How will we know when it's time to put dog to sleep?

[Wobblywobble980]

We have a 13 year old cockerpoo. We've had her since she was a pup and while she's a stroppy old girl we love her.
Slowly over the last 2 years she's gone blind. She now bumps into everything and doesn't come out of her bed very often. She cries quite a lot just laying in her bed. She refuses to go for a walk and we have tried to get her out but she just drops to the floor and won't move. She occasionally seems to have a new lease of life and bounces around happily but it's getting less often. For the last three days she's seems to have lost control of her bladder and is peeing in the house and leaking urine randomly when she walks around. Since being house trained she doesn't pee inside so this is new for her and is quite sad to see her like this. My parents looked after her yesterday at their house for a few hours and my dad called me to say he felt it was time to let her go. How do we know when is the right time?
Because she comes out and seems happy and bouncy sometimes I felt like she was okay, now I'm wondering if we are doing the wrong thing by not putting her to sleep.

We also have a younger dog who usually doesn't bother with her but over the last few days he won't stop trying to lick and nudge her and is standing by her bed crying constantly as if he's distressed for her.

My ds who is 10 came to me upset this evening before bed. When I asked what was wrong he said he was sad seeing our dog like this and how she is bumping into everything and thinks its sad for her.

If you've had a dog pts did you wait until they were very clearly struggling with no seemingly happy bits in between? Or am I getting this wrong and it's time to let her go?

I also meant to ask will the vet guide us? If we call the vet and ask their opinion is this something they give advice on or do we have to make the decision

Hugs, sounds like a difficult time. Yes you can definitely ask your vet to guide you. If they don't seem to be giving you a straight answer (because they're being tactful) I find it helpful to ask them, "If this was your dog, what would you do?"

Sometimes animals let us know very obviously. Sometimes it's much more difficult when they have good and bad days. From what you have posted, it sounds like she has more bad days than good, and it's easy for me to say but it does sound like it's time to say goodbye.
Animals can't rationalise and have things explained to them like humans can. All she will know is that it hurts quite a lot, she can't see and bumps into things a lot, and she sounds distressed a fair bit.

When my old dog's time had come she couldn't stand. I still agonized over if she was ready or whether to give her another day or two because she was happy lying down. In the end what matters is us not letting them suffer too much when there's no hope it will get better. Let your lovely dog go hearing your voice and feeling your stroke

When the quality of life has gone, it's time. Your lovely girl isn't much enjoying being a dog any more from what you say. I would say it's time. It's hard to let go, but there comes a point when you have to put your animal's welfare before your own feelings & not let them suffer. And I know how desperately hard that is

I'm so sorry. I know this is really hard but imagine your post has been written by someone else, what would you advise? Ive heard people say " better a week early than a day too late". I think a vet trip sounds like a good idea to look at your options and to be honest it does sound like it's time to make her comfortable and start saying your goodbyes . I know it's so hard when they seem to rally. When we had my dog PTS she bloody danced around the waiting room like a puppy!! It really was time though, it was obvious to us she had had enough and it felt like keeping her alive would be for our benefit and not hers

It sounds like the bad days are outnumbering the good now. It is so sad when you have to make the decision, I would talk to your vet but it might be time to say goodbye 💐

When did she last see a vet?
My similarly aged dd is on vivatonin on metacalm, both for elderly issues and is very happy. Often mistaken for a pup!

Might be too late to comment but is your dog on pain relief? She might be incontinent as she cant posture to pee or as a spayed bitch her sphincter is weak (tablets improve this). Euthanasia ...do when quality of life is poor/unrecoverable.