If you’re like a lot of us here at Brit + Co., you’re a proud doggy mama or papa. And that means you totally get why we call those little rascals “(wo)man’s best friend.” Even your human BFF (who you’ve known since grade school and traveled around the world with) is not someone you’d let jump on you, lick your face, and wake you up by pouncing on your boobs.
Brian Hare is the founder and a crazy accomplished evolutionary anthropologist. He runs the Canine Cognition Center at Duke University and literally wrote the book on The Genius of Dogs. And that’s exactly what the small North-Carolina-based company aims to do, help you find the genius in your dog.
Through a questionnaire (completed by you, not Fido) accompanied by ten games (completed by Fido, not you), Dognition tests five personality traits: communication, cunning, empathy, memory, and reasoning. Rufus is then assigned a personality type. From there you can see how he compares with other dogs of the same breed, size, and age, as well as a comparison with other breeds.
Why is this attractive to you? Because. It helps you discover your dog’s preferred mode of communication and what motivates him or her. Like, is he doing tricks just for fun or because he wants that homemade treat or Beggin’ Strip really, really bad? It also helps you decipher if your lovable little ankle biter doesn’t sit because he truly doesn’t understand what you’re saying or because he just doesn’t really give two hoots what you tell him to do.
This sort of relationship therapy is undoubtedly going to cost you. (We mean, you just found out that your supposed best friend is actually a stranger.). It’s $29 for the initial meet and greet. If you want to do more bonding (which we think you should), you can pay $89 for an entire year of monthly games and tips and tricks tailored to your pups personality, whether she be a Stargazer, a Socialite, or an Einstein. (All of our dogs undoubtedly fall into that last category.) Oh, and props to Turkey Temple for being the newest dog of Brit + Co. and seriously rocking those shades!
Want to get to know your best friend better? Let us know in the comments below!