A clearer picture.
Bring records and daily life together to understand what deserves attention and what can wait.
Decisions you can use.
What to keep, change, buy, skip, ask and watch, with the reasons underneath.
A reason to spend.
The goal is to help you decide what is worth buying and what you can skip. Cogua does not currently receive commissions. If a link ever pays Cogua, it will say so, and payment never changes a recommendation.
A plan for your dog.
Your dog's records, routine and needs should shape the next step. A longer shopping list is not the goal.
Cogua's methodology is data-source-agnostic by design.
The methodology does not care which brand a result came from. It cares whether the signal is real, dated and applicable to your dog. Bloodwork from any lab, DNA from any company, imaging reports from any clinic, wearable data and food logs all have a place in the same Evidence Stack.
Today, vet records upload as PDFs and photos as JPEG or PNG. Vet PDFs are read for lab values with their units and reference ranges, medications and prescriptions, weight and body condition, exam findings, and care events such as imaging reports, whichever lab or clinic produced them. DNA, methylation and wearable reports are kept with your dog's record when you upload them, but dedicated reading of those formats is still being built, and the report says so rather than pretending to analyze them. Photos are kept, dated, with the record; they do not change the score today. Cogua is built so that each new data stream adds depth to the same report rather than requiring a different one.
How we read the science before scoring your dog
Every conclusion in a Paw Print Report comes from layered evidence, weighted by quality. We are explicit about which layer is doing the work. The high-evidence layers contribute the most. The lower-evidence layers contribute texture, not certainty.
Every score comes with a confidence tier. By design.
A precise number with no context is worse than no number at all. Each Paw Print states an Evidence Confidence tier for your specific dog. The Evidence Confidence Index measures how complete, recent and consistent your dog's evidence is: your answers, vet records, bloodwork, targeted tests, imaging, DNA and methylation, each with a capped share. It is not a probability that the score is correct. The tier sets the width of the interpretive range around the score: less evidence, wider range. That range is an interpretive range for the evidence available, not a statistical confidence interval. A Limited score should be read differently from a Strong one, and the report makes sure you can.
15 to 50%. Your answers alone, or with few records. A useful starting estimate with the widest range, and the report names the next evidence that would sharpen it.
50 to 65%. Your answers plus partial vet records, with bloodwork missing or old. Interpretable, not yet at a clinical confidence level.
65 to 80%. Comprehensive vet records plus current standard bloodwork. Where most healthy adult and senior dogs with engaged owners can land.
80 to 90%. A strong baseline plus targeted tests that the dog's breed, age or findings warrant.
90% and up. Full records and bloodwork plus selected imaging, DNA or methylation where clinically warranted. Not a default, and not a goal to buy toward.
37 health domains. Hundreds of sub-factors. One personalized plan.
The Paw Print assesses 11 mandatory domains for every dog: hepatobiliary, renal and urinary, cardiovascular, endocrine and metabolic, hematologic, body composition and nutritional, musculoskeletal, dermatologic, dental and oral, neurologic and cognitive, and behavioral and stress. The 26 supplemental domains add depth when the evidence exists, including DNA breed analysis and genetic health markers, methylation, cancer screening biomarkers, imaging, GI specialty, ophthalmologic, allergy panels, infectious disease, vaccine titers, environmental, reproductive, medication burden and quality of life. Immune, digestive and eye health stay in scope through the hematologic, inflammation, allergy, infectious disease, GI specialty and ophthalmologic domains. For each of the 11 mandatory domains, the engine records which of these applies: the plan has a step for it; nothing in the record pointed at it; what you told us raised no concern; something was found; or the evidence was incomplete, so it was not assessed, which is not the same as looking and finding nothing. Your report calls out any area where something was found and the plan has no step that fits. Supplemental domains count toward the score where the dog's evidence reaches them. The engine outputs the score as a point estimate with its interpretive range.
The domain structure aligns conceptually with the canine geriatric syndrome framework articulated in the veterinary geroscience literature, which treats canine aging as a multi-system phenomenon best addressed through integrated organ-system surveillance rather than single-marker assessment.
How the architecture was shaped. The methodology, the triage engine, the report architecture, and the way Cogua frames difficult owner decisions were built from published canine longevity research, veterinary geroscience, structured clinical reasoning, and real dog-record patterns. Cogua owns the methodology and explains its reasoning in every report. Its weights are expert-derived and have not yet been externally validated; calibrating them against real outcomes as more dogs join is the next scientific step.
The work that informs our framework
Cogua's methodology cites the following peer-reviewed work and authors, each linked to the paper or official source. We are clear-eyed about what citation means: these scientists have not endorsed Cogua, and Cogua does not claim partnership with their institutions. Their work is the public record this framework rests on, and we believe the right way to honor it is to apply it rigorously and credit it openly.
- Matt Kaeberlein, Kate Creevy, Daniel Promislow. Dog Aging Project leadership. Their 2016 Mammalian Genome framing of dogs as a translational model for human aging, and the 2022 Nature foundational paper, define the modern landscape of canine geroscience. Enrollment passed 50,000 dogs as of November 2024 (DAP key facts). Cogua's methodology draws on DAP's published findings. Any calibration against DAP cohort data would be stated here with its data release and data use agreement; none is claimed today. Several DAP contributors are cited by name in the full methodology document. Cogua does not have a commercial agreement with DAP today, and we would welcome one. The work happening at DAP is essential to dogs living longer, healthier lives, and tighter integration would strengthen both sides.
