Senior dog care
In previous posts on “How old is your dog in human years“,you might have had fun figuring out how old is your dog in human years.
The dogs age quicker than human physically and,the older they get,they need more tender little care.
Our neighbor’s dog is Rottweiler/Chow chow mix and,she is 120 lb or more in weight and she is 13 years old.
When I came here, she was about 10 years old. More energy,more brisk walk,brighter eyes.. When I came to this neighborhood,our Corgi “Palette” was about 3 months old.
Small body with long big ears,with round muzzle and she looked cute.
For me, this small size was only what I was getting used to to look at. I did not live with dogs either so, when I first met neighbor’s dog, I was scared.
What I was getting used to watch as far as dog’s size goes was this little 10 lb Corgi and suddenly,big 120lb dog shows up to say hi..
I am big animal lover and had rabbit,squirrel,parakeet and all that back in Japan,but huge dog size was really intimidating me and I could hear my heart beating so fast.
Palette , on the other hand, was bowing to this Rottie/Chow mix and romping in our yard and they are good friends since.
For the last 3 years, since we had sort of like food exchange/recipe exchange programs going on with them, I visited their house quite a bit and this huge gentle dog comes right up for petting and investigate the plates I brings to the family.
I am no longer scared by the size of the dog,and I take time talking to her and give the nice good massage and she tends to get her tongue out as if to say “That is good”.
Now, I can see her fur got little gray colored and slow walking,more napping time outside the house.
However, she always stand up right away,trot to me if she spots me with food to their house. I like to see her perked up movement and,it gives me smile.
Palette is 3 years old, not senior now but she will be someday.
So, when do you consider your dog is senior?
According to funtimesguide.com, up to 20lb dog,7 years old and up is senior. Dogs over 90lb is considered senior over age 5. So,depending on size of the dog,senior years is different.
To read the full article at funtimesguide website,please click here.
For more related reading,please click here.
Dogs get old like human and start showing gray hair around muzzle just like I see in neighbor’s dog.
Then,they tend to move slower than younger years. But exercise is important. I probably not going long distance walk with Palette if she got old and,right now,we tend to race to the house when we come to straight road for finish,but we probably won’t if she got older.
I probably walk shorter distance with slower pace but we both can enjoy outside scenery and she still can enjoy smell of air or grass/ground so, I don’t see reasons to stop going for walk.
However, since dogs/human get physically weaker as we get old, naturally,we exercise less than younger years,so,in common sense if dogs eat same amount of food to youth years, since physical activity gets less,less burning kcal through exercise, it puts weight on them.
Keeping your eyes on how much they eat and tweak it as needed will be good idea.
I have once wondered if dogs understands hand signal and gives behavior relate to the signal or they understand voice of command and gives behavior related to the voice command or both.
I sometimes say nothing to Palette ,and simply gives her “Sit” signal or “Wait” signal and,I can see that she sees it and she does sit or wait.
I sometimes show no signal and just give her vocal command and she still does Sit or wait as I asked her to.
THerefore,I am not clear on my answer to my own question yet.But I wonder,considering dog gets hard hearing or weak visual,training with just signal sometimes or just vocal sometimes maybe help in future??
In one of the episode from TV show titled “It’s me or the dog” (animal planet channel) had senior dog who is blind.
The British trainer Victoria used scented candle to let this dog know what room this dog is. Also, she used rugs before stepping so that dogs know she needs to expect the steps in front of her. I thought it very clever idea.
Dogs are good at hiding pains so, it maybe good idea for us to be more observant in change of our dogs.
Do you have senior dogs? If so,what tips or advice do you give to others who will have senior dogs in the future?