Keeping the Dog to Live Longer

Albert Payson Terhune once said: "The pity of it is that the dog lives for so short a time." Isn't it so!

Things look brighter, however, because modern management and medicines are helping the dog to live longer. While seventeen years is somewhat unusual, it is no longer news when a dog reaches that age; the dog believed to be the oldest known in America lived for twenty-six years.

The development of a six-months-old puppy may be compared with that of a child of six years, the year-old dog with the youth of fifteen. After two years the dog's aging slows, with each single year equalling about four years in man. In age, the ten-year-old dog compares to the fifty-six-year-old man, the sixteen-year-old dog to the man of eighty years.

We are never ready to give up our good companion, so how do we go about helping him to live longer? The pup with long-lived parents has a better chance of reaching a good old age, if he is correctly fed, housed and cared for. A good tight fence is very important to the life of today's dog. If YOU have a back yard, enclose it so that you can open your door and let the dog out by himself. Latch the exit gate to the front on the inside only. This sort of fence, which keeps your dog in and the neighbours' dogs out, will prolong your life too perhaps, since you won't be forever worrying about where your dog is. He'll be safe.

Aging is so gradual we hardly notice the changes taking place. There is a slowing-up in every way-repair following Injury, recovery after illness. The body's reaction to drugs is not as strong or as fast as the younger animals. It cannot fight infections as well, and so disease may be less acute and less noticeable. The digestion is not as good because the gastric juices, too, are slowing down. Sight and hearing may weaken.

Impaired Hearing

Deafness, which is quite usual, need not stop the animal's activity but it may risk his safety. The first sign may be inattention or disregard of your commands. Your dog is not being disobedient; he cannot hear your call. Now, a dog can hear with his feet, as it were, so as his hearing weakens you can use ground tapping to attract his attention. Of, if his sight is still good and he is looking your way, you can wave him in by motion of hand and arm. Often when one sense fails, another sense tries to make up for it, therefore it is not unusual to find the deaf dog looking instead of listening for commands. He will watch you more closely than ever before.

Failing sight

The old dog sometimes becomes fearful because he cannot see objects clearly. The condition may go unnoticed around the house where everything is familiar, but if you change the furniture about, you may notice that he stumbles and perhaps hesitates to move. "Blue eye" or filmed eyeballs in an old dog may mean cataracts which, of course, will need veterinary attention. Do not permit too much sun bathing if the pupils are enlarged.

The totally blind dog can get along fairly well and still enjoy life if a little extra care is taken for his safety and comfort. As long as he can smell and feel and hear his loved ones, he doesn't seem to mind at all. Keep his things in the usual places. He will remember where they are and can find his water dish, his bed, his favourite toy or bone and if need be, his paper. He will still enjoy riding in the car for his chief pleasure in going places is to sniff the scents along the way.

When picked up and set down he may not know where he Is, and so may bump into objects until he gets his bearings. Therefore, when you pick him up, set him down again in his own bed or chair whose familiar scent will tell him exactly where he is. He can then make his way from one room to another without getting lost.