Domestic Animal Behavior Research

Abstract

Humans and Domestic Animals have many millennium long co-evolution.  Dogs were domesticated around 15,000 years ago, cows, sheep, and goats about 10,000 years ago and house cats around 7,500 years ago.  We can broadly differentiate between animals for companionship and those for food or work.  In the USA we keep roughly 90 million dogs and 74 million cats as companions. And every year our Animal Shelters euthanize 1.2 million dogs and 1.4 million cats (ASPCA numbers.) 

One of the primary reasons for animal surrenders are behavioral conflicts between the animal and the human (Kisley, Chung, Levitt, 2024).  Up to 34% of animal surrenders to shelters were the result of Aggression, Social Conflict, or Soiling.  It could be argued that better communication between humans and animals could reduce the conflict and reduce surrenders with subsequent euthanization of up to 50% of dogs and 60% of cats (ASPCA).  

Self-awareness of cats and dogs.  This is an ongoing study using our established protocol of using cat filters to elicit cognitive dissonance in cats to reveal self awareness.

Team Members