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It started when two canine scientists decide to become pen pals in an era of digital media...

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Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts

15 December 2014

Top 4 of 2014: Your Favourite Canine Science Posts

Top 4 of 2014: Your Favourite Canine Science Posts


As December rolls into its second half, and the days warm up - or cool down - depending on where you are situated on the globe, we wanted to say thank you for joining us in 2014 - we are continually blown away with the popular and supportive community we have around us at Do You Believe in Dog? here on the blog, on Facebook and also on Twitter

Taking our lead from Companion Animal Psychology, we decided to jump into some statistics (because hey, we are scientists!) to see what you made our most popular posts of 2014.

You voted with your clicks all year long and so, without further ado, here are the Top 4 Do You Believe in Dog posts of 2014:

# 4

What the pug is going on?

After seeing popular opinion of pugs framed as 'cute', Mia put together this review of the health issues facing brachycephalic breeds such as pugs, why it's a welfare concern and what can be done to raise awareness and improve the quality of life in future generations of these dogs. 


Read: What the pug is going on?

This piece was cross-posted to The Dodo
# 3

Dogs Are Like Porn: All Over the Internet and Waiting For You

Outlining all the ways you can actively participate in canine research, even without leaving the comfort of your couch, Julie compile this fantastic list of scientific studies seeking participants. You can be a citizen scientist!   

Read: Dogs Are Like Porn: All Over the Internet and Waiting For You



# 2

Dog Loses Ear at Dog Park and There Was Nothing We Could Do About It

"Dogs are confusing. People are confusing. Put them together in a public space, and it’s like all the circuses came to town on the same day." Julie outlines the issues of dogs and people combining in public spaces and offers many easily accessed resources and opportunities to educate ourselves so we can be proactive in preventing bad experiences for all.

Read: Dog Loses Ear at Dog Park and There Was Nothing We Could Do About It




# 1

Why do dogs lick people?

It started with a question on twitter, and turned out to be our most popular post of 2014.
With the photo by Chris Sembrot that can not be unseen, this post from Mia looked at what we have learned about why dog lick us - there's no one quick answer and some people were quite surprised at the depth of background, in evolutionary, social and environmental terms, behind what we consider an everyday behaviour. A big part of why we love canine science!

Read: Why do dogs lick people?

This piece was cross-posted to The Dodo

We're looking forward to sharing more great canine science with you in 2015. Have a safe and fun holiday season.

Further reading:
All the above!

Milkman K. & Berger J. (2014). The science of sharing and the sharing of science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1317511111

Scanlon E. (2013). Scholarship in the digital age: Open educational resources, publication and public engagement, British Journal of Educational Technology, 45 (1) 12-23. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12010

Stilgoe J. & J. Wilsdon (2014). Why should we promote public engagement with science?, Public Understanding of Science, 23 (1) 4-15. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963662513518154

Wong-Parodi G. & Strauss B.H. (2014). Team science for science communication., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, PMID: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25225381

© Do You Believe in Dog? 2014
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7 February 2014

SPARCS: Igniting interest in canine science

SPARCS: Igniting interest in canine science


We are thrilled to announce that the Do You Believe in Dog? duo, Julie and Mia, will be attending the Society for the Promotion of Applied Research in Canine Science 2014 Conference #SPARCS2014 in the exciting new role of hosts of the live broadcast. 



This year's line up looks amazing! Presentations from leading canine scientists -- based around the themes of "Aggression" and Conflict; Temperament and Personality and Applying Science in Training -- will take place over the three days:

Ray Coppinger 
Simon Gadbois
Sam Gosling
Kathryn Lord 
Patricia McConnell 
James K. Russell
James Serpell
Monique Udell
Clive Wynne


In our role as commentators, we will be on site at the Jane Pickens Theatre in Newport, interviewing speakers, and providing real-time analysis on the topics raised. Most importantly, we'll connect with the thousands of people tuning in from around the globe. Listeners at home will enjoy a more active role in #SPARCS2014.


How can you get involved?

If you'd like to join us in Rhode Island, there are a few ways to get there:

  1. Join SPARCS: GOLD membership gets you a free ticket to the conference and unlimited access to the recordings of the broadcasts for one year. SILVER membership gets you a 10% discount on tickets for the conference and unlimited access to the recordings of the broadcasts for one year.
  2. Attend the conference: You can buy tickets directly through the SPARCS website here
  3. Tune in to the FREE live stream of the conference from ANYWHERE in the world: You can sign up to be notified when the live stream is active herehttp://caninescience.info/live-stream/
  4. Follow the conference on social media: We'll be making sure people can follow the action on Twitter (follow #SPARCS2014)
Watching SPARCS2013 couch-side with friends on opposite sides of the globe!
We did this last year and it was AWESOME! Obviously not as wonderful as being there in person, but it is an amazing way to access these great scientists when geography tries to get in the way of a good time! So if you're in Denmark, Uruguay, Namibia, Antarctica, Brazil, the Phillipines, or anywhere in between, don't feel like you can't be part of #SPARCS2014, because you can!

