During our research, we combined the widely used questionnaire-based methods with behavior tests and acoustic analysis to examine dogs' separation behavior. This approach allows us to objectively identify individuals experiencing pathological levels of stress. Our new perspective, focusing on the possible emotional states experienced by dogs, helps explain why the problem manifests with varying symptoms across individuals. Furthermore, we identified genetic and environmental risk factors contributing to its development, such as breed group or the relationship with the owner.

Through our series of experiments exploring dogs' body awareness, we demonstrated that they are indeed capable of understanding the relationship between their bodies and the environment in various problem-solving situations. Our findings support the new framework we developed regarding self-representation abilities in non-human species. In this framework, self-representation is examined as a set of cognitive abilities composed of multiple components, which can evolve under selective pressures.

I investigated the evolutionary aspects of attachment in grey wolves (Canis lupus), where we described that certain elements of attachment toward their caregivers resemble those seen in dogs. This supports the idea that the tendency to form bonds with humans may have started developing very early in the domestication of dogs, likely due to strong selective pressure. The universality of attachment in dogs is further supported by our research on functional breed groups, where we found no differences in attachment patterns across the them.