Dogslife height and weight data - the first 7 years of the cohort

Dogslife is a longitudinal, online study of the health of pedigree UK Kennel Club registered Labrador Retrievers in the UK. Recruitment to Dogslife began in 2010 and continues into 2019. After registration, owners are prompted to complete regular online questionnaires on the Dogslife website about their dog’s morphology, lifestyle and illness incidences. Data for this study were collected during the first 7 years of Dogslife from July 2010 to June 2017, via routine online reporting. The study was approved by the University of Edinburgh Veterinary Ethical Review Committee (Ref: 7.5.09) and Human Ethical Review Committee (Ref: HERC_161_17). The cohort profile is described elsewhere [1]. Dog owners were asked to measure their dogs’ weight every time they filled out the questionnaire; monthly for the first 12 months of the dog’s life and every 3 months thereafter. They were given the option to enter the weight of their dog in either kg or lbs in a free text box with a drop-down menu at the side indicating which unit they had chosen. The default unit was kg and owners were not required to answer the question to continue with the questionnaire. If they entered the weight in lbs, it was multiplied by 0.45 and stored in the database as kg. Dog owners were asked to measure their dog’s height to their shoulder every month up to the age of 18 months old and then at 3 years of age. Clear written and pictorial instructions of how to measure the dogs height and weight were given on the website. Owners were given the option to enter the height of their dog in integers of either cm or inches from a drop-down menu and were not allowed to pass the question unless they entered a value. If they entered the height in inches, it was multiplied by 2.54 and stored in the database as cm. [1]. Clements DN, Handel IG, Rose E, Querry D, Pugh CA, Ollier WER, et al. Dogslife: a web-based longitudinal study of Labrador Retriever health in the UK. BMC veterinary research. 2013;9(13):1–15. DOI: 10.1186/1746-6148-9-13