However, after taking a baby dingo home to her mother’s house, where it wrecked the basement, and working on a project to tame wolves, she shifted her major to animal behavior, graduating in 1964. She received a Ph.D. in zoology from University of London in 1969 and joined the staff of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. in 1972. In 1979, she was named head of the Department of Zoological Research and in 1986 rose to assistant director for research.