ArticlePloS one2020
Behavioural and cognitive changes in aged pet dogs: No effects of an enriched diet and lifelong training.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Enhancing cognitive functions in aged dogs and cats: a systematic review of enriched diets and nutraceuticals.GeroScience · 2025Pooled it
- Cognitive Assessment for Neuropsychological Impairments in Dogs (CANID): An Efficient, Repeatable, and Sensitive Evaluation for Age-related Cognitive Dysfunction.Research square · 2026Article
- Does Nose Work Training Affect Dog Executive Function and Physical Fitness in Humans and Dogs?Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Changes in cognitive performance following repeated exposure to a hand-touch learning task across breed clades of domestic dogs (Canis familiaris).Animal cognition · 2026Article
- Which aspects of the everyday behavior of older dogs correlate with performance on a visuo-spatial memory test and the canine cognitive dysfunction rating scale (CCDR)?Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Antioxidant Strategies for Age-Related Oxidative Damage in Dogs.Veterinary sciences · 2025Review
- Diagnosis of Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome: A Narrative Review.Veterinary sciences · 2025Review
- Serum TNF-Alpha and IL-10 Predict Reduced Sensitivity to Fear- and Anxiety-Related Traits in Healthy Older Dogs: Preliminary Evidence for Immune-Personality Signatures in Later Life.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- After all, how valuable is the dog model for examining human socio-cognitive abilities?Biologia futura · 2025Review
- Characterizing dog cognitive aging using spontaneous problem-solving measures: development of a battery of tests from the Dog Aging Project.GeroScience · 2025Article
- Do ostensive verbal signals have a unique importance when communicating with dogs?Evolutionary human sciences · 2025Article
- Impact of trainability on telomere dynamics of pet dogs (Canis lupus familiaris): An explorative study in aging dogs.PloS one · 2025Article
- Decreased risk-proneness with increasing age in equally raised and kept wolves and dogs.PloS one · 2025Article
- The behavioural effect of short-term cognitive and physical intervention therapies in old dogs.GeroScience · 2024Article
- Age-related effects on a hierarchical structure of canine cognition.GeroScience · 2024Article
- A randomized, controlled clinical trial demonstrates improved owner-assessed cognitive function in senior dogs receiving a senolytic and NAD+ precursor combination.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Cross-sectional United Kingdom surveys demonstrate that owners and veterinary professionals differ in their perceptions of preventive and treatment healthcare needs in ageing dogs.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
- Learning tricks from old dogs: Dog studies shed new light on ageing and cognitive decline.EMBO reports · 2023Article
- Associations between physical activity and cognitive dysfunction in older companion dogs: results from the Dog Aging Project.GeroScience · 2023Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Dogs demonstrate behavioural changes and cognitive decline during aging. Compared to laboratory dogs, little is known about aging in pet dogs exposed to different environments and nutrition. In this study, we examined the effects of age, an enriched diet and lifelong training on different behavioural and cognitive measures in 119 pet dogs (>6yrs). Dogs were maintained on either an enriched diet or a control diet for one year. Lifelong training was calculated using a questionnaire where owners filled in their dog's training experiences to date. Before commencing the diet and after one year of dietary treatment, they were tested in the Modified Vienna Canine Cognitive Battery (MVCCB) consisting of 11 subtests to examine correlated individual differences in a set of tasks measuring general, social and physical cognition and related behaviours. Fourty two behavioural variables were coded and were subjected to principle component analyses for variable reduction. Twelve subtest level components and two Z-transformed variables were subjected to exploratory factor analysis which resulted in six final factors: Problem solving, Trainability, Sociability, Boldness, Activity-independence and Dependency. Problem solving, Sociability, Boldness, and Dependency showed a linear decline with age, suggesting that the MVCCB can be used as a tool to measure behavioural and cognitive decline in aged pet dogs. An enriched diet and lifelong training had no effect on these factors, calling attention to the fact that the real world impact of nutritional and other interventions in possibly counteracting the effects of aging, should be further investigated in pet dogs living under diverse conditions, in order to understand their ultimate effects.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.