Dogs of All Ages Need to be Challenged: Use it or Lose it

Dogs of all ages need to be challenged and learn new tricks

I recently learned of a new study on the cognitive decline of senior dogs from reading a summary essay by Dr. Zazie Todd on the Companion Animal Psychology website called "Dogs' Attention Declines with Age - But Training Helps." Dr. Todd reports on a research project by Durga Chapagain and her colleagues who work at the Clever Dog Lab titled "Aging of Attentiveness in Border Collies and Other Pet Dog Breeds: The Protective Benefits of Lifelong Training." Dr. Todd's précis and the entire research essay are available for free online, so here are some highlights to whet your appetite for more.

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Seventy-five Border collies and 110 dogs of other breeds including mixed breeds between six and 14+ years of age were studied. The dogs were divided into three age classes: late adulthood (6-8 years), seniors (8-10 years), and geriatric (older than 10). The dogs took part in two naturalistic experiments that didn't require any prior training. The first focused on attention span (attentional capture and sustained attention) while the second was concerned with selective attention. Their humans completed a questionnaire that summarized their dog's participation in 13 different types of training "including puppy class, obedience, agility, service dog training, hunting/nose work, trick training/dog dancing, and sheep dog training...The first experiment tested the extent to which a social or non-social stimulus could get and keep the dog’s attention. The non-social stimulus was a toy attached to some wire so that it could be moved up and down in front of the dog for 1 minute. The social stimulus was a person who came in, kept her back to the dog, and painted an imaginary wall for 1 minute."

In the second experiment researchers studied selective attention. Prior to studying this aspect of attention each dog experienced a 5-minute clicker training session, after which the experimenter threw a piece of sausage on the floor after calling the dog to her.¹ Each time the dog made eye contact with her she clicked and threw another piece of sausage on the floor. If the dog lost interest the experimenter crinkled a plastic bag to regain the dog's attention. Asking dogs to do this measures selective attention because they have to switch attention from the experimenter to the food on the floor.

The results of both experiments are fairly straightforward. It's worth reading what the researchers themselves wrote:

In Experiment 1, we examined the effects of age, lifelong training and breed on attentional capture and sustained attention across three age groups of dogs using a very simple attention task that did not require prior training. The results revealed that: (a) the dogs’ ability to orientate to the stimuli showed a significant relationship with age; senior and geriatric dogs were slower to orient to the stimuli compared to dogs in late adulthood, (b) sustained attention also decreased with age, with geriatric dogs showing a major decline, (c) dogs with a high lifelong training score showed increased sustained attention, (d) dogs looked longer at the social stimulus (human) compared to the non-social stimulus (toy), and (e) no breed effect was found in any measures of attention...results revealed a significant effect of age but no effect of lifelong training on latency to orient to the stimuli. Duration of looking decreased with age and increased with lifelong training.

In the second task, while lifelong training decreased the latency of dogs to form eye contact, aged dogs needed longer to find food.

In conclusion, aged dogs showed a decline in attentional capture and sustained attention demonstrating that these tests are sensitive to detect aging of attentiveness in older pet dogs. Importantly, selective attention remained unchanged with age and lifelong training seemed to delay or reduce the aging of attentiveness, further highlighting the importance of lifelong training in retaining general cognitive functions.

Use it or lose it: More is better

This is a fascinating study that suggests reward-based training has cognitive benefits that persist into the dog’s later life.

All in all, age affected attention span, but not selective attention. The effects of lifelong training are very interesting and important to highlight. While lifelong training did not influence the latency for dogs to orient to the different stimuli, the length of time dogs looked at the stimuli increased with lifelong training. The researchers write, "Dogs that [sic] had a high lifelong training score sustained their attention for longer compared to dogs with a low lifelong training score or no previous training. However, measures of selective attention were not affected by lifelong training."

