Does Lifetime Activity Influence Cognitive Aging?

SUMMARY: Researchers will study if a dog’s activity level or “job” during their lifetime influences cognitive declines later in life.

THE PROBLEM: Dogs are living longer and subject to many of the same diseases affecting elderly humans and as in humans, aging takes a heavy toll on dogs. They lose interest in their surroundings, become forgetful, and sometimes they cannot recognize their owner. There is ongoing research about the exact nature of how dogs get old and what could we do to make it less tragic for our elderly dogs. 

THE PROJECT: In this project, the research team will investigate whether the various working dog breeds show similar signs of aging. There is a chance that independent workers (such as terriers, or sled pulling dogs) age differently compared to the cooperative breeds (such as herding dogs or retrievers). Another important detail is whether the dogs have performed sports activities throughout their lifetime or not. The team will also compare the behavior between older dogs who were active in sports with those who lived without organized activities. They predict that not only the activity a dog is provided with, but the type of sport, will affect the dogs’ old age condition. There is a chance that particular dog breeds benefit differently from sport activities, depending on how appropriate the given activity is to the original purpose of that particular breed. 

POTENTIAL IMPACT: The team hopes their results could help many dog owners, dog breed clubs, and professionals to make the right decisions well ahead of time, for a more effective prevention of old age decline in our canine companions' mental wellbeing.

Projected End Date: 12/31/26