Factors associated with longevity in companion dogs: initial findings from the Dog Aging Project

Companion dogs are a valuable geroscience model because they share human environments, develop similar age-related diseases, and have compressed lifespans. The Dog Aging Project (DAP) is a large, prospective cohort designed to investigate intrinsic and extrinsic factors associated with canine aging and longevity. We analyzed 41,047 dogs from the 2024 DAP Curated Data Release with baseline Health and Life Experience Survey (HLES) data and mortality follow-up through 2024. All-cause mortality was assessed using owner-reported death dates. We estimated survival by size class, breed background (American Kennel Club-recognized vs. non-AKC/mixed-breed), and sex using Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox models. We further evaluated geographic variation and conducted a survey-wide association study (SWAS) of 804 HLES variables using Cox models stratified by demographics with false discovery rate control. Median lifespan ranged from 14 years in small dogs to less than 10 years in giant AKC-recognized breed dogs. Within size-sex strata, AKC-recognized breed dogs lived modestly shorter lives than non-AKC/mixed-breed dogs, and females had slightly longer lifespans than males. After demographic adjustment, rural-suburban-urban differences were no longer evident, but there was significant regional and state-level variation, which correlated positively with human mortality patterns (r = 0.43, ρ = 0.63, p = 0.0017). The SWAS identified 72 baseline variables associated with mortality, primarily from Health Status, Physical Activity, Behavior, Environment, and Diet domains, with many showing clear exposure-response relationships. This initial DAP survival analysis confirms strong demographic effects on canine longevity, reveals shared geographic mortality patterns between dogs and humans, and highlights survey-based health, behavioral, and environmental factors warranting targeted causal investigation.

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Publication Details

Journal
GeroScience
Published
2026-10-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-026-02448-9
Primary Topic
Human-Animal Interaction Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Factors associated with longevity in companion dogs: initial findings from the Dog Aging Project

Daniel Promislow, May J. Reed, Paul E. Litwin, Mary Katherine Tolbert et al.
4 links
GeroScience
Human-Animal Interaction Studies
article

Factors associated with longevity in companion dogs: initial findings from the Dog Aging Project

Daniel Promislow, May J. Reed, Paul E. Litwin, Mary Katherine Tolbert, Kathleen F. Kerr, Sandi Shrager, Amanda Erickson Coleman, Stephanie McGrath, Kate E. Creevy, Stephen Mark Schwartz, Natasha J. Olby, Jessica M. Hoffman, Virginia R. Fajt, Elinor K. Karlsson, Elhanan Borenstein, Amber J. Keyser, Matt R. Kaeberlein, Audrey Ruple, Matthew D. Dunbar, Benjamin R. Harrison, Weihsueh A. Chiu, Erica C. Jonlin, Evan L. MacLean, 한강, Rozalyn M. Anderson, Marta G. Castelhano, Jing Ma, Joshua M. Akey, Robert M. Seyfarth
article en

Abstract

Companion dogs are a valuable geroscience model because they share human environments, develop similar age-related diseases, and have compressed lifespans. The Dog Aging Project (DAP) is a large, prospective cohort designed to investigate intrinsic and extrinsic factors associated with canine aging and longevity. We analyzed 41,047 dogs from the 2024 DAP Curated Data Release with baseline Health and Life Experience Survey (HLES) data and mortality follow-up through 2024. All-cause mortality was assessed using owner-reported death dates. We estimated survival by size class, breed background (American Kennel Club-recognized vs. non-AKC/mixed-breed), and sex using Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox models. We further evaluated geographic variation and conducted a survey-wide association study (SWAS) of 804 HLES variables using Cox models stratified by demographics with false discovery rate control. Median lifespan ranged from 14 years in small dogs to less than 10 years in giant AKC-recognized breed dogs. Within size-sex strata, AKC-recognized breed dogs lived modestly shorter lives than non-AKC/mixed-breed dogs, and females had slightly longer lifespans than males. After demographic adjustment, rural-suburban-urban differences were no longer evident, but there was significant regional and state-level variation, which correlated positively with human mortality patterns (r = 0.43, ρ = 0.63, p = 0.0017). The SWAS identified 72 baseline variables associated with mortality, primarily from Health Status, Physical Activity, Behavior, Environment, and Diet domains, with many showing clear exposure-response relationships. This initial DAP survival analysis confirms strong demographic effects on canine longevity, reveals shared geographic mortality patterns between dogs and humans, and highlights survey-based health, behavioral, and environmental factors warranting targeted causal investigation.

GeroScience
Tufts University (US), University of Washington (US), Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (US), Texas A&M University (US)
Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, Agricultural Research Service, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Good health and well-being
Openalex Percentile: Top 15%
Human-Animal Interaction Studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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