Name: Studying dogs may reveal path to longer, healthier life for dogs, humans | 60 Minutes
Uploaded: 2026-03-23T21:33:29.000Z
Duration: 13 min 14 s
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Everyone knows the old adage about dogs being man's best friend,

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but you may not know that dogs might also be one of man's best hopes to treat age-related illnesses.

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That's because our canines develop many of the same diseases we do, including dementia.

Dogs' brains are a lot like ours, so studying how dementia and other diseases naturally progress in them may also help us.

That's what the Dog Aging Project is all about: unlocking secrets to a longer, healthier life for humans and our four-legged friends.

At hundreds of vet clinics and hospitals around the country, including here at Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, people are bringing in their dogs.

The Dog Aging Project is a collaboration of dog owners, scientists,

and veterinarians studying dogs, more than 50, 000 of them so far, by collecting data on their diets and exercise, analyzing blood samples,

Matt Cabraline, a biologist who spent decades trying to understand and reverse the causes of aging, co-founded the project in 2014.

Where did the idea of the Dog Aging Project come from?

I had this light bulb moment, which I still remember vividly.

I realized, oh, my God, we know about three or four or five ways to slow aging in laboratory animals.

The biology of aging is so conserved or shared across the animal kingdom.

To help study how the brain ages, Cabraline recruited Stephanie McGrath, a veterinary neurologist from Colorado State University.

I think a lot of people would be surprised to know that there are neurologists for animals.

And you believe looking at dogs and looking at dogs' brains can help us not only help dogs but humans as well?

Because right now we are using mice, and we are putting them through treatment trials,

I've read that as many as 90% of the things that work in mice do not end up working in humans.

So to have something in between would be hugely beneficial.

a species that very closely mimic naturally occurring diseases of aging in humans.

Cancer, dementia, all these diseases that we see as humans age occur in dogs.

One reason they live alongside us and are exposed to the same environments.

They exercise with us, eat our food, drink the same water.

Also key, McGrath says, is the fact that dogs have shorter lives because they age faster than humans.

We can get a ton of information that would take decades to do in humans.

In a human being, if you wanted to do a lifelong study, obviously you would have to do it from the age of 1 to 60, 70, 80.

So we just check to make sure his sensory is good.

McGrath has been tracking hundreds of dogs to see how their cognitive ability changes as they age, including 12-year-old Murphy, a German Shepherd pudel mix.

He gets his puppy zoomies about once a week now versus once a day.

For Pat Schultz, like many of the dog owners we met, enrolling Murphy in the Dog Aging Project was personal.

Her husband, Bill, suffered from Alzheimer's disease, progressing to the point he stopped recognizing Pat as his wife.

Throughout his decline, Murphy was Bill's constant companion.

I have a tracking collar on Murphy, so as long as Murphy had that tracking collar on, I knew where Bill was.

So while Bill is dealing with Alzheimer's, you hear about the Dog Aging Project.

I think I was looking at clinical studies, and I found something about dog studies.

and knowing that he's a big dog, they don't have as long a lifespan, usually.

For the past three years, Murphy has undergone testing to assess his physical and mental fitness.

In games like these, dogs are shown where a treat is hidden and seconds later allowed to go and get it.

When it was Murphy's turn, he struggled, wanting to stay with Pat, too anxious to do the test.

On the second try, he got a little turned around but eventually found the treat.

The anxiety that Murphy showed, is that a potential sign of dementia?

In the last few visits at CSU, he's really progressed in terms of his challenges with his tasks, both here and at home.

At 14, he's already shown signs of advanced dementia.

Ralph quickly forgot about the treat, wandered off, and picked up a piece of lint off the floor.

All the information collected in the Dog Aging Project, including from these tests, goes into a public database accessible to researchers around the world.

It's been used in more than 50 scientific studies so far, many of which found correlations between lifestyle, environment, and

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Studying dogs may reveal path to longer, healthier life for dogs, humans | 60 Minutes

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