My older golden retriever Plum turned 12 last June and while she’s not ‘old old’ I can see when she wakes suddenly she thinks “Where am I?” Me too. I genuinely am ‘old old’ so when I wake with a start I need to orientate myself and make sure all systems are go. I see Plum starting to do the same.
Dogs love rituals even more than we do. I learned early in my life as a vet that if dogs were people they’d all be on the autism spectrum. They thrive on regularity. They love familiarity. They’re hard wired to enjoy repetition. That’s one of the reasons they’re so steadfast.
Plum and I both stretch and eventually we go downstairs, Plum staying close to the wall and me with my hand on the bannister. We eat then go outside and both have a roll in the grass.
To get to that grass means a short drive. Plum still jumps easily into the car but when her mum Bean was elderly Bean wasn’t embarrassed to ask for help. She put her front feet on the sill of the open car door and waited for me to lift her in. I should have learned from her that it’s not a failure to ask for help but I didn’t. I don’t feel like I’m 82 so I pretend my deteriorating shock absorbers are just temporary.
Plum and I, together with her impossibly upbeat niece Honey, who is two years old this month, walk for 45 minutes and, you’re right, I don’t roll in the grass, but Plum does. Growing old doesn’t mean you still can’t have fun. Plum has the natural dignity that comes with canine aging and she retains it even when she’s kicking the air. I want to do that too but I’m too uptight.
Plum and I are both on pills because as time marches on, stuff naturally happens. I give her an occasional ‘Rimadyl’, an ibuprofen-like pill to reduce arthritic discomfort. My pills are blood thinners. That means both of us are prone to bleeding but for dogs, when Plum reaches a time where she will benefit from more constant treatment I’ll give her an alternative arthritis treatment, called a ‘monoclonal antibody therapy’, that doesn’t cause stomach irritation. This is a monthly injection called Librela that reduces inflammation in the joints in a radically different way that doesn’t affect the stomach. (All medicines have possible side effects and Librela does too but serious ones are less common than they are for ibuprofen-like medicines.)
At York Street, general pet care feels like a combination of paediatrics and geriatrics. We help get puppies and kittens off to a good start then hope to see them no more than once a year for an annual check-up (like us seeing our GP once every five or six years) until they are ‘elderly’. A Kennel Club survey on longevity says the average life expectancy of dogs is 10.3 years. Plum is 12 so possibly past her sell by date. But if I look at privileged dogs, dogs with health insurance, their median life expectancy is 13.2 years.
It’s the same with us. The average life expectancy for men in England is 79.4. But the southeast of England is one of the least deprived areas of the country so my life expectancy is 83.5 years. And if I factor in that I’m a still-working professional, my life expectancy nips up to 90!
An early lesson I learned from dogs is that they thrive when they know what the boundaries are. They value consistency. They respond to rewards. (I bet I’ve said “Good girl!” to Plum and Honey a zillion times more often than I’ve said “Good girl!” to my daughters or granddaughter.) If I had known as a young father what I know now about dog training, I think I would have been a better dad.
What I’ve learned from my aging patients is to go with the flow. Don’t try to be what you aren’t. Close your eyes, lie in the warm sunshine and enjoy. And kick your legs in the air every now and then.
To help you learn if your dog is developing age-related senile changes visit: https://londonvetclinic.co.uk/canine-cognitive-dysfunction-rating-scale/ and complete the short questionnaire.