Take part in our dog studies

The dogs that take part in our studies are normal pet dogs living with their owner. We are interested in dogs that live in their natural environment – together with humans. Nearly any dog can take part in our studies, independent of age, breed, sex, whether trained or not. The dog only needs to fulfill three requirements.

Requirements for your dog's participation

1. The dog should be comfortable in an unknown environment without the owner, as the owner's presence might adulterate test results.
2. The dog should not be afraid of other people.
3. The dog should be keen on food or play in order to motivate him for participation.

Study procedure

For the individual studies, playful settings are established. Your dog will be presented with a problem to solve, with either food or toys serving as reward. Your dog's participation is always voluntary. We are constantly aiming to make your dog's stay in the testing rooms as comfortable as possible. Only a content  and motivated dog will be able to prove all his skills. During the stay, your dog gets to play with other dogs or with the person supervising the study. Your permission will be asked about this beforehand. We are also happy to provide you with a copy of your dog’ s study participation.

Database

The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology maintains a dog database, in which the information of interested dog owners and their dogs is saved. We select potential participants from this database, call their owners and invite them. The inclusion in our dog database does not obligate you to participate. If, for instance, you receive a call and the date for the dog study is inconvenient for you, you are always free to decline participation without giving any reasons. In addition we guarantee that your data will not be passed on to unauthorized individuals and that a deletion from the database is possible at any time.

Study duration

The length of the individual studies might vary from ten minutes to more than one hour. For some studies you will be invited only once whereas other studies imply several sessions. Of course you will be informed about the duration prior to your participation. How frequently your dog will be invited to our studies depends on the study and your dog’s motivation, but also on your own interest. Usually your dog will not be invited more often than three or four times a year.

Map

Directions to dog bungalow

Registration for studies

If you and your dog would like to take part in our dog research, we would be happy to register you in our database to invite you to one of our studies. For this purpose, please fill in this registration form and send it to the following address:

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Hundestudien
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig

or email it to: hundestudieneva.mpg.de
with subject: Registration of a dog

or send us a fax: +49 (0)341/ 3550-444

You can also phone us if you have questions or would like to register your dog:
Katrin Schumann
+49 (0)341/ 3550-412.

Click here to learn more about our dog studies team.

If you are interested in dog cognition in general:
Kaminski, J. & Bräuer, J. (2011) - So klug ist ihr Hund. Kosmos Verlag