LONGECITY

I was looking to get a dog (in the next few months) and figured why not run a little mini-mprize. One of my hobbies is dog training (I train them to do cool things: Open the fridge, and hand deliver a beer, collect fruit in the garden, play frisbee etc).

So I wanted to get a dog that was:
- Inteligent - fun / rewarding to train
- Standard sized - It needs to be big enough to do things like pickup fruit in my orchard and play frisbee etc..
- Healhty - I don't want to be taking care of chronic conditions if possible.
- Long lived breed - makes the training an investment with a longer payout and the dog has more time to get smarter
- Finally I would put it on CR - This actually makes training MUCH more effective and i can get the dog to live longer Win Win.
- Sharp looking - If its going to be hanging around for a long time, it might as well be easy on the eyes...

Here are some quick facts to get you up to speed on aging in dogs:
- Most dogs live ~12 years, but this varies greatly per breed.
- Short lived dogs like the irish wolfhound live only ~8 years while other dogs like the miniate poodle live 14.8 years
- In general, smaller dogs live longer than larger dogs (as do smaller humans than larger humans, (unfortunately for me))

What i found in all of my searching is that the longest lived breeds are the toy poodle, Miniature Schnauzers, Maltese.
These were really small dogs and not really what I was looking for; the following compromised some of the longevity for other traits that I liked: Australian Sheep Dog; German Shorthaired Pointer; Saluki.

But then I stumbled across the rare breed: Xoloitzcuintli. This dog appears to be an outlier in terms of dog longevity and health; living 15-20 years beating the pants off other breeds (some website say 12-15 not 15-20 so I'm not sure). It comes in a hairless and coated variety. It also ranges in size from toy to standard. It is also pretty smart.

Anyone else know of any other really long lived dogs?

Anyone have any ideas to stretch out their longevity aside from CR? (I hear neutering in females increases longevity for example)

Once I pick a dog, I'll probably make a dog longevity club or something and we can try to get our pups into the guiness book of records for dog age.
Edited by lucid, 01 May 2012 - 06:34 AM.

Parson Russel Terrier (aka long legged Jack Russel Terrier).

Intelligent, Active, Personable, Generally healthy breed, Average lifespan 14-15 years, attractive, curious, excels in dog frisbee contests/agility/flyball, extremely loyal, and fearless.

The ONLY problem is that the breed takes an owner with dedication. They aren't just active...they require exercise and activity more so than other breeds.

Well, clearly I have a bias . A-lota dog and certainly not for everyone. But, APBTs meet many or most of your criteria. I've known several people who have been fortunate to have their APBT live into their late teens.

I'm definitely in favor of neutering males and spaying females.

Go for a herding breed, those are the most intelligent. Also, I'd suggest a mix breed dog because pure bred dogs have more health problems.

For intelligence, dedication to work and massive amounts of energy you can't beat what we call a Border Collie....an old fashioned black and white sheep dog. Ours lasted 15+ years. They frequently win prizes in the more challenging competitions.A friend of mine who trains search and rescue dogs gave up using them because they are "too intelligent....they think for themselves."

Parson Russel Terrier (aka long legged Jack Russel Terrier).

Intelligent, Active, Personable, Generally healthy breed, Average lifespan 14-15 years, attractive, curious, excels in dog frisbee contests/agility/flyball, extremely loyal, and fearless.

The ONLY problem is that the breed takes an owner with dedication. They aren't just active...they require exercise and activity more so than other breeds.

Thanks; thats a strong candidate. I'll add that to my list. Looks like it can have some eye issues; but 14-15 is a long average life. Only problem is that jack russels that I have known shed a lot. Yuk.

Here is an interesting article:
http://petfoodtalk.c...ving-dog-breed/

• Dogs that have strong, structured faces that resemble wolves tend to live the longest whereas dogs with flatter faces live the shortest lives
• Mutts, also called Heinz 57 or mongrels actually live longer lives than dogs with a pedigree
• Just 8% of all dog breeds live past 17 years
• As much as 64% of all dog breeds are euthanized due to sickness with cancer being responsible for around 16%
• The Irish Wolfhound has a lifespan of just six years while many terrier varieties live up to 15 years, sometimes longer
• Typically, smaller dogs outlive larger dogs, sometimes by twice as much

What is wild is that the longest lived dog on record 29 lives over twice as long as the average dog for that breed (14 years), actually I guess that is the same as humans... 122 vs 65... That actually just blew my mind... Jeanne Calment got over twice as much time as the average woman of her generation... That said who wants to be physically old that long... But i digress...

