Our expanding understanding of canines’ unique skills has fueled interest in service dogs among people with disabilities and the military, but it has also spawned scammers and years-long wait-lists. And in service dog organizations, with their controlled breeding and noble missions, canine researchers see ideal study populations. A neuroscientist who scanned the brains of service dog candidates found that washouts had higher activity in the area associated with excitability. Detection dogs Hare and MacLean tested did poorly, perhaps because their search tasks require a go-get-it lack of inhibition, Hare surmised. She was still many months away from starting service dog training, but on this small measure, she performed like a pro.

Source: Washington Post August 10, 2020 12:56 UTC