Category Archives: Dog Love

How has your dog surprised you?

May 1, 2013 by Nick Faber · 14 Comments

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When we adopted Teddy, the backstory we got about him was a little sketchy. Teddy had apparently belonged to a woman — one volunteer said she was elderly, one said she was younger — who mostly kept him outside. Or maybe she didn’t let him out enough. And was he brought in because the lady couldn’t care for him anymore, or because she was moving? No one could quite remember. All we knew about him for sure was what we could observe. He was black, fuzzy, and really excited to meet us.

Over the next few months, he began surprising us with little glimpses of his “true self,” things that we would only have otherwise known if we had been able to ask him. Continue reading →

Posted in Dog Love.

Bonding: From new dog to best friend

April 17, 2013 by Nick Faber · 9 Comments

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It’s funny to think that there was a time that Teddy, the furry love of my life, felt like a stranger to me. But he did for a while.

I recently asked my wife Janie, “When did you know Teddy was, y’know, our dog?”

Continue reading →

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Keeping your dog stimulated on a rainy day

April 11, 2013 by Nick Faber · 1 Comment

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If your dog is anything like my dog Teddy, outdoor time is part of your daily routine. Few things in this world make Teddy happier than running outside and chasing down his favorite ball. Next to fetch, Teddy’s other love is going for a nice walk. Teddy’s walks aren’t just good for his body; the sights and smells of the neighborhood are also good for mental stimulation.

But what about the times when it’s so rainy that even a walk seems like a perilous undertaking? When Teddy doesn’t get all of the mental and physical activity he requires, we sometimes get some less-than-desirable behavior around the house. Teddy might start throwing his own ball around the living room if he hasn’t had play or walk time. Or, if the ball is out of reach, he’ll play with garbage. Continue reading →

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Yellow Dogs and the Anti-Social Socialites

March 26, 2013 by Nick Faber · 1 Comment

Yellow Ribbon Dog
We’ve heard from some owners who have completed Dognition Assessment Toolkit with their dogs that they were initially a little surprised that their dog is a Socialite. When these owners think of the way their dog acts around strangers and new dogs, their Socialites seems anything but social. But once they read the in-depth description of our findings, the name Socialite begins to make sense. Continue reading →

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Does anyone else’s dog sleep like this?

March 5, 2013 by Nick Faber · 2 Comments

Does your dog sleep like this?

Sometimes dogs seem to behave in unexplainable ways. Some common behavior, such as gazing into your eyes or yawning, can currently be explained by science. Maybe someday we can also learn what’s behind other behavior, like why some dogs sleep in strange and funny positions, once enough of them have participated in Dognition. Continue reading →

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Why a dog’s vocabulary matters

February 27, 2013 by Nick Faber · 6 Comments

In the personality questionnaire at the beginning of the Dognition Experience, we ask you how many words your dog knows. Human words, that is.

It might take you a moment to count them on your fingers (and toes, if your dog knows a lot of words), but you could probably come up with an answer. Your dog might run to the door when you mention a “car ride”,  or maybe your dog knows the differences among the sodas in your fridge, like this Labrador Retriever does! Continue reading →

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Ernie’s Charmed Life

January 17, 2013 by Carmen Bocanegra · Leave a comment

I brag about my dog Ernie to anyone who will listen – the vet, folks at the dog park, or my friends and family (as any proud mama would). I think he is incredibly smart and the sweetest dog on earth — all 9.8 lbs of him.

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In September, I started working with Dognition, and Ernie and I got to play an early version of the games that make up the Dognition Assessment Toolkit. We found out that he is a Charmer, which I think makes perfect sense! Being a Charmer means that Ernie relies on my fiancé and me to help him navigate the world – we call him a “smooth operator.” We also learned that he’s incredibly empathetic (he gives the sweetest hugs and kisses).

This was very cool to discover, because empathy is a big component of what I try to incorporate into what I do for Dognition – experience design. Continue reading →

Posted in Dog Love, The Dognition Experience.

Dogs and cats: what’s in a name?

January 13, 2013 by Nick Faber · 7 Comments

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When my wife and I picked up our dog from the shelter, he already had a name. We tried to come up with other names that fit him, thinking we’d somehow have a more personalized experience adopting him if we got to name him ourselves.

We were driving back home and our new dog was in the backseat with my wife. “Bucket!” I said, glancing up at the mirror to see if he’d reply. Nothing.

“Are you a Bucket?” my wife said to him. He just looked out the window, nervous and excited. “Are you… Bandit?” she asked him. Nope. We tried a couple more names, mostly based on inanimate objects Continue reading →

Posted in Dog Love.

Finding Teddy’s Genius: The Gift of Understanding

December 23, 2012 by Nick Faber · Leave a comment

As part of my initiation to the Dognition team, I got to do a CAT assessment with Teddy, the mixed-breed dog I’d been sharing my life with for just over a year. Teddy and I had a pretty good relationship already. I knew what kinds of games he liked to play (fetch), what kind of food he liked to eat (wet), and what kind of people he liked to kiss (all of them). But I still had more questions. What motivates him? Why doesn’t he tell me when his water bowl is empty? Does he love me, or the liver snacks I give him?

Assessing Teddy was as fun and fascinating as I hoped. It used some of the very same science-based games I had seen on TV specials. I had tried in the past to emulate videos I’d seen of researchers pointing at cups, but had never been sure of what the “real” method was, or what I was actually discovering.
Continue reading →

Posted in Dog Love, The Dognition Experience. Tagged with , .