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Curious about Dog Emotion and cognition?

Dog Emotion and Cognition

offered by

🐕 Unlock the Genius of Your Dog: A Journey into Canine Emotion and Cognition

What if your dog knows more about you than you think?

Dog Emotion and Cognition, a groundbreaking online course from Duke University and renowned scientist Dr. Brian Hare, invites you to step inside your dog’s mind and discover the science of how dogs think, feel, learn—and love.

This course opens the door to dog psychology, revealing powerful insights from behavioral science, neuroscience, and evolutionary anthropology. You’ll explore how dogs experience emotions, communicate nonverbally, form attachments, and understand us far more intuitively than we ever imagined.

Whether you’re a curious dog lover, a professional trainer, or simply someone who wants a deeper bond with your furry friend, this course offers tools and discoveries that will transform the way you see dogs—and how they see you.

🎓 Course Outline: What You’ll Learn in 8 Engaging Modules

Introduction to Dog Emotion and Cognition

Meet Dr. Brian Hare and dive into the emerging science behind dog behavior and intelligence.
Evolution and Domestication

Explore how domestication shaped dogs’ social skills and emotional intelligence.
How Dogs Learn

Discover the learning strategies dogs use—from basic conditioning to problem-solving and imitation.
Canine Communication

Learn how dogs read human gestures, facial expressions, and vocal tones—and how they use body language to speak back.
Emotions and Empathy

Investigate whether dogs feel empathy, love, jealousy, and guilt—and how science measures these experiences.
Dog Intelligence: What Makes It Unique

Examine how canine cognition compares to that of primates, children, and even artificial intelligence.
Working Dogs and Extraordinary Minds

From service dogs to search-and-rescue heroes, explore the cognitive skills of working breeds.
Your Dog, Your Companion

Apply what you’ve learned to build stronger, more emotionally aware relationships with dogs in your life.

by CGMar 29, 2020
Great course! It develops each topic comprehensively and combines old and new approaches to improving our relationship with dogs and helping dogs learn to be included in our society.

by MCSep 23, 2018
Absolutely brilliant!!! I am a veterinarian and very into dogs, so it’s no surprise I liked it, but I think this could be just the course for anyone who has a dog or is thinking of getting one.

Dec 14, 2020

I learned valuable information about dogs. I can better understand the thought processes of my dogs. I like that the lecture slides were provided after the lectures so I could review them.

Brian Hare

Associate Professor Duke University

Dr. Brian Hare is a scientist, TV host and New York Times bestselling author. Hare is an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University in North Carolina and a member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, which is a division of the Duke Institute of Brain Science. He received his PhD from Harvard University, founded the Hominoid Psychology Research Group while at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and subsequently founded the Duke Canine Cognition Center when arriving at Duke University. His publications on dog cognition are among the heavily cited papers on dog behavior and intelligence. In 2004, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation named him a recipient of the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award, Germany’s most prestigious award for scientists under age 40. In 2007 Smithsonian magazine named him one of the top 37 U.S. scientists under 36. Hare’s research has consistently received national and international media coverage including The New York Times, The New Yorker, National Geographic, Time, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Nature, Wired, Science, CNN and ABC. Hare’s first book, The Genius of Dogs, is a New York Times Bestseller. He recently hosted the new special TV series on dog cognition “Is your dog a genius” on Nat Geo Wild.

WEEK
1
11 minutes to complete
Course Information
Dog Emotion and Cognition is a course designed to introduce the exciting new science of dog psychology to any level of dog enthusiast. In learning about dogs you will be introduced to evolutionary and cognitive theory, learn about experimental methodology, see how dogs compare to other species, and even have the chance to try some of the cognitive games you learn about with your own dog. The course is a great introduction to the field of animal cognition and animal behavior but is also relevant to anyone interested in human evolution or even dog training. When you finish you will think about your dog in a new way, will be ready to apply your new knowledge, and will be prepared to take higher level classes in the evolutionary or cognitive sciences.

