Duke University鈥檚 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 until the money was depleted this year.
In the meantime, the Puppy Kindergarten will transition into a student-led club. The director of Duke鈥檚 Canine Cognition Center, Vanessa Woods, said the club's members just got its first pilot puppy named Mari.
鈥淲e'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. 鈥淎nd then, help Mari all the way through till he's 18 months old and ready to go to college.鈥�
After he鈥檚 18 months old, Mari will attend a service dog college. Duke's Puppy Kindergarten had over 100 puppies through the program over the last five years. Woods said although it鈥檚 paused, they are still doing work aside from studying the dogs.
鈥淲e are now concentrating on writing up the results, applying for a new grant and just doing, you know, that part of science that you know doesn't involve so much hugging of puppies,鈥� said Woods.
Still, she said the Puppy Kindergarten could start back at any time, if they're able to get another research grant.
