Scientific Results: Factors associated with longevity in companion dogs: initial findings from the Dog Aging Project

November 9, 2026 - 12 minutes read

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”violet” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-paw”]Posts in our Scientific Results series introduce recent papers published in the scientific literature by members of the Dog Aging Project research team. Follow this series to learn more about the scientific questions we’re asking, the kinds of results we’re getting, and what it all means for you and your dog.[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Author

Weihsueh A. Chiu

Who worked on this research?

Weihsueh A. Chiu
Matthew D. Dunbar
Ashlee Greenier
Gang Han
Benjamin R. Harrison
Amber J. Keyser
Paul E. Litwin
The Dog Aging Project Consortium
Daniel E. L. Promislow
Kate E. Creevy

Where was it published?

GeroScience

What is this paper about?

As dogs age, many owners wonder what factors might help their companions live longer, healthier lives. In this study, researchers from the Dog Aging Project examined data from more than 41,000 dogs to better understand which characteristics, lifestyles, and environments are associated with longevity. The goal was to identify patterns that could help scientists learn more about healthy aging in dogs, and ultimately, improve the lives of future generations of dogs. Because our dogs share so much of their daily lives with us, including our homes, neighborhoods, and environments, what we learn about healthy aging in dogs may also provide insights into the factors that support health and longevity in people.

What they did:

The researchers combined what owners told us in the Dog Aging Project’s health and lifestyle surveys with owners’ reports of when their dogs passed away (owner-reported death dates), through the end of 2024. Rather than testing only a few hunches, they screened all 800+ answers from the baseline survey at once, including the dog’s size, breed background, sex, location, health history, activity level, behavior, environment, and diet, and let the data point to which ones were linked with lifespan.

What they discovered:

Size, breed, and sex. Smaller dogs lived longer than larger ones, and the difference is substantial: median lifespan was about 13–14 years for toy and small dogs, compared with 9–10 years for giant breeds. Dogs of a recognized breed lived modestly shorter lives than mixed-breed dogs of the same size and sex, and females lived slightly longer than males. But size sets the average, not the destiny. Within every size group, the middle half of dogs still ranged about four years of lifespan, meaning there is quite a large difference between the shorter and longer ends of what’s typical for your dog’s size. 

Where dogs live. At first it looked as though dogs in cities, suburbs, and rural areas had different lifespans. That difference disappeared once the researchers accounted for the kinds of dogs living in each place, since the mix of sizes and breeds isn’t the same everywhere (more small dogs in the “city” and more big dogs in the “country”). Differences between regions and between individual states, however, did not disappear.

The same places, the same patterns. Here is the finding that surprised us most. The researchers compared each state’s dog mortality with how long people in that same state live. The two tracked each other: states where dogs died sooner than average were, on average, states where people also die sooner and live shorter lives. The relationship was strong enough that chance is an unlikely explanation. Dogs’ deaths don’t cause people’s deaths, or vice versa. Rather, this finding suggests that dogs and the people they live with may be influenced by some of the same aspects of their shared environment. Researchers don’t yet know exactly which factors are responsible, but possibilities include air and water quality, climate, access to green space and walkable neighborhoods, socioeconomic conditions, and access to both medical and veterinary care. Understanding these connections will require further study, but the results highlight how closely the well-being of dogs and people may be linked.

Healthy Behaviors. Among the 72 survey answers linked to lifespan, some were expected, such as more active dogs tending to have a lower risk of death than less active dogs. Others were more surprising. Behaviors that reflect curiosity, engagement, or enthusiasm for the world, such as chasing squirrels or barking at a delivery driver, were associated with longer lifespans. One important caution is that these findings highlight patterns, not instructions. For example, dogs that were reported to eat grass more often had a lower risk of death, but that does not mean eating grass helps dogs live longer.  Instead, it may simply be that healthier, more active dogs spend more time outdoors and have more opportunities to graze.

Findings like these are exciting because they point researchers toward new questions about healthy aging, but more research is needed to determine which factors are truly influencing longevity and which are simply associated with it.

*Note: If you have concerns about your dog’s health, we encourage you to discuss these concerns with your primary care veterinarian. Suggestions for a treatment plan are best recommended by the veterinarian who has a relationship with your dog and understands their medical history.

What do these results mean for me and my dog?

These findings provide an exciting first look at the factors linked to longevity in one of the largest studies of companion dogs ever conducted. While no single behavior or lifestyle choice was shown to guarantee a longer life, the results highlight the potential importance of factors such as physical activity, overall health, diet, and environment in healthy aging.

This study is an important milestone for the Dog Aging Project. Thanks to the dedication of thousands of participating owners, researchers have identified promising leads that will guide future studies and help advance our understanding of healthy aging in dogs.

For participants in the Dog Aging Project, this study shows that your contributions are already helping researchers uncover meaningful patterns about how dogs age. Every survey and update adds to a growing body of knowledge that is helping scientists better understand lifespan, health, and aging in companion dogs.

For dog owners, the findings are encouraging because they suggest that lifelong health and well-being may be influenced by a combination of factors beyond genetics alone. While more research is needed to determine which factors directly impact longevity, these results offer valuable insights and bring researchers one step closer to understanding how dogs can live longer, healthier lives.

This research also matters beyond dogs. Differences in how long people live can show up between neighborhoods only a few miles apart, but understanding why is challenging in human studies that can take decades to complete. Because dogs live alongside us, share our homes and environments, and age much more quickly, they may help researchers identify environmental and lifestyle factors that influence healthy aging sooner. The state-level patterns identified in this study provide an important starting point, so the next step is to look at much smaller areas, closer to where each dog actually lives. Thanks to participating owners, every dog in the study is helping make those discoveries possible.

Where can I learn more?

Chiu WA, Dunbar MD, et al. Factors associated with longevity in companion dogs: initial findings from the Dog Aging Project. Geroscience. 2026 Oct 27. doi: 10.1007/s11357-026-02448-9. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 42945030.

Abstract

Companion dogs are a valuable geroscience model because they share human environments, develop similar age-related diseases, and have compressed lifespans. The Dog Aging Project (DAP) is a large, prospective cohort designed to investigate intrinsic and extrinsic factors associated with canine aging and longevity. We analyzed 41,047 dogs from the 2024 DAP Curated Data Release with baseline Health and Life Experience Survey (HLES) data and mortality follow-up through 2024. All-cause mortality was assessed using owner-reported death dates. We estimated survival by size class, breed background (American Kennel Club-recognized vs. non-AKC/mixed-breed), and sex using Kaplan–Meier methods and Cox models. We further evaluated geographic variation and conducted a survey-wide association study (SWAS) of 804 HLES variables using Cox models stratified by demographics with false discovery rate control. Median lifespan ranged from 14 years in small dogs to less than 10 years in giant AKC-recognized breed dogs. Within size-sex strata, AKC-recognized breed dogs lived modestly shorter lives than non-AKC/mixed-breed dogs, and females had slightly longer lifespans than males. After demographic adjustment, rural-suburban-urban differences were no longer evident, but there was significant regional and state-level variation, which correlated positively with human mortality patterns (r = 0.43, ρ = 0.63, p = 0.0017). The SWAS identified 72 baseline variables associated with mortality, primarily from Health Status, Physical Activity, Behavior, Environment, and Diet domains, with many showing clear exposure–response relationships. This initial DAP survival analysis confirms strong demographic effects on canine longevity, reveals shared geographic mortality patterns between dogs and humans, and highlights survey-based health, behavioral, and environmental factors warranting targeted causal investigation.

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