Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How aging affects dogs' memory in a sand maze test
By Salvin, Hannah E et al.·Published in Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior·2011·Faculty of Veterinary Science, Australia·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: The canine sand maze: an appetitive spatial memory paradigm sensitive to age-related change in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of older dogs, aged over 8 years, showed signs of cognitive decline similar to Alzheimer's disease when tested with a new memory game called the Canine Sand Maze. In this game, dogs had to find food buried in sand, and it was found that younger dogs were quicker and more efficient at locating the food compared to their older counterparts. The results suggest that this maze could be a useful tool for veterinarians to assess memory and learning abilities in dogs, especially as they age.
People also search for: dog memory problems · signs of dementia in older dogs · how to help my aging dog’s brain health
Abstract
Aged dogs exhibit a spectrum of cognitive abilities including a syndrome similar to Alzheimer's disease. A major impediment to research so far has been the lack of a quick and accurate test of visuospatial memory appropriate for community-based animals. We therefore report on the development and validation of the Canine Sand Maze. A 4.5-m-diameter circular pool was filled with a sand and powdered food reward mix to a depth of 10 cm. Dogs were given 4 habituation and 16 learning trials which alternated a food reward being half (control trials) or fully-buried (acquisition trials) in a fixed location. After a 90-min break, a probe trial was conducted. Cognitively normal, aged (> 8 years, n  =  11) and young (1-4 years, n  =  11), breed-matched dogs were compared. After correction for differences in control trials, average probe times were 2.97 and 10.81 s for young and aged dogs, respectively. In the probe trial, both groups spent significantly more time in the target quadrant but there was a trend for young dogs to cross a 1 m(2) annulus zone around the buried reward more frequently (2.6 times) than aged dogs (1.5 times). Test-retest reliability in a subset of young dogs (n  =  5) was high. On the basis of these findings, the Canine Sand Maze is presented as a quick, sensitive and nonaversive tool for assessing spatial learning and reference memory in dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21541168/