OLD DOGS, new science

Dogs go through stages in their lives just as people do, as is obvious to anyone who has watched their stiff-legged, white-muzzled companion rouse themselves to go for one more walk.

Poets from Homer to Pablo Neruda have also taken notice, as have folk singers and storytellers. Now science is taking a turn, in the hope that research on how dogs grow and age will help us understand the human ageing process. And, like the poets before them, scientists are finding parallels between the two species.

So far, their research shows that dogs are similar to us in important ways, like how they act during adolescence and old age, and what happens in their DNA as they get older. They may be what scientists call a “model” for human ageing – a species that we can study to learn more about how we grow old and perhaps learn