⚛️🥼 Since 2018, we've partnered with the dukeuniversity Canine Cognition Center to better understand puppy social and cognitive development. Over the course of a five-year study, the Duke team played cognition games with Canine Companions #puppies every two weeks from ~8-20 weeks of age. This study also explored rearing differences during this early period of brain development: some puppies enrolled in the Duke Puppy Kindergarten lived on campus with students, while others lived in homes with their puppy raisers. A new paper published in Animal Behaviour in January 2026 shares some of the exciting findings. 🐶 New Research: Puppy Skills Don’t Develop at the Same Time The study followed more than 100 future #servicedog puppies and has revealed something fascinating: puppy cognitive skills don’t all develop at the same time. Instead, different abilities “switch on” at different ages — a pattern scientists call Multiple Intelligences, meaning there isn’t one single “smartness” ...