After the challenges of puppyhood and the happy equilibrium of adulthood, dogs, like people, enter their golden years. The average age for re-evaluating your dog’s care and granting her senior status is 7 years, but dogs vary in their expected lifespan almost as much as they vary in size. The smaller the dog, the longer it is likely to live. While a Great Dane is heading into senior status at age 5 or 6, a Chihuahua is just barely ending his adolescence. Large and giant breeds like Great Danes, Bloodhounds, Irish Wolfhounds, and Mastiffs are lucky to make it to age 11 or 12, but toy breeds often make it to 19 or 20 years, some even older. Experts say the maximum canine lifespan is probably about 27 years, but few dogs will ever make it to that age.
Just because your dog is getting old doesn’t mean you must suddenly cut her calories or change her food or force her to "take it easy" (your grandma doesn’t like that either!). But, entering the senior stage of life does necessitate a heightened vigilance about changes in your dog’s body and behavior. Diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and many other conditions become more common with age in both dogs and people, so paying closer attention and increasing those annual vet visits to once every six months can insure that your dog can live as long as possible.
The Signs of Canine Aging
When your dog gets older, his body doesn’t work quite as well as it once did. He may not see as well, hear as well, or smell and taste as well as he once did. When your dog can’t see or hear as well, he may become more irritable or nervous because he isn’t as aware of what is going on around him. A touch from behind could startle him. Strangers might seem more threatening if he hasn’t detected their approach. He may become more likely to guard his food.
Your dog may also lose control over some of his functions. He may begin to have occasional housetraining accidents, lose control of his back legs, suffer respiratory problems and fatigue that could indicate heart disease (or other diseases), or his digestive system may become more sensitive. He may even get disoriented or suffer other signs of senility.
Depending on the dog, the breed, the size, and the age, functional decline can begin anywhere from 5 years to 15 years, and depending on the changes that happen in your dog, you can make changes in your dog’s lifestyle and care to head off serious health problems and to make him feel more comfortable and secure. If your older dog starts showing age-related changes, talk to your vet about increasing annual exams to twice a year, and make a note to let your vet know about the changes you’ve noticed so she can do the appropriate examinations and tests. Many of these symptoms of age-related decline or disease are the same as symptoms to watch for in younger dogs developing a disease, but they become more likely to occur as a dog ages.
Remember that some signs of aging are inevitable as a dog’s body ages, such as slight decreases in activity, less energy, and decreased sharpness of vision and hearing. Conditions like age-related deafness may be incurable, but many symptoms signify diseases and other conditions that can be treated and are not inevitable with age, so please seek veterinary advice and care for any of the following:
- Sudden exercise intolerance
- Weakness
- Unusual fatigue
- Rapid breathing or difficulty breathing
- Wheezing or panting
- Increase in thirst and frequency of urination
- Changes in bowel habits including diarrhea or constipation
- Loss of appetite
- Weight loss
- Coughing
- Bloody or pus-filled discharge from any orifice
- Increased pulse
- Increased temperature
- Lumps, nodules, or growths anywhere on the body
- Disorientation, failure to recognize familiar people, seeming to get lost in the house
- Cloudy eyes or other signs of vision loss
- Swollen gums and/or lost teeth
Excerpted from The Simple Guide to a Healthy Dog by Eve Adamson, published by TFH Publications. Used with permission.
