Feeding Choices Owners Make: Early Findings from the Dog Aging Project

Presentation Description / Summary: Nutrition research in dogs so far has focused on colony dogs maintained in a controlled environment, and on small cohorts of dogs that are patients of a nutritionist. Nutrition research conducted on large cohorts of people without randomization has historically yielded very contradictory results for many factors that are mostly eliminated when examining pet dogs. What if dogs could be the perfect model of nutrition for people? These early findings from the Dog Aging Project, the largest cohort study of pet dogs so far in research, will provide the analysis of owner-reported feeding choices such as food type (kibble or canned, fresh refrigerated or frozen, freeze-dried, etc.), major protein and carbohydrate component, special choices such as raw/vegetarian/etc. These findings will inform future veterinary nutrition researchers as well as general practitioners. Most excitingly, because dogs eat a more consistent diet than people, and because we can take advantage of “natural experiments” of randomization (such as same breeds naturally randomized to different households), we can conduct meaningful research in dog nutrition that just isn’t feasible in people.