Nearly 55,000 dogs and $29 million: the largest US study of canine ageing enters a new phase — what it will investigate

What was announced

On 27 October 2026, Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences announced a new phase of the Dog Aging Project — the world's largest study of how companion dogs age.

The next five years of work will be funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the US National Institutes of Health. Total support is around $29 million, starting with $6.1 million in the first year. Tufts University is the main grant recipient, and Texas A&M takes part through a substantial share of the funding.

What the Dog Aging Project is

The project began several years ago as an attempt to understand why some dogs reach old age in good health while others fall ill early. It now includes nearly 55,000 companion dogs from across the US. Their owners regularly fill in questionnaires about their dogs' health, behaviour and daily lives: what the dog eats, how much exercise it gets, where it lives and what illnesses it has.

Over that time the researchers have collected data on how long dogs live, what diseases they develop at the end of life and what they die of. The new phase is meant to answer the next question — why this happens.

In the next five years, we will have a much better grasp of why those things happen.

Kate Creevy, professor at Texas A&M University, chief veterinary officer and co-director of the Dog Aging Project

According to Creevy, understanding the causes creates the potential to intervene — in other words, to help dogs live longer, healthier lives.

What will be studied next

The new phase is built around several strands.

1. Long-term follow-up. Researchers will follow the same dogs for longer to link what happened to them earlier in life with their health in old age — their memory, thinking and physical function.
2. Environment. Some dogs will have their drinking water sampled and will wear special tags that absorb chemicals from the air, along with activity trackers. Until now, environmental data came mainly from owner surveys and public sources.
3. Nutrition. Owners today choose from a huge variety of foods and diets, and researchers want to understand how this affects health and ageing.
4. Genes and environment. Why do some dogs with a genetic risk of a disease develop it while others don't? Researchers will look at how genes interact with lifestyle.
5. Long-lived dogs. Researchers will find dogs living unusually long for their size and ask their owners for genetic samples.

Why the environment matters

The environmental strand is led by Professor Weihsueh Chiu of Texas A&M. Dogs live in the same homes as people, drink the same water and breathe the same air. If it's possible to measure precisely which substances a dog comes into contact with every day, it may be possible to work out which of them are linked to disease and faster ageing.

The tags that absorb substances from the air work like small passive sensors: the dog wears them on its collar, and a laboratory later analyses what has settled on them. The trackers will show how much the dog moves and sleeps. All of this gives a far more accurate picture than owners' answers to questions.

Why large dogs live shorter lives

One of the puzzles researchers want to solve is the link between size and lifespan. In most animals, large species live longer than small ones: an elephant outlives a mouse. In dogs it's the other way round: small breeds live noticeably longer than large ones on average. A Chihuahua often reaches 15–17 years, while a Great Dane usually lives only 7–10.

So long-lived dogs will be identified with size taken into account: a Labrador that reaches 16 is just as interesting to science as a very old small dog. Statistical methods will help find dogs living longer than their size would "predict", and their genes may reveal what protects the body against ageing.

Why it matters for people

The researchers are open about the fact that they study dogs not only for the dogs' sake.

Dogs offer a uniquely powerful window into human aging.

Daniel Promislow, senior scientist at Tufts University and co-director of the Dog Aging Project

Dogs share our environment and develop similar age-related diseases — cancer, heart and kidney disease, dementia. But they age several times faster. So a few years of following dogs can show what would take decades to see in people.

Can owners take part

According to Texas A&M, the Dog Aging Project is still accepting new dogs and owners. Details are on the project's website. Taking part usually means regular questionnaires about your dog, and some participants are invited into additional studies — with tests or trackers, for example. For long-lived dogs, researchers will recruit both through owners and through vets.

What this means for Europe

The project itself is American, and owners in the US can take part. But its results matter for dogs in the UK and Europe too: breeds, diets and the diseases of old age are largely the same. If researchers find which substances in water and air, which diets or what level of activity are linked to a long, healthy life, those findings will be useful to vets around the world.

Canine ageing is studied in Europe as well — for example at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, which has long worked with older dogs, and in the UK, where large studies of dog health draw on data from veterinary practices. Owners here who want to help science should find out whether such projects are recruiting in their country: taking part is usually free and just means answering questions regularly.

How the data are collected

The project's main source of information is the owners themselves. They fill in detailed questionnaires about their dog: age, breed or mix, weight, diet, walks, sleep, behaviour, illnesses and medicines, as well as details about the home and surroundings. Some owners share their dog's veterinary records with the researchers, and some dogs provide samples for genetic analysis. The new devices — air tags and trackers — will add precise measurements that don't depend on an owner's memory.

The huge number of participants is the project's greatest strength. Across tens of thousands of dogs, patterns can emerge that would simply be lost in the noise of a small study.

Why owners should keep notes on their dog

The experience of projects like this is useful even to those who don't take part. A simple health diary for your dog — weight once a month, appetite, sleep, walks, new habits — helps you notice slow changes that aren't visible from one day to the next. Your vet can also make sense of things more easily if you can say exactly when your dog started drinking more or walking less. For older dogs, such notes are especially valuable.

What owners can do now

While researchers look for answers, some things about healthy ageing in dogs are already known:

• keep your dog in good shape — being overweight is linked to a shorter life and joint disease;
• walk and play every day, at a level that suits your dog, even in old age;
• give their brain a workout — new routes, treat-finding games, learning new commands;
• take your dog to the vet at least once a year, and more often after 7–8 years;
• look after their teeth — gum disease affects the health of the whole body;
• note any changes in sleep, appetite and behaviour: they'll help your vet spot a problem earlier.

What happens next

The first results from the new phase won't come straight away: understanding how early-life conditions affect old age means following the same dogs for years. But within the next few years researchers promise more precise data on how environment, diet and genes are linked to disease. The project's data have already helped other researchers — for example, scientists in Arizona who developed a test for early canine dementia.

When to see a vet

If your dog is getting older and you notice they're moving less, losing or gaining weight, sleeping badly, getting lost in familiar places, drinking more water or behaving differently, take them to the vet. Many signs that people put down to "just old age" are actually illnesses that can be treated or slowed. The earlier you spot them, the more good years you can give your dog.