The first sign is usually small. A twelve-year-old dog faces a wall, paces at 3 a.m., or forgets the back door. By then, cognitive dysfunction is usually established.
Researchers at the University of Arizona think they can catch it five or six years earlier, with a 40-minute assessment called CANID that runs on three treat games.
A dog watches a treat drop into a clear tube open at both ends and must walk around to reach it instead of bumping the front. Another hides a treat behind one of four barriers and tests whether the dog remembers which. The third keeps moving the path around a barrier.
Scores combine into one number. The team tested 239 dogs in Tucson and California and retested many later. Results held steady at a consistency the researchers compare to human neuropsychological tests. The study, led by Stephanie Hargrave with professor Evan MacLean, is in Animal Cognition.
CANID flags subtle impairment at 7 or 8, years before obvious signs around 12 to 14. Vets rely on owner questionnaires, which catch a dog only once impairment is severe.
What this means for your dog
You cannot run this at home. What you can do is start the paper trail early, since a questionnaire is what your vet has.
Write down the odd moments with dates: doorways, walls, a forgotten route, house training slips. A dated list beats “he seems off” in an exam room.
Big dogs do not decline faster. MacLean’s read is that a Great Dane dies before dementia would show, so a large breed at 7 deserves the same attention as a small one at 10.
Tucson owners can join the lab’s studies; the Dog Aging Project enrolls nationwide. The University of Arizona News write-up has the rest.