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Join our community

We want to find better ways to care for pets, but we can't do it without you and your furry companion. That’s why we’re inviting pet owners like you to join this one-of-a-kind community and help us gather real-world insights into pets’ behavior and health. This research can help future pet owners and veterinary teams cater to every dog's and cat's individual needs, so that they can stay healthy for longer.

Imagine DNA testing becoming so routine that every puppy and kitten could get their cheek swabbed at their first checkup. Veterinarians could then tailor care to the pet’s specific needs: the kind of treatments that puppy or kitten should get as they mature, or if they should keep an eye on certain genetic diseases. This is just one example of what individualized pet care can do to help pets stay healthy for longer.

Why should you and your best friend sign up today?

Besides helping improve veterinary care for future cats and dogs, you and your pet will receive the following benefits:

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Annual checkups

Your pet’s annual routine check will be free of charge for as long as your pet stays enrolled in our study.

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Genetic testing

Once enrolled, your first study visit includes a WISDOM PANEL DNA test, which determines your pet’s breed background. Genetic testing can shed light on your pet’s health and wellbeing needs at every life stage, including exercise and the type of nutrition for a healthy growth.

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Behavior insights

You will also get a WHISTLE Health device and subscription for dogs, which is completely yours - well, your pup’s - to keep! You will be getting never-before-seen insights into your dog’s activity levels and calorie requirements so they can keep at a healthy weight. You’ll also learn more about your dog’s sleeping, licking, drinking, and scratching patterns so you can make an early veterinary visit before a small health issue gets worse.

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A gift card

After your first study visit, we’ll also offer you an e-gift card to thank you and your pet for joining our community.

How does it work?

We are now enrolling healthy cats and dogs from current clients of some of our US-based VCA™ Animal Hospital and BANFIELD™ Pet Hospital locations, as well as BLUEPEARL™ Specialty + Emergency Pet Hospital blood donor clients. As recruitment expands to other countries, we will update this page.

If you are a client of one of our US-based hospitals mentioned above and would like to enroll your pet:

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First, sign up for more info using the form below. We will reach out to you about the next steps.

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If your pet is a good fit, we will invite you for a free, annual routine veterinary exam at the Mars Petcare-affiliated hospital you visit on a regular basis. During this visit, your veterinarian will collect your pet's blood and feces samples, and our colleagues at Antech Diagnostics will store and test them. Your veterinarian will also swab your pet's cheek for a DNA sample using a WISDOM PANEL™ dog DNA test.

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We will send you a WHISTLE™ Health device, which attaches to your dog’s collar.

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You will fill in an online questionnaire regularly so we can learn more about your pet's diet, behavior, and home environment.

With your permission, our veterinary teams, researchers, and data scientists will also have access to data from your pet’s medical records for this study.

Your pet will help improve health care for millions of other cats and dogs across the world.
And you will also help develop new pet health and lifestyle products!

Check out our FAQ section for more details, including our Privacy Statement.