Duke professor Brian Hare teaches psychology of dogs

Duke professor Brian Hare is proving that science can be fun—one dog at a time.

Hare, associate professor of evolutionary anthropology and member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, founded the Duke Canine Cognition Center in 2009 to do research into the psychology of dogs. In 2013, he launched Dognition.com, a website that provides paid access to a series of games that can be played by dogs and their owners. These games were designed to provide greater insight into dogs' minds and personalities. Since its creation, Dognition has received widespread media attention and led to a three-part series on "National Geographic WILD" hosted by Hare called “Is Your Dog a Genius?”

“[Dognition] is a great vehicle to get people excited about learning about their dogs as individuals and introduce them to this area of science that a lot of people don’t get to experience otherwise,” Hare said.

The three episodes—“Doggy See Doggy Do,” “Who’s Your Doggy” and “Talk Doggy to Me"—explain how the online games on the Dognition website are used to learn more about dogs. The data collected from these games is analyzed and summarized in a report that explains the dogs' strengths and weaknesses in five cognitive areas: empathy, communication, cunningness, memory and inferential reasoning skills. The dogs are then categorized into one of nine distinct personality types—among these are the "socialite," the "maverick," and the rare "Einstein."

In the series, Hare plays these games with so-called "hero dogs”—including those who work with the disabled and those who are trained to sniff out explosives—then travels to people's homes to play the same games with family dogs.

He said people who don’t usually think of their dogs as remarkable are surprised at how well their pets perform on the tests.

Hare said that although he is excited by the possibility of scientific advances, his favorite part is generating enthusiasm about science and making it accessible to everyone. From the beginning, Dognition was meant to make the work the Duke Canine Cognition Center had done available to the public, he added.

“For me, what’s so fun about this is that it proves not all powerful science is rocket science,” he said.

Along with the Dognition website and television appearances, Hare also teaches about dog psychology through a massive open online course titled Dog Emotion and Cognition. The course, which is currently accepting new students, launched Monday and is hosted by Coursera. The MOOC design allows people from all over the world who are interested in the topic to take a class on it.

Hare also tries to incorporate Dognition into the classes he teaches on campus. Instead of writing a term paper, students in Hare's classes play Dognition games with their dogs during Thanksgiving break to apply what they learned in class.

“What I like about him is that he’s not just going to accept tradition as the way to go,” said Eliot Cohen, Trinity ‘11, who helps manage Dognition and was on set for the filming of the "National Geographic WILD" series.

Hare has a special ability to make science relatable, accessible and easy to be enthusiastic about, said Frey.

“Not many people in academia have that skill,” he said.