Dachshund puppy becomes 7000th pup on dog welfare study

Dogs Trust has celebrated National Puppy Day by welcoming the 7,000th puppy onto its ground-breaking Generation Pup study of four-legged friends.

The Generation Pup study, which launched in 2016, tracks puppies through to adulthood, to learn how their early experiences, environment, diet and exercise affects their health and behaviour later in life. It is the first study of its kind, enabling researchers to gain ground-breaking new insights about our canine companions to improve dog welfare for future generations.

Taking the participation numbers to achieve this milestone figure is a Dachshund pup, called Poppy.

Dr Jane Murray, Research Manager for Generation Pup, at Dogs Trust, said: “It is wonderful that we’ve recruited 7,000 dogs and we’re so grateful to all the owners who give up their time to help with the study.

“Generation Pup is ground-breaking, as we believe it to be the only longitudinal study that includes pure and mixed breed dogs and collects data that enables investigation of both behavioural and health problems at different life stages.

“Owners can gain a huge amount of satisfaction in knowing that the information they provide us is helping to make a real difference to the welfare of dogs in the future. Every time a dog is included in one of our studies we award their owner with a 'Certificate of Animal Welfare Science' and a link to the research.

“We would love to reach 10,000 doggy recruits so please sign up online. The more puppies we have signed up to the study, the greater potential we have to understand more about our dogs and how to help them in the future.”

As well as knowing they are contributing to canine welfare research, puppy owners will receive a newsletter twice a year, be part of an online community through social media and be able to enter competitions to win prizes.

The charity is aiming to recruit a total of 10,000 puppies and is calling on new owners to celebrate their puppies this National Puppy Day by taking part in this innovative study. n To find out more about Generation Pup or to sign up your new four-legged friend, visit www.generationpup.ac.uk

Generation Pup is open to all breeds and crossbreeds of puppies from anywhere in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Puppies need to be registered onto the project before they are 16 weeks old. Puppies that have gone through quarantine can be registered up to 21 weeks of age.