Taking Care of Our Senior Dog

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BrightMind #CollectiveBias

Our dog Dodger joined our family just over 9 years ago. After years of pleading from the kids I finally agreed we could get a family dog, and my husband headed off to the dog shelter to see what he could find. He was supposed to be looking for a medium size dog, but he came back with Dodger, who was 1 year old and NOT medium sized at all.

Dodger has a distinctive blue tongue, so he is probably part Chow. He is also part Lab, and quite possibly has some Great Dane mixed in too. Even though he is a little bigger than I was expecting he has fit right into the family and become an important part of our lives.

He loves to take walks and always wants to be petted and talked to. He is very protective of the kids and the house, and uses his deep bark to keep our yard free of intruders like squirrels and chipmunks. Of courses he mixes all this work in with some power naps.

But we have noticed that he has slowed down as the years have gone by. Dogs are considered senior when they reach age seven, so at ten years old Dodger is well into his senior years. Physically he just doesn’t have the stamina to go exploring in the woods for hours at a time. He still enjoys playing, but playtime has become much shorter. In addition many dogs experience a decrease in cognitive awareness as they age. According to experts at Purina Pro Plan as dogs age the glucose metabolism in the brain begins to change, which can affect memory, learning and decision making.

The biggest mental difference we have noticed with Dodger is that his patience has decreased! He just doesn’t have the ability to adapt and cope with change that he did when he was younger – he is much more set in his ways. When he is put in new situations, like a dog park with lots of new dogs, he tends to hold back now, and not jump right in like he would have years ago.

Purina Pro Plan Bright Mind is a new food designed to promote alertness and mental sharpness in dogs 7 and older. The food contains enhanced botanical oils that have been shown to increase cognitive awareness. So I took Dodger with me to PetSmart to buy some of this new food for him.

Dodger loved visiting PetSmart, and he had fun sniffing everything on the bottom shelves while I picked up some Purina Pro Plan Bright Mind, which was easy to find in its distinctive black and yellow packaging.

We have been transitioning Dodger over to the new food, and I will be posting an update on it in a few weeks. He certainly loves the Bright Mind food though, and gobbles it down!

Dodger’s life is filled with important tasks – taking walks, guarding the house, greeting visitors, and closely supervising all food preparation. To help us get an appreciation for how busy he is, he put on a GoPro camera one afternoon and made this video, showing life from his perspective. Dodger spent a lot of time making this video, so check it out!

Do you have an older dog? Do they enjoy family outings like visiting PetSmart? Share your experiences with senior dogs!