"What Do All These Dog Studies Really Mean?"

We must be careful about making sweeping generalizations.

Dogs and studies of these amazing canids seem to be "in." Clearly we're learning a good deal about the cognitive, emotional, and moral lives of homed and free-ranging dogs from a wide variety of sources, some more credible than others.

Along with all sorts of media I encounter, I also receive queries about what all of these studies actually mean. The question in the title—"What Do All These Dog Studies Really Mean?"—came via email from a graduate student in canine studies. Felicity went on ask if I could make sense of a series of research essays published in the past 5-10 years, especially those that were concerned with studying "similar phenomena" but reporting different results.

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