To think having an old dog is harder work than a baby?

[ThatchersCold]

Or maybe it’s just my dog

I’ve had my dog since a pup and he’s getting on for 15 now. We’re like batman and robin, I’ve pretty much always worked from home or in jobs that I can take him with me to, so he’s been by my side pretty much his whole life.

When he was younger, he used to be ok if I left him for an hour or so to go the supermarket, but now I can’t do that as he cries the whole time I’m gone. He used to be ok if I left him with my neighbour but now he cries if I leave him there too. He loves dd2 and he’s ok at home if she’s there with him, but will cry if it’s just dd1. So I have to coordinate any shopping etc with when dd2 is there to stay with him, but she’s at school so that’s not always easy.

If I go out on my horse he’ll sit by my handbag in the yard and cry until I get back. With babies at least you can pass them to a partner or relative for a few hours, I can’t do that with him! He’s happy to come in the car with me but obviously that depends on the weather, if it’s hot I can’t do that and he feels the cold in the winter.

I left him with my Mum (he is used to being there as we go over several times a week and has stayed there plenty of times over the years) for a week recently while I was on holiday, and when I came home he’d chewed himself all over because of anxiety and now has loads of bald patches. He also started shitting on the floor which he is still doing most nights now - not sure if that’s also stress or just some kind of dirty protest/punishment for leaving him .

The neediness is wearing! I love him to bits but I find myself having to organise everything in my life around him not being on his own, and often have to turn down doing stuff because I can’t leave him.

Lucky for him that he’s cute .

My dog is now almost 12 and as she's a large dog, is quite elderly; she's also very ill with two chronic conditions and is on a shedload of tablets forever. We've had her since she was 7 when we adopted her from rescue.

She could previously be left for 4-5 hours (though we rarely did this - a couple of times a month at most and up to two hours once a week at most), but recently her health is failing and we're conscious that she's getting anxious, especially as one of her conditions means she might need the toilet very suddenly. She's also recently become extremely whiny and only this week every move is accompanied by prolonged groans (of the type people make when they stand up).

Don't even ask how much her special diet and meds cost (of which a serious part - the meds - is met by her pet insurance).

I've never had kids, but all of a sudden it's like caring for an elderly person and can be quite wearing.

He is so cute.

I don't have children but agree that the older my dogs are getting, the harder work they are.

My two make a massive fuss when we go out. We did a different walk in the week and the older dog went all funny and anxious so we had to cut it short. I hadn't considered it could be age related.

I think our older dog has sun downers. As soon as it gets dark he goes all weird. He often hides behind the armchair and will be very grumpy. He also snaps at our other dog. Evenings in front of the TV are not relaxing!

Ha whirlyGig I often say the same!

Aww. He looks so handsome and in good shape too. Our spaniel is 14 and is now deaf and although the vet said she didn't have a cataract I'm convinced her eyesight is failing. Otherwise she's very fit. But I can't let her off the lead anymore as we keep losing her. I think she goes off the beaten track and gets confused and can't find her way back and of course can't hear the whistle. She had a night in the woods last week, a kind local person found her in the morning and kept her for us to collect. It was one of the few walks where we felt safe to let her off as she knows it so well. Yesterday we foolishly let her off again at some harvest fields she knows well. The plan was to put her back on the lead about half way round before we got to the woods. But she disappeared into the valley. We were lucky to find her quite a long way away when we drove along the lane skirting the valley. It's annoying as she doesn't get anything like a similar amount of exercise on the lead and fusses all evening walking to and fro from her bed in the sitting room to her bed in the kitchen. We have to shut her in the kitchen for peace. But she slept brilliantly after her night in the woods!

Mine is deaf as a post too. Luckily he doesn’t wander off on walks, because he’s too clingy . There are some benefits I suppose.

And the food - he won’t eat dog food and the only thing I’ve found he will eat are ludicrously expensive home cooked meals for dogs which are delivered frozen. He eats better than the rest of us!

Our dog lives on boiled (by us) chicken and a bit of Wainwrights complete, plus Wainwrights treats. only thing she can eat that does not give her diarrhoea.

What a gorgeous boy

My dog is 15 and absolutely fine to be left, he barks much less than he used to and is generally happy to snooze
Can you not just let him whinge or is it that it makes you feel bad? It's sounds really tying.

He literally breaks his heart, he sits on my bed staring at the window and does the most pitiful sounding howling (I know this as he’s deaf so doesn’t hear me come back in). It wouldn’t be fair on him or the neighbours to just leave him to cry.

(((Dog)))

Oh bless him, you have obviously treated him too well. If you treated me like that I wouldn't want to leave your side either.

I realise this may be a situation of my own making to some extent