Furlong is an Associate Professor in Psychology at her alma mater, Transylvania University. Ellen studied Mathematics at Transy and subsequently earned her PhD in Psychology from The Ohio State University. Before joining the faculty at Transy, she taught at Illinois Wesleyan University and spent three-years as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University where she helped develop the Canine Cognition Center, and studied rhesus monkeys at a research station on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico.

Ellen teaches courses on Animal Cognition and Dog Cognition and has team-taught travel courses on animal cognition and welfare with her father, a bioethicist. She has won several teaching awards, including, in 2018, the inaugural Most Influential Professor award at IWU.

Ellen directs a research group exploring cognition in dogs and nonhuman primates. She has published papers and presented work at academic conferences on chimpanzee, orangutan, and dog cognition. Ellen recently authored an Audible/Great Courses book entitled Decoding Dogs: Inside the Canine Mind and a textbook on learning entitled Learning and Behavior. Her works have  been featured in numerous media outlets including, most recently an ABC Australia documentary, A Dog’s World.