Dr. Péter Pongrácz (PhD habil.) is an associate professor at the Department of Ethology (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary). He graduated as a biologist in 1994 and received his PhD in 2000, from the same institute. His graduation thesis topic was predator avoidance in fish fry, and his PhD dissertation covered how rabbits learn to distinguish between conspecifics and non-conspecifics. He has been a lecturer in undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral education at the Department of Ethology since 1999. He supervises the research activity of students at all levels and leads research projects as principal investigator. His current research interests involve the sociocognitive capacities of cats and dogs, including social learning, self-representation, and hierarchy-related behaviors. Since 2020, he has been Editor-in-Chief of the Applied Animal Behaviour Science journal. He received an award for Innovative Researcher at his Institute, as well as an award for mentoring the most successful students in research.

Ms. Csenge Anna Lugosi (BSc Hons.) is a graduate student at the Department of Ethology (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary). This research paper is part of her Master's thesis program, which targets the behavioral differences between functionally different dog breeds: independent and cooperative working dogs. Ms. Lugosi also has an interest in cat behavioral research and conservational biology projects in connection with wildcat protection.