Research Programs
The research done at Purdue is diverse and driven by the varied interests of our faculty members and students. A few topics that we are or have been working on are:
- The psychosocial effects of service dogs for service dog recipients and their families with
- The evaluation of the effects of Animal-Assisted Intervention, for example:
- Provision of fish tanks in Alzheimer units
- Animal-assisted activities with guinea pigs in inclusion classrooms
- Systematic Literature Reviews
- Bird watching for families
- Prevalence of pets in classrooms
- The effect of robotic animals, particularly the robotic dog Aibo
- The development of a behavior coding tool for the rigorous evaluation of animal-assisted intervention
- OHAIRE coding system
- Collaborators: UC Denver, UC Irvine
- Populations: Typically Developing Children, Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Children with Attention Deficet Hyperactivity Disorder
- Goal: standardized tool for wide use in the field
- The evaluation of the efficiency of Breed-Specific Legislation in the United States
- The effects of rat tickling for rat welfare and the human-animal bond
- Canine Behavior Research at the Purdue Animal Behavior Clinic
Undergraduate Research Opportunities
- Earn course credit with the O'Haire lab (see below)
- Summer Research Opportunity Program
- Multicultural - Historically Black Institution Visitation
Organization for Human-Animal Interaction Research - OHAIRE
OHAIRE is a research group led by Dr. Maggie O'Haire at Purdue University. It includes national and international collaborators, students, and community members working together to conduct rigorous, scientific research on the unique and pervasive effects of interacting with animals. We study many areas of Human-Animal Interaction, including companion animals, service animals, and animal-assisted intervention. Please explore the website to learn more about our work, our people, and our sponsors. Please see the OHAIRE website for more information and opportunities for post-doctoral, graduate, undergraduate, and visiting scholar programs.
HABRI Central is an online platform for open research and collaboration into the relationships between humans and animals, specifically companion animals. HABRI Central uses a combination of library resources to facilitate the discovery, access, production, and preservation of human-animal interaction research.
HABRI Central is the result of a joint effort between Purdue University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Purdue University Libraries.
