‘Generation Pup’ is a unique type of research project – known as a cohort study – where lots of individual dogs are followed over their lifetime. This has some big advantages over other approaches, as it enables us to investigate whether events or environments early in life influence the development of conditions as dogs get older.
Dogs play an important role in our families, and have an irreplaceable place in our lives and hearts. It is devastating when they are injured, suffer from disease or have behaviour problems which impact on their wellbeing. Research is essential to better understand how and why these problems develop, so we can prevent and treat them.
The results of the Generation Pup study may suggest preventative measures that can be put in place, or lead to new approaches for therapy or treatment for our dogs.
However, for this type of research to be successful we need lots of help from dog owners. We need owners to regularly update us on various aspects of their puppy’s life, behaviour and experiences, so that we can look for common trends or themes which occur between dogs.
So please help – become part of the ‘Generation Pup’ community, and contribute to the development of an exciting new dog science initiative!
We are looking for owners of puppies of any breed or crossbreed under 16 weeks of age, from anywhere in the UK or Republic of Ireland. We ask owners to register with the project, and complete the questionnaires regularly throughout the life of their dog.
If you are a dog lover, owner of older dogs, breeder or vet, we would be very grateful for your help in spreading the word about the project, to help us recruit as many puppies as possible. The more puppies we can register will mean a wider range of important research questions answered from the study and more help for dogs in the future!
There are various different levels of involvement for ‘Generation Pup’ and when you register you can decide how much you would like to commit to. The level of commitment can also be changed in the future.
We ask all owners registered with ‘Generation Pup’ to complete questionnaires about their puppy. When you register, we will ask you to fill in questionnaires about yourself, your household, and your new puppy.
Following this you will be asked to fill in a questionnaire one week after bringing your puppy home, and then again at further points in your puppy’s life as he/she grows up. Please click here to see the surveys for the first 2 years. The questionnaires are more frequent early in your puppy’s life because things change rapidly as your puppy grows up, and lots of new things are happening. From 18 months onwards, the frequency drops to one survey every 6 months.
