Other Observations

The researchers Pavlov employed were instructed to note down other observations’ about their dogs during experiments, describing their idiosyncratic behaviours and personalities in detail. Why did he consider the collection of this information to be important? 
Listen to this page 

Documenting the dogs

Detailed notebooks kept on the dogs from the 1890s through to 1936 were lost during Nazi Germany’s 1941–43 siege of Leningrad, but some records have survived in various archives and published accounts. They include detailed observations about the behaviour and personality of specific, named dogs which we use to create this piece. 

We are indebted to the historian Daniel Todes for collecting so much of the information we draw on here, as we are elsewhere in the exhibition, especially in his 2014 biography, Ivan Pavlov: A Russian Life in Science. 

Later in his career Pavlov actively encouraged co-workers to observe idiosyncrasies in a dog’s behaviour. Dogs were routinely described as cowardly, heroic, compliant, sociable or aloof. These other observations’ were taken extremely seriously, as evidence of a dog’s character. 

This mattered, because from the 1920s onwards, Pavlov developed a theory of various canine personality types’ — to try and explain extremely varied results.

Creating canine biographies

Using genuinely recorded observations we created this series of other observations’ record cards. Each provides a canine biography of sorts, including detail about the dog’s name, appearance, human observer, surgery they have undergone, lab experience and additional notes.

Druzhok’s observation card. 

The typewriter text is reproduced underneath each card for ease of access:

Druzhok

  • Observer: Pavel Khizhin
  • Appearance: Small white terrier (?), black ears
Shalun 

Shalun

  • Observer(s): Maria Erofeeva
  • Appearance: Medium-sized pointer, short-haired, pale fur
Kurchavka 

Kurchavka

  • Observer: NA — gastric juice factory dog
  • Appearance: Large black dog, short fur
Milord 

Milord

  • Observer(s): Ivan Pavlov, Maria Petrova
  • Appearance: Large, skinny, raggedy mongrel, with patchy light fur
Postrel 

Postrel

  • Observer(s): Ivan Pavlov, Maria Petrova
  • Appearance: Shaggy black coat, white legs. Multiple bald patches on stomach (with scars)
Joy 

Joy

  • Observer(s): Ivan Pavlov, Maria Petrova
  • Appearance: Medium-sized mongrel, light grey coat, white snout and feet.
August 

August

  • Observer(s): Alexander Speranskii, Rita Rait-Kovaleva
  • Appearance: A medium-sized dog, brown in colour
Umnitsa 

Umnitsa

  • Observer(s): Nikolai Vinogradov
  • Appearance: Name means clever one’. Medium-sized, brown in colouring
Roza and Rafael 

Roza and Rafael

  • Observer(s): Petr Denisov
  • Appearance: Young adult chimpanzees. Black fur, pale faces. Rafael, male, missing two toes, left foot. Roza, female, smaller of the two.
Hear more about why naming experimental animals matters