Criteria & Funding

[bre anne harris]

This is certainly a topic that needs to be researched and I truly hope that you make great strides. Your efforts are greatly appreciated, thank you!

I was wondering two things: 1) in your FAQs you mention that due to the cost of genotyping, you pick-and-choose which dogs to genotype based on grant funding – what is the criteria set in the grants to choose which samples get genotyped and 2) has there been any change in the option for participants to contribute to help offset the costs of the genotypes?

[jesse mcclure]

The criteria vary widely as we have some primary funding sources, and continue to supplement these with numerous small projects targetting specific discrete questions. For each target question we seek dogs that may be both high and low for that trait: for example, only getting lots of dogs that may have food allergies would not be that useful for asking questions about the genetics of food allergies, we also include lots of dogs who do not show any signs of allergies as a comparison group. Currently targeted groups include dogs that are high or low in each of anxiety, impulsivity, retrieving and/or toy focus, food-allergy related symptoms, tendency to over-eat or eat quickly, and sociability.

**Contributions:** Yes, there have been some changes in the option for participants to contribute. We are not taking such donations just yet, but previously this was something we were hoping to do and/or brainstorming about. Now we have a consultant working with us setting up the accounts and getting everything in order to have a secure system to accept contributions. I hope to have a blog entry in the near future detailing the progress and timeline for this, but it is no longer just a hoped for plan, but it is an imminent change which will be coming to our webste.

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*note: I see you had this posted on another thread, it seems better on it’s own here, so I’ll remove your other post*

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