News
We are always looking for dogs and their owners, who like to participate in experiments testing their behaviour and cognition. For details see the page
If you are interested in receiving our news letter (email) 3-4 times a year, please send an email to cleverdoglab@gmail.com
We are looking for a research assistant!
Please look at the here for details!
Wolf Science Center
In May we opened our Wolf Science Center. Here, we study the cognitive abilities of wolves - which might also help also explain some of the behaviour we have noticed in dogs! More information about our Wolf Project is available at www.wolfscience.at!
With our newest study our dogs made in the cover of the American journal 'Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences'.
For further information about the study, look here.
Research focus:
Dogs learning from dogs and from humans,
Individual learning and problem solving abilities,
Communication,
Cooperation,
Attention,
Personality factors,
Interindividual relationships.
Why we study dogs
Domestic dogs, since their divergence from wolves at least 15,000 years ago, have become an integral part of the human communities, and not only reared but also selected to cooperate and communicate with humans, to predict their behaviour and to learn from them. Accordingly there may be three sources of possible collaborative capacities in dogs. Firstly they may have inherited a tendency for cooperative and synchronous behaviour from their wolf-like ancestors characterized by organized social dynamics of family groups and cooperative hunting. Secondly, during the course of domestications they seem to have developed novel capabilities compared to wolves enabling them to engage in cooperative and communicative situations with humans, as it is proved by differences found in experimental comparisons between dogs and wolves socialized by humans identically. Thirdly, in their individual life, dogs typically gain experiences and are trained to act cooperatively and in adaptation to human behaviour. Consequently, they are promising subjects in studies on behaviours and cognitive abilities requiring inclinations of collaboration and social knowledge transmission.
Research collaborations
Dr. Adam Miklosi, Department of Ethology, Eötvös Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary
Prof. Kurt Kotrschal, Konrad Lorenz Research Station, Grünau, Austria
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Universität Wien
Althanstrasse 14
A-1090 Wien
T: +43 1 4277 54471