Duke University’s Puppy Kindergarten is pausing its research for now, until it gets more funding. The research group is a team of investigators that conduct cognitive tests on potential service puppies from eight to 20-weeks-old. The Duke Puppy Kindergarten was funded through a five-year grant with the National Institutes of Health until the money was depleted this year.
In the meantime, the Puppy Kindergarten will transition into a student-led club. The director of Duke’s Canine Cognition Center, Vanessa Woods, said the club’s members just got its first pilot puppy named Mari.
“We’re hoping, as the semester goes on, the puppy club can grow, and it can become kind of like a training, sort of like a pipeline for volunteers to come in and get some experience taking care of puppies,” she said. “And then, help Mari all the way through till he’s 18 months old and ready to go to college.”…