The pet food service tails.com has announced that with the introduction of Data Labs, it will use its “unique” data and insights to improve the lives of dogs and their owners.
The group has collected information on the health, wellbeing and life expectancy of hundreds of thousands of dogs since 2014.
Data Labs is designed to use these findings and work with veterinarians and industry experts to improve research on canine health and nutrition.
The first “major milestone” for Data Labs will be the release of the first peer-reviewed scientific article from Tails.com.
The article will detail the effects of body weight, body condition, gender and neutering on dog longevity and health. More scientific articles are expected to be published in the coming months and years.
The database has already provided insights that include:
- With certain breeds, a significant proportion of owners are unaware that their dog is overweight.
- Being overweight or obese can take the lives of dogs months, or in some cases years.
- There is some evidence that life expectancy improves as obese dogs return to ideal body weights.
- The castration of our dogs is associated with a longer life expectancy in 15 of the dog breeds examined.
Sean McCormack, Senior Veterinarian at Tails.com, said, “As a veterinarian in the office, you gain an understanding of common animal problems and trends. But what that data can do is sift through hundreds of thousands of dogs, belittle any nutritional, breed, and age-related data we’ve gathered over time, and then provide an insightful window into the best way to care for our dogs .
“We really only scratch the surface of what is available to us. There is real potential for data labs to fundamentally change the way we view dog nutrition and health in the future. “
Lorna Brightmore, Senior Data Scientist at Tails.com added, “We are known to be a nation of dog lovers, and the data we have has tremendous potential to generate insights that directly affect our wellbeing Impact pets.
“Even at this early stage, we find strong associations between a number of health determinants and longevity, and our conclusions only grow stronger over time.”