Category Archives: Dog Love

Yellow Dogs and the Anti-Social Socialites

March 26th, 2013 by Dognition

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.

Anti-Social yet Pro-Social

There’s a big difference between being uncomfortable in social situations and being non-social. Continue reading →

Posted in Dog Love, The Dognition Experience. Tagged with aggression, anxiety, shyness, yellow dog project.

Does anyone else’s dog sleep like this?

March 5th, 2013 by Dognition

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 →

Posted in Dog Love. Tagged with sleeping dogs.

Why a dog’s vocabulary matters

February 27th, 2013 by Dognition

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 →

Posted in Dog Love. Tagged with canine cognition science.

Ernie’s Charmed Life

January 17th, 2013 by Dognition

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.

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. Tagged with canine cognition science, dogs.

Dogs and cats: what’s in a name?

January 13th, 2013 by Dognition

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. Tagged with cat names, dog names.