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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Dog Emotion and Cognition by Duke University

4.7
stars
4,495 ratings

About the Course

Dog Emotion and Cognition will introduce you to the exciting new study of dog psychology, what the latest discoveries tell us about how dogs think and feel about us, and how we can use this new knowledge to further strengthen our relationship with our best friends....

Top reviews

LT

Aug 3, 2019

Great course with a lot of new information, not just about dogs but even domestication of other species, including humans. The predictability of aggression in humans would be an interesting next topic

DE

Dec 13, 2020

I learned valuable information about dogs. I can better understand the thought processes of my own dogs. I really like that the lecture slides were provided after the lectures, so I could review them.

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1 - 25 of 1,333 Reviews for Dog Emotion and Cognition

By רחלי נ

Oct 19, 2017

This course is not very informative, and it seems as though it is more of an advertisement to the lecturer's project then a real academic course

By Deborah B

Feb 26, 2016

I was really disappointed in this "course" for several reasons. I did not complete it, because it was really not worth spending time on. The organizer impressed me as only wanting to sell copies of his book on dog behavior and used the course as his vehicle. Then there were games to "purchase" online to facilitate teaching my dog cognitive skills. The videos were lacking in creativity. I was really disappointed with this, especially since its a cool topic that could easily be presented in a very exciting way. The artistic level, the videos, slides, etc were something a high school student could pull together. After taking solid courses like ModPo and Positive Psychology, I was amazed at the lack of effort that was put into this.

By Laure-Anne V

Aug 22, 2015

In my opinion:

The topics reviewed were too haphazardly selected.

The citations for quoted research were hard to impossible to find,

The course focused disproportionately on the lecturer's commercial ventures.

By Sara K

Aug 27, 2015

This is basically just one giant commercial for the web site. A whole lot of talk, but not a lot of information. I was going to finish the course anyway, to pick up what is in there, but I just cannot stand any more plugs. Very disappointed.

By Giulia

Apr 3, 2020

One long commercial on his book and website.

By Dorothy H

Feb 6, 2016

The three stars are because the parts actually giving information had value and I learned some interesting things. The 2 stars were removed because of the truly obnoxious plugging of the prof's own book and research project. He goes on and on about how fantastic it is how we can all participate in scientific research, but if I am SUPPLYING DATA, why do I have to pay for that privilege!? If it were really about the research he would want my data whether I paid for it or not. The course felt mostly like one big plug to make money. To make this course worthwhile you have fast forward a lot through the sales raps, which includes a few lectures in their entirety. It's also much better at twice speed, but most classes are. :)

By Rita Y D

May 7, 2020

This course was utterly disappointing. The Title and and course description are completely misleading to the actual content of the course which had very little to do with dog emotion and cognition. The focus of this course seemed to be on advertising the book and dognition. Weeks 1 through 5 SHOULD have been summarized in material worth of just 1 week. More in depth material regarding dog emotion and cognition should have been placed instead that would actually help those interested in LEARNING information that could in fact help individuals UNDERSTAND and possible strengthen their relationships with dogs. I did not need to know so much evolution.

By Tania R

May 24, 2019

I can not describe how much I enjoyed and learned in this course, Dr. Hare makes the course very interesting, all the resources show us how we evolved and the understanding that our best friends developed with us. I appreciate the digestible content.

By Lilian A

Mar 7, 2016

Good information contained within the course which has sparked my interest in continuing to learn and build on my small amount of knowledge. Lower rating than I would usually give for a course because of the way the lectures are delivered. Having a lecturer standing in front of a brick wall, plugging his book and not really connecting with online students was not great. A couple of times during the lectures I dozed off and had to re-run them. If the plugging of own material was removed and the background and tone of voice were altered this could be a captivating and interesting course.

By Sharat S

Sep 8, 2020

Talks more about his book rather than an actual course on dogs.

By Natalie E H

May 22, 2016

*No Stars*

Okay.... this class is very pointless. It is super boring and gives me little information. He says that you do not need to buy his book or visit his suggested website, however that is all he talks about.

At least the tests are not focused on that, its mostly on vague points he explains. I would not recommend this class.

