At Duke, dogs play puzzle games to reveal how their minds work. At UNC-Chapel Hill, a colony of dogs is bred to carry bleeding disorders and test medicine that could save lives. NC State uses dogs to train students in its veterinary program.
More than 270 dogs are used for research purposes at major research universities in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area, according to animal research reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2025 reviewed by The News & Observer.
Seventy percent of those dogs are at UNC-Chapel Hill. Researchers there maintain and perform tests on a decades-old breeding colony of dogs with inherited blood disorders…