As your dog ages are less adaptable to, and more adversely affected by, stress and change. Yet many dog owners do not take this into consideration when making plans involving their older dog. For example, If your dog loved those races through the woods or around the playground. You may still enjoy it now, but aging dog might find it difficult to keep up with you.
What used to be lots of fun for them may now make him a bit grouchy and force him to breathe abnormally hard. Other things might be you have just redecorated the house, and what used to be your dog's favorite spot to relax in, is now occupied by a piece of furniture. Your dog becomes restless, temperamental, may even urinate or defecate in the house or right on that piece of furniture, and you cannot understand why.
It is not necessary to baby or spoil a dog just because he is aging. In fact, this should be carefully avoided. You should encourage your older dog to take part in family life as always, but you must be alert to avoid undue stresses or unnecessary changes. That piece of new furniture does not have to stand on the exact spot where he has snoozed for more than ten years. In his mind that spot is his personal territory. Even in his youth such a loss would have been upsetting, but he would soon find another acceptable location. The older dog finds very hard to adjust and can develop undesirable behavior as a result.
A dog is both a dependent and an independent animal in his relationship with you. In there youth they will follow your every footstep even to the point of getting underfoot. There greatest joy is to be with you everywhere, and there are few times your dog wants to be by himself. As they get older, however, this will often change, and they may seek solitude much more of the time. They love you still but, depending on his physical state, they sometimes just prefers to be by there self Most dogs will play with you and be your companion, but do not expect your aging dog to have the same kind of response when they were a lot younger.
Take care not to "kill them with kindness" by offering what you consider tasty morsels of human food such as cake, ice cream, bacon, or liver pate. Sudden changes in a diet can produce serious stomach and intestinal upset, resulting in profuse vomiting or diarrhea. It may also encourage your dog to refuse his normal food and hold out for the "goodies” which in time can cause severe nutritional imbalance.
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