Question: What is your favourite animal and have you ever worked with one in your investigations?

Caroline Hickman answered on 7 Mar 2018:

Hi there

I have soooo many favourites. It would be hard to choose between dogs and dolphins and sharks. Can I have all 3 please?!
I have hung out underwater with dolphins and sharks – its probably not work, but it is a lot of fun
I have included digs in my work a lot, I have done lots of work with projects that include dogs as therapy pets to help people recover from trauma, and to help people with alzheimers to make better relationships with their families. I have included Murphy as a therapy dog in lots of research projects and we have some great results with dogs helping traumatised people to find their voice. I will put some photos of the therapy dogs on my profile – so you can see them at work. When people look into the eyes of their dog a hormone is released that is the same as the hormone released when a mother gazes into the eyes of her child. It makes us feel good (you can have a similar feeling from eating chocolate!). Whats lovely – is that the same hormone is released in the dogs at the same time. So they feel good too.