THE SIMPLE TREAT GAME THAT COULD SPOT DOG DEMENTIA YEARS EARLIER

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If your dog seems a little slower to find the ball these days, or hovers in a doorway as if they have forgotten why they came in, you are not imagining it.

Dogs, like people, can experience cognitive decline as they age, and new research suggests the first signs could be picked up years earlier than we thought, using nothing more complicated than a few well-placed treats.

Scientists at the University of Arizona have developed a 40-minute assessment that can spot subtle changes in a dog's thinking skills from around seven or eight years of age.

According to the university's announcement, the more obvious signs of dog dementia usually appear at about 12 to 14 years, so that is a head start of several years.

How the treat test works

The trouble with testing a dog's memory, of course, is that you cannot simply explain the rules.

As senior author Dr Evan MacLean put it, "We can't ask them questions."

So the team designed three food-based puzzles instead, and called the whole thing CANID, short for Cognitive Assessment for Neuropsychological Impairments in Dogs.

In the first task, a dog watches a treat being placed inside a clear tube and has to resist pawing at the side, working out that the reward can only be reached from the open ends.

The second is a canine version of hide and seek: a treat is tucked behind one of four wooden barriers, and the dog has to remember which one after a delay of up to 40 seconds, sometimes with a distraction thrown in.

The third asks a dog to walk around a barrier to reach food, with the open path switched to see how well they adapt to change.

Researchers tested 239 dogs in Tucson and California and retested many of them six months and a year later.

Their scores stayed remarkably consistent, at levels the team says are comparable to human neuropsychological tests.

The findings are published in the journal Animal Cognition, led by PhD student Stephanie Hargrave.

Why little dogs show more signs

One finding may surprise owners of big breeds.

The researchers found no evidence that large dogs decline earlier.

Instead, dogs appear to follow a single path of decline, and larger dogs, which tend to have shorter lives, often simply do not live long enough to reach serious impairment.

Smaller breeds such as Chihuahuas, which often live longer, are more likely to get there.

A big boost for healthy ageing research

The study lands in the same week as more good news for dog lovers.

On 27 October, the Dog Aging Project, a long-running American study that now has nearly 55,000 dogs enrolled, received funding for its next five-year phase, with about US$29 million in support from the US National Institutes of Health.

The next stage will look more closely at genetics, nutrition, home environments and dogs that live unusually long for their size, as well as what happens in the years before cognitive decline appears.

What it means for dog dementia care

For now, CANID is a research tool rather than something you can do at home or book at your local clinic.

It needs trained staff and special equipment.

But the bigger message is a hopeful one: if changes can be spotted earlier, there may one day be more time to help.

In the meantime, the researchers note that owner questionnaires, the most common way dementia is currently screened for, tend to pick up problems only once they are obvious, such as a dog getting lost in its own home or becoming more anxious.

As Hargrave said, by that stage "their cognitive impairment is often quite severe."

So it is worth keeping a gentle eye on your older dog's behaviour and mentioning anything new to your vet at their regular check-up, rather than putting it down to old age.

And if your best friend loves a game of find the treat, there is certainly no harm in keeping it up.

It is fun, enriching and, as this research shows, surprisingly revealing.