Community Science
TRIAD Tails: Graduate Owners Share Their TRIAD Journey
Published on October 6, 2025Three of the earliest participants in the Test of Rapamycin in Aging Dogs (TRIAD) clinical trial had a common reason for enrolling their aging companion pet in the study: wanting to enhance their dog’s quality as well as quantity of life.
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Inside Science: Consorting with Cohorts
Published on October 31, 2024In the Dog Aging Project, our different cohorts are different groups of dogs with characteristics that allow us to ask and seek answers to specific scientific questions.
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Inside Science: Canine Sentinels
Published on October 25, 2024In this article at Science.org, our Dog Aging Project team members Courtney Sexton and Audrey Ruple lay the framework for how our close relationships with canine companions can offer an opportunity to learn how the combined elements of the physical and social environment contribute to the quality of life for both people and dogs.
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Our Funding is Diverse, Just Like Our Pack! (An Update)
Published on August 30, 2024We want to thank you, our loyal participants, for supporting the Dog Aging Project as…
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“Life is a series of dogs” – New Opportunity to Nominate Another Dog!
Published on March 28, 2024We’ve got some exciting news! If your Pack member is no longer a part of your household for any reason, you now have the opportunity to enroll a subsequent dog in the Dog Aging Project longitudinal observational study!
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Scientific Results: Lifetime prevalence of owner-reported medical conditions in the 25 most common dog breeds in the Dog Aging Project Pack
Published on December 8, 2023This paper looked at the most popular dog breeds in the Dog Aging Project (DAP) Pack and the mixed-breed dogs in the DAP Pack to identify which medical conditions owners are reporting most commonly in these different breeds. We also looked at the percentage of dogs in these breeds with no owner-reported medical conditions.
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Standing out from the crowd: What makes the Dog Aging Project unique?
Published on October 24, 2023At its core, the Dog Aging Project is a long-term, longitudinal study looking at aging…
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Scientific Results: A review of frailty instruments in human medicine and proposal of a frailty instrument for dogs
Published on August 14, 2023This paper is about frailty – a complex syndrome associated with aging that has become important in human healthcare and research. When humans experience loss of emotional and physical reserves, they are less able to bounce back from stressors. Frailty, even more than chronological age, is associated with increased risk of negative health outcomes and death. There are many different ways to measure or determine frailty in humans, and this paper gives a brief review of frailty in human medicine and research. Assessing frailty is important because while we cannot reverse chronological age, we can intervene to reduce or even reverse frailty. And hopefully, this will be true for dogs as well.
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Scientific Results: Social determinants of health and disease in companion dogs: A cohort study from the Dog Aging Project
Published on June 20, 2023In this study, we explored how the social environment affects the health and well-being of companion dogs. We closely looked at data from over 21,000 dogs that are part of the Dog Aging Project and linked different components of the dog’s environment to their health. Dogs in lower-income houses or areas with more residential turnover had poorer health and less physical mobility. While these adverse environmental factors were linked to poorer health, things that capture positive social environments, like social support (e.g., living with other dogs), were associated with better health outcomes for the dogs, even after taking into account their age and weight. What’s interesting is that not all environmental components had the same impact: social support was 5x more predictive of dog health compared to financial factors. This suggests that having companionship and interaction with other dogs can greatly contribute to a dog’s overall well-being.
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Canine Cognition: Introducing the Brain Health Study
Published on April 20, 2023The Brain Health Study is a nationwide study funded by the National Institute on Aging, a part of the National Institutes of Health, and is being conducted in collaboration with the Cornell University Veterinary Biobank to investigate the potential links between Alzheimer’s disease and a similar condition in dogs called canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD). CCD is a behavioral syndrome in older dogs that is defined by the development of symptoms similar to those observed in Alzheimer’s patients. This may include confusion, shifts in overall demeanor, or other changes in behavior that can dramatically affect our dogs’ quality of life. CCD may be as prevalent as 35% in dogs older than age eight.
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