Using pet dogs to spot household risks for memory and senses loss
Official title: Companion dogs: sentinels for multimorbidity of human neurocognitive-sensory aging and susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias
Funded at University of Wisconsin-Madison · NIH-11311836 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at whether health and exposure patterns in pet dogs can point to home-based chemical risks that speed up thinking and sensory decline in older adults.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Wisconsin-Madison NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Madison, United States) |
| Project start | August 1, 2023 |
| Project end | April 30, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $695,971 |
| NIH project number | 5R01AG082907-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11311836 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are people who own companion dogs and are willing to allow their pet and home environment to be sampled and evaluated, especially if they are concerned about age-related thinking or sensory changes.
✕Less likely to help
People without pets or those whose cognitive or sensory problems are clearly due to non-environmental causes (for example, purely genetic conditions) are less likely to gain direct benefit from this study.
What this research studies
Researchers will enroll companion dogs that live in people's homes and measure the dogs' exposures to common household neurotoxicants. They will test dogs for memory, smell, hearing, and vision changes and collect environmental samples from the home. By comparing exposures and outcomes in dogs and available human data, the team hopes to find shared risk patterns. Because dogs age faster than people, findings in dogs may reveal harmful home exposures sooner than waiting for human cases to appear.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could identify household chemicals linked to dementia and sensory aging, guiding prevention and safer home practices for older adults.
How similar studies have gone: Some prior studies have used pet dogs to learn about environmental exposures and aging, but using dogs specifically as sentinels for shared neurotoxicant risks tied to Alzheimer’s and sensory decline is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Mowat, Freya — University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Study coordinator: Mowat, Freya
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.