Longitudinal aging research in dogs tracks individual welfare trajectories over years, enabling identification of early intervention points and prediction of age-related welfare decline.
Dog aging longitudinal welfare research offers a window into the individual welfare trajectory that population studies miss. Understanding that a specific dog's activity declined 18 months before clinical diagnosis of osteoarthritis allows retrospective welfare analysis and prospective prevention. The Dog Aging Project citizen science approach — enrolling millions of dogs with their owners — creates a welfare surveillance infrastructure that could identify early biomarkers of welfare decline and validate interventions at unprecedented scale. The dogs enrolled are themselves benefiting from enhanced health monitoring and the research finds applications immediately back into clinical care.