Canine cognitive dysfunction is an age-related condition analogous to dementia that causes significant welfare harm and is substantially underdiagnosed in the companion dog population.
Canine cognitive dysfunction causes progressive deterioration in a dog's ability to navigate familiar environments, recognise familiar people, and maintain normal behavioural patterns — an experience with clear parallels to Alzheimer's dementia in humans. The welfare impact on individual animals is significant: disorientation causes distress, disrupted sleep causes chronic sleep deprivation, and the loss of social connection with familiar humans reduces positive welfare states. The condition is substantially underdiagnosed because signs are attributed to normal aging and because neither owners nor many veterinary practitioners recognise the specific diagnostic criteria. Early diagnosis — using structured cognitive assessment at annual wellness visits for dogs over 7 years — enables earlier intervention when dietary, environmental, and pharmacological approaches are most effective at slowing progression.