- Brennen McKenzie, DVM, MA, MSc. Comparative veterinary geroscience, canine geriatric syndrome framework, and veterinary clinical decision-making literature. McKenzie's work on cognitive bias in veterinary practice is the explicit foundation for our diagnostic discipline pillar. The canine geriatric syndrome framework (Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2022) supports multi-system assessment; it does not validate Cogua's domains or weights.
- Richard Kealy and Dennis Lawler. In the Kealy 2002 JAVMA lifetime feeding study, 48 Labradors were paired from 8 weeks of age; the group fed 25 percent less lived about 1.8 years longer at the median, with chronic disease delayed. Lawler 2008 in the British Journal of Nutrition is a follow-on analysis of the same 48 dogs across their lives, not an independent replication. This work is why we treat body condition as one of the most important things an owner controls, while being clear that it comes from one breed and a lifelong feeding design.
- Tina Wang and colleagues. Cell Systems 2020 publication on quantitative dog-to-human aging translation by conserved methylome remodeling, in 104 Labradors. It builds on the first canine epigenetic clock, published by Thompson and colleagues in 2017. Informs how we treat methylation results when owners have them; it does not validate Cogua's score or any single commercial methylation test.
- Benjamin Hart and colleagues. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 2020 and prior PLoS One work on neuter timing and breed-specific joint, cancer, and incontinence outcomes across 35 breeds. Our reproductive-timing domain reflects this literature. These are associations by breed and sex, not guaranteed outcomes for one dog.
- Hannah Salvin and colleagues. The Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Rating Scale, Veterinary Journal (online 2010, print 2011), developed in 957 older dogs. The data-driven owner-facing tool we recommend for early CCD signal.
- Morris Animal Foundation Golden Retriever Lifetime Study team. A prospective lifetime study that enrolled 3,044 Golden Retrievers between 2012 and 2015 and follows them for life (study facts). Informs breed-specific cancer surveillance recommendations.
Owner books, not peer-reviewed sources. Rodney Habib and Karen Becker, DVM, The Forever Dog and The Forever Dog Life. Widely read owner-facing books on dog longevity. We thank them for making this conversation accessible to many households. They shape how we talk with owners, not the evidence behind a recommendation.
Where the field is moving
These are the organizations producing the research, guidelines and infrastructure that shape canine longevity. We follow their publications. A new finding can change what a Paw Print recommends; it never silently changes the score's fixed weights or a report you already have.
Listed organizations have not endorsed Cogua. Their published research, clinical guidelines, and public-domain data inform the methodology where their work is the strongest available evidence for a specific claim.
The honest list
This is what current science cannot tell you, and what we will never pretend it can.
- Exact lifespan. Biological age is an estimate from an expert-derived method, not a prediction of when your dog will die. We use it to identify what is modifiable and what is not.
- Whether the score predicts outcomes. The score has not yet been validated against measured lifespan or healthspan. That takes real outcome data collected over years, and it is on our research roadmap. Software tests prove the score is reproducible, not that it is accurate.
- Cause-by-cause attribution at the individual level. Population-level findings tell us what is more or less likely for dogs like yours. They cannot tell us with certainty which finding explains your specific dog's trajectory.
- How every supplement performs. The supplement literature in dogs is uneven. Some are well-studied. Many are not. We tell you which is which.
- The full picture of methylation clocks in dogs. The work is real and promising. It is also young. We treat methylation as a contributing signal, not a verdict.
- How any individual dog will respond to a new intervention. Including emerging longevity pharmaceuticals. The data are accumulating quickly. We will update as it does.
Every Paw Print can sharpen the picture for the next dog
This is the part we are most excited about, and it is still being built. Cogua is not a static report: each Paw Print is stored as a dated, versioned record, so what changes for a dog can be compared over time. With an owner's separate, explicit research consent, de-identified records from many dogs are how Cogua plans to test the score against real outcomes, refine its weights and narrow its ranges. That is a research deliverable that needs real outcome data, not a software feature, and until it is done the weights stay expert-derived and the ranges stay wide where evidence is thin. Owner contact details will not be used for this analysis, and dogs will not be identified by name in any aggregate. The benefit compounds: the more dogs we serve well, the better we can serve the next one.
This is the most important reason to be on the platform now rather than later. Early adopters help shape what canine longevity intelligence looks like for everyone.
Clear next steps, and a reason for each vet visit.
Paw Print gives owners a biological age score, the drivers behind it, and a sequenced plan. It places each next step at the right level of action: home action, monitor, Access watch, skip for now, next scheduled visit, telehealth when available, primary care, specialist testing, or urgent care. When a step needs a veterinarian, it says why, how soon, what to ask and what to bring. Cogua does not examine your dog or prescribe, and it is not emergency care: if you think your dog needs urgent help, call your vet or an emergency clinic now.
For Cogua Care offerings that involve prescription products, once Care launches, a licensed veterinarian establishes a valid VCPR before any prescription is written. Cogua coordinates. Vets prescribe. That order matters.
We want your scrutiny.
The full methodology v1.5 is available on request for review by scientists and Dog Aging Project participants. Tell us your role and what you want to test. If you can break it, we want to know first.