I get paid to play with dogs and figure out how they communicate. Here are the qualifications I needed and the challenges of working in a niche field.

The essay is based on a conversation with the head of Dog Studies at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. It was edited for clarity and length.

I have worked with animals and children. I work with dogs, and I spend a lot of time watching them play and recording their behavior.

I am researching the similarities and differences between humans and other species. I study how dogs communicate with humans.

It's been proven that dogs understand human communication and cues better than most other animals, including monkeys and apes

I founded the Dog Studies Lab in 2016 at the Jena Max Planck Institute in Germany.

Scientists are supported in their research by the Max Planck Institutes, which work alongside universities. Most of the institutes are in Germany.

I started working with dogs in 2000 after joining the institute. The first paper about comparative psychology of dogs came out in 2001.

Experiments are developed to test ideas about how dogs communicate with humans.

You need to come up with an idea and then create the experiment.

I spend a lot of time working on the theory and designing the experiment. The process can take between three and four months.

Our lab is connected to the University of Jena and we have to send a proposal there. I applied for the approval before I started the tests.

I invite dog owners to the institute when I start an experiment. I go to the lab for four days once a month. Students are testing the experiment.

My Border collie, Nana, is our pilot dog, and she does any experiment I am working on for the first time. It will take a normal dog two hours to learn a trick or game in 20 minutes.

The experiments are enjoyable games for the dogs. If a dog seems distressed, we will not test them.

The most exciting part of the experiment is the first three dogs. If the dogs are doing what you want them to do, you can see if your experiment will work.

Watching the 45th dog do the test is less interesting when you have to test 50 dogs.

We record all the tests. It takes a long time to watch the recordings. We have to code the behavior, do the statistics and write the paper.

Depending on the size of the project, how long it takes to write up, and other factors, the time it takes from beginning to end is varied.

The dogs are recruited by local pet owners. When we relocated to Jena in 2015, we had an article in the local newspaper asking dog owners if they wanted to fill out a questionnaire and participate in our experiments.

We made a Facebook page and posted flyers in vets offices. We have a database of around 300 dogs and can reach out to them.

If the dog owners volunteer a certain number of times, I will give them a dog toy or food, but I don't have the money to pay them.

The most significant problem with doing this job is the lack of security. You never know when you will get your next contract.

It's very difficult to get funding because 'dog studies' isn't well-known and the process is drawn out

I have written about 40 proposals and only three have been funded. It takes me four months to come up with the idea and write it down for funding, and it takes the German Research Foundation between six and nine months to make a decision.

I received funding in 2020 for a project I started working on. I got funding for the next three years and I am very happy.

Loving dogs are not enough to do this job. You need to love the science as well. I am not near dogs all the time. I spend most of my time researching, writing and designing experiments.