Good News

Dr. Vivian Lee and co-investigator Dr. Karen Sewell (School of Social Work at Carleton) have won a 2026 CIHR Project Grant for a 3-year study evaluating the effectiveness of an adapted program (SNAP: Stop Now And Plan) for children with Autism.

Carleton University researchers Dr. Chad Danyluck, from Psychology, and Dr. Andy Adler, from Systems and Computer Engineering, are co-investigators in a new $2.5-million research network examining how relationships between humans and animals affect well-being.

Funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant and led by University of Saskatchewan professor Dr. Colleen Dell, the network includes 116 national and international partners and more than 250 dogs.

Danyluck and Adler will lead studies examining physiological synchrony between dogs and their human handlers. Physiological synchrony refers to coordination in signals such as heart rate, breathing and skin conductance and may reflect emotional connection, stress transmission or co-regulation.

The Carleton team will first test whether physiological signals can be measured reliably and comfortably in dogs using customized equipment. They will then conduct controlled studies to determine whether dog–human synchrony changes under stress and whether it varies across different dog–human relationships.

The findings may ultimately improve understanding of service dogs, therapy dogs, working dogs, companion animals and animal-assisted interventions.

For more information about the network and its planned research, see the University of Saskatchewan’s article (available here), video (available here), and the newly launched Human–Animal Connection Network website: https://pawsitiveconnectionslab.com/human-animal-network-host.