Recent findings from North Carolina State University highlight a potential link between decreased physical agility and diminished cognitive function in dogs. The study suggests that assessing the walking speed of aging dogs could serve as a convenient method of monitoring their overall health and identifying signs of age-related cognitive decline.
Natasha Olby, the Dr. Kady M. Gjessing and Rahna M. Davidson Distinguished Chair in Gerontology at NC State and lead researcher on the study, said, “Walking speed in humans is strongly associated with cognitive decline. We hypothesised that the same might be true in dogs.
In a study of 46 adult and 49 senior dogs, Olby and her team measured the dogs’ gait speed both on and off the leash. While the adult dogs were used as a control group with only gait speed measurements, the senior dogs underwent additional cognitive assessments. Their owners also participated by completing a cognitive assessment questionnaire, known as the CADES questionnaire. A higher CADES score indicated greater cognitive decline.
Older dogs were categorised based on their CADES scores and cognitive test results. Individual gait speed measurements involved walking the dogs on a leash with a handler for a distance of five metres, then encouraging them to retrieve a treat placed at the same distance off-leash.
Olby explained, “The challenge with measuring gait speed is that dogs tend to match their handler’s speed when on the leash, so we measured both on and off the leash to see which was the most useful measure.” She went on to explain the effect of size: “We found that size correlates with gait speed on the leash, but it doesn’t make a difference off the leash. Capturing gait speed off the leash allows us to see the effects of both physical ability and food motivation”.
Interestingly, the research showed that size had no effect on speed in older dogs; those in the last 25% of their expected lifespan moved more slowly than adult dogs, regardless of their relative size.
Olby drew parallels with humans, noting, “Just like humans, our walking speed is fairly stable for most of our lives, and then it declines as we enter the last quarter of our lives.”
The study also showed that older dogs with reduced walking speeds had more pronounced cognitive decline, as measured by owner-completed questionnaires and cognitive tests. Joint pain, however, did not show a significant correlation with walking speed, although the researchers acknowledged the absence of dogs with severe osteoarthritis in the study and aim to address this gap in future research.
Olby says: “If you look at functional ageing, the two most important predictors of morbidity are mobility and cognition. Mobility relies heavily on sensory input, central processing and motor output – in other words, the nervous system – so mobility and cognition are very much linked. If you have less mobility, the amount of input your nervous system receives is also reduced. It’s not surprising that walking speed and dementia are correlated.
Olby emphasised the practicality of the study: “For me, the exciting part of the study is not only that we show that walking speed correlates with dementia in dogs, as it does in humans, but also that the test method we used is easy to replicate because it’s food-motivated and over a short distance. It could become a simple screening test for any vet to perform on ageing patients.
The study, “Winning the Race with Aging: Age-Related Changes in Gait Speed and Its Association with Cognitive Performance in Dogs,” was authored by Alejandra Mondino, Michael Khan, Beth Case, Gilad Fefer, Wojciech K. Panek, Margaret E. Gruen, and Natasha J. Olby and published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science on 15 June.
