Canine cognition · Research sample of 25,463 dogs
The Dog Mind, Measured
What we learned about how dogs actually think — from the largest cognitive dataset of its kind. This hub analyzes a research sample of 25,463 assessments drawn from that dataset — not every dog Dognition has assessed. Every dimension keeps the same color across charts, and every chart is free to download, cite, and embed.
- Communicationreading your gestures
- Empathygaze & bonding
- Memoryrecall
- Reasoninginference
- Cunningphysical problem-solving
Four cognitive dimensions plotted against age, from puppies under one to dogs of 13 and older. Each dimension has its own trajectory — the dog mind does not simply rise and then fall.
The dog mind across a lifetime
Empathy keeps rising with age while reasoning peaks early and declines after about age eight.
Research sample of 25,463 dogs · binned by age in years, n=444 (age 12) to n=3,539 (age 3)
- Horizontal axis: Dog age
- Measured in years, binned from under 1 to 13 and older
- Vertical axis (empathy panel): Empathy — gaze score
- Measured in seconds of eye contact, 0–90
- Vertical axis (memory, reasoning, communication panels): Mean score for the age bin
- Measured in proportion of trials correct, 0–1
Sample per bin ranges from n=444 (age 12) to n=3,539 (age 3); a research sample of 25,463 dogs.
Source: Dognition Canine Cognition Data Center · research sample of 25,463 dogsdognition.com/data
The finding: Empathy climbs steadily for a decade while reasoning peaks early and declines after age eight. An old dog reads you better than ever, even as problem-solving slows.
How we measured this
Read the full analysis: Do Dogs Get Smarter With Age? What 25,463 Dogs Reveal
The five deep dives
Each chart has a standalone analysis with methodology and FAQs.
Source: Dognition — a research sample of 25,463 dogs. Free to share with attribution.
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