Spring 2025
- The BRAY Lab is hiring a research technician! This unique collaborative position will work closely with the BRAY Lab and our long-time collaborator Canine Companions to oversee our program of service dog research as we study age-related cognitive decline, cognitive and behavioral traits of successful working dogs, human-animal interactions and their impact on the mental health and wellbeing of both species. This is a full-time, in-person position based at Canine Companions headquarters in Santa Rosa, CA. You can apply here, and email ebray@arizona.edu with any questions. This position was posted on February 6, 2025, and will remain open until filled.
- Dr. Bray and Dr. Evan MacLean of the Arizona Canine Cognition Center (ACCC) will be giving a lecture at the University of Arizona series Can We Talk? The Science of Communication. Dr. Bray and Dr. MacLean’s lecture, titled Sit, Stay, Speak: Unleashing the Science of Dog-Human Communication, will focus on human-animal interaction. The lecture takes place on Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 7:00 PM at Centennial Hall, and will be available on YouTube after the lecture. Click here to read more about the Sit, Stay, Speak lecture and for more information on how to attend!
- 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 Student 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”
