Beyond WEIRD humans and STRANGE dogs: Using big team science to improve generalizability and reproducibility in comparative psychology

Canine science aims to understand dogs as a species uniquely adapted to live alongside humans. Research in the field has increased rapidly in the 21st century, but has struggled with representativeness and generalizability. Here we discuss key issues and identify solutions through big team science innovation and collaboration with researchers in the Global South. Sampled populations are usually from the Global North, where researchers and guardians can be characterized by WEIRD attributes and dogs may be shaped by STRANGE factors, severely limiting generalizability across locations and the overall replicability of the science. These constraints limit the inclusiveness of canine science research both in the representativeness of the populations being sampled as well as the researchers who are conducting these studies. Big team science provides an ideal avenue to overcome some of these biases and include diverse perspectives, fostering global collaboration.