How to Tell When Your Dog is an Old Dog

Series Summary

It happens to all of our puppies. They get old, their muzzles turn gray, their eyes become hazy with cataracts, they lose their hearing, their muscles and joints stiffen, and sometimes they can no longer hold their bladders. It saddens the heart to watch such a loyal friend grow old so quickly before your eyes. Pretty soon your dog has become as needy as it was when it was a puppy. Older dogs not only need a caring heart but need special care as well.

In this free online video series, learn how to care for geriatric dogs from dog care expert Elise MacMahon. Elise will teach you how to take care of your older dogs; when a dog should be considered an old dog and treated accordingly; how to take care of older dogs when they lose their sight, lose their hearing, and lose their appetite; how to maintain an older dog's coat; how to check a dog's teeth; and how old dogs interact with other adult dogs and with puppies.

Video Transcript

"All of us who have lived with dogs know the terrible truth don't live as long as us humans and they in fact, get older much faster than we'd like to see them. Question is when is your dog geriatric. When is your dog and older dog? When do they hit that point in their life where you're going to have to start caring for them a little bit differently than you have when they were puppies and in the prime of their life? How do you know when your dog is geriatric? Well this is actually going to be different for all dogs. All dogs of all breeds, all individuals are going to hit the stages depending on their genetics, their health throughout their life. They're going to hit different stages at different times so there's no rule of thumb that say well when your dog is 7, when your dog is 10, when your dog is 16 that they're an older dog, a geriatric dog. You're going to have to look for the signs; you're going to have to pay attention to your dog. You want to look at their eyes. Look for clouding in their eyes, see for hearing, whether or not they can still hear you. Watch them move around. Watch their gate, as they get stiffer. Sometimes they're functioning can decrease a little bit. They can appear a little bit confused, and a lot of the rules of the house that you've had established that they've had no problem following, might all of a sudden become a little bit more trickier, a little bit more tricky for them. For example, if your dog had never counter surfed before or stolen food out of the garbage can. All of a sudden, those rules might just fall a little bit by the side. So really you're going to be looking at behavioral changes in your dog to see when they are crossing over to that point where they're all of a sudden a different dog and need different care and different help from you to maintain their health and their well being."