Genomic analysis predicts guide dog success

Guide dogs help thousands of people with visual impairments navigate daily life. Although guide dogs offer enormous benefits, the current training program is fraught with serious inefficiencies, since a high percentage of them never actually help their owner. Only 60% of dogs evaluated for service work graduate from their training program. This means a loss of over $12,000 per dog unable to complete training. A dog that has gone through the program costs up to $50,000, and people can wait years to get a trained pet.