The Dog Aging Project includes dogs from all 50 states and aims to uncover health and life span trends in both canines and people.
Getty Images/VYCHEGZHANINA
Getty Images/VYCHEGZHANINA
In late 2019, a team of researchers launched The Dog Aging Project, a long-term survey on the health and lifestyles of dogs in the United States. Their launch goal: Enroll 10,000 dogs. When a global pandemic hit soon after, it was suddenly a daunting task.
But it turned out that people were eager to sign up, since many of them were spending lots of time at home with their dogs.
Today, The Dog Aging Project has more than 50,000 companion dogs enrolled. Project scientists collect all sorts of data about them: their diet, exercise level, medications, demographics and environmental exposures.
Through the project, scientists like Virginia Tech veterinarian and data analyst Audrey Ruple hope to better understand what contributes to dog aging, how to ameliorate its effects and how to leverage the knowledge they gain into insights about human health and aging.
“Ultimately, I would really like to know what the right recipe is for a long, healthy life for our dog companions,” says Ruple. “What are the things that we can do to optimize health within that species? I do think that learning those keys in the dog population will help us in terms of figuring out what’s the right combination of things for the human population as well.”
For more information about signing your pup up for the Dog Aging Project, visit their website.
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This episode was produced by Berly McCoy and edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. The audio engineer was Kwesi Lee.
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