1 video (Total 1 min), 1 reading
WEEK
2
3 hours to complete
The Paradox of a Best Friend That Evolved From Our Worst Enemy
This module will provide an introduction to cognitive psychology and evolution, while having direct application to your dog. At the beginning of each lecture, Dr. Hare will suggest an optional reading from his book The Genius of Dogs, as well as free Dognition games to play at www.dognition.com/mooc. Dr. Hare discusses how our evolutionary relationship with dogs is a puzzle. He describes the meaning of cognition and what it looks like with modern research on animals. Last, he discusses what Dognition is and how can be used like a laboratory for the class.

5 videos (Total 41 min), 4 readings, 4 quizzes
WEEK
3
4 hours to complete
How Biology Studies Cognitive Evolution
In this module, Dr. Hare describes how the internal processes of the mind are studied through experiments. He explains how animal problem solving is best explained as scientists work toward better understanding the topic. Next, he describes the ecological approach to cognition through an evolutionary lens, which involves Tinbergen’s four levels of analysis.

10 videos (Total 67 min), 4 readings, 5 quizzes
WEEK
4
2 hours to complete
Dogs Are Cognitively Remarkable
In this module, Dr. Hare describes how dogs are cognitively remarkable. He begins by explaining theory of mind, which, when viewed through the ecological approach, suggests that social problem solving drove primate and human cognitive evolution. Next, he describes how good dogs are at understanding communicative intentions, especially compared to apes. Dr. Hare has three hypotheses to explain the remarkable communication found in domestic dogs.

5 videos (Total 35 min), 2 readings, 3 quizzes

TOP REVIEWS FROM DOG EMOTION AND COGNITION

by LTAug 4, 2019
Great course with a lot of new information, not just about dogs but even domestication of other species, including humans. The predictability of aggression in humans would be an interesting next topic

The smartest dog in the world | 60 Minutes Archive

Enroll and Learn more

Coursera Plus provides access to most of our catalog, including popular Professional Certificates from Google and Meta. The following beginner-level Certificates are popular with learners, prepare learners for an in-demand role, and are worth highlighting as some of the great course options available to learners who subscribe to Coursera Plus:

🐶 Unlock the Genius of Your Dog

Join Dr. Brian Hare—renowned canine cognition expert—as he explores how dogs think, feel, and bond with us. Learn how science reveals your dog’s secret genius in this Coursera course from Duke University.

🎓 2-week course • Self-paced
🐾 Certificate upon completion
📘 Included with Coursera Plus

👉 Enroll Now with Coursera Plus

*Affiliate link – supports Cool Media, LLC while you learn!

By Ellie W

•
Apr 5, 2019

Fascinating material! I greatly enjoyed Dr. Hare’s presentations and learning more about dogs and cognitive processes across multiple species. I highly recommend investing in the optional reading material, “The Genius of Dogs,” book. This course was my first Coursera experience, inspiring me to check more courses. Thank you!

By Jeru J

•
Jun 1, 2019

This course is essential for a dog owner, business, trainer, or even if you are just a person who has an interest in dogs! Concise yet packed with information. Thank you

By Jennifer

•
Jul 14, 2021

Excellent course. Very interesting and made me think about how my Sunshine thinks. Unfortunately, she passed away a week ago and so I am not able to use Dognition with her. She is a Pekingese and has often been rated in low intelligence. Yes, she would not learn tricks and could barely be taught how to sit. Still, I often observed that she was very intelligent in that she was cunning or would find ways to communicate with me about a chew that was under that table and could not be reached, or a couple of months before she passed, would call me (even wake me up) to give her a piece of her treat. She had different barks, which I recognized as different needs eg when there is a stranger outside to when she wanted something from me. This course provided me with scientific acknowledgment of what I observed with Sunshine and also that it wasn’t just me that dogs (and animals) may have intelligence that we do not recognize as traditional intelligence of animals (eg doing tricks) or comparing it to humans.