Things have returned to normal since Tigg's remaining puppies left for their new homes. The little guys are all adapting well, and we love the FB and email updates we get. The puppy playpen outdoors and the indoor pen have been dismantled and stored, and the puppy we kept, Red (aka Rysan's Rhedyn As Requested)-has adjusted to her new pack. Her biggest issue is finding someone who wants to play with her, and she's forever hopefully one of the older dogs will join her in a tug of war or a wrestling match. Lucky for her, Tigg's playing along for now. She's been getting socialized at PetSmart, had a couple of outings up and down the street and at a local pet friendly shopping center for leash practice. I'm trying to get her used to cars whizzing by, and she's had a little bit of show handling training in the yard. Sunday she goes to her first Match Show hosted by the local kennel club, so we'll see how her stacking and moving on a show lead has progressed. There's something refreshing about having a puppy in the house-it makes you get out to do all that training you KNOW they need but never get around to doing with the older dogs. Red needs to be ready to go to her first dog show at American Spaniel Club in early Jan 2014...it's a big, noisy and intimidating place and I want her to enjoy herself there. Hence, the impetus to get her out now in beautiful fall weather.
On the flip side, we have the geriatric dogs to care for, a group that now comprises nearly 50% of our houseful of dogs. The three Welshies are Bart, Mollie and Cody, and then there's Nick, the English Setter (in the vernacular, he's our 'foster failure'). Of the four, Bart has shown the most dramatic and inexorable slide into very old age and requires more watchful oversight. He's only twelve and a half years old, but he acts more like he's 14 or 15 years old. He has a couple of chronic but well managed conditions-Cushings disease from a pituitary tumor and secondary hypothyroidism due to the Cushings. He has been treated for both Lymes disease and anaplasmosis, and all three conditions have left him more frail than his age would indicate. While he has preferred to be the last dog going down stairs for a while, he now just stands at the top of the stairs and waits for one of us to guide him down. We prevent him from following us up and down the stairs on our laundry and freezer runs to conserve his energy. By the end of the evening, he'll get a boost or even a carry up the stairs if he's really tired. He has definitely lost hearing-we have to nudge him awake and signal him when we want him to come in from outside. When he tries to get up from the floor, it's in two stages-first he sits up and then he carefully gets his unsteady rear under him before he stands up. He doesn't scramble around the rocks where the groundhog hides anymore, but he still loves writhing around on the grass like a puppy. We noticed he dropped some weight over the course of the year, and switched him to puppy food with supplemental oil and canned food to give him more protein and calories and he's gained back a few pounds. We keep a close watch on his eating habits, and I'm ALWAYS happy when he finishes his entire bowl of food twice a day. He has some cognitive deterioration and is showing new separation anxiety and an aversion to crates. We manage to keep him safe and less stressed by letting him sleep in the gated off kitchen when we leave the house.
The other three older dogs have shown only a slight loss of hearing and a mild decrease in their activity level, but still run around the yard, navigate the stairs, and respond (kind of...) to general commands. Nick recently had an episode of Canine Geriatric Vestibular Disorder (CGVD), but recovered in three days and the head tilt is now completely gone. We don't really know how old he is, but figure he's at least as old as Bart He's still going down the stairs on his own as long as he's at the end of the pack of dogs, but he's close to asking for some assistance, and I do sometimes guide them both down stairs as a unit. We are monitoring their weight and have adapted our daily routine to keep them safe and exercised. If the neighbors have noticed me standing outside calling more loudly and waving my arms to bring the dogs inside, well. at least they haven't complained!
Living with older dogs makes you readjust food, consider safety factors in the house and yard, and brings home how short a time we have to love the dogs. I guess that's why I like having puppies and young dogs in the house together with the older dogs. When we lose a dog, there's always another one standing by to lick the tears off my face and ask for a game of tug of war or catch in the yard. It doesn't take the hurt away, but it makes it a little more bearable...
On the flip side, we have the geriatric dogs to care for, a group that now comprises nearly 50% of our houseful of dogs. The three Welshies are Bart, Mollie and Cody, and then there's Nick, the English Setter (in the vernacular, he's our 'foster failure'). Of the four, Bart has shown the most dramatic and inexorable slide into very old age and requires more watchful oversight. He's only twelve and a half years old, but he acts more like he's 14 or 15 years old. He has a couple of chronic but well managed conditions-Cushings disease from a pituitary tumor and secondary hypothyroidism due to the Cushings. He has been treated for both Lymes disease and anaplasmosis, and all three conditions have left him more frail than his age would indicate. While he has preferred to be the last dog going down stairs for a while, he now just stands at the top of the stairs and waits for one of us to guide him down. We prevent him from following us up and down the stairs on our laundry and freezer runs to conserve his energy. By the end of the evening, he'll get a boost or even a carry up the stairs if he's really tired. He has definitely lost hearing-we have to nudge him awake and signal him when we want him to come in from outside. When he tries to get up from the floor, it's in two stages-first he sits up and then he carefully gets his unsteady rear under him before he stands up. He doesn't scramble around the rocks where the groundhog hides anymore, but he still loves writhing around on the grass like a puppy. We noticed he dropped some weight over the course of the year, and switched him to puppy food with supplemental oil and canned food to give him more protein and calories and he's gained back a few pounds. We keep a close watch on his eating habits, and I'm ALWAYS happy when he finishes his entire bowl of food twice a day. He has some cognitive deterioration and is showing new separation anxiety and an aversion to crates. We manage to keep him safe and less stressed by letting him sleep in the gated off kitchen when we leave the house.
The other three older dogs have shown only a slight loss of hearing and a mild decrease in their activity level, but still run around the yard, navigate the stairs, and respond (kind of...) to general commands. Nick recently had an episode of Canine Geriatric Vestibular Disorder (CGVD), but recovered in three days and the head tilt is now completely gone. We don't really know how old he is, but figure he's at least as old as Bart He's still going down the stairs on his own as long as he's at the end of the pack of dogs, but he's close to asking for some assistance, and I do sometimes guide them both down stairs as a unit. We are monitoring their weight and have adapted our daily routine to keep them safe and exercised. If the neighbors have noticed me standing outside calling more loudly and waving my arms to bring the dogs inside, well. at least they haven't complained!
Living with older dogs makes you readjust food, consider safety factors in the house and yard, and brings home how short a time we have to love the dogs. I guess that's why I like having puppies and young dogs in the house together with the older dogs. When we lose a dog, there's always another one standing by to lick the tears off my face and ask for a game of tug of war or catch in the yard. It doesn't take the hurt away, but it makes it a little more bearable...
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