These results of this study are very interesting and useful. All in all, they strongly suggest that dogs need to use and exercise their brains performing different cognitive skills to sustain their cognitive abilities, at least the ones measured in this study. These results reminded me of a recent study in which it was discovered that giving puppies varied experiences made significant positive differences in socialization. As I wrote in an essay called "Giving Puppies Extra Socialization Is Beneficial for Them," "'more is better,' and puppies benefit from the extra socialization in terms of their resiliency and quality of life."

The take-home message from this study is pretty clear: we need to do as much as possible for the dogs with whom we share our homes by stimulating them and enriching their lives from the time they're infants to the time they become elders. They need enhancements to exercise their brains, their senses, and their bodies. This might involve different types of formal training or simply allowing them to experience varied and challenging situations with their human, other people, on their own, or with dog friends.

This study made me recall my life with numerous different dogs in the foothills outside of Boulder (Colorado). While I never performed a formal study, all of the dogs with whom I shared my mountain home and who were free to wander about and explore the varied landscape of the mountainside where we lived or to play or just hang out with their canine neighbors and friends, had incredibly varied experiences from childhood to when they became senior citizens. They also enjoyed an outdoor run that was bear- and cougar-proof.

Over the course of many years and many dogs, I never observed any losses in cognitive function as they aged and slowed down physically that made a difference in how they reacted to my and other people's requests that they do something, such as come or go home or stay around one of the different homes because there may have been a cougar or black bear in the neighborhood. (I'm pleased to say that for more than three decades, not a single dog was harmed by any of the other animals -- cougars, bobcats, black bears, coyotes, red foxes, or wild turkeys -- with whom we all shared space.) If there were cognitive/attention declines, they didn't seem to make any difference in their lives either outside or inside of my home. And, while I didn't conduct a formal study, one thing I did fairly regularly was to hide food around my house and have them find it. They loved playing this game, as did I, and none of the dogs showed any loss in the ability to find the hidden food, although when they got tired or were physically compromised, it took them longer to do so. But even then, they'd frequently zoom around frenetically showing me and perhaps their dog friends how much they enjoyed the game. Afterwards, they'd lie down and zoom out into deep sleep.

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And, while they didn't have any formal training, this study of changes in different aspects of attention of dogs of different ages made me realize that my dogs and those of my neighbors lived very good lives -- they got a lot of love from me and other humans; they enjoyed a lot of exercise with me and on their own; they had a good deal of social time with dog friends who they went off and visited or who came down to hang out by my house; and they were challenged and were able to exercise their senses, their brains, and their bodies almost every day when they went out and explored their environs or just rested outside in the presence of other animals who also shared the varied and in places, challenging terrain. I remember talking with one of my neighbors about this, because his dogs also had free run of the mountainside and when one of them suffered some physical maladies as she aged, she remained as sharp as a tack in the cognitive arena.

Please stay tuned for more discussion of how the cognitive capacities of dogs change with age. This is an incredibly important area of research, because committing to choosing to take a dog into our homes and our hearts is a cradle to grave obligation, and we must do all we can to give these individuals the very best lives possible. Of course, what works for Henry might not work for Sally or Jethro. There is no "the dog" because there is so much variation among them, so it's important to know your dog as the individual they are, and know what sorts of challenges and enhancements work for them.

Dogs want and need much more than they usually get from us and by challenging them we can also challenge ourselves. Loving them and having them do some brain and physical work -- learning new tricks, so to speak -- are essential for them to thrive. Of course, it's best when living with a dog is good for the dog and the human, and when it is, it's a win-win for all. This should be the goal of everyone who chooses to share their life with a dog or other companion animal. How nice that would be.

We are most fortunate to have dogs in our lives, and we must work for the day when all dogs are fortunate to have us in their lives, too.

¹Concerning any possible confounding effects, Dr. Todd Writes, "It is probably no surprise that dogs with prior experience at clicker training did better at the clicker training, but it is worth noting that all of the dogs improved at the task of making eye contact during the 5 minute session. So it shows that you can train an old dog new tricks."