Dogs’ risk of canine dementia rises by more than 50% each year, study finds

It could be a sign that you can't teach your dog new tricks. The odds of a dog having dementia increases with age.

Dog's can experience the same decline in cognitive function as humans, with symptoms including disrupted sleep, forgetfulness, walking into things, and difficulties adapting to change.

Studies have been small and prevalence is not known, but previous work suggests that canine cognitive impairment is more common in older dogs than in humans.

A large study has shed light on things that could aid the diagnosis of a condition in dogs.

Increasing evidence of the parallels between canine and human cognitive disease may give researchers more suitable animal models in which to study aging in human populations.

As part of the Dog Aging Project, researchers in the US analysed data from two surveys completed by the owners of over 15,000 dogs.

Factors such as the dog's age, sex, breed, health and activity levels were questioned by owners about their dogs' behavior. Each dog was assigned a score between 16 and 80, with a score of 50 or higher indicating the dog had CCD.

The results show that 1.4% of the dogs had some kind of problem.

The team took into account a number of factors, including whether the dog was sterized, its breed, and other health problems, and found that the odds of CCD increased by over 50%. The analysis shows that there is no prevalence of the condition in dogs under 10 years old.

The team reported that dogs with lower activity levels had a higher chance of CCD. While the researchers said exercise may be protective against cognitive decline, they cautioned that it could also be down to dogs being less active because of their condition, as well as Covid restrictions that may have influenced the activity level of owners and their pets.

A history of eye, ear or neurological problems was also associated with greater odds of the condition, but the team did not report whether this finding remained after factors such as age were taken into account.

The researchers said that estimating which quartile of life the dogs were in helped them tell apart those with and without the condition.

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Prof. Majdi said the association between the two had not been seen before.

He said that the current study shows that physical activity in older people is very important for the wellbeing.

While dogs are generally living longer thanks to our understanding of how to keep them healthy, the older they are, the more likely they are to suffer from age related diseases.

There is no cure for canine dementia or Alzheimer's disease in humans, but by improving our understanding of these diseases, we can find better ways to prevent, identify, treat and eradicate these awful diseases.