Cognition Center & Canine Companions 

2:30 - The work that Canine Companions early development center does. 

4:35 - Emily’s process and her early work in animal behavior studies.

6:30 - Surprising behaviors discovered during the maternal studies.

10:05 - Jim & Emily reflect on how important the maternal work being done benefits all dog owners. Plus, where Jim has recently referenced the work.

12:30 - Why these long-term studies are so challenging to complete. 

17:00 - The benefits of these long-term studies and why it's worth being patient for them to be completed. 

18:00 - Emily goes deep on the cognitive research she's been conducting on working dogs. 

23:00 - How this research get’s functionally applied in the real world. 

26:00 - Jim points out how specialized puppy raisers' intuition and years of experience play a part in all of this. 

31:00 - Jim invites Emily to share her recent publications from the data she’s collected. 

33:00 - 3 tasks used in recent testing and what the results helped us understand. 

38:00 - Thinking about Blake, Colleen reflects on the daily tasks her facility dog would and would not be suited for.

40:45 - Jim and Emily talk through what makes positive and negative outcomes, and how a working dog's characteristics play a part. 

43:30 - What happens when a working dog isn't the right fit for the originally intended working environment. 

45:15 - Emily share's what it's like to work with these cute dogs all day as a professional animal behavior researcher.

If you'd like to know more about the work Emily does you can follow her website at https://www.emilyebray.com/