Pets and Well-Being (PAW) Lab

It has been an exciting few weeks at the PAW Lab! First, one of our star PhD students, Erin King, successfully defended her dissertation! Congratulations, Dr. King! This week, the PAW Lab team celebrated completing recruitment for the Teen & Dog Study, with over 500 families now enrolled in the project! We are so grateful to these teenagers and their parents for sharing their experiences (and their dogs!) with us. The Teen & Dog Study is a five year longitudinal research project exploring how pet dog relationships support adolescent mental health and well-being. Expect to hear much more about this exciting study in the coming years!? To learn more about the project: https://lnkd.in/dgk3tMND

As the Teen & Dog Study is finishing up recruitment, we decided to start highlighting some of the fantastic four-legged family members participating in our study! Our 'Dogs of the Study' will run weekly. Head on over to our instagram (@teendogstudy) for a dose of doggy dopamine!

We are grateful for our talented PhD students Erin King and Nicole Mason, LMSW! Erin and Nicole are brilliant researchers and wonderful people who make our team shine. https://lnkd.in/e5nDqx39 https://lnkd.in/ey_kENfk Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University

The Center for Animals and Public Policy takes on the Crimson!

The Institute for Human-Animal Connection's instructor-led Animals and Human Health certificate program starts January 2025! This program is entirely virtual and the work is completed on your own time, within weekly due dates. Join us to build up your expertise in human-animal interactions and develop your very own human-animal interaction program or intervention that can be practically and ethically implemented into your current or future work. Our program's curriculum can be tailored to fit your specific species, population, and setting interests. Upon completion, earn 35 CEUs on a University of Denver transcript. Reach out to us with any questions at [email protected]. Read about one of our recent alumni's success after taking our certificate program here: https://lnkd.in/gNRXCpJ9 #ContinuingEducation #ProfessionalDevelopment #HAIs #HumanAnimal

“Insights from Three Studies on the Consequences of America's Affordable Housing Crisis on People, Pets, and Animal Shelters” Animal Matters Series seminar presented by Tufts University’s Center for Animals and Public Policy is taking place on Monday, 11/18 at noon (ET) on Zoom & on Tufts’ Grafton campus. Housing insecurity directly impacts people’s ability to acquire and keep pets for life…This presentation will share the results of three research projects, co-authored by our guest speaker Lauren Loney, a licensed attorney, researcher, and advocate crafting policies and lobbying on a variety of issues at local, state, and federal levels. Her talk will address the impact of restrictive pet policies in rental housing on pets, animal shelters, and the tenants who love them. Join us to learn about trends in pet relinquishment due to housing issues and several programmatic tools that may be most useful to mitigate the flow of these pets into animal shelters. Members of the public are invited to attend this seminar at no charge

Dogs are wonderful, especially during ruff times. That's why our Teen & Dog Study funded by the The National Institutes of Health is interested in how dogs - as part of a larger environment - affect social anxiety in teenagers. A cute poster with very relevant implications for our research!

“Insights from Three Studies on the Consequences of America's Affordable Housing Crisis on People, Pets, and Animal Shelters” Animal Matters Series seminar presented by Tufts University’s Center for Animals and Public Policy is taking place on Monday, 11/18 at noon (ET) on Zoom & on Tufts’ Grafton campus. Housing insecurity directly impacts people’s ability to acquire and keep pets for life…This presentation will share the results of three research projects, co-authored by our guest speaker Lauren Loney, a licensed attorney, researcher, and advocate crafting policies and lobbying on a variety of issues at local, state, and federal levels. Her talk will address the impact of restrictive pet policies in rental housing on pets, animal shelters, and the tenants who love them. Join us to learn about trends in pet relinquishment due to housing issues and several programmatic tools that may be most useful to mitigate the flow of these pets into animal shelters. Members of the public are invited to attend this seminar at no charge

Come see PAW Lab member Seana Dowling-Guyer talk about our amazing MAPP program!!

The PAW Pack is getting bigger! We are so excited to welcome Ramina Bebezova & Angie Zhong as Student Research Assistants, and Siyu Zhang as a Graduate Research Assistant! Ramina is a sophomore from Kyrgyzstan, studying Clinical Psychology and Child Study & Human Development and hoping to become a clinical psychologist in the future! She is passionate about developing accessible psychological interventions and believe that researching human-animal interactions provides amazing insights into how our companions can help maintain our mental health. Outside of the lab, she is also a research assistant at Translational Emotion and Memory Lab in the psychology department of Tufts University and an Events Coordinator at Tufts Active Minds. In her free time, she enjoys rewatching comfort shows, meeting with friends, and reading fantasy book series! Angie is a junior studying Cognitive Brain Science and Biology at Tufts interested in psychology and neuroscience. She’s excited to learn more about human-animal interactions and the benefits of pets on human wellbeing! In her free time, she likes to draw and helps with lighting in the student theatre groups on campus. She’s very excited about the cat cafe opening up soon and has fingers crossed that it’ll go well. Siyu (Syenna) Zhang is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Health, concentrating in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She is eager to apply her statistical and programming skills to real-world challenges. Beyond the laboratory, her research interests include exploring the association between women’s health and mental health. This interest has led her to the PAW lab, where I am deepening my understanding of how mental health impacts and exploring how human-pet interactions can improve mental health outcomes. She particularly likes dogs and dreams of owning a beagle in the future! In her leisure time, she enjoys attending concerts, visiting coffee shops, and painting. We are ecstatic to have them!