Senior Dogs: Invigorating Their Life Experiences

by Carrie Boyko, CEB

© Carrie Boyko
Thirteen Year Old Xena Checks the Smells
as her Husky Friend Does the Same

Research shows that stimulating the brain—both canine and human—helps stave off dementia, memory loss, mental fatigue, and most importantly, boredom. Even when your senior pup is 14 and spends most of her hours napping or looking out the windows, she still needs mental stimulation for good health.

Here’s a few techniques that will be easy to add into your daily activities, while not too taxing on your aging fido’s stiff hips, vision impairment, or diminished hearing. Notice that each technique allows you to stimulate a different sense. Keeping in mind your particular dog’s strengths and weaknesses, choose a variety while including more of the tactics that use your pup’s strongest senses.

Most dogs retain their sense of smell as their strongest sense. Despite a lessening of her ability to sniff out a piece of kibble, she may be able to play the same game with a snack that has more aroma. Try chicken, peanut butter or dried liver pieces to elicit some interest in a search game.

Most dogs enjoy a ride in the car to experience the smorgasbord of smells along the route. Please do heed your vet’s advice and only crack the window a few inches. Flying debris--no matter how small--are frequently the cause of eye injuries. Protect your dog from this danger by only allowing a sniff of the outside air, as opposed to a head hanging out the window.

When walking your senior dog, you may want to offer a few extra opportunities to stop and ‘smell the roses’, or better yet, the doggie graffiti. Sniffing the scents of other dogs is how your pup reads the newspaper—which dog is nearby, what they ate last, male or female, whether the female is in heat, and much more information is available from that quick sniff of a tree trunk or mailbox post. Give your dog this daily experience to maintain her interest in her neighborhood’s goings on. She may even wish to participate with a little scenting of her own.

If your Fido’s eyes are still serving up a view of the world, even if only a limited one, she can continue to enjoy the sights. Keep it fresh by offering different routes on your walks. Take her with you to the pet supply store or simply out for an al fresco dinner or latte. The bottom line is offering a variety of experiences and sights to keep her spirits and eyes motivated to work.

Moving on to your pup’s ears, let’s explore some ways to give her a few new experiences. Without frightening her by suddenly taking her to a noisy fireworks expose, choose events and activities where people and other dogs are present. This is her world, her interactive areas of expertise. By giving her a chance to hear her name and the barks, bays and yaps of her own kind, she’ll remember life and all its joys. The dog park may be a great place to offer these invigorating outings; however, I would suggest you choose off-times for your older pup. Don’t overwhelm her with a park full of young whipper-snappers that are all about wrestling and running. Your goal is simply to offer variety of sight, sound and smell.

Maintain your dog’s sense of touch by allowing her to walk and lay on different types of ground. Try grass, carpet, towels, rugs, sand, sidewalks, mulch, and yes, even her soft bedding that protects those delicate hip joints from pressure as she ages. Be careful about temperatures as you allow her to enjoy outings—never too hot or too cold for her more delicate senior tootsies.

Finally, Fido’s sense of taste is extremely important to maintain. Continue to give her nibbles and sprinkles of tasty specialties to encourage her appetite and enthusiasm for eating. Older dogs often lose the energy to complete their meals, but a few slivers of grated cheese or cooked lean meats mixed in can do the trick of keeping the appetite invigorated.

Remember, it’s all about enhancing your older dog’s experience. Even when she cannot enjoy a jog through the woods any longer, she may be able to take a hike along a path, if given proper guidance. Keep it light and watch her back; that’s your job. Help her enjoy her last years, months, and days with you and you’ll always be thanking yourself for these memories. 

Looking for more ideas for your senior dog? Try these:

Senior Moments: Helping Your Older Dog Stay Young Longer

Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks

Managing the Exercise Needs of Your Older and Younger Dogs

Dogs that Amaze Us: Skidboot

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