Keynote Presentation
DR. Brian Hare
Saturday, October 28
11:00 am
The Puppy Kindergarten:
The New Science of Raising a Great Dog
What does it take to raise a great dog? This was the question that we hoped to answer when we enrolled one hundred and one Canine Companion service dog puppies in a longitudinal study of cognition and temperament at the Duke Puppy Kindergarten between 2018-2024. With the help of a retired service dog named Congo and hundreds of undergraduate volunteers, we set out to understand the secrets of the puppy mind. Applying the same games that psychologists use when exploring the development of young children, we tested when cognition critical to a dog’s training success first develops during a puppy’s final stage of rapid brain development (from approximately 8-20 weeks of age). We also socialized our puppies in two different ways to test which positive early experiences might enhance their abilities and give them a cognitive head-start. The results were surprising - maturational patterns varied greatly between cognitive skills, with puppies showing adult-like performance on some tasks only weeks after a skill emerged, while never achieving adult performance in others. Differences in rearing strategy did not lead to differences in developmental patterns while, in some cases, repeated testing enhanced cognitive development. The results suggest ways to integrate this new developmental understanding into training approaches. Raising dozens of puppies on a college campus allowed us to rigorously ask a host of other questions including how stress physiology, sleep, coprophagy develops and what rearing strategies are most likely to lead to a positive outcome. We use all the discoveries to ultimate provide science-based recommendations on how to best help our puppies grow up to be the best dogs they can possibly be.
Brian Hare, PhD
Dr. Brian Hare is a professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University in North Carolina and a core member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, founded the Hominoid Psychology Research Group while at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and subsequently created the Duke Canine Cognition Center when arriving at Duke University. He has co-authored four books and published over 100 scientific papers including in Science, Nature and PNAS. His research on dozens of different animal species has taken him everywhere from Siberia to the Congo Basin.
This work has revealed surprising but practical solutions for everything from increasing the supply of explosive detection dogs to reinforcing democratic institutions. Hare’s research has consistently received national and international media coverage including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, National Geographic, Time, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and more. His work has featured on television programs including 60 minutes, NOVA, and Nature as well as the series Is your dog a genius that he hosted for National Geographic Wild and Inside the mind of a dog for Netflix. His books The Genius of Dogs (New York Times Bestseller) and Survival of the Friendliest (International Bestseller) were written with his wife Vanessa Woods. Their newest book “The Puppy Kindergarten” was published August 2024 by Random House.
Past Keynote Speakers & Topics
Presentations have been recorded since 2011 and are available to members through the online video portal.
2024 - Dr. Nancy J. Newman Title:” Update on Optic Neuropathies."
2023 - Dr. Simon Dean Title:” Illuminating the path towards empiric safe and rapid treatment for all corneal infections."
2022 - Dr. Gustavo Aguirre Title:” From Dogs to DNA; from the Cage to the Bedside"
2021 - Dr. Michael R. Lappin Topic: Infectious Diseases
2020 - Dr. Molly Shoichet Title:"Regenerative Medicine Strategies in the Animal Models of Blindness"
2019 - Dr. Chris Murphy, Dr. Nandini Gandhi & Dr. Mark Mannis Title: "MAKING MISTAKES: THE IMPORTANCE OF FORGIVENESS”
2018 - Dr. Douglas Rhee Title: Conquering Intraocular Pressure: New and Traditional Pharmacologic, Laser, Surgical Approaches in Humans
2017 - Dr. Carol L. Shields Title: The Colorful Spectrum of Ocular Tumors in Humans
2016 - Dr. Randy Kardon Title: Pupil Light Reflex and Its Application to Both Veterinary, Laboratory and Human Translation
2015 - Dr. John R. Heckenlively Title: Is SARDS Really Cases of Autoimmune Retinopathy? Evaluation from the Human Perspective
2014 - Dr. Robert Noecker Title: Advances in Glaucoma, Cataract and Anterior Segment Surgery
2013 - Dr. Chris McGahan Title: New Roles for Iron in Ocular Physiology
2012 - Dr. Morton Smith Title: Second most effective tool for Honing your Diagnostic skills is the CPC
2011 - Dr. Ivan Schwab Title: Evolution's Witness
2010 - Dr. Mike Robinson Title:Advances in Ocular Drug Delivery
2009 - Dr. Martin Uram Title: Endoscopic Glaucoma and Retinal Surgery
2008 - Dr. Paul Koch Title: Cataract Surgery in two-legged patients
2007 - Dr Steve Arshinoff Title: Ophthalmic Viscosurgical Devices and Techniques to use them to their full Potential
2006 - Dr. Kirk Packo Title: Intravitreal Pharmacotherapy - Using Intraocular Inections to Treat Retinal Disease
2005 - Dr. Robert Anderson Title: Where are Omega-3 Fatty Acids and why are they so Important to the Retina?
2004 - Dr. Gustavo Aguirre Title: Gene Therapy for Retinal Disease in Dogs
