Terra, Ringo and I were lucky enough to spend this past weekend in beautiful dog-friendly Newport, Rhode Island at the 2014 International SPARCS conference. It was 72 degrees and sunny everyday, filled with the lectures and discussions of the greatest minds at the forefront of canine science.

The lectures covered everything from the science of olfaction, canine origins, and the affect of owner behavior on dog personalities. But perhaps the most interesting research for pet owners was presented by James Serpell, with his canine behavioral assessment and research questionnaire, called the C-BARQ.

So far, the C-BARQ has been used to gather and compare data from over 22,000 service, military and working dogs AND an additional 25,000 pet dogs.

To learn more, or to compare your dog to others of the same breed, as well as all other pet dogs:

http://vetapps.vet.upenn.edu/cbarq/index.cfm

To learn more about the Society for Promotion of Applied Research in Canine Science, or to see the entire archive of lectures and videos: http://caninescience.info/