This article is part of our Pets special section on scientists’ growing interest in our animal companions. Every dog has its day, and July 14, 2004, belonged to a boxer named Tasha. “And everything has kind of exploded since then,” said Elaine Ostrander, a canine genomics expert at the National Human Genome Research Institute, who was part of the research team. In the 20 years since, geneticists have fallen hard for our canine companions, sequencing thousands upon thousands of dogs, including pedigreed purebreds, mysterious mutts, highly trained working dogs, free-ranging village dogs and even ancient canine remains. (“I didn’t want to study dogs,” said Alexandra Horowitz, who has since become a prominent researcher in the field of canine cognition.)

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Persons: Tasha, ”, Elaine Ostrander, pedigreed, Monique Udell, Alexandra Horowitz Organizations: National Institutes of Health, Human Genome Research, Oregon State University, “