Can we help our dogs live longer and healthier lives, and learn how humans might do the same? In order to target and treat the aging process, we first need to understand how dogs age. Dogs are our closest companions in every sense. Dogs evolved alongside humans, sharing our environments for thousands of years. They sleep in our homes. They eat when we eat — and sometimes what we eat.

Dogs also develop the same age-related diseases we do at roughly the same rates and the same times in their lives. This makes them an ideal model to understand human aging. Equally importantly, we have the opportunity to target the underlying causes of these aging-related diseases in dogs, with the goal of extending the number of healthy, happy years they live. And who doesn’t want their dog to live longer?