The ASPCA recommends clearing clutter from the floor, marking different rooms with different scents or with differently textured rugs so your dog recognizes which room he’s in by smell or touch, blocking off dangerous areas such as pools, and keeping familiar things like furniture and food and water dishes in the same place. If your vet determines that the behavior changes are indeed due to weakening vision, there are some work-arounds that might help your dog.
If your dog becomes more clumsy, can’t find food or water dishes, doesn’t want to move around as much, or is easily startled, a loss of vision could be the culprit. Vision loss is another problem with subtle signs. And many dogs who are hard of hearing can still detect vibration, so you can get your dog’s attention by using hand claps, knocking on a hard surface or some other noise-making strategy. When your dog knows hand signals well, it won’t matter as much that he can’t hear what you’re asking of him. In the case of hearing loss, one of the ways you can prepare for a smooth transition to deafness is to start training with hand signals early. This could also be because the touch caused pain in arthritic or sensitive areas, but we’ll get to that in a moment. One of the signs may initially look like aggression - if a person comes up and touches the dog without the dog noticing the approach, the dog may react out of defensive surprise. Often, owners don’t notice the signs that a dog is losing his sight or hearing until the loss is severe. If you think your dog is starting to ignore you, you may actually find that he simply doesn’t hear you calling, or he can’t see the ball you threw in what you thought was plain sight. If your senior dog could talk, here are a few things he or she would most likely tell you.
An older dog’s behavior will give you plenty of hints as to what he needs, but sometimes it helps to put it in words. They begin to slow down, they may gain weight more easily, their senses start to dull. Most dogs enter their senior years at around 7 years old, a little sooner for larger dog breeds. One of the worst aspects of having a dog as a family member is watching them age relatively quickly. Having a dog is one of the best things in the world, but it isn’t without its downsides. Paying attention to the side effects of aging will help you make your dog comfortable in his later years. 7 Things Your Senior Dog Would Like to Tell YouĪs dogs age, their needs change.
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