By Shirley F R

May 31, 2019

Fue un curso ¡increíble, muy sustancioso, todo un regalo! Cada lección, cada experimento, completamente todo; me impactó. Y por supuesto; me declaro aún más enamorada de los perros, de su inteligencia en sus diferentes formas, de su compañía y de su bondad. Muchísimas gracias por la oportunidad de aprender tantas cosas maravillosas...

By Christian C

Sep 29, 2017

A decent course, but felt that it was a lot less about dogs than originally expected and the majority of the time is spent really deeply explain how the different experiments on dogs worked and marketing book and website of the teacher, which I don't really have a problem with, but didn't feel it needed lectures entirely devoted to how the website worked or that it needed to be included in the opening of every single video. The actual information is interesting and the teacher is very engaging would recommend if you like learning the history of dogs and discover new ways of looking at your pooch.

By C M

May 15, 2016

Very boring presentation. Far too much 'buy my book/go to MY website'., in it. If he did that in a RT University he would be hauled over the coals. Some interesting points made but most of the information given was from other's research.

A little less self-promotion and a little more work, combined with less boring presentation would move it up to 4*

By Hannah K

Apr 7, 2020

The course is designed around the prof's book and website, which are plugged constantly. This alone is a nuisance but then the lectures are at least twice as long as they need to be, if not more and dry as burnt toast. The slideshows are backdrops rather than companion pieces to the lectures. Test questions are written oddly and a fair amount of personal perception makes it into the whole course. Basically, there isn't a single aspect here that was pleasing but if you truly know nothing about dogs and don't mind learning from someone with dubious knowledge themselves, here you go.

By Delaila E

Dec 14, 2020

I learned valuable information about dogs. I can better understand the thought processes of my own dogs. I really like that the lecture slides were provided after the lectures, so I could review them.

By Rithvik.R

May 20, 2020

This course was very informative and interesting. Even people without dogs as pets and having an interest towards pets can take up this course. By doing so, we get to understand ourselves better.

By Cecilia G

Mar 28, 2020

Great course! It develops each topic comprehensively and combines old and new approaches to how we can improve our relationship with our dogs and help dogs learn to be included in our society.

By Paula R

Dec 6, 2015

Overall, I enjoyed this course, but it gave just a bit too much information on cognitive studies in other species, and it left me still wanting to learn more about dogs. The last 2 weeks were great! The professor was engaging and his work was very interesting, but he said ummm and ahhh so many times that it was a little distracting. The quizzes were good, but some of the questions were worded very oddly so I just couldn't get them right without several attempts. I didn't feel like he covered dog emotion at all. I thought there would be some discussion of facial expressions, the meaning of different tail wags, and the extent of dog emotion (for example, how they grieve and how long they grieve after a loss).

By Annika G

Feb 5, 2016

The lecturer was an annoying speaker and very repetitive. I just couldn't listen to him... I'm sorry. There was also so much about human development etc that I started to wonder when the info about dogs would start....I found the formatting so different from other courses I've taken, that it was hard to get started and figure things out. Adding to that, was the constant interruption of the "paid certificate" page. If I answer "no" once, please leave me alone! I also think it's a bit suspect for a prof to be plugging his own book for one of these courses.

By Jasmine

Apr 9, 2020

I completed the course. It said that this particular course was offered in the list of courses that receive a free certificate, an offer until the end of may (which I have screen shot off the page). However I have been told I have to pay for it ???? I'm not impressed by the misleading information, especially after hours of studying.

By steven R

May 27, 2017

shameless promotion of the dognotion program for purchase. No real educational value.

By Ellie W

Apr 5, 2019

Fascinating material! I greatly enjoyed Dr. Hare's presentations and learning not only more about dogs but also cognitive processes across multiple species. I highly recommend investing in the optional reading material, "The Genius of Dogs" book. This course was my first Coursera experience, and it has inspired me to check out more courses. Thank you!

By Jennifer L F

Mar 23, 2023

What a fascinating look into the burgeoning science around dog cognition, expanding beyond operant and classical conditioning. I hold a degree in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior and attended veterinary medical college and still learned some really fun things about dogs.

By Linda T

Aug 4, 2019

Great course with a lot of new information, not just about dogs but even domestication of other species, including humans. The predictability of aggression in humans would be an interesting next topic