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What Humans Can Learn From Dogs

Q & A with Daniel Promislow the codirector of the Dog Aging Project

Daniel Promislow is the codirector of the Dog Aging Project and professor at The University of Washington School of Medicine, on his team’s massive project to study Rovers and Lassies. Chona Kasinger

Your team will spend a decade tracking as many as 100 000 pet dogs Why

Dogs are a great model for human aging. They get many of the same diseases that we do. They live in the same environment as we do, get more or less the same physical activity and face issues of overweight and obesity like we do. And what would take many, many decades to learn in humans, we can learn from dogs more quickly.

What s in it for us people

We might find genes associated with risk for a disease that also occurs in humans, for example. There also might be risk factors in our own environment that dogs could point to. A lot of what we know already about the biology of human aging comes from studying yeast, worms, fruit flies and mice. Dogs’ lives can tell us so much more. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine.

What s in it for the dogs

While veterinary health care has many specialties just like human health care, including orthopedics and oncology, it doesn't have geriatrics as a specialty. The project will allow us to teach the veterinary community what to expect for every dog as it ages. AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe . Research suggests dog ownership could be associated with lower risk of high blood pressure and lower rates of cardiovascular disease. We believe that dogs can provide a powerful sentinel for environmental risk factors, like Lyme disease and others, that impact older individuals. Flowers & Gifts 25% off sitewide and 30% off select items See more Flowers & Gifts offers >

Are you looking for certain breeds

We welcome all dogs — readers can nominate their dogs at DogAgingProject.org. We want to capture the variation out there, from the smallest to the largest breeds, from purebreds to all-American mutts and from puppies to the oldest of old dogs. We have dogs as old as 23 and 24 in the study.

Why the focus on personal pets

There's tremendous power in tracking individuals over time, which dog owners can do. We're trying to collect as much information as broadly as possible, because we don't know what will turn out to be important.

What s happening this fall

We'll invite people who nominated their dogs to fill out the “Health and Life Experience” survey about their pets. We also expect to send kits to a subset of dog owners to do cheek swabs of their dogs for DNA testing, so that we can sequence the genome of 10,000 dogs. And we'll invite 1,000 owners to bring their dogs to their veterinarian for blood, urine and fecal samples. This is for detailed molecular biology, including all the bacteria in their gut microbiome, that can tell us a lot about the health of individual dogs. The tests are all free of charge for dog owners.

You re testing a drug too

Yes. Five hundred dogs will be monitored in a double-blind study. Half will receive rapamycin, a drug commonly used in human transplant patients, and half will receive a placebo. It's been shown at lower doses in animal studies to increase life span and health span.

I assume you have a dog

Frisbee is a with a bit of chow, a bit of shepherd, a bit of cocker spaniel, and we don't know what else. One of the striking things about Frisbee is that she is now 15 but looks like a puppy, and she moves around like a puppy. She certainly has inspired me to try to understand what it is about dogs that might make an old dog act like she's still a pup.

What s ahead

Members of our dog pack — the dogs and their owners in the study — will fill out our surveys over the next 10 years and may be asked to do fun activities with their dogs.

Will you ever study the dog owners too

That would be a separate study. But one of the really striking, delightful and unexpected parts of the study is the way that participants share their stories. One veteran wrote to us and said how in the darkest moments of his PTSD, his dog was there to literally save his life. Others write to us about the quirky personalities of their dogs, or they share stories of how dogs make their lives better.

What can dog owners do now to help their pets live long and prosper

Make sure you're giving your dog a healthy diet that maintains good body condition. Which food is the best is actually something that we will be studying. Make sure that your dog gets a good amount of exercise. Keep in mind that if we are exercising our dogs, that usually means that we are exercising ourselves — and that's a good thing. AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS