Re-engagement Study for Puppies

Re-engagement Study for Puppies

Pets Assisting With Science (PAWS) Lab (University of St Andrews)

Who Can Participate

3- or 4-month-old puppy

What Happens

After completing the consent form, you will be redirected to our lab's website where you will find the instructions on how to complete the study on your own without a researcher present. For the procedure, you will be asked to play with your puppy for a minute, then asked to ignore your puppy for a minute, and then repeat this, with a play period at the end. Then, you will be asked to share your video by using a special upload link or a cloud service of your choice. You will be asked to complete the procedure once a month until your puppy reaches 12 months of age.

What We're Studying

We are investigating whether puppies re-engage their owner with communicative behaviors when their owner stops participating in a cooperative activity, such as playing with them. There is limited information on what puppies understand about participation in joint activities, and this study hopes to help address this.

Duration

10 minutes per month

Compensation

After every time you submit your video, you will receive a $7 Amazon e-gift card via email from Amazon.com (or, an equivalent, £5 Amazon e-gift card from Amazon.co.uk) within a month. One e-gift card will be provided per puppy that participated in a month of the study.

This study is conducted by Josep Call & Malinda Carpenter (contact: paws@st-andrews.ac.uk).

Would you like to participate in this study?