Funded by the National Institutes of Health, our AAI research focuses on children ages 8-17y with and without developmental disabilities. Results indicate that our program leads to an increase in physical activity in participating children as well as an increase in secure attachment for participating dogs and cats.
Do As I Do (DAID) Dog Training Intervention
What is DAID?
Originally created by Claudia Fugazza, “Do as I Do” (DAID) is an imitation-based dog training method that is fun for the dog and for the trainer!
DAID capitalizes on social learning and uses positive reinforcement-based techniques to train dogs to copy the behavior of their owner upon hearing the verbal cue “Do it”, similar to teaching a dog the rules behind the game “Simon Says”.
Once this rule has been learned, owners can demonstrate new actions and use the cue “Do it” to prompt the same action in their dog. For example, the owner can demonstrate walking or jumping over a dog agility jump, ask the dog to “do it”, and the dog will do the same thing!
Cat Assisted Training (CAT)
Cat’s can do (almost) anything dogs can do – including AAI!
Human-Animal Interaction Lab 