18 Mar Help with Research Request
The club has been contacted asking for our members to help with some research into barking by a PhD student at the University of York. We are happy to pass this request onto our members via the self explanatory letter below including the link to help out and, as the letter explain, some of you may have seen this research discussed recently during Channel 4’s coverage of Crufts .
It is entirely optional for all members whether they choose to help and the club will have no record or knowledge of whether any member does or does not decide to contribute.
Thank you
Steve Green (BHC)
I hope this email finds you well? I am contacting you today about a dog research project myself and my PhD supervisor, Prof Katie Slocombe, are running at the University of York. We’re interested to see how flexibly dogs use their vocalisations across different situations and what type of vocalisations they produce.
We’re particularly keen to get a large and representative sample of working breeds, including Bernese Mountain dogs, to make sure we understand how individuals and breed types might differ in their vocal behaviour. Therefore, I was hoping you could share the following information along with the attached picture below with any Bernese Mountain Dog owners on Bernese Mountain Dog-specific Facebook groups you have or with breeders?
We were interviewed live on channel 4 by Ed Jackson about the project at Crufts the weekend before last, so if you’d like to watch the interview to learn more about the project, you can do so by visiting channel 4 on demand – Crufts episode 13, 2025 Day 3 – Part 1 from 48 minutes!
For facebook/breeders:
“You might have seen on the Channel 4’s coverage of Crufts an interview with Prof Katie Slocombe and Ella Williamson about dog vocal behaviour. These researchers from the University of York would love to understand how individuals and breeds differ in their vocal behaviour and so have asked us to share this:
We are interested in how flexibly dogs use their vocalisations in terms of the number of different in different situations they vocalise in and the type of vocalisations they produce in those situations. To understand how individuals and breeds might differ we need owners of as many different breeds (pedigree and cross-breeds) to tell us about their dogs as possible.
We would be very grateful if you could complete our short 10-20 minute online questionnaire by visiting https://york.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0j1StGatgH03Xv0 or www.vocaldog.org
To be eligible to participate, you need to be 18 years or above and own a dog who lives in the house with you.”
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this email – please do let me know if you have any questions!
best wishes,
Ella & Katie