The companion animal program in Texas Tech University’s Department of Animal and Food Science uses applied research and hands-on experiences to prepare students for employment in the animal science field. 

The program uses a student-run facility specializing in adopting dogs that have been in shelters for extended amounts of time. Students are responsible for training them and coordinating their adoptions into new homes.  

This program offers students a distinct hands-on learning opportunity, effectively equipping them with practical skills essential for their future careers. 

“Even though [Texas Tech] is a big college, it feels very small,” Madalyn Bower, a senior in the Companion Animal program said. “I really like the hands-on aspect, and that the professors have industry experience.” 

Since starting this program in 2017, Nathaniel Hall, Ph.D., associate professor of companion animal science, has seen exponential growth.  

“When we started the program, we had only two faculty members and 25 students,” Hall said. “Now, we have more than 300 students and four faculty members.” 

The companion animal program provides hands-on learning for students on the pre-veterinary track, Hall said.   

This program emphasizes offering unique experiential learning opportunities for students that cannot be found elsewhere. The Department of Animal Science, which has seen a lot of growth in student numbers, especially since the opening of Texas Tech’s School of Veterinary Science Medicine in 2022, offers two companion animal science concentrations – one for students interested in careers in the companion animal industry, and one for pre-vet students. 

Over the last seven years, this program has grown tremendously. They have secured a facility for housing and training dogs, along with acquiring necessary equipment and additional resources.  

The Canine Olfaction Research and Education Lab, or CORE, is a student-run facility located at the Texas Tech New Deal Farm. Here, students house, train, and conduct research over the dogs within the program. 

The dogs housed at the CORE lab are usually adopted from local shelters, such as the Lubbock Animal Shelter. However, this semester has seen two separate cohorts of dogs due to the different research projects being conducted.  

“This semester was weird because we had two cohorts of dogs,” Bowen said. “Usually, we only get one dog to train during the semester, but we are in between two research projects, so we go to build relationships with two sets of dogs.” 

Unleashing Potential

The companion animal program now has four dedicated faculty members whose unique backgrounds bring a wealth of expertise to Texas Tech’s program.  

 Hall, who has been with the program since its inception, mainly focuses on olfactory senses in dogs and how they can be used and studied. His research includes training dogs to identify invasive species, explosives and more.  

His current research involves a series of tests utilizing an olfactometer, a device designed to dispense odors to dogs. With this research, Hall asks a series of questions to reform the trainings for the betterment of the dogs. 

“How do we optimize the training? How do we assess what dogs can and cannot do? How do we then identify the optimal ways in which we can use dogs for detection of security threats? And how do we improve the training practices that produce a more robust detector system,” Hall said. 

Through this research study, the dogs place their noses on the open port of each box, seeking various scents. While searching for their target, they keep their noses inside, and a small infrared beam records the duration of each nasal contact. The dogs are trained to maintain nasal contact with the correct box until signaled by the olfactometer. 

Each professor within this department brings a new perspective to the program. With backgrounds in many different areas of study, students in the program can study under different professors in the areas that interest them most. 

Anastasia Stellato, Ph.D., assistant professor of companion animal science, joined the program at Texas Tech in 2021. Stellato studies the “one-health one-welfare approach,” which focuses on optimizing welfare in veterinary settings. Some of her current research covers how to assess dog fear and negative behaviors in animal welfare. Her research will help students on the animal welfare track to accurately assess and mitigate stress within veterinary clinics. 

Stellato’s research is great for those on the pre-veterinary track. Not only are students studying under her gaining hands-on facility experience, but they are acquiring the resources for mitigating animal behavior.  

For students interested in the hands-on training program, the dog training practicum classes are taught by Kristina O’Hanley, Ph.D., an assistant professor of practice in companion animal science. O’Hanley’s research specializes in recognizing behaviors in cats, but it can be broadly applied to all species.  

“As a team, we want to expand our opportunities we have for students. But we also want to make sure that we can provide them with a lot of application-based knowledge,” O’Hanley said. 

Edgar Aviles-Rosa Ph.D., an assistant professor in companion animal science, earned his doctoral degree from Texas Tech. A Puerto Rico native, Aviles-Rosa’s expertise in swine olfactory pheromones benefits the companion animal program by integrating in fields of study for students to research not only cats and dogs, but expand their practices to other species. 

The companion animal research team is focused on three themes, the faculty said. Animal behavior and welfare, hands-on learning, and creating a collaborative program that prioritizes outreach.  

Since starting the program from scratch, Hall said they are working to build an outreach and research-focused program.  

“We slowly kind of built up the facility,” Hall said. “And we’ve really tried to create a highly integrated teaching, research and outreach program.”  

As the animal science department continues to see an increasing number of students, Hall said keeping up with the demand for growth is an emerging challenge for the companion animal program. Regardless, the program remains focused on providing students hands-on training to develop tangible skills.  

These real-world experiences in canine psychology and welfare, Hall said, prepare students for careers in veterinary science, animal behavior or related fields. 

“As growth continues, the cohorts of dogs we could potentially help could grow as well,” Hall said. “We will also build a stronger connection with the Lubbock community.” 

Currently, this program allows senior-level students the opportunity to polish their resumes before graduation by providing hands-on training. Students are given a dog for the semester to work with and train on their own. O’Hanley heads up this operation through coursework and in-person training at the CORE lab. 

Sit, Speak, Stay! 

“My focus is the application of the knowledge of companion animal welfare and behavior,” O’Hanley said. “I run a very short lecture where we go over what we want to train the dogs in and why it is important. Then students go out and work with their dogs.” 

