Research Suggests Help for Loneliness

In today's Wall Street Journal, Susan Pinker shares the results of a 2019 study led by Lauren Powell, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. The study looked at whether getting a dog improved the owner’s activity level, cardiovascular health, and psychological state. On the physical side, owning a dog did not seem … Continue reading Research Suggests Help for Loneliness

“There Is No Current Case for Canine Exceptionalism”

That is the conclusion of a paper just published in the current issue of the journal Learning and Behavior. In other words, dogs are not as smart as people believe. The researchers set out to study dogs from three different perspectives: phylogenetically, as carnivoran and specifically a canid; ecologically, as social, cursorial hunters; and anthropogenically, … Continue reading “There Is No Current Case for Canine Exceptionalism”