More to come as the event approaches...

Mia & Julie
Recap of #SPARCS2013:


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9 September 2013

Robo-WOOF! What's happening in dog-human communication technology?

Robo-WOOF! What's happening in dog-human communication technology?


(Source)
Hey Julie,
Thank you for the gorgeous congratulations for winning I'm a Scientist, get me out of here! - what an amazing experience! So many students engaged in science and asking questions that made my head spin - fabulous, fabulous stuff! I learned so much!

One of the questions that came up a few times during the live chat sessions with student classes was about communication between dogs and people. I was asked "Do you think dogs will ever be able to talk to humans?" and "Why don't dogs talk? Why do they only bark?", as well as "Do dogs understand us? How?" and "Could we use technology to communicate with dogs?" - you see? They kept me on my toes!

My initial reactions were to say, "Dogs DO talk to us! They use their body language and their vocalisations extremely well, it's just that people aren't always fluent in listening to what they're telling us!" I also told them all about Chaser and her 1,200+ words, about the fact dogs' senses are different to ours (a much less visual, much more sniffy kind of a world).

Then one student said, "But what about this?":

 
Now Julie, I don't know about YOU, but somehow, I missed out on this 'BowLingual' device when it was launched in the early noughties. It's a: 
"computer-based dog-to-human language translation device developed by Japanese toy company Takara and first sold in Japan in 2002. Versions for South Korea and the United States were launched in 2003. The device was named by Time Magazine as a "Best Invention of 2002." The inventors of BowLingual, Keita Satoh, Dr. Matsumi Suzuki and Dr. Norio Kogure were awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for "promoting peace and harmony between the species.
The device is presented as a "translator" but has been called an "emotion analyzer". It is said to use technology to categorize dog barks into one of six standardized emotional categories. BowLingual also provides a phrase which is representative of that emotion. The product instructions clearly state that these phrases "are for entertainment purposes only" and are not meant to be accurate translations of each bark."
I totally endorse all those disclaimers, especially after reading this review by Dr Sophia Yin, but also can't help thinking if this 'toy' device can register a dog's bark and then categorize the dog's mood as happy, sad, on guard, assertive, frustrated or needy - couldn't we just listen and do the same ourselves? I mean, you know that, right? You recently covered the latest scientific findings regarding what dogs' barks are telling us, over at Scientific American and The Bark (ha!).  

So why can't we just listen? Learn? I certainly know the difference between my dogs' barks as to whether there's someone strange approaching our front door versus a family member or if they're just playing when I'm down the other end of our house. I'm teaching my daughter to tell the difference too. She's learning and she's just turned three.  

So is it really that hard? Or are people just lazy?



On the definitely-not-a-toy side of things, a Google Glass researcher has teamed up with a Georgia Institute of Technology professor to create FIDO (Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations) as wearable technology for working dogs to enable better communication with handlers. 


FIDO works by giving a service or detection dog a special sensor that can attach to its collar of a vest. The dog can interact with the sensor by biting, tugging or touching it with their nose and the handler will receive a corresponding signal ("bomb ahead", "hurricane alarm sounding" or "you have pancreatic cancer" are all examples given for different working dog contexts) as an audio or display cue. You can read more about FIDO in an interview with the professor from Georgia Tech here. 

Then there's the ICPooch, that's currently seeking funding via Kickstarter. The brain child of an entrepreneurial 13 year old (yep, you read that correctly) from the UK, the ICPooch promises to let you video talk with your dog (and deliver a treat cookie!) from anywhere in the world. 

Like this:





What do you think? Gimmick or something that has the potential to actually reduce separation anxiety in dog when their owners are away? Think dogs could potentially be remote trained by professional dog trainers? I wonder how well the dogs can actually SEE the display and whether they would respond differently to different people who 'dial in'. 

Very interested to hear your thoughts on this - hope you're well!

Mia

Further reading:

Tan D., Fitzpatrick G., Gutwin C., Begole B., Kellogg W.A., Paldanius M., Kärkkäinen T., Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila K., Juhlin O. & Häkkilä J. (2011) Communication technology for human-dog interaction: exploration of dog owners' experiences and expectations, Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2641. DOI:

Kerepesi A., Jonsson G.K., Miklósi Á., Topál J., Csányi V. & Magnusson M.S. (2005). Detection of temporal patterns in dog–human interaction, Behavioural Processes, 70 (1) 69-79. DOI:

© 2013 Mia Cobb | Do You Believe in Dog?
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