a thread for those of us who have elderly dogs.

[crispface]

and how best we can support them in their old age.

My lovely dog is 13.5 (ish - rescue dog) and doing fairly well. Her hearing and eyesight are starting to fail her, although she is still sprightly and energetic and I don't have to lift her into the car boot yet . I have started putting essential oils at the top and bottom of the stairs (a different smell for the top than the bottom) for her to get used to ready for the day she goes totally blind.

does anyone else have any tips?

Ive got a JR Vet says hes probably 13(rescue dog).He doesnt always get his feet under him in a morning is lumpy and bumpy and has hazy eyes.But,wave a treat under his nose or get out his lead and hes like a puppy.Incidently whats a good age for a JR?Vet says nine is very good but I thought average was nearer fifteen ?

my jrt is 14. she still loves running and playing but she does sleep a lot more at home. her eyes have the blue haze. the vet said she is probably short sighted, i am too and was that for a second i wondered why she couldnt wear glasses like me

she has little skin tags on her body and vet said this is normal for older dogs. he also said her teeth were the best he had seen on an older dog and she was in excellent condition

we are lucky she is doing so well for her age. i love her so much i dont want to ever be without her. she has given me so much love over the years and been by my side through some tough times.

she does have moments where she starts shaking for no reason. this may happen once or twice a week and last about 10mins. vet said he just thought it was old age. anyone else heard of this?

she is wary of boisterous dogs when we are out walking now. she still loves to play with dogs she knows but is definitely less tolerant of bouncy dogs.

she can still jump in the car and on the bed. she sleeps under the duvet with her head on the pillow

Row - oldest jrt i know of was 23 and i thought average was nearer 15 as well.

our family dog when i was growing up lived till 19 and he was a large cross bread

Thanks for that ! We got another Jack for ours to play with she will be nine this year so they sort of look out for each other ! Hes a Parson and shes a little legs but shes always been the boss !

row - our 14yr old female is a parsons, our 3 year old male is a little legs. female is the boss!

We have a 15 yr old lurcher, still in good shape but eyesight going a bit. We let go of our (almost completely deaf) border collie in november at 14 when her arthritis got too bad.

The one thing I wondered if we could have done earlier was to think about adapting their training to use new signals, ie hand signals for the collie before she lost her hearing. It's hard to predict though isn't it?

23 is amazing!

quodlibet - sorry about your border collie

tis hard to predict but teaching hand signals sounds a great idea