Dr. Camila Cavalli (she/her) is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, where she teaches courses related to biological psychology, human-animal interactions, and animal behaviour.

My research interests broadly include animal behaviour, animal welfare, human-animal interactions, and learning theory.

Most of my work has focused on the study of dog behaviour, particularly their social behaviour towards humans. Some of the topics I have explored include behavioural persistence, frustration, and the effects of extinction on operant behaviour. A significant portion of this research has involved therapy dogs, examining their sociocognitive abilities as well as the impacts of different ways of incorporating dogs into educational sessions with children.

I am also a co-director of the ManyDogs project (https://manydogsproject.github.io/), an international consortium of approximately 50 researchers in Canine Science, aimed at fostering global collaboration and promoting open science practices.

In addition, I have worked as a consultant with the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BC SPCA), applying my knowledge of learning theory to study dog training methods and conducting survey-based research into the beliefs that drive trainers to use aversive-based techniques.

[For full list of publications see Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=i0HMjSUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate ]

Cavalli, C., & Fenwick, N. (2025). A Survey of the Professional Characteristics and Views of Dog Trainers in Canada. Animals, 15(9), 1255.

Miller, J., Cavalli, C., Azadian, A., & Protopopova A (2025) Exploring the impact of a brief positive experience on dogs’ performance and stress resilience during a learning task. PLOS ONE 20(6): e0326368

Cavalli, C., Dzik, M. V., Barrera, G., & Bentosela, M. (2023). Still-face effect in domestic dogs: comparing untrained with trained and animal assisted interventions dogs. Learning & Behavior, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-023-00589-x

Cavalli, C., Dzik, M. V., Brarda, M., & Bentosela, M. (2022). Trained dogs do not give up: Effects of advanced training on the persistence of domestic dogs. Behavioural Processes, 203, 104769. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2022.104769

Dzik, M. V., Cavalli, C., Barrera, G., & Bentosela, M. (2020). Oxytocin effects on gazing at the human face in retriever dogs. Behavioural Processes, 104160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2020.104160

Cavalli, C., Carballo, F., Dzik, M. V., Bentosela, M. (2020). Gazing as a help requesting behaviour: a comparison of dogs participating in Animal‐Assisted Interventions and pet dogs. Animal Cognition, 23(1), 141-147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-019-01324-8

Cavalli, C., Carballo, F., Dzik, M. V., Bentosela, M. (2019). Persistence in learned responses: A comparison of Animal Assisted Intervention and pet dogs. Journal of Veterinary Behaviour. 34, 22-29 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2019.07.008

Cavalli, C., Carballo, F., & Bentosela, M. (2018). Gazing Behaviour during problem solving tasks in domestic dogs. A critical review. Dog Behaviour.4(3), 23-44. https://dogBehaviour.it/dogBehaviour/article/view/68/64

Cavalli, C., Carballo, F., Dzik, V, Underwood, S., Bentosela, M. (2018). Are Animal Assisted Activities dogs different from pet dogs? A comparison of their sociocognitive abilities, Journal of Veterinary Behaviour, 23, 76-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2017.12.001