UBC Human-Animal Interaction Lab

The UBC Animal Welfare Program is hosting the 2026 Canine Science Conference in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, from June 4 - 6.
Registrations are now open!
Check out the conference website for more information: https://www.caninesciencesociety.org/

The Canine Science Conference provides an opportunity for scholars from many disciplines, such as animal welfare, physiology, genetics, behaviour, and human-dog interaction, to present their research to peers. All dog science enthusiasts are welcomed 🐶

As we finish with our data collection for the summer, we want to thank our last batch of graduates! 🐾 🎓

Roscoe, Franklin, Bacon, Abigail, Kissie, Dexter, Agnes, and Ani!

Thank you all for coming! 🐶

While we will be focusing for a bit on other aspects of our research, such as video coding and analyzing results, keep in mind that our online survey is still open, and you can still sign up for our participant database to be contacted for in-person studies later this year! (link in bio) 🖥️

Another great week comes to a close at the HAI lab!

Huge congratulations to our newest graduates 🎓 🥳

Graduates from the attachment study: Jules, Mirabelle, Lumiere, Hudson and Eva!
Graduate from the human interaction study: Beans, Mallow, Phil, Daisy, Halley and Luna!

It was a pleasure having you all with us 🐶

We will be soon winding down for the summer and pausing our calls for participants. But do not worry, our online survey is still open, and you can still sign up for our participant database to be contacted for in-person studies later this year! (link in bio)

Lots of new grads here at !

Please congratulate them all! 🎓 🥳

For the attachment study: Ollie, Timber, Maizee, Teddy, Taro, Pepper, Hugo, Penny, Penny, Simon, Winnie, Bacchus, Hazel, Scotch,

For the human interaction study: Sadie, Whiskey, Tintin, Leica, Henry, Lucy and Edie!

Thank you all for coming 🐾

🔍🔍🔍 Thank you to everyone who wrote volunteering to participate with their dogs of specific breeds after our last post. We are still looking for a shiba, a husky and a pointer (or setter), all adopted as adults 🐾

Huge congratulations to this week's graduates 🎓 🥳

Graduates from the attachment study: Sophie, Ellie (with a PhD), Rococo, Jerry, Cider and River 🐾

Graduates from the human interaction study: Trigzee (with a Phd) Charlie girl (with a Master’s), Beau (with a Master’s) and Evie 🐶

It was a pleasure having you all with us 😁

🔍🔍🔍 We are still looking for some specific pups for our attachment study. In particular we’d love to meet a Husky, Shiba, Poodle, Maltese and Havanese who joined the family as a young puppy (before they were 13 weeks 🐣)

Hello UBC HAI community

We need your help 📣

As you may know we have recently start a new interesting study about attachment style of dogs towards their owner very similar to research studies assessing the bond between infants and their caregivers.
The study focuses on the age of the dog at the time of adoption as a potential factor determining the extent of this bond.

We are now specifically in need of certain dog breeds and age groups.
We would like to have:

- 3 dogs from Retriever breeds such as Labrador, Golden, NSDT, Newfounland, Flat- or curly-coated) adopted as adults (at least at 12 months of age)
- 3 dogs from breeds such as Poodle, Maltese, Havanese adopted as puppies (before or up to 12 weeks of age)
- 2 Huskies or Shiba Inus adopted as puppies (before or up to 12 weeks of age)
- One Corgi adopted as an adult (at least at 12 months of age)

Please share this news with anyone who has a dog that might potentially meet this criteria.
This is an exciting opportunity for your dog to contribute into the science and receive a diploma from UBC 🎉

The attached photos were captured from sessions of this study (each session only takes 10 mins, for which you'll be invited to come to UBC Vancouver campus; parking is provided near the building)

Interested to participate?
Please email us 📧 at hai.lab@ubc

That’s a wrap on another week at the HAI lab!

Big cheers to all the recent grads 🎓 🥳

Attachment study graduates: Master’s: MoMo, Luna and Sage, Bachelor’s: Shadow, Ziggi and Oliver 🐾

Human interaction graduate: Charlie! 🐶

We loved meeting you all! 🐕

Our current survey is still live, and you can also register to be part of our in-person research studies 🤓 Check the link in our bio!

Another week ends here at the HAI lab 🤓

Congratulations to all new graduates 🎓 🥳

For the attachment study: Brophy, Trinket, Kaiser, Ruby, Everest, Maple, Luna, Berkshire
For the human interaction study: Howie (with a Master’s!) and Essie!

Thank you all for coming 🐕

Our latest survey is still available if you haven’t had a chance to take it yet, and you can also sign up to join our participant database for in-person studies! 🐾 Link in bio!

A very packed week here at !

Please congratulate all of our amazing new graduates 🎓 🥳

For the attachment study: Sadie, Annie, Romita, Angus, Kage, Jackson, Zara
Pekoe, Vanilla, Copper, Lexi and Witness!

For the human interaction study, therapy dogs: Olive (getting her Masters!) and Blue!

Thank you all for coming! 🐾

Remember our new survey study is still open (as well as the possibility to sign up to our database for in-person studies!🤓). See bio for the link!

Hi everyone! 🐶

We are launching an exciting new project exploring the bond of dogs and their guardians in BC.

We are taking this opportunity to also update our database to include the latest information about all the cool doggies who may be participating in our in-person studies.

Please keep in mind that we call dogs based on various criteria for different studies according to factors such as breed or being a mix, age, training experience, therapy dog experience, etc. 🐕

Right now, we are particularly interested in dogs adopted as adults, but all dogs are welcome to sign up 🐾

You can follow the qr code or the link in our bio to access the survey 🤓

Thank you!

Congratulations to our newest graduates ✨ 🎓 Mishka, Luna and Michael!

We have exciting news for this spring and summer! Besides continuing with our project about preferences for different types of human interaction in pets and therapy dogs... We just launched a new study about attachment 🐶 🐶 🐶

Stay tuned for more information coming next week! 🐾

Congratulations to our graduates! 🎉

As our food motivation research study comes to an end, we want to give a huge shoutout to our incredible student volunteers—without your support, completing the second phase of this study would not have been possible!

From left to right, our very own:




Bayarka

and, Kimberly

Thanks to your dedication, we reached a major milestone with over 40 dogs participating in this study!

From early morning sessions to late evenings, your commitment, patience, and hard work never went unnoticed. You brought warmth and professionalism into every interaction—with dogs, with people, and with the research itself.

You are all AMAZING! 🎉🙌🐶
and we’re so lucky to have had you on our team!