O’Hanley said engaging in experiential learning opportunities allows students to immerse themselves directly in the investigation and analysis of canine behavior and cognition. Through O’Hanley’s courses, students learn how to individually train dogs and effectively apply these skills in and out of the classroom.  

“We go through a different behavior that we want to work on each week in each class,” O’Hanley said. “And then if their dog isn’t really proficient in the previous things, they can keep working on those.” 

Starting with the basics, like “sit” and “stay,” these dogs work their way up to agility and obedience training and cooperative care. The overall goal of this program is to give the students real-life experience in animal behavior and welfare so when they enter the workforce, they bring a unique skill set. 

When we started the program, we only had two faculty members and 25 students. Now, we have more than 300 students and four faculty members.

Nathaniel Hall

 “The Davis College takes a lot of pride in our attempts to incorporate service hours, outreach and engagement,” O’Hanley said. “We really want to help our communities and work with the students to actually get out in the field and start doing things instead of just memorizing and regurgitating information.” 

O’Hanley said students are graded on their utilization of appropriate methods and effective application of skills, ensuring they undertake the necessary steps toward achieving comprehensive training proficiency. The dogs in the program are the focus of cooperative care. They learn a variety of skills from effectively loose leash walking to more advanced skills like sitting still through a full-length medical exam.  

Through the program, pre-veterinary students have a unique opportunity to receive comprehensive training through hands-on experience and guided instruction. Several students end up adopting these dogs themselves after the completion of their course. However, for those who are not adopted by their trainer, or the trainers’ friends and family, Texas Tech hosts an “adoption day” on campus.  

“Typically, one to two times a year, we host a local adoption event here at the livestock arena,” Hall said. 

Texas Tech partners with local animal shelters to adopt out long-term stay dogs and dogs who have completed the training program. This adoption day allows shelters to help rehome long-term stay dogs and helps the students to engage with the community. 

Training for the Future 

 “Our goal is to prepare our students to be top in the nation in animal welfare,” Aviles-Rosa said.  

With a program unlike any other, the companion animal program aims to accomplish several milestones within the next few years. O’Hanley said going forward, the program has plans for expansion. 

“We want to keep expanding opportunities for students, providing application-based knowledge, incorporating service and outreach into the coursework, and incorporating other species into our coursework,” O’Hanley said.  

The Animal Behavior Clinic is one way O’Hanley said the program is integrating service and outreach. Currently in its first year of testing, the clinic helps students provide training to both owners and their companion animals. 

Stellato said upperclassman can apply to participate in the clinic, and once selected, they will work with dog owners in the community. 

“They would basically be trainers for the community,” Stellato said.  

This would allow students working within the clinic to gain more hands-on experience along with providing community connections and outreach. 

Stellato also hopes to engage students in other career development opportunities through a judging or evaluation team. Similarly to a livestock judging team, Stellato said students could determine different stages of welfare in a competitive setting. 

  “We all know Tech loves their judging teams, and we’d love to contribute to that,” Stellato said.  

A competitive judging program and student organizations would help put the up-and-coming companion animal program on the map, Stellato said.  

Opportunities for graduate students signify a crucial phase in the advancement of the animal training and welfare program, Stellato said.  

“Our companion animal science program for our graduate students is just now starting to grow,” Stellato said.  

Further developing graduate course offerings will be a focus for the program in the short-term, she added. 

Hands-on learning opportunities with dog training, a growing graduate program, and increased community engagement make Texas Tech’s companion animal program stand out. 

“I haven’t seen any program in the nation that has what we have,” Aviles-Rosa said.  

While there are similar programs in the nation, Texas Tech is the only university that allows its students to personally train and work with dogs, Aviles-Rosa said. As the program grows, it aims to be at the forefront of animal welfare education and research.  

More than K-9 Welfare

While this program focuses primarily on the canine side of things, both O’Hanley and Aviles-Rosa want to incorporate their research expertise into the program. O’Hanley, whose research focuses on cat behavior and welfare, says she hopes to see the integration of cat-specific classes into their program.  

“I want to hopefully expand our program to incorporate a little more cat-based behavior work,” O’Hanley said. “We have dog training practicum and dog-training classes, but no cat-specific classes.” 

By focusing on a cat training practicum, she hopes to draw in more students and collaborate with other departments. O’Hanley said she plans on bridging the concept of one-health into the program to help people, animals and the environment.  

Aviles-Rosa said adapting the program’s facilities will help with research and student experiences, alike. 

“Welfare is the essence of our program, so adjusting the facilities to provide the best environment that we can is part of our long-term goals,” said Aviles-Rosa.  

Aviles-Rosa hopes to integrate the study of olfactory senses into swine research. This research will open doors to disease detection, stress management, and even improving reproduction efficiency, all while giving students another career avenue to explore. 

“My goal is to put Texas Tech at the forefront of animal welfare and research,” Aviles-Rosa said, “by not just doing normal research that everyone is doing. We’re doing something unique here.”  

The diverse research expertise present in Texas Tech’s companion animal’s faculty team helps the program collaborate across the animal science department to offer students unparalleled opportunities in this field of study, while gaining valuable hands-on experiences. 

“We want to prepare students to be extremely knowledgeable in domestic animal behavior and dog training,” said Aviles-Rosa.  

Jacey Cathey, Lead Writer; Kaci Walker, Photo Director; Meredith Fay, Design Coordinator; Kendall Smith, Digital and Advertising Manager

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