| Project Dog
Meet the team
Discover the people and canines involved with Project Dog.
Team members
Dr. Danielle Stephens-Lewis
Danielle’s research relates to human-health outcomes associated with adverse experiences (substance use, adverse childhood experience, chronic illness etc.), including the development and evaluation of appropriate interventions and measures.
Whilst Danielle’s research has only recently included the health impact of pet companionship and canine behaviour, she has been involved in rescue and foster programmes for approximately 15 years. Additionally, Danielle is a certified canine behaviour specialist and Trainee Clinical Animal Behaviourist.
These anecdotal, professional and research interests led to the development of a multi-disciplinary, cross-institution alliance (Project Dog) and the subsequent Project Dog Research Programme. A programme of research examining the relationship between humans and canine companions, with an emphasis on behaviour.
In addition to examining human understanding of canine behaviour, this programme explores the relationship between canine companionship and human health.
Dr. Kim Schenke
Kim Schenke is a social neuroscientist with vast experience in quantitative research methods and analysis.
Her early work focused on investigating the automatic mechanism involved in predictive motor control (that is, the mechanism by which we implicitly learn the behavioral tendencies of others to predict how they will behave in the present). Thus she has strong expertise in associative learning (and subsequent action predictions), and the influence of others on our own actions and judgments.
She applied this knowledge in predictive motor control (alongside knowledge of operant conditioning) to train her dog to compete in the dog sport of agility.
Whilst she has always been interested in the relationship between humans and animals, her experiences of puppy (and, subsequently, agility) training peaked her interest in how dogs presenting with complex behaviors may affect this relationship (and the health benefits often associated with the human-dog bond). It was this that led her to combine with Danielle for the Project Dog research programme.