Now I'm wanting to breed / engineer a GMO dog.... Mail order GMO dogs are probably a ways off though. Anyone know how much gene therapy of germ line cells costs? I wonder if its under 50k...

Breeding is probably a little slower... Michael Rose's expiriments took 12 generations to get +10% lifespan...

Maybe doing RNA interference to knockdown genes that increase the life in C. Elegans may be an option. Hmm more reading required.

Oh gosh, please don't get an Old English Sheepdog. I mean, they are the greatest dogs, yes: smart, loyal, gentle, beautiful, loving.... I could gush on and on. But short lived. Mine died at ten despite my best efforts at doing everything I knew to keep him healthy and alive. When he died -- their genes are really bad, I think -- the loss really broke my heart for quite a long time. Such a lwonderful, magnificent animal suddenly -- poof -- gone. :(

Parson Russel Terrier (aka long legged Jack Russel Terrier).

Intelligent, Active, Personable, Generally healthy breed, Average lifespan 14-15 years, attractive, curious, excels in dog frisbee contests/agility/flyball, extremely loyal, and fearless.

The ONLY problem is that the breed takes an owner with dedication. They aren't just active...they require exercise and activity more so than other breeds.

Thanks; thats a strong candidate. I'll add that to my list. Looks like it can have some eye issues; but 14-15 is a long average life. Only problem is that jack russels that I have known shed a lot. Yuk.

Well if you have problems with shedding, you might not want a dog at all... but yeah, my JRT sheds quite a bit for a dog with such short hair. Of course, I don't brush her at all because she will take a dump in my shoes if I try. She really doesn't like it.

Well if you have problems with shedding, you might not want a dog at all... but yeah, my JRT sheds quite a bit for a dog with such short hair. Of course, I don't brush her at all because she will take a dump in my shoes if I try. She really doesn't like it.

Some shedding is OK, but the less the better. I got a good laugh out of the vindictive dumping story Hahaha!

Here is an interesting video where Cynthia Kenyon (6x longer lives in C.Elegans) mentions how smaller dogs live longer than larger dogs. This is usually linked with a down regulation of IGF-1 receptors in dogs. What is interesting is that she goes on to point out that in all 3 model species (worms, flies, and mice) the life extending properties of IGF-1 can be decoupled from the decrease in size.

I REALLY want to figure out how to create a long-lived dog species that has the same gene's knocked out as her C. Elegans. This shouldn't be too expensive to do... Here is the process that is often used in mice:

There are several variations to the procedure of producing knockout mice; the following is a typical example.

• The gene to be knocked out is isolated from a mouse gene library. Then a new DNA sequence is engineered which is very similar to the original gene and its immediate neighbour sequence, except that it is changed sufficiently to make the gene inoperable. Usually, the new sequence is also given a marker gene, a gene that normal mice don't have and that confers resistance to a certain toxic agent or that produces an observable change (e.g. colour or fluorescence).
• Stem cells are isolated from a mouse blastocyst (a very young embryo) and grown in vitro. For this example, we will take stem cells from a white mouse.
• The new sequence from step 1 is introduced into the stem cells from step 2 by electroporation. The natural process of homologous recombination means some of the electroporated stem cells will incorporate the new sequence with the knocked-out gene into their chromosomes in place of the original gene. The chances of a successful recombination event are relatively low, so the majority of altered cells will have the new sequence in only one of the two relevant chromosomes - they are said to be heterozygous.
• The stem cells that incorporated the knocked-out gene are isolated from the unaltered cells using the marker gene from step 1. For example, the unaltered cells can be killed using a toxic agent to which the altered cells are resistant.
• The knocked-out stem cells from step 4 are inserted into a mouse blastocyst. For this example, we use blastocysts from a grey mouse. The blastocysts now contain two types of stem cells: the original ones (from the grey mouse), and the knocked-out cells (from the white mouse). These blastocysts are then implanted into the uterus of female mice, where they develop. The newborn mice will therefore be chimeras: some parts of their bodies result from the original stem cells, other parts from the knocked-out stem cells. Their fur will show patches of white and grey, with white patches derived from the knocked-out stem cells and grey patches from the recipient blastocyst.
• Some of the newborn chimera mice will have gonads derived from knocked-out stem cells, and will therefore produce eggs or sperm containing the knocked-out gene. When these chimera mice are crossbred with others of the wild type, some of their offspring will have one copy of the knocked-out gene in all their cells. These mice will be entirely white and are not chimeras, however they are still heterozygous.
• When these heterozygous offspring are interbred, some of their offspring will inherit the knocked-out gene from both parents; they carry no functional copy of the original gene (i.e. they are homozygous for that allele).

