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.
“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,” said Dr Jane Murray, Research Manager for Generation Pup, at Dogs Trust. “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.”
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.
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.
Find out more or to sign up your new four-legged friend via the Generation Pup website.
