Do Owners Remember Their Dog's Diagnoses? What 309 Vet Records Showed
Owners and vet records agreed on most diagnosis categories, but owners missed most tartar and many cases of arthritis, cuts and Giardia.
Written by thecanineledger
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When researchers checked the vet records of 309 US dogs, tartar on the teeth was in the records of 228 dogs, about three in four (Schmid et al., PLoS One 2026). Owners reported it for only 33 of them.
While that sounds like owners are unreliable, they agreed with the records at least 90% of the time in half of the disease categories. The gaps were in conditions owners may not think of as diagnoses.
1. The study
The dogs. 309 dogs from the Dog Aging Project, a large US study of pet dogs. Each had vet records covering at least 85% of its life.
The comparison. Reviewers who didn’t know the owners’ answers filled in the same health survey from the vet records. Then the two were compared.
Funding. The Dog Aging Project is funded by a US government ageing research grant. The study had no other external funding, and the authors declare no competing interests.
2. Where owners and records agreed
Most categories. Agreement was 90% or more in 10 of 20 disease categories.
Serious diagnoses. Hormone and immune conditions agreed 99% of the time.
The authors’ summary. Owners were “generally reliable” about which conditions their dog didn’t have, but “less reliable reporting the presence of specific diseases within categories.”
3. Where they didn’t
| Condition | Dogs with it in vet records | Dogs with it in owner reports |
|---|---|---|
| Tartar on the teeth | 228 | 33 |
| Cuts | 24 | 9 |
| Giardia | 25 | 13 |
| Bites from another dog | 28 | 35 |
Arthritis. 30 dogs had osteoarthritis in their records but not in their owner’s report. Only 6 went the other way.
Bites go the other way. Owners reported more bites than the records showed. The authors suggest some bitten dogs never saw a vet.
Our note: We added up the bite and tartar counts ourselves from the paper’s agreement tables.
→ Dental Disease in Dogs: What Brushing Can and Can’t Do
→ Arthritis Treatment: What Works, From Weight to Medication
4. Why it matters for you
What counts as a diagnosis. The authors suggest owners may see tartar or itching as normal, not as something to report. They may also not recognise a condition’s medical name.
Keeping your own record. A list of past problems, including ones that seemed minor, may help a new vet or a specialist.
Our note: The record-keeping advice is ours, not the paper’s.
→ The Annual Check-up: What the Evidence Can and Can’t Say
5. What the study can’t tell you
Records miss things too. The authors cite a study in which only 64% of problems discussed in a consultation were written into the record.
Who took part. Owners chose to join, so they may be more careful than most.
Small slips. The abstract says 309 dogs, but the tables use 308. The paper says Giardia affected 19% “of all dogs with infectious diseases”, but 59 dogs is about 19% of all the dogs in the study.
6. What we could not verify
| Commonly said | What we found |
|---|---|
| “Owner surveys are unreliable” | Partly. Owners were reliable for many categories, but missed common, mild conditions. |
| “If it’s in the vet record, the owner knows” | No. Owners missed most recorded tartar and many recorded cases of arthritis. |
| “Vet records are complete” | Not shown. The authors cite evidence that records miss some problems discussed. |
Sources
- Schmid SM, Sexton CL, Yoerger A, Kauffman M, McClelland RL, D.A.P. Consortium, Creevy KE, Ruple A. Accuracy of owner-reported diagnoses for dogs enrolled in the Dog Aging Project as compared to veterinary electronic medical records. PLoS One 2026: 309 dogs, owner survey compared with vet records. US government-funded
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