Dogslife: A web-based longitudinal study of Labrador Retriever health in the UK

Abstract

BackgroundDogslife is the first large-scale internet-based longitudinal study of canine health. The study has been designed to examine how environmental and genetic factors influence the health and development of a birth cohort of UK-based pedigree Labrador Retrievers.ResultsIn the first 12 months of the study 1,407 Kennel Club (KC) registered eligible dogs were recruited, at a mean age of 119 days of age (SD 69 days, range 3 days – 504 days). Recruitment rates varied depending upon the study team’s ability to contact owners. Where owners authorised the provision of contact details 8.4% of dogs were recruited compared to 1.3% where no direct contact was possible. The proportion of dogs recruited was higher for owners who transferred the registration of their puppy from the breeder to themselves with the KC, and for owners who were sent an e-mail or postcard requesting participation in the project. Compliance with monthly updates was highly variable. For the 280 dogs that were aged 400 days or more on the 30th June 2011, we estimated between 39% and 45% of owners were still actively involved in the project. Initial evaluation suggests that the cohort is representative of the general population of the KC registered Labrador Retrievers eligible to enrol with the project. Clinical signs of illnesses were reported in 44.3% of Labrador Retrievers registered with Dogslife (median age of first illness 138 days), although only 44.1% of these resulted in a veterinary presentation (median age 316 days).ConclusionsThe web-based platform has enabled the recruitment of a representative population of KC registered Labrador Retrievers, providing the first large-scale longitudinal population-based study of dog health. The use of multiple different methods (e-mail, post and telephone) of contact with dog owners was essential to maximise recruitment and retention of the cohort.

Demography and disorders of German Shepherd Dogs under primary veterinary care in the UK

“…Given the current emphasis on enhancing disease surveillance in the breed, especially among the showing and breeding sectors of the GSD population [ 49 ], this finding presents an alternative perspective whereby not all dogs are unwell and that gives some optimism for the breed. It is also possible, though, that some of these ‘healthy’ individuals with no recorded disorders did have some unrecorded health problems that were not perceived as serious enough to warrant presentation for veterinary care or were not obvious enough to be recognised by the owner and/or veterinarian [ 52 ]. It is also possible that some breed-typical abnormalities such as poor hindlimb conformation or gait may be considered as normal for the breed and therefore not warranted for inclusion in the veterinary clinical records as a formal diagnosis [ 53 ].…”

“…These clinical records were not recorded primarily for clinical research and therefore overlap may have occurred between various disorder terms used [ 33 ]. Decision-making on the presentation of dogs for veterinary care was under the control of the individual owners and therefore some dogs affected with a lower severity or visibility of disease signs may not have been presented, resulting in an under-estimation of the true disease burden [ 52 ]. The quality and detail of the clinical note-taking may have varied between veterinary surgeons and therefore affected the disorder data that were extractable [ 88 ].…”

Validity of Internet-Based Longitudinal Study Data: The Elephant in the Virtual Room

“…In spite of extensive testing prior to launch [ 8 ], a number of the questionnaire answer options in the questionnaire were found to be problematic (Example 1). The options that were offered affected the validity of several measures.…”

“…Dogslife is the first large scale, Web-based longitudinal study of canine health [ 8 ]. In this project, owners of Labrador Retrievers were recruited and questioned at regular intervals about the lifestyle and health of their dogs using an Internet-based questionnaire.…”

Our time is now – how companion animal veterinarians can transform biomedical science

“…There are now increasing numbers of longitudinal cohorts and consortiums of academic institutes and primary care practices involving large number of patients meaning that the risk factors involved in disease development can be explored with a degree of rigour that was not possible until very recently (Clements et al . , Jones et al . , O'Neill et al .…”