According to a study from Arizona State University, the relationship that a dog builds with its owners and how much money their owner makes can make them live longer.
The research, conducted by graduate student Layla Brassington and Ph.D. student Brianah McCoy, included over 21,000 owners and their dogs and is part of the Dog Aging Project, an ambitious research effort to track the aging process of tens of thousands of companion dogs in the US.
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Associate Professor from the Center for Evolution and Medicine Noah Snyder-Mackler led the study in collaboration with Brassington and McCoy over the past four years.
Among the factors that the researchers analyzed during the study, neighborhood stability and total family income seem to play an important role in dogs’ lifespan.
Importance of Quality Time
The researchers found that not only do a dog’s age and weight affect its health, but also the environment in which the dog lives.
“Financial and domestic adversities were associated with health problems and reduced physical mobility, while more social companionship with humans and other dogs was associated with better health,” the researchers stated.
Having a strong social relationship with humans for dogs was considered important and, especially, a relationship that focuses on quality rather than quantity.
The researchers found a negative correlation between the number of children in a house with the overall health of a dog.
“We found that time with children actually had a detrimental effect on a dog’s health. More children or time that owners dedicate to their children likely lead to less time with their furry children,” Brassington stated.
Better access to care is also important
In addition, just like humans, money plays a significant role. The researchers found that dogs living in wealthier homes have better access to medical care, more frequent visits to the vet, and additional testing.
These factors combine to enable dogs to have a more accurate and better diagnosis. “The takeaway message is: having a good network, having good social connection is good for the dogs living with us,” McCoy explained.
Dog Aging Project
Matt Kaeberlein, co-director of the project, is one of the few scientists involved in this mission to improve, delay, and possibly reverse this aging process in pet dogs. But, according to him, dogs are just the beginning.
Dogs provide a very good model for studying human aging. They are unique in sharing our environment. They live in our homes, breathe the same air as us, and often share our exercise routines, to some extent.
However, there are some differences. Dogs’ brains are not the same as humans, although animals seem to develop a form of dementia with age. And dogs do not tend to develop vascular diseases like humans.
But there are also many similarities. Both dogs and people experience aging of the immune system and an increased risk of kidney disease as they age, according to Kaeberlein. “It seems that at the level of individual age-related diseases, it’s very, very similar,” he said.
The idea is to find biological clues that can help identify which dogs might be at risk of developing such diseases in the future and eventually assist in the discovery of drugs that can prevent or treat them.
The researchers hope that by discovering genes linked to a long and healthy life in dogs, we may also learn what could help humans live longer. “It’s going to go a long way to convincing people that this is possible [in humans]. Aging is modifiable,” Kaeberlein told Technology Review.
