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What you’ll learn

Age and Birthday

Millions of dog’s are adopted each year and for many of them, exact age is not known. Even for dogs with reported ages, inconsistencies are common and it's very difficult to know how old a dog is by just looking at them. Conducting a thorough veterinarian exam can give approximate age information, but determining precise age and life stage is still very challenging, especially for smaller dogs.  

That’s why we used the field of epigenetics to build an age model that accurately predicts your dog's date of birth by comparing your dog's DNA methylation to a large reference database with known age information from nearly every breed, size and life stage. Our age model uses novel computational training methods that reduce noise and sampling bias, giving a best-in-class prediction where the majority of tested samples will be within 90% of actual age predictions. 

Learn more about how WoofAge works.

Human Age and Life Stage

In addition to helping you throw epic birthday parties for your best friend, WoofAge serves as a care companion for your furry friend. We created life stage and human age algorithms that convert the predicted age to a breed, size and health adjusted life stage and human age. How old is your dog really in human years? Now you can know for sure and it’s not just a 7:1 conversion!

Whether your dog is a centenarian or just about to celebrate its first birthday, the WoofAge life stage algorithm will place your dog into one of the 5 life stages; juvenile, adult, mature adult, senior or geriatric. Don’t worry, this is a personalized prediction, so you can rest assured that this is the most health relevant classification for your dog.

Custom Care Guides

As dogs age, their social, behavioral, and care needs change. That’s why we assign a life stage and provide a human age so you can better understand the relative age of your best friend.

Depending on size and breed, dogs with similar calendar ages may have dramatically different care needs. Our veterinarian team prepared custom care guides for each life stage so that regardless of where your dog is classified you will have a step by step guide on how to be the best dog parent possible. As always, consult your veterinarian on your specific WoofAge results to maximize its impact on your dog's health.

How it works

1. Swab

Gently swab the inside of your dog’s cheek pouch and under the tongue to collect saliva for at least 60 seconds. The more slobber the better!

2. Activate & mail

Activate your kit online using your custom activation code found on the back of your WoofAge bag. After sampling, drop off the sample at any USPS location using the included prepaid mailer. Shipping is FREE!

3. Results within 4-5 weeks

Our team will take care of the rest and notify you by email when the results are ready. Login to your account to follow along and track your samples progress!

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Aging 101 Articles

How old is your dog in human years, really?

How old is your dog in human years, really?

Discover why the "7 dog years equals 1 human year" rule is a myth and, more importantly, how we can accurately measure how dogs truly age.

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The science behind WoofAge

The science behind WoofAge

In the United States alone, more than two million dogs are adopted every year, often with little to no information about their age

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Caring for your dog at every stage of life

Caring for your dog at every stage of life

Our dogs give us love, loyalty, and joy at every stage of their lives. But as they grow from curious pups to wise seniors, their needs change significantly.

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FAQs

What is DNA methylation?

DNA methylation is an epigenetic marker—meaning it affects gene activity without changing the underlying genetic code. Think of it like a dimmer switch: methylation can turn genes up, down, or off, impacting everything from growth to health. This chemical modification can be influenced by factors like age, environment, lifestyle, and even stress. Because DNA methylation patterns shift predictably over time, scientists can measure these changes to estimate chronological and biological age accurately. This advanced science, also coined as “epigenetic clocks,” is proven across species, helping us understand aging on a whole new level for dogs and humans alike. Woofgenix is a pioneer in canine epigenetics, building novel computational platforms to better model and assay canine methylation states.

What will WoofAge tell me?

In your results you’ll receive an estimated age prediction and birthday for your dog, with information on how to interpret the age calculation.

Your results will also include an age range, which will provide you the likely range that your dog’s age prediction falls within the actual age. Don’t worry, WoofAge is extremely accurate and is correct in predicting the age with 90% accuracy in the majority of samples tested. 

Finally, your results will include a personalized life stage and human age prediction based on your dog’s breed, size and health status. Given this information, you will receive a custom care guide on how best to take care of your dog given its life stage.

How do I know that WoofAge is accurate?

In many samples tested, WoofAge pinpoints near perfect age predictions and for the majority of samples tested, WoofAge predicted the correct age within 90% of the actual age. 

This accuracy took a whole lot of brain power, which is why it took the Woofgenix team nearly two years to build such a high performing computational model.

The secret to the WoofAge algorithm is its ability to separate age signal from noise and interpret any sample, regardless of size, breed, sex or health status.

Other age predictors are highly influenced by stress and disease, but WoofAge draws on a robust training cohort that allows it to exclude such factors from negatively impacting the age prediction and predicting values that are incorrect. In fact, less than 2% of WoofAge predictions were considered outliers in our independent validation cohort.

How is Woofage different from WoofSpan?

WoofAge reports information based on chronological age, or calendar age, whereas WoofSpan reports information based on biological age, or health-adjusted age and risk metrics. 

If you don’t know when your dog was born or don’t have confidence in your current estimated age, then WoofAge is the perfect product for your dog. 

If you want to get more specific information into “how” your dog is aging and determine if they are aging slower or faster than other similar dogs then WoofSpan is the correct choice. 

WoofSpan is set to release in early 2025 and will provide a number of aging risk metrics, including but not limited to: aging rate, age grade, healthspan score, oral health score, size and obesity risk and cancer risk.

How long does it take for my results to come back?

The Woofgenix team is fast, but unfortunately DNA methylation analysis is not Amazon fast quite yet. From the time our lab receives your sample you can expect a 4-5 week turnaround time, which includes DNA extraction, DNA methylation sequencing, WoofAge analysis and quality control. If there are any issues with your sample our team will reach out to you with the email on file. 

How will my dog contribute to dog aging research?

Currently, canine aging research is in its infancy stages, just now getting off the ground. Unfortunately, we know very little about why certain dogs live so much longer, or shorter, than their peers. We believe part of the answer lies in your dog's DNA. Relatively few dogs have been sequenced and far fewer have had their epigenetic states or DNA methylation analyzed. Stress and age traverses the epigenome, which could give us predictive clues into how we can extend the lives of our best friends. With every sample sequenced, the Woofgenix team gets one step closer to cracking code to dog longevity. Our team routinely publishes, presents at conferences and collaborates with leading academics to further our mission of helping dogs live healthier, longer lives.

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