Video games help ageing dogs
Pooches can stay mentally alert with electronic input
VIENNA: At first sight, enthusiastic Border Collies Miley and Tiara may not appear to be providing insights into the deeper workings of the canine mind.
Even while demonstrating an experiment used in a recent study at Vienna’s University of Veterinary Medicine, they’re having too much fun.
It involves them running to a touchscreen with one round and one square shape. Every time they touch the round shape with their noses, they’re rewarded with a treat.
The results gathered after hundreds of dogs took part in the study suggest that older dogs benefit from similar games, just as Sudoku and other brain exercises can help their owners stay mentally agile.
“Sometimes with older dogs we might feel that we can just let them retire to the couch and let them sleep all day and that’s fine,” Lisa Wallis, one of the authors of the report, said.
“But you’re not really doing them a kindness,” she said.
Even if owners keep giving their dogs physical exercise, this won’t improve their mental agility, says Professor Ludwig Huber, one of the lead authors.
“The brain needs more stimulation and also problems to solve,” he says.
In contrast to most toys which can soon become repetitive, Huber says a touchscreen can be used to present an “unlimited
number of stimuli” and the games could get gradually more complex.
Other games used in the study involved having to touch a moving shape or being trained to distinguish between “good” and “bad” images and then choose them accordingly.
The younger dogs and dogs who were already used to playing similar games fared best but even with the older dogs, performance improved with practice.