“Inside the Mind of a Dog,” which aims to reveal the inner workings of man’s best friend, is available to stream now.| 5
CHARLES SWANSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
August 15, 2024, 4:26PM
A local nonprofit organization featured prominently in the new Netflix documentary “Inside the Mind of a Dog” is “excited” about its representation in the film.
The 75-minute program, released Aug. 9, aims to reveal the inner workings of man’s best friend, and Canine Companions, a Santa Rosa organization that trains service dogs, serves as the “backbone” of the film, according to Dr. Brenda Kennedy, the nonprofit’s vice president of health and research.
“We could not have asked for a more accurate, heartfelt and impactful way to represent our program,” Kennedy said.
The film, narrated by actor Rob Lowe, offers scientific and emotional insights into dogs’ behaviors with a strong focus on Canine Companions’ cognitive research and training programs.
Canine Companions was approached by the filmmakers in March 2023 through Dr. Brian Hare, one of the organization’s collaborators at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Hare runs the Duke Puppy Kindergarten performing cognitive research and testing on Canine Companions puppies to determine if they have the characteristics to be successful service dogs, Kennedy said.
She describes the research that goes on at Duke, as well as at the organization’s training center in Santa Rosa, as an exploration of “nature versus nurture.”
“We both want to look at the biology and genetics, things we can look at and select for specifically in our dogs when we produce our puppies, but also we are looking at things more nurture based,” Kennedy said. “Are there certain things we can do when they’re really young, even with their mom, to try to help tip the scales to making these dogs more successful service dogs?”
In addition to showing Kennedy’s team working with puppies in Santa Rosa, the filmmakers interviewed Kennedy inside the Charles M. Schulz Museum and followed her flying with puppies on a private plane from the Sonoma Jet Center to the Duke Puppy Kindergarten.
The film highlights how Canine Companions uses science to optimize mutually beneficial relationships between the service dogs and their people.
“We are incredibly excited with the documentary, it was an end-to-end great presentation of our program,” Kennedy said. “It was great to see not only the heart of it, but the science as well.”
“Inside the Mind of a Dog” is available to stream now on Netflix.
For more information on Canine Companions, go to canine.org.
Canine Companions puppies, researchers highlighted in new Netflix dog doc
“Inside the Mind of a Dog,” which aims to reveal the inner workings of man’s best friend, is available to stream now.
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