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August 23, 2017 at 2:41 pm in reply to: Questions about sample collection and social media posting #5500
brittney loganKeymasterHi Al,
First I want to share with you the video instructions that we provide on the consent form. It will show you the collection process visually an go through the steps verbally. I would highly advise watching the video first and then reading through the instructions provide! 🙂
http://darwinsdogs.org/kit.php
1.) Take the swab out of the packaging, making sure to not touch the sponge at other end
2.) Place the sponge in the dogs mouth where saliva naturally pools for 30 sec
3.) Take the sponge off of the tube by twisting the green cap ( avoid spilling solution)
4.) Place the sponge into the blue/purple solution and twist tight (solution is non-toxic, stabilizes DNA)
5.) Invert the test tube for 10 seconds so that sponge is soaked by solution
6.) Seel tube in bio-collection bag & send back to Darwin’s Dogs
brittney loganKeymasterGreat information car2ner, thank you! You make a very good point here, and we will make sure to look at the survey comments carefully when assessing.
August 7, 2017 at 4:17 pm in reply to: Saint Bernard Genetics: Face markings(Mask) and Rear Dew Claws #5926
brittney loganKeymasterGreat question Chere, and thank you Kathleen for your knowledgable reply!
Just so our participants are aware, Kathleen is a graduate student in the Karlsson lab researching canine genetics!
brittney loganKeymasterHi Dixie, we plan to upload personal results to your dogs profile. The monthly Pupdate is a great place to keep up with the research and where it is at.
brittney loganKeymasterI would agree that it is like she is checking in on you. My Lab does the same thing when off leash, but on leash she is only interested in checking out her surroundings. It is quite an interesting behavior, but I would also assume that it is due to aspects of training, especially if the dog as been trained to heel. I think it is great that you are rewarding it!
brittney loganKeymasterHi Allison, as of right now I cannot say how long it will take or how many dog are before Lilly. Currently, we are working on a new method of assessing the samples as we hope to be able to provide you with as much data and information about your dog as possible. We apologize for the long wait, but this is the world of research and our goal is to get all the answers that we can!
brittney loganKeymasterHi Irene, we do have some questions relating to similar behaviors that you have mentioned, many of those coming from published surveys focusing on canine compulsive disorder. We are not veterinarians and cannot diagnose anything. If these behaviors are concerning to you, you can bring up these behaviors to your vet.
brittney loganKeymasterHi Rebecca, great question! As you may have noticed in the collection tubes that we send out there is a purple/blue colored solution. This is a stabilizing solution which keeps the DNA intact at room temperature. Unfortunately, we have received a couple samples where participants have dumped out this liquid and that is when the sample can go bad.
brittney loganKeymasterHi Kriss, yes that is correct. I have checked your information and all you will need to do now in order to receive your kits is to validate your address. Please let us know if you have any further questions!
brittney loganKeymasterGretchen, we cannot say exactly when the results will be available. Right now we are still in the early stages of our research collecting samples, and working on our methods. We originally had planned to genotype the samples, but we are now seeing that this is not providing us with as much data as we would like. We want to be able to provide you with as much data as possible, so we are working on new ways to assess the samples, such as low-coverage sequencing.
When results are ready they will be uploaded to your Darwin’s Dogs profile. As of right now, in terms of the saliva sample, the notification of when received and sample status is what we can provide. For the behavior aspect of this research, we are releasing new surveys each month for participants to take. Please keep checking into your profile for these surveys and updates about our research. Also, you can stay up to date with what is going on by reading our Monthly Pupdate and checking into our social media pages.
brittney loganKeymasterThank you Karolyn and car2ner! We greatly appreciate your support. Please visit our social media links located at the bottom right hand corner of this page and feel free to post, tweet and share! We also have a vastly growing Doggie Participant Wall here at Umass, so please send us some pictures of your Darwin’s Dog so we can add them to our wall! You can post a picture of your pup on our social media pages or send a picture with your DNA kit. We usually take a picture of the updated wall every once and a while to show our participants. Lastly, you can enroll your Darwin’s Dogs to become dog of the month! To do so, click on the “DOGS” tab, located at the top of this page to enroll or see some of the dogs that are already enrolled. Again, thank you for the support!
brittney loganKeymasterHi Juan,
Recently I answered this question in another form post. Please take a look at it to answer your question. If your have further questions, please let me know.
brittney loganKeymasterI agree, I think everyone enjoys bragging about their dog! 🙂 As for the results, in the future it would be very interesting to take a look at them, but right now we just don’t have the place to store it. Thank you for the offer though!
brittney loganKeymasterWe hope that the data will be able to tell you this, but I do want to clarify that our research mostly focuses on genetics and behaviors. It is not just a breed test. If the data does reveal ancestry about your dog, then we will certainly provided that for you! We believe that this data is yours, and we want to share everything we find with you.
brittney loganKeymasterIn the future, Darwin’s Dogs will be creating an App that will be able to collect data about dog behaviors when in various situations and activities. Currently we are working on determining which activities work best for participants to conduct at home, and what behaviors the dogs elicit during the activities. As of right now, we have a local focus group in MA helping us to determine which activities are best for the App. We will certainly let participant know when the App is ready for release!
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