With each step they take, puppies participating in a clinical study at the University of Minnesota are building a knowledge base that researchers hope will not only safely guide their growth and fitness but also allow earlier intervention in cases of disease.

The study is analyzing how puppies move, known as their gait, and using that data to help determine developmental landmarks for training, establish timing for safely increasing exercise, and potentially detect developmental diseases earlier. 

It’s led by Wanda Gordon-Evans, who is a professor of surgery at the College of Veterinary Medicine and heads the Small Animal Surgery and Canine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation services at the college’s Veterinary Medical Center. 

In her role, Gordon-Evans is often asked when a puppy can start athletic training, whether it be for running obstacle courses or jumping through marshes to retrieve felled birds. It’s a question that’s hard to answer because so little is known about gait development in dogs. 

As human babies grow, developmental milestones are well established. These milestones are used to track children’s progress, offer guidance on age-appropriate abilities and activities, and signal if medical intervention may be necessary. Gordon-Evans and co-investigator Amber Dequaine, a sports medicine resident, aim to create similar landmarks for puppies. 

“In humans, there are milestones for gait maturity, and you investigate developmental issues if the child is not meeting those milestones,” she says. “Dogs mature much more quickly, but if we know what normal is, we can better watch for abnormal.”

To gather this information, puppy participants walk across a gait analysis mat that measures data points such as the distance between footsteps, the force of each limb hitting the ground, and how long limbs remain in the air while the puppy is walking, trotting, or transitioning between these speeds. Researchers examine the symmetry of the movements and the variation from step to step. 

“If you are walking in a straight line, in general, your steps are even and regular,” Gordon-Evans notes. “In a toddler, they are different lengths and different speeds. We think this happens in puppies, too.

The puppies are filmed while moving because, like human toddlers, they don’t always do as instructed. Video footage can be reviewed to see if the puppy got distracted and started trying to play, which would account for inconsistencies that may crop up in the data later. 

Researchers are also examining how the puppies flex and extend their joints, which indicates how consistently they are controlling their limbs. This control is an important part of preventing injury, and understanding how it may improve as puppies age will help inform when complex exercise could start. 

In addition to establishing development baselines and timeframes of when it's safe to start ramping up training and exercise, Gordon-Evans also hopes the data will shed light on signs of developmental diseases. 

“By knowing what normal is, we can start to determine if puppies predisposed to a wide variety of diseases can be detected early and if early intervention can help,” she says. “There are a lot of developmental diseases that we catch only in later stages when the dogs become lame. If we could catch them earlier, we may get a better response to treatment.”

Interested in participating?

The puppy gait analysis study is facilitated through the Veterinary Clinical Investigation Center.  There are no costs to the pet owner associated with participating in this study. To participate in the study, puppies:

• must be 5-9 weeks old;
• can be any breed, weight and gender; and
• must be free of significant lameness or limb deformities that affect gait. 

Each data collection session takes around 30 minutes and will be collected 9-10 times over the first year of the puppy’s life. The collection of this data is painless, and Gordon-Evans says it is fun and good socialization for the puppy participant.

You can learn more about the study on its webpage.