Name: Maggie 

Gender: Female 

Birth Year: 2007

 

Maggie is a happy, friendly girl from Michigan. She came to us with Guru, Axel, Trapper, Duke, and Piston. Maggie wiggles when she runs, so we can always spot her from far away. She’s super friendly and likes everyone - humans and dogs alike. Unfortunately Maggie has an issue with her right eye, but she is being treated by Cornell’s excellent veterinary staff, and is on the road to recovery! She plays well with the boy group that she came with, but can also hang out with girls. From the start, she was a star on the treadmill, and is always ready to try something new!  

 

Before coming to Cornell, Maggie was a mid distance sled dog. Her average races spanned anywhere from 40 to 300 miles! Training runs were usually between 8 and 10 miles. Maggie even ran the Iditarod, one of the longest, most grueling sled dog races in the world, two years before she came to Cornell. 

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Maggie helped out to create a first of a kind Canine Brain Atlas. For that her brain was imaged by magnetic resonance while she was asleep. This type of imaging is commonly in humans and allows to identify such alterations as brain tissue volume and connectivity as well as to identify neuropathology at the early stages. However until recently this technique was not utilized for the same purposes in dogs. Participation of Maggie and 9 other Vaika dogs allowed to build a comprehensive atlas of canine brain which from now on will serve as a reference standard for canine neurological research. Most likely more MR images will be taken while Maggie ages - it will help to better describe which alterations canine brain structure undergoes through aging.