On any given city park walk on the Front Range, it can seem like every other living creature you encounter is a golden retriever .

The shaggy love bundles are with us every step of the way — and not just for the fun parts. They’re also right next to us when we suck in air pollution, and that means when Colorado’s air is thick with wildfire smoke and ozone, our dogs are absorbing the same gunk into anatomically similar lungs.

A team of Colorado State University researchers believe it’s time to study what that means, not just for Bella and Rusty and Sarge and Lucy, but for their human companions as well. Dogs suffer many of the same health challenges their handlers do, and are easier to study over 13 years — they and their owners eagerly show up for the tests and the paperwork for an ent

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