The Canine Evidence Hub
A growing evidence library for pet parents who want to go beyond headlines, marketing claims and social-media soundbites. Explore canine research across nutrition and food processing, the microbiome and gut-brain axis, nutrigenomics, epigenetics, longevity, botanical support, behaviour, environmental exposures, mobility and integrative care, with every indexed research record given a plain-English findings summary, evidence appraisal and visible limitations, while the distinction between direct canine evidence and indirect models stays clear.
Research should make you more informed, not more intimidated.
The aim is not to bury you under hundreds of abstracts. It is to create one calm, searchable home for the science that helps explain the principles behind TBC, while making the difference between interesting evidence, promising evidence and genuinely strong evidence much easier to see.
Learn the research basics
Understand study design, sample size, correlation, causation, endpoints, funding and why one paper rarely settles a nutrition question.
Find the paper, then understand it
Each research card starts with one plain-English takeaway. Open it only when you want the study design, findings, interpretation and limitations.
Build a wider evidence picture
Filter by raw and fresh food, gut health, early-life nutrition, integrative support, herbs, nutrigenomics, epigenetics, longevity and more.
Six questions before you trust a headline.
You do not need a science degree to read research more critically. These six checks catch many of the problems that turn an interesting paper into an exaggerated online claim.
What type of study is it?
How many dogs were studied?
Association or causation?
What outcome actually changed?
Were the diets really comparable?
Who funded it, and what are the limitations?
Supportive evidence will never be presented without its context.
This hub is intentionally aligned with the principles at the core of TBC, but it is not designed to cherry-pick. When a supportive study is small, observational, industry-funded, mixed or contradicted by another outcome, you should be able to see that before applying it to your dog.
Search the science without opening everything at once.
Only a short summary is visible at first. Search by topic, filter the library, then tap any paper to open its evidence notes. Every research record explains what researchers did, what they found, what it may mean and what it cannot prove. Imported papers now carry a structured appraisal and an evidence-strength judgement, with non-canine and mechanistic studies explicitly labelled so they are not mistaken for direct clinical evidence in dogs.
One of the most useful longitudinal nutrition programmes in companion dogs.
The DogRisk team at the University of Helsinki has built an unusually broad body of work spanning early-life nutrition, atopy, chronic enteropathy, metabolic biomarkers, raw-food microbiology, trace elements, transcriptomics and the microbiome. The hub includes both peer-reviewed publications and clearly labelled posters or thesis work so readers can see how the evidence programme developed over time.
Useful synthesis, but not a substitute for primary research.
Two books have helped many pet parents discover the wider research conversation. They belong here as evidence maps and educational lenses. Their claims should still be traced back to the original studies before being treated as settled science.
Feeding Dogs: Dry or Raw? The Science Behind the Debate
Dr Conor Brady's book brings together a large reference base around canine ancestry, digestive physiology, macronutrients, processing, raw feeding and the structure of pet-food research. Its most useful role in this hub is as a map to questions and citations, rather than as a primary study itself.
- Canine diet selection and digestive physiology
- Protein, carbohydrate and fat in modern dog diets
- Food processing and the dry-versus-raw evidence debate
- How to question study design, industry influence and the meaning of "scientifically proven"
The Forever Dog
Rodney Habib and Dr Karen Shaw Becker frame canine longevity as a whole-life equation involving food, movement, microbiome, environment and stress. That wider lens fits TBC's integrative approach, while the hub lets readers move from the book's themes back to individual papers.
- Diet and minimally processed food
- Microbiome and metabolic health
- Exercise, enrichment and healthy ageing
- Environmental exposures and stress reduction
The evidence will keep moving. So will this hub.
New research on fresh feeding, integrative veterinary care, botanicals, the gut-brain axis, healthy ageing and canine nutrigenomics will be added as it is published. If you find a paper that belongs here, send it to TBC for review.
Educational resource only. This library does not replace veterinary diagnosis, treatment or individual nutritional formulation. A study being included does not mean The Balanced Canine considers every conclusion proven, every intervention appropriate for every dog, or every result clinically meaningful. Study design, population, funding, effect size, replication and the individual dog all matter.