Dog Dementia Signs: The DISHAA Checklist, Item by Item

What are the signs of dementia in dogs?

The signs of dementia in dogs are age-related changes in seven areas of behavior, abbreviated DISHAA: disorientation, social interaction, sleep, house soiling, learning and memory, activity and anxiety.

The 2026 working-group guideline in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association defines the condition as chronic, progressive and age-associated. It affects daily life “to varying degrees”. Signs may start in one area or appear in several areas.

Book a vet visit when the changes are new. Call the vet the same day for a sudden loss of balance, a head tilt, a seizure or a collapse, because slow cognitive decline does not cause those.

Dog dementia symptoms: the DISHAA checklist item by item

Each DISHAA group has a plain-language version you can spot at home. The examples below are written from the categories the guideline and Cornell list.

Group	What it means	Everyday examples
Disorientation	Getting lost in familiar places	Stuck behind a door or in a corner, staring at a wall, waiting at the hinge side of the door
Interaction (social)	Changed response to people and pets	Clingier than before, or avoids family; seems not to recognize someone; stops greeting you
Sleep	Day and night mix up	Awake and pacing at night, sleeping more in the day, vocalizing in the dark
House soiling	Accidents after years of being reliable	Urinating or defecating indoors with no warning, or right after coming in from outside
Learning and memory	Forgetting known cues	Ignores commands it knew, struggles to learn a new routine
Activity	Less interest, or aimless motion	Plays less, ignores toys, paces or wanders without a goal, repeats the same loop
Anxiety	New fear or irritability	Startles at familiar sounds, new fear of being alone, clinging, irritability

Older descriptions commonly group signs into six domains. The guideline lists seven, separating learning and memory, and keeps the acronym DISHAA. Cornell’s page for owners lists the same kinds of change under plain headings.

Signs in only one group still count. In the 2001 Neilson study of 180 dogs, 22 of 80 dogs aged 11 to 12 had impairment in at least one category.

Can dogs get dementia, and how common is it by age?

Yes, dogs get dementia. It is called canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD), and it becomes more common with each year of age.

Three studies measure it in different ways, so read the numbers as a range, not one rate.

Study	Dogs	Age	What counted	Result
Neilson et al., JAVMA, 2001	180 dogs, health records screened for organ disease	11 to 16	Telephone interview; impairment in 1 or more of 4 categories	Age 11-12: 28% (22/80), 10% in 2 or more. Age 15-16: 68% (23/34), 35% in 2 or more
Salvin et al., Vet J, 2010	497 owner survey responses	8 to 19.75 (mean 11.67)	Provisional diagnosis from 27 behavior items	14.2% had CCD signs; 1.9% had a vet diagnosis
Yarborough et al., Sci Rep, 2022	15,019 Dog Aging Project dogs	Not stated here	Owner survey score of 50 or more	1.4% in the CCD range

Two things stand out. The 15 to 16 group in Neilson’s study had only 34 dogs, so its 68% is a rough figure. And Salvin found most affected dogs had no diagnosis: 14.2% showed signs, 1.9% had been told. If your dog fits the checklist, ask for the exam.

Cornell says dogs may start developing the syndrome from about nine years of age. Salvin reported that prevalence rose exponentially with age. All three measure behavior changes by interview or survey, not by brain imaging or autopsy.

Worked example: what “52% per year” means

In the Dog Aging Project, the odds of CCD rose 52% with each added year of age, after adjusting for health, breed type, sterilization status and activity. That is a multiplier of 1.52 per year.

• 1 year older: 1.52 times the odds.
• 3 years older: 1.52 × 1.52 × 1.52 = about 3.5 times the odds.
• 5 years older: 1.52 to the fifth power is about 8.1 times the odds.

Odds are not your dog’s personal risk. Because CCD was rare in the whole cohort (1.4%), the odds ratio is a fair guide to risk, but it overstates risk once a group’s rate is high. The data came from owner surveys.

The same study found activity mattered. Among dogs of the same age, health status, breed type and sterilization status, the odds of CCD were 6.47 times higher in dogs that were not active than in very active dogs. That does not show that exercise prevents dementia. A dog with cognitive decline may simply become less active.

How do I know if my dog has dementia?

Signs point to it and a vet confirms it by ruling out other causes. Your record of changes is the main input.

The 2026 working group proposes two diagnostic levels. Level 1 needs a consistent history of progressive DISHAA signs, other causes excluded by physical, orthopedic and neurologic exams and lab work, and signs that persist after any other conditions are managed. Level 2 adds a brain MRI showing cortical atrophy with normal cerebrospinal fluid cell counts. Confirmation requires examining the brain after death.

Start the tracking sheet below tonight. Film any night-time episode on your phone and bring it to the appointment. If nights are the worst part, our night-time calming guide has routines to try.

Monthly tracking sheet (print or copy)

Score each group for the past 30 days: 0 = not seen, 1 = once or twice, 2 = weekly, 3 = most days. Date it and keep each month’s sheet.

DISHAA group	Month 1 (date: ____)	Month 2 (date: ____)	Month 3 (date: ____)	Example you saw
Disorientation	___	___	___
Social interaction	___	___	___
Sleep-wake	___	___	___
House soiling	___	___	___
Learning and memory	___	___	___
Activity	___	___	___
Anxiety	___	___	___
Total (0 to 21)	___	___	___

This sheet tracks change over time. A rising total, or any new item, is your cue to book an exam. Your vet can score the validated 13-item Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Rating scale from Salvin and colleagues.

Does my dog have dementia or something else?

Several conditions look like dementia, and a vet rules them out first. Cornell lists pain, arthritis, seizure disorders, systemic illness, and vision or hearing loss as conditions to exclude with exam and lab work.

What you see	Cognitive decline could explain it	Other causes a vet checks
Night pacing, panting, restlessness	Sleep-wake change	Pain, arthritis, heart or hormone disease (Denenberg et al.)
Accidents indoors	House soiling	Urinary infection, incontinence, mobility problems getting outside
Not responding to cues	Learning and memory	Hearing loss, vision loss
Bumping into furniture, confusion in the dark	Disorientation	Vision loss, vestibular disease
Sudden head tilt, falls, circling, seizure	Not typical of slow decline	Needs a vet the same day

A dog with stiff back legs may also avoid stairs and soil indoors, because getting outside hurts. Our guides on back legs giving out and house soiling in older dogs cover that overlap. Night panting has its own guide.

What should I do if I think my dog has dementia?

Book a vet exam, bring a dated record of the signs, and ask what else could explain them.

Ask the vet:

1. Which other conditions have you ruled out, and with which tests?
2. Could pain or hearing or sight loss explain any of this?
3. How often should we re-check, and what changes would mean come back sooner?

Once you have a diagnosis, read dog dementia treatment, and see the stages guide for what to expect next. For the hard decisions later, see when to put down a dog with dementia.