Scientists 'sanction' looking at cute doggie pictures

So stop feeling guilty by making the time count for science!

By going online and guessing the ages of dogs by their ‘selfies’ you’ll be helping a major study into healthy ageing in dogs.

Pet stress

Scientists at the University of Salford have been collecting hundreds of doggie selfies to help gauge levels of stress in our pets.

They’ve uploaded them all to zooniverse and want the public to answer quick questions about each one.

“All you have to do is estimate the ages of dogs from their pictures and tell us why you’ve guessed that age,” explained PhD researcher Luisa Dutra.

The idea of the research is to identify anomalies between a dog’s real age – its chronological age – and it’s state of health – its biological age.

Premature

“The more we can pinpoint the telltale signs, the better we can work out the factors leading to premature ageing and early death in dogs.”

You can spend as long or as little time as you like on the crowdsource site, but careful not to get into trouble with the boss!

Check it out now at https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/luisadutra/dogs-life-project