Understanding how active, healthy ageing can be achieved is one of the most relevant problems today. Dogs can be used as model animals for studying ageing, and their welfare is also a public concern. Now researchers found a simple way to test age-related memory performance and the fear of new objects in dogs.
The lifespan of pet or companion dogs has been increasing over the past decades. Consequently, behavioural and physical deficits in old age have become more prevalent. To better understand age-related declines, researchers have developed various behavioural tests. However, these tests have some shortcomings. They may require lengthy training and, therefore, cannot be repeated over a short period, which makes it impossible to use them to monitor age-related behaviour changes over time. Others rely on social interaction, which different dogs may perceive differently depending on the partner. In addition, cognitive tests designed to measure positive affective states have replicability issues and may not be reliable in ageing dogs due to the extensive learning required. Therefore, clinicians still need standardised testing for positive emotions in senior animals.
