Allergic to Dogs? These Gene-Edited Beagles Could Pave the Way to Your Dream Canine Companion That Won’t Trigger Sniffles

Geneticists altered Alfie and Bailey’s DNA so that they don’t produce a major allergen. However, canines like them are not currently commercially available, and some experts express ethical concerns about altering the animals’ genes

September 1, 2026 3:12 p.m.

two beagles cuddling on a dog bed — Alfie and Bailey, the first dogs whose genes were edited so they lack the allergy-inducing protein Can f 1. Kindred Companion Sciences

Dogs are famously humans’ best friend—except for humans who are allergic to dogs. For them, pup ownership can be an out-of-reach dream.

Roughly one in eight people in the U.S. get sniffly when they’re around pooches. If you’re one of them, don’t fret. You might one day be able to get a canine companion that lacks a major allergen.

Meet Alfie and Bailey. The young female beagles look like any other member of their breed, but they are actually the first of their kind. Researchers at the company Kindred Companion Sciences edited the two animals’ genes using a Nobel Prize-winning technique to remove a common dog allergen. They detail their methods in a study published on August 5 in the CRISPR Journal.

Kindred was co-founded by Matt Walker, a dog lover who unfortunately couldn’t be around the beloved animals. “I’ve lived with allergies my whole life. They prevented me and my family from ever having a dog,” Walker, who is also the company’s CEO, tells New Scientist’s Michael Le Page. “And my wife, Maggie, has always wanted a dog.”

Now, the couple’s wish has come true. Around a year and a half ago, Walker brought home Bailey, who hasn’t triggered any allergic reactions. That’s because Walker, a geneticist, and his colleagues used the DNA-editing tool CRISPR to turn off the gene that codes for the allergy-inducing protein Can f 1.

To do that, they took skin cells from a beagle, edited the cells’ Can f 1 genes, then cloned the cells. The altered DNA was put into donated egg cells, resulting in 25 reconstructed embryos that were inserted in a beagle surrogate. She gave birth to Bailey and Alfie in September 2024.

The team didn’t find traces of the Can f 1 protein in the gene-edited dogs’ saliva or dander. The allergen was detected, however, in samples from a regular beagle and dogs of two breeds marketed as hypoallergenic: a poodle and a goldendoodle.

What’s more, Walker went through skin-prick allergy testing with samples from all the dogs. Dander and salivary extracts from the regular beagle, poodle and goldendoodle elicited allergic reactions, but those from Alife and Bailey did not.

Did you know? A gene-edited hypoallergenic cat

Roughly two and a half years ago, researchers reported the first gene-edited hypoallergenic domestic cat, named Alsik. They used CRISPR to drastically reduce the kitty’s levels of the allergen Fel d 1. However, gene-edited cats like Alsik are not currently available to the public.

The success “opens the door to a lot more people being able to own pets,” Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine who wasn’t involved in the study, tells the Associated Press’ Adithi Ramakrishnan. “On the negative side, it may discourage people from trying to use strays and unwanted animals that are not engineered to be allergy-free.”

While some outside experts expressed ethical concerns with editing dogs’ genes, they also say it’s not that far off from longstanding breeding practices.

“At the end of the day, they’re both producing animals for companion purposes,” Alison Van Eenennaam, an animal genetics expert at the University of California, Davis who wasn’t involved in the research, tells the New York Times’ Emily Anthes. “It’s not the technology that’s creating the ethical issues.”

The DNA alterations don’t appear to have affected Bailey and Alfie’s health so far, Walker tells New Scientist. “Of course, that’s something that we’re monitoring very closely, and will continue to monitor over the animals’ lives.” Alfie lives with another Kindred researcher.

Eventually, the team aims to create gene-edited “founder animals” that can breed normally to pass on the hypoallergenic trait, Walker tells Wired’s Emily Mullin. “Every cell that’s derived from that embryo carries the edit, which means that if you mate two animals with the edit, their pups will also have the edit,” he explains.

Dogs like Alfie and Bailey won’t be available for purchase for a while, since the gene alteration hasn’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Additionally, it won’t solve dog allergy problems for everyone. Other proteins, like Can f 2, can also induce sniffles.

Nevertheless, “we’re hopeful that Alfie and Bailey will be the first of many Kindred dogs as we build carefully and responsibly toward the next generation of companion animals,” Walker says in a statement.

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