Education and Training

Current – Postdoctoral Fellowship, Mount Saint Vincent University

2017 – Ph.D. Experimental Psychology, Dalhousie University

2012 – M.A. Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science, York University

2009 – BSc Honours Psychology, Saint Mary’s University

 

Research Interests

My current research spans two largely different fields which can be generally summarized as exploring learning, behaviour, and wellbeing.

In my postdoctoral position, I am exploring how to improve the quality of Adult Basic Education (ABE) by working with students and teachers to redefine success in ABE, identify meaningful goals to empower students, and identify and prioritize essential supports within ABE.

Outside of the postdoctoral research, I specialize in the study of applied canine behaviour, canine cognition (with a focus on canine olfaction), and human-animal interactions. I am interested in how caring for and/or interacting with dogs affects physical and mental health in their human counterparts and whether dogs can detect physiological changes in humans. Current projects include the experience of dog ownership during pregnancy, executive functions in dogs, and receptive word learning in dogs.

I am taking on honours students for the 2025-2026 academic year. I use both qualitative and quantitative methods. I am open to supervising new topics related to human-animal interactions (pending thorough discussion). Send me an email to book a time to chat!

 

Selected Publications

Wilson, S., Milne, O., Jacques, S., & Reeve, C. (in press). Dog owners’ perceptions of their dogs’ behaviour during owners’ pregnancy. Submitted to Anthrozoos, 246761862.

Carroll, G.A., Reeve, C., & Torjussen, A., (2024). Companion animal adoption and relinquishment during the COVID-19 pandemic: the experiences of animal rescue staff and volunteers. Animal Welfare, 33, 11, p. e12.

Wilson, C., Campbell, K., Aviles-Rosa, E.O., Hall, N., & Reeve. C. (2023). The effect of repeated testing on judgement bias in domestic dogs (Canis Familiaris). Animal Cognition, 1-13.

Carroll, G., Torjussen, A., & Reeve, C (2023). Companion animal adoption and relinquishment during the COVID-19 pandemic: Households with children at greatest risk of relinquishing a cat or dog. Animal Welfare, 32, e56, 1-10.

Reeve, C., & Jacques, S. (2022). Responses to spoken words by domestic dogs: A new instrument for use with dog owners. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 246, 105513.

Wilson, C., Campbell, K., Petzel, Z., & Reeve, C. (2022). Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours. PLoS One, 17(9), e0274143.

Reeve, C., Cummings, E., McLaughlin, E., Smith, S., & Gadbois, S. (2020). An idiographic investigation of diabetic alert dogs’ ability to learn from a small sample of breath samples from people with Type 1 diabetes. Canadian Journal of Diabetes, 44(1), 37-43.

Reeve, C., Wentzell, P., Wielens, B., Jones, C., Stehouwer, K., & Gadbois, S. (2018). Assessing individual performance and maintaining breath sample integrity in biomedical detection dogs. Behavioural Processes, 155, 8-18.