Tell us about your dog and food
We want to know about how dogs differ in their attitude to food. Please tell us about your dog – take the GOdogs questionnaire. It takes less than 10 minutes and will really help our work.
The questionnaire is also the best place to start if you would like to donate DNA from your dog or take part in our behaviour or energy metabolism tests – just opt in when you are offered at the end. We are currently recruiting DNA from young Labrador retrievers, but other breed owners can fill out the questionnaire as well.
All breeds welcome!
Donating DNA from your Dog
At the end of the eating behaviour questionnaire, we ask if you would consider submitting a DNA sample from your dog. It’s entirely optional and we will use the eating behaviour information whether or not we get DNA to match. At the moment we are focussing on collecting from Labrador retrievers but in future we may approach owners of other breeds too.
Saliva sampling is quick, painless and easy. Two spongy swabs are used to soak up saliva from the cheek pouch
What will it involve if my dog donates DNA to the study?
- GOdogs will send you a saliva sampling kit.
- Using the kit is simple and most dogs tolerate sampling very well.
- The kits are easy to use and have clear instructions:
- If you try to get a sample but your dog won’t tolerate it, that’s fine. We just ask that any unused kits are returned in the stamped addressed envelope we provide.
These are some of the lovely dogs who have taken part in our energy expenditure experiments in the past.
Here is our very first participant, Lark.
On the left she is at home getting used to the practice box we sent her.
On the right, she is looking very proud of herself after doing a brilliant job of relaxing for us!
Photo of the dog kennel hooked up to all sorts of equipment in the lab.
Energy expenditure measurement is complex for the researchers but very simple for your dog – we hope they will chill out, lie down and even go to sleep.
Measurements take a couple of hours once the dogs have relaxed.