Getting started with BarkMind
You're a professional. Every behavioral incident you've witnessed has value. Here's how to turn your observations into structured, citable scientific data.
Choose your path
Start wherever makes sense for your experience level. All paths contribute real value.
Browse & Annotate
5 minStart by reviewing existing cases and adding your observations.
Submit a Case
10 minDocument a behavioral incident from your practice.
Expert Review
20 minFile formal verdicts if you hold CPDT, CBCC, or CAAB credentials.
Step-by-step: Submit your first case
~10 minutesCreate an account
2 minGo to /register. Choose a username that represents your professional identity — many contributors use their real name or handle from professional networks.
Your username appears on every annotation you create, permanently. It becomes part of the scientific record. Use a name you're comfortable being credited under.
Choose a case to submit
2 minThink of the behavioral incident you've seen recently that was:
- Clearly documented (you were present or have video/notes)
- Professionally significant (not just a cute behavior)
- Representative of something the field should know about
Common first cases: daycare group play escalation, grooming stress response, shelter intake behavioral shutdown, veterinary restraint resistance.
Complete the 4-step form
5 minStep 1: Context
Title, setting (daycare/shelter/grooming/vet/other), subject age estimate, breed notes, and what triggered the behavior. The trigger context is the most important field — be specific.
Step 2: Media
Upload video (MP4/MOV, up to 500MB) or images (JPEG/PNG, up to 20MB). Media is optional but significantly increases annotation quality. If you have a 30-second clip, use it.
Step 3: Behavioral Tags
Select the behavioral signals you observed from the vocabulary grid. Be conservative — only tag what you can directly observe. Piloerection you can see is better than inferred stress.
Step 4: Review & Submit
Review your submission. You can always edit the description later, but the core behavioral context matters most at this stage.
Add your first annotation
3 minAfter submitting, open your case and add an annotation. Start with an observation — what you directly saw, not what you think it means.
Good observation:
"At 4:10, bilateral piloerection visible from C7 to L2. Subject maintains forward-shifted weight with tail held at 45° above horizontal. Sustained visual fixation on the approaching Border Collie mix."
Avoid:
"The dog was being territorial and stressed about the other dog."
Add taxonomy terms from the behavioral vocabulary picker to structure your observation. Set a confidence level (high/medium/low) that honestly reflects your certainty.
You're done — what happens next
—Your case is now visible in the BarkMind case library. Community contributors can add their own annotations. If there's enough annotation activity, an expert reviewer will claim the case and file a formal resolution.
You'll see your case status update: open → under_review → expert_review → resolved → locked
When your case is locked, it becomes a permanent, citable dataset entry with your attribution preserved. Your name is on this piece of the behavioral science record.
What comes after your first case
Annotate others' cases
Browse open cases in settings you know. Your professional eye on someone else's case adds real value.
Browse open casesApply for expert status
If you hold CPDT, CBCC, CAAB, SAFE Assessor, or equivalent credentials, apply for verified expert access.
Expert dashboardPropose a taxonomy term
Don't see a term that describes what you observed? Submit a taxonomy suggestion via GitHub.
Suggest a termRead the annotation standards
BarkMind has a 3-tier annotation quality rubric. Understanding it helps your annotations become dataset-grade.
Read the standards