Dogs are generally considered senior from around seven, earlier for giant breeds and later for small ones. The value of paying attention at this stage is that most of what goes wrong is more treatable when caught early — and dogs are extraordinarily good at hiding it.
Never “just old age”
These are the changes owners most commonly attribute to ageing and which almost always have a specific, often treatable cause:
- Slowing down. Usually arthritis. Very treatable
- Weight loss. A leading early sign of kidney disease, dental disease, diabetes, heart disease and cancer
- Drinking more. Kidney disease, diabetes, Cushing’s disease, pyometra in unspayed bitches
- Bad breath. Periodontal disease, which is painful
- Toileting indoors. Urinary tract infection, kidney disease, diabetes, arthritis making it hard to get out, or cognitive dysfunction
- Sleeping more, or waking at night. Pain, or cognitive dysfunction
- Becoming grumpy or withdrawn. Very often pain
- Lumps. Not automatically fatty
- Coughing. Heart disease
- Confusion. Cognitive dysfunction, hearing or vision loss, or a metabolic problem
Each of these deserves a conversation rather than a shrug.
The monthly home check
Ten minutes, once a month. Do it on the floor with your dog relaxed, and write down what you find.
1. Weigh them. Most practices let you use the waiting-room scales free. Any unexplained change of more than about five percent is worth reporting.
2. Body condition. Ribs easily felt under a thin covering, a visible waist from above, a tuck from the side. Also feel for muscle loss over the hindquarters and along the spine — a common and easily missed sign of both pain and disease.
3. Lumps. Run both hands over the whole body, including the head, ears, legs, between the toes, the belly and the mammary chain. Measure anything you find, photograph it beside a coin, note the date, and map it. In a dog with several lumps, a map is the only way to notice that one has changed.
4. Lymph nodes. Under the jaw, in front of the shoulders, behind the knees. Several firm enlarged nodes at once warrants a same-week appointment.
5. Mouth. Lift the lips. Look at the gum margins for redness, the teeth for tartar, and check for any mass. Smell the breath.
6. Eyes. Compare one to the other. Cloudiness, redness, discharge, squinting, or a change in how they navigate in dim light.
7. Ears. Lift the flap, look and smell.
8. Coat and skin. Thinning, bald patches, scurf, lumps, hot spots.
9. Nails, including dew claws, which never wear down.
10. Resting breathing rate. Count chest movements for 30 seconds while your dog sleeps and double it. Normal is roughly 10 to 30. A consistent rise is one of the earliest signs of heart failure and it is genuinely useful data.
11. Mobility. Watch them rise from lying down, go up a step, and walk away from you and back. Film it monthly — changes are far clearer on a screen than in memory.
12. Water intake. Measure it for three days if you suspect a change.
The senior check-up
Twice yearly from around seven or eight. Dogs age faster than we do, and a year between visits is a long gap at this stage.
A thorough senior check should include:
- Full physical examination, including mouth, eyes, ears, heart, lungs, abdomen and lymph nodes
- Weight and body condition score
- Blood tests — full blood count and biochemistry, including kidney and liver values
- Urinalysis, which detects early kidney disease before blood tests do and picks up infections and diabetes
- Blood pressure, which is frequently skipped and matters for kidney, heart and eye health
- Thyroid testing, where indicated
- A mobility and pain assessment
- A cognitive assessment, using something like the DISHAA framework
Bring: your monthly notes, a video of your dog walking, a list of everything you give including supplements, and a first-morning urine sample if you can.
Adjustments worth making
Home environment
- Non-slip runners on hard floors. Slipping is painful and frightening, and fear of slipping restricts movement
- A firm orthopaedic bed with a low entry
- Ramps for the car and furniture
- Raised bowls for dogs with neck or elbow pain
- Night lights
- Water in more places
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you — it helps keep this site free. We only recommend products we would use with our own dogs.
Bedsure Orthopedic Dog Bed
Firm orthopaedic foam with a low step-in height. For a stiff dog, getting out of a soft bed that has bottomed out is one of the hardest movements of the day, and this changes the mornings noticeably.
Exercise
- Little and often — three or four short walks rather than one long one
- Consistency matters more than distance. A sedentary week then a long hike is the worst pattern
- Swimming or hydrotherapy, being non-weight-bearing
- Sniffing walks, which tire an old dog mentally without loading the joints
Diet
- Feed to body condition, which may mean less or more than before
- Adequate high-quality protein — the old advice to restrict protein in healthy older dogs has been abandoned
- Warm the food or add water to increase aroma
- Omega-3 at an appropriate dose
Nordic Naturals Cod Liver Oil for Dogs
Omega-3 with EPA and DHA stated on the label, which supports joints, skin, kidneys and cognition. Ask your vet for a dose by body weight rather than following the bottle.
Mental work
Keep teaching them things. Enrichment appears genuinely protective against cognitive decline, and easy puzzle feeders, scent games and short training sessions all count.
Pain, which is the big one
The most common thing missed in senior dogs is pain, because dogs do not limp until arthritis is advanced and because the early signs look like ageing.
If you are unsure, ask your vet about a two to four week trial of appropriate pain medication. Owners routinely report a dog they thought was simply old starting to play again.
That response is the diagnosis, and it is worth finding out.
Quality of life
Keeping a simple daily record — a good day or a bad day marked on a calendar — makes a gradual decline visible in a way memory cannot, and it makes eventual decisions rest on something real rather than on the last week.
Have the conversation with your vet earlier than feels necessary. It is much easier to discuss quality of life at a routine appointment than in a crisis.
