Life Expectancy of Dogs with Dementia

older dog gazing into camera"What's the prognosis? How long does he have?" This is one of the first questions we usually ask when we start to recover from the shock that our dog has something akin to Alzheimer's. The good news is that there is some evidence that dogs with canine cognitive dysfunction live just as long, on average, [...]

Is There Such a Thing As Doggie Alzheimer’s?

elderly woman petting small tri-color rat terrier

Dog owners sometimes refer to their senior dogs as having “doggie Alzheimer’s” but it’s more accurate than most people know. Veterinarians have known about a similar condition, canine cognitive dysfunction, for several decades. A study in 1996 established a relationship between certain behavioral changes in senior dogs with physical brain changes. Some of the behavioral […]

Circling Behavior in Dogs with Dementia

Rat terrier with dementia circlingCircling behavior in dogs can be due to a variety of medical conditions, some of the immediately serious. If your dog is walking in circles, please see your vet right away. In senior dogs, circling is often due to canine vestibular disease or canine cognitive dysfunction (a.k.a dementia or Doggie Alzheimer's). My dog Cricket had [...]