October 08, 2026
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Better understanding dementia in dogs may help advance Alzheimer's research, a new study suggests.
The brains of dogs with dementia have striking similarities to the brains of humans with dementia, a finding that may help advance the research and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, a new study says.
The research, published this week, analyzed the brains of 24 dogs with canine cognitive dysfunction, or CCD, a type of dementia that strikes as many as a quarter of older dogs. The dogs' brains revealed a build-up of abnormal clumps of proteins, or plaques, which also occur in the brains of humans with Alzheimer's, the most common type of dementia.
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"I was surprised by how extensive the plaques were in some of these dogs," Dr. Caitlin Latimer, the study's co-author and an associate professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said in a news release. "It's exciting because it suggests these dogs could represent a model of the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease."
The brain samples had been donated by owners whose dogs had died naturally or were euthanized under the care of a clinician to prevent further decline of quality of life, the researchers said.
Research into Alzheimer's often is conducted on mice, and treatments that show promise in rodents often do not end up being effective in humans. Dogs may end up presenting a better model for how Alzheimer's develops and progresses in humans, the researchers said.
"Dogs can be a kind of bridge and could also help us validate things we're seeing in people," Latimer said.
Dogs also cohabitate with their owners, drinking the same water and breathing the same air, which may help researchers begin to better understand how environmental factors impact Alzheimer's, the researchers said.
Additionally, due to their short lifespans, dogs may provide a way to track the progression of Alzheimer's. Because the disease usually develops gradually and early signs can be subtle, people are often not diagnosed until Alzheimer's has reached an advanced stage, complicating how researchers are able to study its progress.
The study "emphasizes the vital role dogs can play in helping us better understand cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer's and will hopefully help us find new treatments in the future," Julie Moreno, the study's co-author and a neurotoxicologist at Colorado State University, said in the news release.
Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia, accounting for about 60 to 80% of all dementia cases. About 7 million older Americans have Alzheimer's, a number the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects will double to 14 million by 2060.
About 1 in 9 people, or 11% of adults, over 65 have Alzheimer's.
Early signs of Alzheimer's include mild memory loss, such as forgetting people's names and conversations. Over time, the disease progresses to serious memory loss. People in the later stage of Alzheimer's often have trouble with daily tasks and basic physical functions.
If caught early, the progression of the disease may respond to medications that slow the build-up of amyloid proteins in the brain or removes them. Other drugs can help alleviate symptoms.
Alzheimer's has no cure.
