Good dog, Bad dog

university-of-waikato

Thu Sep 03 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Good dog, Bad dog

Thursday, 3 September 2009, 10:53 am
Press Release: University of Waikato

Media Release
September 3, 2009

Good dog, Bad dog

Wanted: A university student who can handle dogs, relates well to people and doesn’t mind giving up their summer to do some research. Waikato University is offering a record 107 research scholarships during the summer break and one involves studying human-dog communication.

Dr Nicola Starkey from the Department of Psychology says dogs have been living closely with humans for at least 14,000 years. They are social animals and are extremely good at reading human behaviour. “They fulfil so many different roles – pets, hunters, herders, protectors and they can be trained to a high level,” says Dr Starkey, “and yet, many owners have difficulty training their dogs to obey even basic commands.”

Dr Starkey wants to find out the most effective ways to get the best performances from dogs and needs a student to help her collect data. They’ll have to visit local dog training clubs, interview experienced and inexperienced dog trainers and take videos of trainers and dogs in action to determine factors that underlie training success. “This research opportunity will provide great training for any student wishing to pursue a career or study in animal behaviour,” she says.

The summer research scholarships are available for promising undergraduate, honours and first year masters students. They are for ten weeks and come with a $5,000 stipend for the student and provide supervisors with an extra pair of hands for their research projects.

Other scholarships on offer include the opportunity to study the letters of Frank Sargeson, workplace stress, stress in pregnancy, mapping and reporting ecological restoration projects, e-learning and open source software tools, why we cry over fiction, several education projects and a study of apology, remorse and reconciliation in relation to Waitangi Treaty settlements.

ENDS

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