Embracing the Golden Years: Expert Tips for Making Senior Dogs Comfortable

From lifelong companions to senior adoptees, as our canine friends enter their golden years, it becomes crucial to shower them with abundant comfort, care, and affection. Enhancing their quality of life involves thoughtful measures, such as incorporating dog supplements into their meals or strategically placing ramps throughout the house. With these adjustments and added support, you can create an environment that promotes the comfort and well-being of your beloved senior dog.

Like humans, dogs require extra care as they age, but with many potential changes, how do you know which ones to implement to ensure maximum comfort? Here are several practical tips on making senior dogs more comfortable as they approach their golden years. From changes to their diet to regular veterinary check-ups – keep reading to find out more. 

Adjust Diet 

The diet of a ten-year-old Pug will differ significantly from that of a one-year-old Pug; therefore, it is essential that you make these adjustments to your senior dog's diet as soon as possible. Use factors such as their size, breed, specific health concerns, and age, and ask a veterinary professional for the best type of food and supplements to include in your senior dog's diet. 

Typically, senior dogs are more susceptible to weight gain, which puts them at risk of debilitating health conditions, so most senior-specific dog food works to aid digestion, maintain a healthy weight, and improve joint health. However, natural dog supplements that include omega-3 fatty acids or glucosamine also support joint health and cognitive functions like the ones from ProDog Raw. 

Whether you'd like to support your senior's joint, cartilage, bones, or skin/coat, their website has various dog supplements designed to treat multiple ailments/health concerns. Consider visiting their website to discover more about their healthy dog supplements, or contact them directly to see how their products could help you make your senior more comfortable in their golden years today. 

Reduce Their Exercise Regime 

While your dog might still act like a puppy on the outside, the inside can tell a different story. As dogs age, their energy levels will drop drastically compared to when they were younger, meaning that they require much less exercise than you might be used to giving them. However, this doesn't mean leaving physical activity on the back burner forever!

Instead, focus on low-impact activities that are easier on their joints, such as swimming, short walks, and gentle playing in the garden. Failure to get adequate physical activity can lead to your senior becoming overweight, which poses a significant health threat to older dogs. As well as keeping them physically fit, you should ensure their brains are worked out.

Ensuring that their minds are stimulated is vital for preventing cognitive decline; thankfully, you can encourage this in older dogs, like buying enriching dog toys that challenge your four-legged friend mentally. From snuffle mats and KONG balls, you can find various mentally stimulating dog toys that will keep your dog's mind sharp as they approach its golden years and beyond. 

Modify Their Home Environment 

As humans age, it becomes increasingly more challenging to navigate your house without specialist equipment such as rollators, ramps, and stairlifts, which is the same for dogs! Much like you wouldn't watch as a human struggled to navigate your home, you wouldn't sit back and watch your dog do the same, so make it easier for them by modifying their environment to be senior-friendly. 

Whether by swapping their old pet bed with a brand-new memory foam dog bed that will support their joints as they rest or by installing ramps/pet stairs in hard-to-reach places, there are loads of ways that you can modify your home environment to make it easier for your furry senior citizen to get around and ensure they're comfortable. 

Additionally, make it easier for them to do daily activities such as eating or drinking by purchasing raised dog bowls that will make them more comfortable. Whether you have an aging large-breed or toy breed having a raised bowl makes it easier for your dog to reach their food/drink and can eliminate the digestive/physical implications in the neck/back.

Schedule Regular Vet Visits 

As your beloved canine companion ages, vet visits will become more regular. They are essential for monitoring your senior's health and identifying any health concerns before they become a much bigger (and costlier!) issue. 

To prevent this, ensure that you schedule regular visits for dental check-ups, physical examinations, and vaccinations so that any age-related problems can be identified and managed as swiftly as possible. 

While you're at these appointments, you can also use the time to pick the provider's brain on whether you would like more advice about caring for an elderly dog, have witnessed any worrying behaviors, and much more – which can ensure your senior is comfortable in their golden years.