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Unit 18: Biology Part 1 Page 51 of 60

Even just a male versus female dog could work. Just make sure they have
only one difference. Comparing an old male great dane to a female poodle
puppy is no good. If your dogs won’t make good test subjects, ask friends
and family.

1. Think of a behavior your dog does naturally, like eating, barking, or
going to the bathroom. You can even think of a behavior your dog has
learned, like doing a trick or catching a Frisbee.
2. Make a hypothesis about how the two dogs will do these activities
differently. Possible questions could be:
a. Do different breeds of dogs eat at different speeds?
b. Do young dogs bark more than old dogs?

c. Are female dogs able to learn more tricks than male dogs.
3. Design an experiment and test your results.

What’s Happening: Your results will give you information about the dogs you
tested, but you must avoid the temptation of thinking all dogs react the
same as the ones in your study. I once had a cocker spaniel that was afraid
of pillow. Does this mean all cocker spaniels are afraid of pillows? Of course
not! But if we let one dog from one experiment represent the entire breed,
these are the kinds of conclusions we get. If this was a true experiment,

we’d need to get hundreds, if not thousands of dogs involved. Still, this is a
good first step in getting an idea about this behavior.

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