Canine Cognition and
The Many Dogs Project

Jeff Stevens

Canine Cognition and Human Interaction Lab
Department of Psychology
Center for Brain, Biology & Behavior

Introduction

A bit about me

A bit about me

A bit about me

A bit about me

A bit about me

A bit about me

A bit about me

Canine Cognition and Human Interaction Lab

CCHIL Mission

We use biological and psychological approaches to understand dog behavior with the aim of improving how owners train, work with, and live with dogs

What we do

View of lab set-up with chair, bucket, and tripod on the floor and white, yellow, and blue circles and camera mounted on wall.

View of experimental set-up on grass with small black and brown dog approaching blue and yellow bowls with experimenter and tripod behind a black occulder.

Canine cognition

Are dogs colorblind?

Brown and white dog sitting on grass behind blue, orange, and red toys. Brown and white dog sitting on grass behind blue, orange, and red toys but viewed through dog color vision, so everything is brown, yellow, an blue.

What dogs see

Illustration of dog color spectrum compared to human color spectrum.

Source: Pet Sitting Malta

What do dogs prefer?

Brown and white street dog approaching wooden tray with blue, yellow, and grey bowls.

Dynamite plot of percentage of each color bowl (blue, grey, and yellow) as first choice. Twice as many dogs chose yellow compared to blue or grey.

Roy et al. 2025

Replicate Roy et al. 2025

Do pet dogs in the U.S. prefer the color yellow?

Brown and white dog sitting behind grey, yellow, and blue bowls.

Color preference methods

Brown and white dog sitting behind grey, yellow, and blue bowls.
  • Tested 134 dogs under 7 years old at dog parks
  • Chose between grey, yellow, and blue bowls
  • Recorded first bowl approached

Color preference methods

View of experimental set-up on grass with small black and brown dog approaching blue and yellow bowls with experimenter and tripod behind a black occulder.

Dogs preferred yellow

Plot of number of subjects for each bowl color showing stronger preference for yellow over blue.

But what else might cause preference?

Image of wooden tray with blue, yellow, and grey bowls.

Image of wooden tray with blue, yellow, and grey bowls.

Image of wooden tray with blue, yellow, and grey bowls using a filter for dog vision.

Brightness methods

Illustration of light, medium, and grey bowl.
  • 141 dogs under 7 at dog parks, bars, and daycares
  • Chose between light, medium, and dark grey bowls

Dogs didn’t prefer light grey

Plot of number of subjects choosing light, medium, and dark grey bowls showing slight preference for dark bowls.

Study conclusions

  • Young pet dogs in the U.S. prefer the color yellow for food bowls

  • Replicated Roy et al. (2025)

  • Brightness can’t account for this preference

Brown and white dog playing with yellow dog puzzle.

Photo by Ayla Verschueren on Unsplash

Why do we care about dog color preferences?

Image of multi-colored dog toys on carpet or grass for both human and dog color vision.

Image of multi-colored dog in animal shelter.

Image of person pointing to one of two blue cups.

Sources: pawleaks.com, 12photostory on Unsplash, and CCHIL

Lessons

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Go Big…Team!

What is big team science?

Why big team science?

ManyDogs Project

International research consortium of scientists with shared interest in canine behavior and cognition (manydogs.org)

ManyDogs logo with yellow, orange, and blue dogs jumping between the words Many and Dogs.

ManyDogs Project

Map of the world with ManyDogs Project sites marked with blue dots.

ManyDogs 1

Research Question

Do dogs treat human pointing as communicative cues?

ManyDogs Project et al. 2023, Animal Behavior & Cognition

Demonstration

ManyDogs 1

  • 20 research sites
  • 704 dogs tested
  • 455 dogs with complete data
  • UNL CCHIL tested 80 dogs and 33 completed

ManyDogs Project et al. 2023, Animal Behavior & Cognition

Results

Site effects

Site differences

Study conclusions

  • Dogs were slightly better than chance but no difference between conditions

  • Pretty consistent findings across sites despite differences in demographics

Lessons

Current work

ManyDogs 2

Imitation

View of lab set-up with chair, bucket, and tripod on the floor and white, yellow, and blue circles and camera mounted on wall.

Odor

Close-up photo of dog nose surrounded by white fur.

Source: Kaylin Bocker on Unsplash

Physiology

Black and white border collie lying on table with heart rate monitor connected to his front leg.

Source: iStock/Robert Daly

Brain activity

Golden retriever lying on bed with EEG electrodes connected to its scalp.

Source: Vivien Reicher

Take home message

Find out more

dogcog.unl.edu unl-cchil @unl_cchil jstevens5@unl.edu