Sustained Gaze Is a Reliable In-home Test of Attention for Aging Pet Dogs.

Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome (CCDS) is a syndrome of progressive cognitive decline comparable to Alzheimer's Disease. The sustained gaze test captures attention loss associated with CCDS in laboratory settings, and adapting the sustained gaze test for use by owners at home could greatly increase the data generated on CCDS. We hypothesized that it would be feasible for owners to perform the sustained gaze test at home, and that results would be reliable over repeated trials.