I will be honest with you. I couldn't believe what my cousin was telling me. Dementia...? In a dog? Well I never heard of such a thing! I don't know why I had such a hard time believing it. Sometimes I get suspicious of vets-- like maybe they didn't know what was wrong with the dog, so they just made something up! Here it is a year and a half later and Sasha has stopped the all-night-long-howling, but other things have gotten worse. She refuses to eat sometimes. My cousin will often purchase cheeseburgers for her from the local fast food joint because that is one of the things she will eat. The only other thing she will eat is just one specific brand and flavor of dog food. Sasha sometimes stands in a corner and stares at a wall or shakes like she is cold for what seems like an endless amount of time. The funniest story my cousin has told me is a recent development. Sasha will exit the house through the doggie door, but then stand on the outside and bark to be let back in. She used to go in and out all on her own, but somehow she has forgotten that she can go back in the same way she went out.
If I hear about it enough, I will eventually look up a condition or something I have never heard of on the computer. I looked up dementia in dogs just a few days ago. Surprise, surprise, it is a real condition. I guess I just haven't spent enough time around dogs to have known any better. The proper term for it is Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, or CCD. Some of the symptoms I have found are:(1) becomes lost around the home in places that used to be familiar, (2) has trouble using doors or even stairways, (3) often has accidents in the house when that has not been an issue before, (4) can be found trembling, shaking, staring aimlessly, or wandering aimlessly in odd corners of the home, and (5) becomes more hesitant of food and water. These are just a few. If you are a skeptic like me, look it up on the web. There are countless articles on the topic.
