Vocalization
What barks, whines and growls carry beyond volume: pitch, rhythm, timing.
How dogs communicate, measured.
We study canine emotion across voice, body and physiology. What we learn goes into PEBI, and what we can share is published here, including where the model still falls short.
2M+DOGS IN TRAINING DATA
120+BREEDS, ALL SIZES
4SIGNAL TYPES FUSED
ExpertLABELED AND REVIEWED
PEBI: a multimodal model of canine emotionFeatured · Whitepaper · 2026 Download
WHAT WE STUDY
Four questions we
keep coming back to.
Dogs communicate with their whole body at once. Our research looks at each channel and, more importantly, at how they combine.
Body language
Ears, tail, posture and gaze, read together rather than one cue at a time.
Physiology
How heart rate, breathing and rest add context to what a dog expresses.
Fairness
Whether a read holds up across breed, size and age, and where it doesn't.
HOW WE WORK
Collected with consent.
Reviewed by experts.
Useful models begin with careful data. Every example has a clear origin, and every label is open to another look.
Collect
Families share voice, video and context with clear permission for research use.
Review
Behavior and veterinary specialists label what a moment shows, and disagreements get a second look.
Evaluate
Every model is tested on dogs it has never seen, with results broken out by breed group, size and age.
THE EMOTION MODEL
Two axes, borrowed
from human research.
Affective science describes emotion on two dimensions: how pleasant it feels and how activated the body is. PEBI adapts that framework to dogs, using vocal, postural and physiological markers in place of self-report.
Within each quadrant the model resolves finer-grained states, defined with behavior experts and validated against reviewed footage.
GET INVOLVED
Curious how it works?
Let’s talk.
Start with the model overview, or reach out and we’ll happily share more of the work behind it.
Explore the model
See what PEBI does, how it reads a dog, and what it's built for.
TAKE A LOOK→Get the technical brief
Building with Traini? We’ll walk you through the architecture, results and how we care for data.
REQUEST THE BRIEF→Study dogs with us
Universities, vets and behavior researchers: bring a question and let's explore it together.
START A CONVERSATION→