December 10, 2021
Some estimates suggest that around 10,000 people in Canada and the US who are blind, or visually impaired use a guide dog. These incredible pooches are important for their human’s freedom and mobility, but they require an enormous amount of training, and even then, around half of pups never graduate from their program.
Because this training is expensive (roughly CAD$50,000 per dog) and the journey is a long one, it is important to find ways to ensure the dogs that start this process are well suited to being a guide dog. First the puppies live with their mother for 8 weeks, then are fostered to caring families who help socialize the puppies, and begin their early training. Once the puppies are 18 months old they go through around 8 months of professional training, before being matched with a handler, and then training with their new owner. These dogs can fail out of training due to distractibility or poor temperament, or could make it all the way through training, and then have to retire early due to inherited illness. What if we could take the guess work out of it?
Researchers from the Guide Dogs in the UK have begun a project to study the genetics of their dogs. They will combine this genetic information, with medical information gathered during the dog’s regular checkups with the vet, and use it to help determine if there are specific genes that hint at which puppies will not be suitable for a career as a guide dog, and those that are likely to be perfectly suited to the role.
This study will take a long time to gather all the necessary data, as the researchers hope to track 3,000 dogs from conception, right up until retirement age. They will combine this data with other genetic studies of dogs to gain a better understanding of which (if any) genes are linked with behavior (such as obedience and intelligence), as well as those linked with diseases that can impact a guide dog’s ability to guide. This knowledge will be helpful in the future, as it will help selecting suitable dogs for guiding, before putting them through the rigor of the expensive training process.
In addition to helping select suitable dogs for training, it also has the potential to allow for selectively breeding guide dogs with desirable traits that align with the needs of their users, such as people who need a larger dog in order to aid their balance. The future for guide dogs and their humans is bright.
Source: Wired
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/guide-dog-dna/
