Website design By BotEap.comI want to start this article by revealing that every sentence you will read here is my opinion. I don’t have any solid research to back up anything I say. There was no peer review of the validity of this article before it was published. I wrote this article for you because a dog that has been in our care at Kelsey’s Dog House for a long time ended his stay with us this week. We will never see him again. He was laid to rest by his vet. His owner’s decision to put him down was extremely difficult to make, as it is for most of us.

Website design By BotEap.comdogs live fast

Website design By BotEap.comDogs live very fast lives. They develop quickly. They mature quickly. During middle age, they act at a very fast pace. Their hearts were beating fast, even at rest. The food goes down in a very few swallows and then out the other end in a very short time. They focus on one thing for just a few seconds, and then move on to something else. Their sleep-wake cycles are generally much shorter than ours. Even your normal body temperature of 99 to 102 degrees indicates that your physiology is operating in overdrive. It’s no wonder that when dogs reach the last stages of their lives, their batteries run down very quickly.

Website design By BotEap.comOld age problems for dogs often mirror our own. Blindness; deafness; and lack of mobility due to arthritis; loss of muscle tone; and lack of balance are part of the equation of old age. Fittingly, a dog seems to retain its sense of smell to the end. What distinguishes old age in dogs from that in humans is the rate at which dogs deteriorate. While many humans take decades to show the wear and tear of a long life, dogs, living life at full speed, seem to reach a point where their health falls off a cliff.

Website design By BotEap.coman old dog

Website design By BotEap.comAt this late stage, a dog is no longer himself. For example, while he may have been 100% reliable when relieving himself outdoors, reduced mobility and incontinence may cause him to relieve himself indoors. He can no longer play, in the traditional sense, or even explore because moving is a chore. He may be disoriented most of the time because his senses are no longer giving him the information he needs to navigate. Or he may just be too tired or sick to move much.

Website design By BotEap.comMany dogs develop serious disorders and diseases in old age. A dog with serious health problems will need to make frequent, expensive and stressful visits to the vet’s office. Older dogs with various disorders may experience varying degrees of acute and chronic pain. Pain medications may relieve pain, but they further dull a dog’s already reduced senses and alertness.

Website design By BotEap.comBefore I continue, I want to re-emphasize that what I write here is just my opinion, especially regarding suffering. I don’t think dogs suffer in the sense that humans would describe suffering. An upset dog does not have a verbal dialogue with himself about his bad condition. He doesn’t feel sorry for himself, nor does he agonize over his worsening condition. I think a dog feels pain; and chronic pain makes a dog weak. He makes you more likely to hide, sleep, or act out of character. Having said that, I will also say that a dog does not assign an emotional value to his pain as we humans usually do. When we say, “That dog is suffering,” we are falsely assigning a human attribution to the dog.

Website design By BotEap.comwhat it all means

Website design By BotEap.comWhat does all of this mean for a dog and our bond with that dog? As each of us has his own unique set of behaviors that we call a personality, each dog has his own unique identity. Also, dogs, like humans, have a role to play, a purpose, if you will. I believe every dog ​​has a job in this world, whether it’s tending a pack, tending the backyard, or just sitting on your lap to comfort you. Some of these jobs are formal and skilled, and others are taken on by accident or good fortune. In any case, dogs are generally happiest when playing a role that seems to fit their identity. When your dog has reached a point where he can no longer do any of the things that make him a dog, when he can’t do his job, then he becomes a shell of what he once was. . He may still be physically present, but his spirit is gone. To compound the problem, when his failing health leads him to do things he’s never done before, like accidentally urinate in the house, it causes him a degree of stress. A dog knows what he knows. When what a dog knows no longer applies, or something happens that seems out of his control, he can’t rationalize to make sense of it.

Website design By BotEap.comLet’s throw you into the mix. You remember your dog as a happy and vital companion. Your positive energy and approval was food for his soul. When all you can do for your dog is worry about his deteriorating condition, you send wave after wave of distress and worry his way. If you’re frustrated that your old dog is messing up the house or acting strangely, that sends a message, too. Your dog looks for security and comfort in you. While you’ll probably do everything you can physically to make him comfortable when his health fails, you may also be sending emotional signals without realizing it makes things worse for your dog.

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Website design By BotEap.comThere comes a time in a dog’s life when it’s time to say goodbye. We’d love to stay with our best friend forever, but we know that’s not going to happen. His dog, though he may be ravaged by blindness, deafness, disease, and other disorders, still resembles his dog. He is still warm and fluffy and his tail still wags when you pet him. Your memory of what once was can fill in the details of a dog that is gone. He may not be suffering, but he is no longer fulfilled. It doesn’t matter that he still looks and feels like your dog, because the dog you knew is gone.

Website design By BotEap.comMany of us take a long time to come to this conclusion and it is understandable. Any decision to put a dog to sleep is a difficult one, she feels premature and is often tinged with guilt. Perhaps he feels that his dog has given him years and years of pleasure, and now he must comfort and hold him as long as he is willing to continue. Again, this is a perfectly understandable thought and completely rational from a human perspective. Consider everything I’ve written here about what it looks like from the dog’s perspective.

Website design By BotEap.comOnce your dog’s health goes off the edge, nature has no intention of restoring it. His senses have been dulled. His mobility, as I knew it, is gone. It is difficult for him to orient himself. He may be in pain, or be so diminished by painkillers that he can’t do any of the things he used to love to do. The comments he receives from you are full of pity. He can’t do his job. He can’t even do normal body functions properly. Worst of all, none of this makes sense to him. The kindest and most loving act he can do right now is to gently help you find eternal peace.

Website design By BotEap.comUpdate 10-15-15: My wife and I had to put down one of our dogs last week. We did everything we could to keep our dog happy and reasonably healthy in the last years of her life. There came a time when medicine and almost 24-hour care just weren’t enough.

Website design By BotEap.comIn her last week, our dog seemed physically and spiritually exhausted. We felt like she was telling us, “It’s time.” Although we wished we could have her with us forever, we realized that the need for her was ahead of our desires. She left in peace and without pain.