From the cleanliness of a dog’s mouth to determining which paw your dog favors offer notable ways to create a science fair project with a dog that is both informative and entertaining. Well-trained dogs make for wonderful test subjects because they are easy and enjoyable to work with during the course of the experiment. Multiple myths and ideas with a dog as the project subject provide interesting scientific results.

Everyone has heard the myth that a dog’s mouth is cleaner than a human’s. Testing this requires the use of some swabs, a few agar Petri dishes and an incubator. Test a number of dogs and people to see if there is a difference between breeds and even between people. Wipe a clean swab in the mouth of the test subject. Wipe the swab on the agar Petri dishes and incubate over 24 hours. Count the number of bacterial colonies that have grown and compare the results to determine if the myth is true, or if the breed of dog makes any difference. Label your Petri dishes accordingly, and photograph them for the display.

To test whether a dog’s saliva actually kills germs requires swabs, agar Petri dishes and an incubator. Begin by using a clean swab and swab your own mouth, ears and skin individually and wipe them on separate agar Petri dishes. Allow the bacteria on the dishes to grow for 24 hours. Then swab your dog’s mouth. Apply the dog saliva over the sections of the Petri dish with the highest concentration of bacteria. Use a new swab on your dog for each dish. Allow the dishes to sit again for another 24 hours. Determine if there was a reduction in bacteria, and whether the dog saliva worked better on one of the Petri dishes than another.

Test your dog for a particular color preference. Put your dog on a leash and have someone hold onto your dog in a separate room. Set up five dog treats behind five different colors of construction paper. Colors that you can use are blue, green, yellow, red and purple. Have your friend release the dog. Once the dog has selected a treat, take the dog out of the room, replace the treat and rearrange the order of the construction paper. Repeat the process until there is a pattern to determine if the dog has a color preference. Notate your results in an image display.

Dogs, like humans, have a dominate side for completing tasks. Verify if your dog is right- or left-dominate. Use a dog toy and place a small treat inside. Place the toy directly in front of the dog. Observe which paw the dog uses to reach for the toy first. Once the dog has reached for the toy, give the dog the treat and reset. Complete the experiment as many times as your dog will allow and see if a pattern has been established. Test other breeds of dogs to see if there is a difference.”