Darwin's Dogs Research Project

Darwin’s Dogs is an exciting new research project that is collaborating with the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants and dog owners nation-wide to understand how genetics influences behavior.

Through a series of short surveys on the Darwin’s Dogs website, we ask dog owners to tell us about their dog’s personality and behavior. After filling out the surveys, owners will receive an easy-to-use kit to collect a small saliva sample we can use for DNA analysis. There is no cost to participate, and any dog can join in - purebred or pure mutt. By understanding how genetic changes can lead to behavior differences — even for normal behaviors — we will have new insight into psychiatric diseases shared between dogs and people.

By bringing together geneticists, animal behavior specialists and pet owners, Darwin’s Dogs is looking for new ways to help both people and their best friends. To succeed, though, we need thousands of dogs to sign up. Please help us get as much data as we can by visiting http://darwinsdogs.org