BDP 016: Seven Common Sense Secrets For Senior Dogs

In today's episode of The Buzby Dog Podcast we are going to discuss seven simple ways that you can modify your home and your lifestyle to help your senior dog enjoy life to the fullest. Let's start by talking about what makes a dog a senior. By most veterinary standards, we consider dogs 7 and over to be seniors, but that's just a rule of thumb. Generally, the larger the breed (ie. giant breeds), the shorter the lifespan; the smaller the breed, the longer the lifespan. Aging itself is not a disease, but as many of us can attest to, aging takes a toll on the body. Often in those golden years of a dog's life, we depart from the simplicity of our dog's Plan A wellness journey and move to Plan B. And Plan B, often means that we need to make adaptations. The biological definition of that word—adapations—is the process of change by which an organism, in this case dog, becomes better suited to its environment. So our dogs are inherently adapting to their changing needs and abilities as they age, but we're going to be proactive about doing all we can to help them thrive in their environment at whatever stage of health and mobility they may be. If you are new to the Buzby Dog Podcast, my eternal challenge to you is to being proactive in managing your dog's physical and emotional wellbeing. That is really our goal, I think as the caregivers for our dogs, to keep our dogs safe and happy and enjoying life and to be thinking outside the box on how to do that as challenges arise.