Understanding the science behind why some dogs remain healthy into old age can teach us about the biology of aging and could ultimately help both dogs and people live healthier lives.
New funding from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will support the next five-year phase of the Dog Aging Project, a nationwide long-term cohort study of healthy aging in tens of thousands of companion dogs, allowing researchers to follow participating dogs for longer while expanding studies of their genetics, nutrition, and home environments.
Since its launch in 2018, the project — an observational study that also provides a model of healthy aging in humans — has examined how dogs age, with the goal of improving lifelong health for both dogs and people.
The five-year research plan includes approximately $29 million in NIH support, beginning with a $6.1 million award for the first year, supporting a nationwide team.
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Dr. Kate Creevy, a professor in the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) and the Dog Aging Project’s chief veterinary officer, co-directs the project with Dr. Daniel Promislow, a senior scientist and faculty member at Tufts University. Tufts serves as the primary award recipient, with Texas A&M participating through a substantial subaward.
“Dogs offer a uniquely powerful window into human aging because they share our environments and experience similar age-related diseases,” Promislow said. “If we can figure out why some dogs remain healthy as they grow older while others don’t, we can learn something fundamental about the biology of aging. And ultimately, what we learn could help us find ways for both dogs and people to live healthier for longer.”
“In the first five years, we’ve accumulated a lot of information about what happens — how long dogs live, what kinds of diseases they develop at the end of life, and what causes their deaths,” Creevy said. “In the next five years, we will have a much better grasp of why those things happen, and understanding why really gives us the potential to intervene.”
Following dogs through their lives
The Dog Aging Project has nearly 55,000 dogs enrolled, with participating owners sharing information about their dogs’ health, behavior, and daily lives. Continuing to follow those dogs will help researchers connect experiences earlier in life with health outcomes as they grow older.
That history is especially valuable when studying changes in memory, thinking and physical function. Researchers can examine what happened before a dog developed cognitive decline or became less able to recover from illness and other stresses.
Because dogs experience many of the same age-related changes as people, identifying factors that protect their cognitive and physical health — or increase their risk of decline — could also offer insights into healthy aging in humans.
“It’s one thing to think about how to treat a dog who has cognitive decline or dementia,” Creevy said. “It’s a bigger solution to think about, ‘Are there things we could do over the life course to minimize the likelihood that a dog will develop cognitive decline or dementia?’”
Owners contribute observations about their dogs’ behavior and complete tasks at home that help assess cognitive performance. Some also provide biological samples that help researchers study the molecular changes associated with aging. Combined with years of health and lifestyle information, those assessments could help researchers identify patterns that would be impossible to detect from a single veterinary visit.
“We’ve learned a lot about what happens to dogs as they age,” Promislow said. “Now, as we follow the same dogs over time, we can start to understand why some dogs age differently from others, and what role genes, environment and biology play in those differences—invaluable data to lend to the study of human aging.”
A closer look at daily life
The next phase will also give researchers more direct information about the environments dogs experience. Previously, much of that information came from owner surveys and publicly available environmental data. Now, researchers led by VMBS professor Dr. Weihsueh Chiu plan to collect drinking-water samples, use tags that absorb chemicals from the air, and place activity trackers on a subset of participating dogs.
Those measurements will help the team examine how environmental exposures and activity relate to long-term health in dogs, with potential insights into healthy aging in people who share those environments.
Researchers will also expand their investigation of nutrition as owners choose from an increasingly varied range of diets.
“In science, variety is where the information is,” Creevy said. “We like things that vary among these dogs because the more diverse the dogs are, the more we can understand how those differences are associated with their long-term outcomes.”
Alongside those efforts, the team will study how genetic differences interact with dogs’ experiences. For example, researchers could examine why some dogs with a genetic risk for a disease develop it while others do not.
Learning from exceptionally old dogs
Because expected lifespan varies with a dog’s size, researchers will use statistical methods to identify dogs whose longevity may be unusual for their size. They plan to seek genetic samples and information from qualifying dogs already enrolled in the project and may recruit additional dogs through owners and veterinarians.
Understanding those dogs’ backgrounds could offer clues about factors associated with longer lives and help researchers identify biological processes relevant to human longevity.
Ultimately, Creevy hopes the findings will help owners and veterinarians tailor care to a dog’s individual needs.
“You can’t change your dog’s genetic background, but you might be able to manage its genetic risks through preventive care, maintaining a healthy body weight, exercise, and screening or monitoring tests at certain points in life,” Creevy said.
“Our new work on exceptionally old dogs complements the many studies that are trying to discover the genetic and environmental factors that allow some people to live 100 years and beyond,” Promislow said.
Building on participants’ contributions
The next phase depends on the continued involvement of owners who have shared information over many years. The team plans to expand communication through newsletters, events, and social media while continuing to provide accessible summaries of research findings.
“The people who have shared dog, home, and lifestyle information over these many years have made all of this possible and worthwhile,” Creevy said.
“Studies of aging in people can take decades,” Promislow said. “Dogs age much more quickly than humans, giving us a remarkable opportunity to learn about aging as it actually happens and hopefully, to work towards improved health outcomes and longevity for dogs and people.”
The Dog Aging Project continues to welcome new dogs and their owners. To learn more about participating, visit dogagingproject.org.
