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VOOZH | about |
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VOOZH | about |
‘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.
Data are collected via owner-completed surveys, specially designed vet cards, non-invasive biological samples, and veterinary clinical notes.
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.
Generation Pup was the first study of its kind in the UK and Republic of Ireland to study the health, behaviour and welfare of dogs using data collect over time. 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.
We have recruited 10,000 puppies to the ‘Generation Pup’ community who are contributing to this exciting dog science initiative!
We recruited owners of puppies under 16 weeks of age (or 22-week of age if the puppy had been through quarantine), living anywhere in the UK or Republic of Ireland. All owners had to be over 16-years-old to be eligible. The puppies could be any breed, cross, or mix. We asked owners to register with the project, and complete the questionnaires regularly throughout the life of their dog.
In November 2025, we reached our goal of recruiting a total of 10,000 puppies to the study and closed recruitment! Read more about hitting our final recruitment milestone here. Data collection with registered participants continues.
Participants of Generation Pup can select various different levels of involvement depending upon how much they would like to commit to. The level of commitment can also be changed throughtout a participant’s time with the study.
We asked all owners registered with ‘Generation Pup’ to complete questionnaires about their puppy, themselves and their household upon registration. Following this participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire one week after bringing their puppy home, and then again at further points in their 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 their puppy’s life because things change rapidly as puppies grows up, and lots of new things are happening. From 18 months onwards, the frequency drops to one survey every 6 months.
