Loving my Oldies

What has happened to more photos of Jimmy.

Wagga isn’t that far. Why not take a road trip?

At least you knew the neighbour was in hollering distance.

OMG that is the funniest thing ever.

If you are gone for 9 weeks, with having someone just come in to feed and water, he will soon go wandering. Perhaps you could consider a house sitter. I had an excellent experience with getting someone through Happy Housesitters, but that was several years ago and only two weeks. I have seen other people on this forum recommend them as well.

Had to laugh at this, mita. As that what I was to my precious Danny. I did have a ramp built several years ago, which none of the dogs uses to go down, but use to come up. Don’t ask! I don’t know . But he used to come up the ramp fairly easily. Jeune has NEVER used the ramp and she is now 16. I have noticed that she sometimes stands at the bottom of the stairs as though psyching herself up and then bolts up at a rate of knots. Pic of ramp below. My back yard certainly isn’t park-sized, but it is big enough for littlies to wander around sniffing.

Govts at any level couldn’t give a rat’s arse ----- no money there, you see. Different if the property was sitting on a coal seam.

This is heartbreaking. .

Bichons are beautiful little dogs. Great natures and grooming probably every 6-8 weeks. There will be plenty of people who disagree with me but I would not leave a little puppy alone (or adult dog - particularly toy breed - for that matter) for 10 hours a day.

Good news. Well done those on his case.

I don’t have dogs who are at all adventurous in terms of diet LOL. Coffee grinder is working well (because I can’t find thumbsup ).

I can't read the story . EVIL. EVIL. EVIL. It popped up in FB news too.

I waited until dusk to walk this evening. At the top of the street, I bumped into a lady walking her dog, whom I hadn’t see for ages. We stopped to have a chat and after a while instead of continuing, I said that it was too hot and I would walk back with her. Turned around and Bunter was as keen to get home as anyone. 100 yards is enough for him at times.

My first thoughts were, because all Jarra's vitals are good, to load her crates up with familiar things, your worn t-shirts, her used bedding, etc etc and give it a go. She probably will be stressed from time to time and then go to sleep because he isn’t in a position to get “trapped". When she sees you for the first time all will be forgotten (and forgiven LOL). I can guarantee you will be more stressed that Jarra is. I don’t mean to sound lighthearted about it. Sending our pets on long unaccompanied journeys is worrying at the best of times, but when they are elderly and the obvious signs of age are becoming clearer, it is even more so.

You bet. Yum yum for the dogs.

Set off today to do some shopping at Westfield. Came home with grinder. Took me seconds, literally, to do what would take me ages in the pestle and mortar. to Avanti.

OMG, I am so deeply sorry. Such a loss and tragic thing to have happened. My dogs were all on annual injections but whether is was Proheart 12 I don't recall. It was Proheart though. As all mine are elderly, I stopped all val a couple of years ago, and now just continue with flea and tick prevention. Heartfelt condolences.

Ladies, take your argument to the rescue sub forum. Euthanising rescued dogs and your own pets is different.

Oh! Great age, PM.

Absolutely my experience with the oldies.

IMHO, it is more not knowing what is the right thing to do for some people, rather than just being led by their emotions. If you have had one dog from the time it was a puppy to when it was frail, elderly, sick, well you don’t have any experience with treatment and management apart from what a vet tells you - and some of them are not very good as in any profession. I was incredibly unlucky with my first dogs - two little Maltese - as were they in their genes. Both died young, the girl (3 and a half) from a malformed heart and the boy (8 and a half) of cancer. I used to be amazed when I encountered dog owners who went the the vet once of twice a year for worming and other tablets. What sort of experience do those people have to draw on when their dogs get old. You can’t expect people to know it all. So how can you know what is the right thing to do when you have never lived with any other dog? Yes, of course there are people who allow their dogs to suffer because they allow their own feelings to govern their actions instead of recognising or understanding the needs of the dog. I think it is a bit of a stretch to call them broken. All about education and as someone famously once said something along the lines of: there are things we don’t know that we don’t know.

OMG!! I don’t think we’ve seen the bottle before, WM. Shocked that you are trying to cover up for Mac’s tipple habits.

Beautiful, moosmum.

As this behaviour has only just presented itself and as other have said, a vet visit is imperative. On the other hand, most dogs have very high pain and sickness threshold. They are usually quite advanced in ill health before they show it. I had a little dog who was always out the front of pack, leading the way, setting a great pace. One evening she was just walking back and sniffing with the rest of them. I asked her why she'd changed her habits, but didn't get any response. During the following morning's (a Friday) walk she was the same in as much as she wasn't leading and telling me to to hurry up, but she was also lethargic. Took her immediately to the vet who sent me speeding down to SASH thinking she was in heart failure. Sadly, my darling little Myrtie (long time DOLers might remember my Madam Lash thread about her) did not pull through and she was sent to god on the Monday. Please don't start imagining the worst for your precious girl, but I do believe that the distance you are covering is probably too much for a dog of her age.

That seems to be a long walk for an older dog, although Staffies can be very active. Older dogs don't so much need the exercise, rather they need and enjoy the stimulation. She probably would be happy going half as far in the same time. Dogs aim to please and she is probably trying very hard to keep up with you. I've heard people say when their dog is obviously struggling .... oh, but she/he loves to walk, races to door, etc etc. Dogs who are old and/or sick still do the excitement excitement bit because it is habit. But once they get started, it is too much for them. I went through a short period with one of mine recently whereby he would turn himself inside out, hurtle to the side gate, get 50 metres up the footpath and want to come home. To be sure of what he wanted, I would let him off the lead and he would go faster than he'd ever walked and race down the driveway. I would let him in the gate and then continue with the others. It lasted a couple of weeks and then he was back to normal. I am down to three elderlies and we have two walks a day around the block a distance which walked at a normal pace would probably take 10 minutes or less. Depending on the amount of sniffing or standing staring into space, it can take 30-40 minutes LOL.