“Welcome to the Dog Aging Project website. Our goal is to increase the healthy lifespan of pet dogs by targeting the aging process directly. For millions of people, pets are part of our family. Unfortunately, companion animals such as dogs and cats age rapidly and have life expectancies that are far too short.  Scientists at the University of Washington want to change this. Research in the biology of aging, a field called Geroscience, has made tremendous strides over the past several years. Interventions have been discovered that are capable of slowing aging and extending lifespan in small mammals such as mice and rats. These same interventions could provide our pets with several years of additional healthy, youthful life. We believe that improving healthy lifespan in pet dogs is a worthy goal in and of itself. To be clear, our goal is to extend the period of life in which dogs are healthy, not prolong the already difficult older years. Imagine what you could do with an additional two to five years with your beloved pet in the prime of his or her life.  This is within our reach today.”