How dogs love us. A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain

Acknowledgments

First, and foremost, I owe special gratitude to Andrew Brooks and Mark Spivak. Andrew took a risk by working on the project, giving up time from his PhD studies to follow our dream of reading the mind of a dog. Without his contributions and tireless work ethic, none of this could have happened. And without Mark, we would never have been able to train the dogs to go into the sca

The other people in the lab contributed in so many ways, large and small. Someday I will look back upon these two years and realize that it was a golden time, made special by the luck of having the right people at just the right time. Thanks to: Jan Barton, Kristina Blaine, Monica Capra, Gavin Ekins, David Freydkin, Lisa LaViers, Melanie Pincus, Michael Prietula, and Brandon Pye.

Outside of the lab, I am grateful to Larry Iten, director of the Emory IACUC, for not hanging up on me when I called him to propose the Dog Project. Larry helped me shepherd the project through the labyrinth of animal research regulations. Sarah Putney, director of the IRB, helped draft the consent form for dog owners and talked us through the implications of treating dogs like children in research. The veterinary staff at Emory has been great, with special thanks to Deborah Mook, Michael Huerkamp, and especially Rebeccah Hunter, who figured out how to keep the earmuffs on the dogs. At the sca

I am eternally grateful to everyone who volunteered their dogs and their time to be part of the Dog Project. Melissa Cate was the first to join the team with her dog McKenzie. Without them, this would have been no more than a cute dog trick for Callie. Thanks also to the members of the A-Team: Patricia King and Kady, Lorrie Backer and Caylin, Aliza Levenson and Tigger, Melanie Pincus and Huxley, and Richard Fischhof and Rocky.

Thanks to Jim Levine for encouraging me to chronicle the experiences of the Dog Project, helping develop the idea into a book, and matching me with David Moldawer at Amazon, who helped take the book to the finish line. Thanks to Bryan Meltz for her amazing photographic skill.

And finally, thanks to Kat, Helen, and Maddy for living with the Dog Project. I promise to remove the simulator from the living room someday.

About the Author

Author photograph © Bryan Meltz

GREGORY BERNS, M.D., Ph.D., is the Distinguished Professor of Neuroeconomics at Emory University. His research has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Los Angeles Times, Nature, Money, New Scientist, Psychology Today, and on CNN, NPR, ABC, and the BBC. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, two children, and three dogs.

@gberns