Functional assessments of short-term spatial memory in the Dog Aging Project identify strong associations with age that are not moderated by body mass

Authors: HARGRAVE, STEPHANIE - University Of Arizona; KEYSER, AMBER - University Of Washington; KRISTAL, EMMA - University Of Washington; ALEXANDER, GENE - University Of Arizona; BLOCK, THEADORA - Canine Companions; BRAY, EMILY - Canine Companions; DOUGLAS, LAURA - University Of Arizona; KENNEDY, BRENDA - Canine Companions; PROMISLOW, DANIEL - Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center On Aging At Tufts University; RAICHLEN, DAVID - University Of Southern California; MCLEAN, EVAN - University Of Arizona

Submitted to: GeroScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/21/2025
Publication Date: 9/25/2025
Citation: Hargrave, S.H., Keyser, A., Kristal, E., Alexander, G.E., Block, T.A., Bray, E.E., Douglas, L.E., Kennedy, B.S., Promislow, D., Raichlen, D.A., Mclean, E.L. 2025. Functional assessments of short-term spatial memory in the Dog Aging Project identify strong associations with age that are not moderated by body mass. GeroScience. 48(1):1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-025-01867-4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-025-01867-4

Interpretive Summary: Pet dogs are now being used to help scientists study how thinking and memory change with age. But testing many different kinds of dogs from all over the country by owners in their own homes can be tricky. To help with this, researchers created two new memory tests and had regular dog owners (called community scientists) give the tests to their own dogs at home as part of the Dog Aging Project. A total of 6,753 dogs took part. The researchers looked at how the results from community scientists compared to those collected by trained scientists in previous studies. They also studied how a dog's age affected its test scores and whether bigger dogs, which usually have shorter lifespans, showed faster rates of memory loss with age compared to smaller dogs. They found that community scientists collected results similar to the professionals, and the memory tests were able to show signs of aging in dogs, starting in middle age. Both small and large dogs showed similar changes in thinking as they got older. There was no strong evidence that bigger dogs had worse mental aging, even though they age faster in other ways. This might mean that being a bigger dog could somehow help protect the brain.

Technical Abstract: Companion dogs have emerged as a valuable model in the study of cognitive aging but assessments of cognitive function in large, diverse, and geographically distributed samples of dogs poses notable challenges. We developed two novel functional assessments of short-term spatial memory which were administered by community scientists in a sample of 6,753 dogs through the Dog Aging Project. We compared data generated by community scientists to those gathered by research professionals, estimated relationships between age and task performance, and tested the hypothesis that associations between age and cognitive performance vary by dog body mass, as proxy for expected lifespan. Community scientists generated similar data to research professionals and both cognitive tasks were sensitive to age related impairment, beginning in midlife. Relationships between age and cognitive function were highly similar across small and large dogs, and for both tasks, comparison of models with and without an interaction between age and body mass yielded decisive evidence for the model without the interaction. Given that large dogs exhibit signatures of accelerated aging across many traits, the lack of evidence for accelerated cognitive aging in large dogs raises the possibility that large size confers a neuroprotective advantage. We consider possible mechanisms underlying this effect and address how experimental studies of dog cognition using community science can support future research on mechanisms of brain and cognitive aging.