A detailed explanation of how knockout (KO) mice are created is located at the website of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2007

The primary cost of the above method is getting time on an electroporation machine and engineering the replacement DNA sequence. Electroporation can't be that expensive where as the machine is less than 6,000$.

Engineering the DNA sequence would be more tricky; Anyone knows how much it costs to print DNA? Its cheap to replicate once you have it.

The next cost would be equipment to do blastocyst extraction and implantation. No idea how much this runs.

Then there is the problem that it difficult to do a double & triple knockout since recombination is an infrequent event. What you would most likely have to do is several cycles of electroporation and gene implantation followed by killing off unfertilized cells. None of this stuff is THAT expensive or THAT complicated. I'm feeling like I need to scratch my mad scientist itch... haha. I could total genetically engineer a dog that lived 40+ years, and probably so could you.

The big unknown here in my book is how to actually genetically engineer the DNA. Is there a cheap provider for printed DNA?

Another option is using RNAi, I have no idea how much this would cost either or how effective it would be as the mouse aged.. Does RNAi wear off?

What are the laws about playing around with this kind of stuff? Is this still the land of the free? Or is this heavily regulated?

Animal treatments are less regulated than human treatments. In the U.S. just figure everything, EVERYTHING you do everyday is illegal. The laws and regulations in the Federal Register alone are uncountable (seriously, legal scholars have tried to count them, but there are too many permutations and contradictions that an accurate count cannot be made), and that doesn't include state and local laws and regs. If it is important to you, do it. You will probably fly under the radar screen. If it works - hoooray!

Ronald Klatz's dog. Living proof of life extension in action, when he was alive.

http://www.worldheal...program_of_lex/


Made it to nearly 17 years, that was voluntarily ended and could probably have
been pushed to 20 or so.

Which means that he would have been some 140 years human.

Well if you have problems with shedding, you might not want a dog at all... but yeah, my JRT sheds quite a bit for a dog with such short hair. Of course, I don't brush her at all because she will take a dump in my shoes if I try. She really doesn't like it.

On about long-lived dogs, from my experience I'd say get a mixed breed. All the pedigrees we had died prematurely of health issues but the mixed breeds lasted longest. Having said that though, I have known many pedigrees owned by others who have lived to a really good age so maybe my family were just cursed. The dog I grew up with was a bearded collie cross and she lived until she was sixteen and went off her legs.

We had a very long-lived Dutch rabbit though who died at eleven and the vet was astonished, as he'd never met such an old rabbit. The rabbit was an anti-social psycho though and didn't seem to like much company. We never managed to bond with him. I also kept two giant African land snails and they lasted through high school and up until about 2009...about ten years, which I'm told is a long time. I know that many of you probably won't believe me but I swear upon my life that it is true.

As for dogs, someone once said that the worst thing about them is they're ot around long enough. I couldn't agree more with that statement. Absolutely adore dogs.

I met a Parson/JRT like mine at a 'Mardi Paws' event at a local park this weekend that was 20 year old. Aside from greying and being a tad slower, it still was high energy and bouncing around all over the place. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to get into a lengthy discussion with the owner and was only really able to learn that they were very 'careful' with the dogs diet and were giving it 'supplements'. Funny, this is the second 20 year old I have met in this area over the past couple of year.

I love how dogs never mentally grow up...probably something I share in common with them.