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University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories

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Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge.
  • Home
  • The Science
    • Obesity in Dogs
    • What causes obesity?
    • Why study genetics of obesity?
    • Gene Mapping in Dogs
    • GOdogs Results
      • Measuring Appetite
      • A mutation contributing to Labrador obesity
      • Labradors, flatcoats, POMC and obesity
  • Your Dog
    • Genetic Testing
    • The Art of Managing Your Dog’s Weight
    • 4 Strategies for Slender Dogs
  • Can You Help?
    • Can your dog help?
    • Can your practice help?
  • About GOdogs
    • People
    • Contact Us
    • Newsletters
    • Jobs and Studentships
    • Links
  • Tweets
1
  • Home
  • The Science
    • Obesity in Dogs
    • What causes obesity?
    • Why study genetics of obesity?
    • Gene Mapping in Dogs
    • GOdogs Results
      • Measuring Appetite
      • A mutation contributing to Labrador obesity
      • Labradors, flatcoats, POMC and obesity
  • Your Dog
    • Genetic Testing
    • The Art of Managing Your Dog’s Weight
    • 4 Strategies for Slender Dogs
  • Can You Help?
    • Can your dog help?
    • Can your practice help?
  • About GOdogs
    • People
    • Contact Us
    • Newsletters
    • Jobs and Studentships
    • Links
  • Tweets

Can your dog help?

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.

All breeds welcome!

Silhouettes of slender and obese doggos either side of a DNA helix with the words Take GOdogs questionnaire
Here to help? Please take the GOdogs questionnaire as the first step.

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 not currently recruiting DNA from any breeds but will start doing so soon – in the first instance we will invite people who have taken our questionnaire and indicated they are willing to be contacted.


These are some of the lovely dogs who have taken part in our energy expenditure experiments in the past.

Photo of Lark next to a practice box

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!

Researcher Eleanor demonstrating the practice box by sitting in it.

The view from the inside: GOdogs researcher Eleanor having her own energy expenditure measured. Chilling out inside a spacious dog kennel was a surprisingly good way to get some work done!

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.

Photo of Lily the dog snoozing in the measurement kennel during the test.

Here is Lilly doing a fab job of snoozing for us!


Measuring feeding behaviour

For food choice trials, we usually ask people to visit once or twice for visits of about an hour.  The tests and games allow us to measure dogs’ food preference in a set of playful experiments, which are fun for the dogs and interesting for the owners.

Wilf the dog trying out a new fangled treat dispenser
One of our non-retriever volunteers playing with the ‘Clever Pet Hub’ How hard would your dog work to reveal a treat? Thanks to https://clever.pet/ for the kit!

We have no feeding behaviour trials running at the moment but we are planning some for the near future. If you would like to volunteer your flatcoated retriever (or labrador) to take part please email us at godogs@hermes.cam.ac.uk and we will add you to our interest list.

Your dog isn’t a retriever, pug, or bulldog?  We’d still love to learn about your dog and food so take the Dog Eating Behaviour Questionnaire

We are still collecting information about dogs of any breed and how they are with food. Whatever breed of dog you have, please click here to take the survey.

We are interested in dogs of any breed but are focusing at the moment on collecting DNA samples from retriever breeds, pugs and French and English bulldogs.  If you have one of these dogs, read on…

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 retriever breeds, pugs, French bulldogs and English bulldogs but in future we may approach owners of other breeds too.

What will it involve if my dog donates DNA to the study?

Graphic illustrating how to use the swab to collect a sample of your dogs saliva
Saliva sampling is quick, painless and easy. Two spongy swabs are used to soak up saliva from the cheek pouch
  • 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.
Photo of the Swab and packaging

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Silhouette of two labs and a DNA strand, with the words "want to take part? Click here to find out more

Tweets

Retweet on TwitterGOdogs project Retweeted
ATJCagan avatarAlex Cagan@ATJCagan·
13 Apr 1514281139120267277

Incredibly excited to share our paper ‘Somatic mutation rates scale with lifespan across mammals’ now published @nature.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04618-z
An illustrated & updated tweetorial… [1/24]

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NatalieJessic10 avatarNatalie Wallis@NatalieJessic10·
21 Apr 1517165385283473411

What a brilliant day at the @IMS_MRL department 'away day' yesterday. Lovely being back in person and so happy to have won a best poster prize 🎉!! Thank you to the IMS organisers, @RobinsonCamb staff for the great hospitality and @GilesYeo (& co) for the entertainment 💃.

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