For decades, testing on animals has been used to better understand the human body and the effects that certain products have on it. Scientists theorized that since the modern-day companion dog shares many of the same environmental factors and is constantly near their humans, studying these animals would be beneficial and far more accurate than studying lab rats.
The Dog Aging Project is a current research initiative that involves not only dogs, but scientists, dog owners, veterinarians, and volunteers. The purpose of the project is to study what factors in a dog’s life prevent or cause aging, with tests being done on each dog each year for over ten years.
Because this project is happening now, there are new discoveries constantly being made. These discoveries are both interesting and informational, and understanding the implications of these discoveries is crucial for maintaining human happiness and health.
How It Works
Once a nominated dog is accepted to the program, the next ten years are full of constant performance tests, along with lots of DNA samples and genetic testing. The dog owner is in constant contact with a member of the research team, who will guide them through their Dog Aging Project journey. Dogs of all breeds and backgrounds are welcome—the underlining goal is to understand how to promote healthy aging both in dogs and adults. If you want your dog to be a participant, all you have to do is go to the Dog Aging Project website and click on ‘Nominate Your Dog’. Follow the instructions from there. (Source)
Healthy aging is defined by the World Health Organization as a state of health and environment in which people can do the things they value throughout their lives. This has a lot to do with their environment and controlling any major health problems, and in a human, this would look like:
- Being able to meet their basic needs
- Learning, growing and making decisions
- Being mobile
- Building and maintaining relationships
- Contributing to society
In a dog, these executive functions would look something like this:
- Inhibition (self control)
- Working memory (short term memory, inferential reasoning)
- Cognitive flexibility (social engagement, communication, sustained attention)
The team behind the Dog Aging Project is hoping to discover ways in which to enrich the lives of older human beings as well as the beloved companion dogs in order to raise the quality of life for everyone.
Such a big and possibly impactful project needs many hands to make light work. The research team at the DAP is supported by and works closely with many educational and professional institutions, including:
- Arizona State University
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
- Colorado State University Flint Cancer Center
- Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
- Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine
- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
- Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics
- Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine
- Midwestern University Animal Health Institute
- National University of Singapore
- North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine
- Oregon State University Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine
- Princeton University
- Seattle Children’s Hospital
- Tel Aviv University
- Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
- University of Arizona
- University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine
- University of Massachusetts Medical School
- University of Pennsylvania Center for Translational Bioinformatics
- University of Southern California
- University of Washington College of Arts & Sciences
- University of Washington College of Built Environments
- University of Washington School of Medicine
- University of Washington School of Public Health
- University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
- Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech
- Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine
Current Results
There have already been many case studies and scientific theses drawn from the research collected, but it is too soon to draw conclusions to human counterparts. Once the research is completed, it will be able to help humans as well because dogs are very similar to humans when it comes to aging.
However, there have already been critical topics tested, such as reproductive ability associated with age, oral health in aging dogs, whether or not different genders age differently, cardiac aging, and cognitive health in aging dogs. Something scientists are working on currently is cancer in dogs and how the environment, biology, and lifestyle can affect the likelihood of developing cancer. This is not only beneficial to dogs, but to humans as well.
There are many factors we already know of that prevent aging in both humans and dogs. This includes our weight, diet, exercise, and careful observation of health issues. It is very important to keep your dog at a healthy weight. If they are obese, this greatly affects their health and lifespan.
This can be helped with a diet full of nutrients and regular exercise. Taking dogs on walks keeps them healthy and happy. The older dogs get, the more you need to pay close attention to their health and continue to take them to their doctor appointments. (Source).
Future of the Dog Aging Project
Since the Dog Aging Project is fairly new, we haven’t learned much quite yet. It was started in 2016 and runs tests on each dog for 10 years, so in just 4 years we will be able to see the full effects and research from this study. The scientists hope to learn more about cancer and the genetic mutations that play a part in it, as well as the environmental factors. This will change everything from detecting it to treating it and hopefully preventing it. (Source)
When you look at it from a bigger perspective, it seems simple. Living a healthy lifestyle of exercise, eating healthy meals, and close monitoring of our health prevents aging in both humans and dogs. However, even if we do all of these things, there is a chance we can die sooner than later. This may be due to the genetics we are born with, but it’s hard to look closer and figure out why that is. This is essentially the whole cause of the dog aging project, to figure out what we don’t already know.