Demographic, morphological and coat factors in dogs after exercise at a fast course ability test (FCAT) trial.

Domestic dogs are a widely diverse species of endothermic mammals that show a positive correlation between body mass and whole-animal metabolic rate, but a negative correlation between body mass and lifespan, making them an interesting system for determining thermoregulatory patterns in relation to body mass, body morphology, and age within a single mammalian species. Though previous work has found differences in thermoregulation across seasons and with training in dogs of different sizes, we now seek to determine (1) whether sampling event-related temperature differences remained when dogs exercised intensely and acutely outdoors and (2) whether thermal differences were also expressed in short-term burst exercise in athletic dogs compared to long-term exercise in non-athletic dogs, as previously found. Here, we measured tympanic membrane temperature (T) as a correlate of core or internal body temperature (T).

Thermal relations in sled dogs before and after exercise.

Regulation of internal body temperature (T), or thermoregulation, is an evolutionarily conserved trait that places demand on basal metabolic rate of endothermic animals. Across species, athletes generate increased quantities of heat in comparison to their nonathletic counterparts and, therefore, must mediate physiological unbalance by upregulating the effectiveness of their heat dissipation abilities. Canine athletes are no exception to this phenomenon, however, with literature denoting body temperatures lower than nonathletic canines, it is clear they must possess adaptations to mitigate this demand.

Cellular metabolic pathways of aging in dogs: could p53 and SIRT1 be at play?

Aging and cancer seem to be closely associated, such that cancer is generally considered a disease of the elderly in both humans and dogs. Additionally, cancer is a metabolic shift in itself towards aerobic glycolysis. Larger dog breeds with shorter lifespans, and increased glycolytic cellular metabolic rates, die of cancer more often than smaller breeds.