Fall 2025
- New publication out November 2025 in Frontiers in Veterinary Science: Demographic features, health status, and behavioral changes associated with cannabidiol use in the Dog Aging Project. Using Dog Aging Project data, we explored how reported CBD use in dogs varied by state, breed, sex, and health condition. Perhaps most intriguing, we looked longitudinally for the first time to see how behavior changed across dogs with consistent CBD use for at least 2 years compared to dogs with no use. We found that consistent CBD use was linked to a decline in the intensity of aggressive behaviors over time, but it would be premature to say that it was a causal relationship.
- New publication out September 2025 in GeroScience: Functional assessments of short-term spatial memory in the Dog Aging Project identify strong associations with age that are not moderated by body mass. Using Dog Aging Project data in which community scientists (i.e., dog owners) conducted cognitive assessments with their dogs at home, we show that while larger dogs might exhibit accelerated aging across many traits, the cognitive health trajectory of all dogs–regardless of body size–was highly similar, suggesting a neuroprotective advantage of large size in dogs!
- We are so excited to officially welcome Noah Stetson to the BRAY Lab! Noah is starting his PhD in psychology, and is co-advised by Dr. MacLean at the Arizona Canine Cognition Center.
- Dr. Bray was the closing keynote speaker at the 10th Annual International Courthouse Dog Conference, held in September in Orlando, FL.
Summer 2025
- The BRAY Lab traveled to the 34th International Society for Anthrozoology Conference in Saskatoon, Canada, where graduate student Dara Jonkoski was awarded 2nd place in the Best Student Poster Presentation competition for her poster, ‘Investigating the association between trainer ratings and independent assessments of desirable dog behavior’. Congratulations, Dara!
- We welcomed our 2nd cohort of Veterinary Summer Scholars Research Program students to the BRAY Lab and Arizona Canine Cognition Center. Both students presented posters in Spokane, Washington at the Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Symposium. Vivien Hugyetz presented on her research project entitled “Strengthening the bond?: Implications of pet talk frequency among older adults”, and Katie Murray presented on hers entitled “Identifying risk factors for cognitive decline in senior dogs”.
Spring 2025
- We are so excited to welcome two new faces this May! Britt Bash is joining the BRAY Lab as our Santa-Rosa based research technician, and Dr. Nicole Lorig is joining the BRAY and HAB Labs as our joint postdoctoral research associate. Welcome, Britt and Nicole!
- New publication out April 2025 in Applied Animal Behaviour Science applying machine learning techniques to gain insight into the outcomes of service dogs from Canine Companions and guide dogs from The Seeing Eye: Prediction of assistance dog training outcomes using machine learning and deep learning models.
- Congrats to BRAY Lab Undergraduate Honors Thesis Student, Jenna Bryant! She was recently awarded a 2025 Galileo Circle Scholarship in recognition of her outstanding research and community service contributions to the Collar Scholars club at the University of Arizona.
- We are thrilled to announce that BRAY Lab undergraduate research assistant Minho Lee, a current junior in the W.A. Franke Honors College, was just accepted into the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine through the HiVE (Honors in Veterinary Education) Early Assurance Program. Congratulations, Minho!!
- The BRAY Lab is excited to be a part of the Pets and Wellbeing Study Program. As part of the largest international study program investigating the impact of cats and dogs on human mental health and wellbeing, we have received funding from Mars and the Waltham Petcare Science Institute to co-lead the “Pets, Mental Health and Wellbeing in Diverse Populations” project alongside the HAB Lab. Read the press release here: https://www.mars.com/news-and-stories/press-releases-statements/mars-study-pets-contribution-human-wellbeing
- Dr. Bray and Dr. Evan MacLean of the Arizona Canine Cognition Center (ACCC) delivered the opening lecture of the 20th Annual University of Arizona College of Science lecture series at Centennial Hall on March 6th. Going along with this year’s theme (Can We Talk? The Science of Communication), Dr. Bray and Dr. MacLean’s lecture focused on dog-human communication. Click here to read more about their lecture and listen to a preview on Arizona Science. The talk was livestreamed and is now available on the UAZScience YouTube channel!
- Dr. Bray has been awarded the George H. Davis Travel Fellowship, which will support her travel to the inaugural Joint Symposium for Working K9s in April where she will be giving a plenary talk on The Working Mind: Studying the Cognition of Working Dogs Across the Lifespan.
Fall 2024
- We are thrilled to welcome Dara Jonkoski as the BRAY Lab’s first graduate student. She will be beginning her PhD in Psychology. Welcome, Dara!
- The Washington Post interviewed Dr. Bray for the article “They’re all good boys and girls, but only some can be service dogs”.
- Dr. Bray and Dr. Rodriguez traveled to Washington, D.C. to present their research on service dogs for veterans with PTSD, in collaboration with K9s for Warriors, to the Senate Mental Health Caucus on Capitol Hill.
- Aly Houle presented a talk on her summer research at the inaugural College of Veterinary Medicine Research Day.
- Dr. Bray was featured in the Netflix documentary, Inside the Mind of a Dog.
- New publication out Aug 2024 in GeroScience on a battery of tests we’ve been developing to look at cognitive aging in dogs: Characterizing dog cognitive aging using spontaneous problem-solving measures: development of a battery of tests from the Dog Aging Project. Read about the study in an article from DVM360 here.
- New publication out Aug 2024 in Hormones and Behavior revealing how hormone concentrations in young puppies are under strong genetic control, and looking at how hormones are related to temperament and cognition: Basal Plasma Oxytocin & Fecal Cortisol Concentrations are Highly Heritable and Associated with Individual Differences in Behavior & Cognition in Dog Puppies.
- Dr. Bray was a guest on NPR’s Seeking a Scientist podcast! Listen to the episode: Dogs are talking – are you listening?
Summer 2024
- We are excited that Mia Toll joined our team as the BRAY lab’s first research coordinator in June 2024. She will be based in Santa Rosa, CA at the site of our longtime research collaborators, Canine Companions. Welcome, Mia!
- We welcomed Aly Houle, our first vet student through the University of Arizona Veterinary Summer Scholars Research Program (VSSRP). Along with Natasha George— the Arizona Canine Cognition Center’s VSSRP student—she traveled to Canine Companions to help with our cognition testing and then presented a poster at the Boehringer Ingelheim Veterinary Scholars Symposium, entitled “Can service dog success be predicted at 8 weeks of age?”.
- Dr. Bray was awarded 4th prize in the Original Research Paper category of the 2024 GeroScience Outstanding Publication Awards for her paper, “Associations between physical activity and cognitive dysfunction in older companion dogs: results from the Dog Aging Project”
