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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | FEBRUARY 2016 7 By Teri DiMarino-Davidson PETS ARE SENIOR CITIZENS TOO Four Seasons is an "over 55" community that we all love. Many of us have called Beaumont home for nearly ten years, having moved here with everything including the family pets. There are some residents who are still enjoying the company of the pets they moved here with a number of years ago. And while we hate to see them age, it is inevitable. I got a letter from a resident with a 14-year-old dog. She is also temporarily caring for a dog belonging to her son. The visiting dog is 13. Both dogs are showing signs of aging: diminishing eyesight and hearing (just like us!). The homeowner's concerned that both dogs have begun snapping, something new to both of them. She asked for some tips on caring for these senior pets. It is always difficult to have a pet grow old. Many times we, as the owners, are not as aware of some of these changes because we see the pet every day and do not notice the subtle ways we alter our own lifestyles to accommodate the changes in the pets. Just like us, physical changes can keep a pet from performing certain tasks that we always took for granted. For instance, instead of them jumping happily onto the couch, they may sit by our feet and stare at us pitifully. We look at the dog and say "Do you want to come up here? Is that what you want?" and we help them up. What we have done is inadvertently alter an action to make it easier for the pet. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just pointing out how easy it is for us to change our lives around our pets without really noticing it. We may change their diets to a different, softer food, potty breaks may become more frequent and we notice them sleeping a lot more… kind of like us! As a professional pet groomer for over 40 years, I may only see the pet once every six to eight weeks, so I really notice changes in their condition and/or behavior. The owner lives with these slow changes, so they rarely see the deviations like I do. So what do we do to make our pets' Golden Years more comfortable? First of all, let's analyze the situation with the two dogs getting nippy with people. The resident dog in the household has had an intruder invade her home. While she may have been accepting of this visitor as a younger dog, her failing vision and hearing makes it difficult for her to be tolerant of the trespasser. The visiting dog, who is also experiencing diminishing eyesight and hearing, has been removed from his home and thrust into another dogs "kingdom." While they may have been friends in their younger years, pets deal in the "now" and this "now" is not comfortable. They need their own space and it is my hope that the humans are not taking a "be nice and play together" attitude toward them. It's asking a lot. They need their own food and water dishes, preferably separated from each other. The resident dog needs her food and water kept in the same place. The visitor needs his own food and water in a different area, but in a place easy for him to find. Respect of the resident dogs' position in the household is a key and it may mean that the visitor has to back down a bit. This living situation is temporary so this shouldn't be difficult. The visitor needs to be respectful of the residents "stuff " including seating preferences with the humans. While dogs are dependent, to a certain degree, on their sight and hearing, the main sense that really tells them what's going on is their sense of smell. A dog's sense of smell is something we, as humans, cannot grasp. They can smell up to three parts per million, making them invaluable when it comes to bomb sniffing, search and rescue or drug work. When we make a pot of chicken soup, we smell the entire delicious pot of soup. A dog smells chicken, celery, carrots, onions, salt, pepper, bay leaf, beans and whatever else you may have put into your pot. Dogs get more information with their noses than they do with their eyes or ears. You may ask what that has to do with these two dogs getting snippy with people. Well, both of these dogs are experiencing a weakening of their vision and hearing. Dogs can actually do quite well with blindness and deafness. They don't sit around and feel sorry for themselves. They have to get up and find their food and water. If you have not moved it around, they will smell their way to it. If they have gone totally deaf that can be an issue if the owner is touching them when they are sleeping. If awakened suddenly, they may startle and snap. The best way to wake a sleeping deaf dog is by gently placing your hand in front of their nose. They register the scent and awaken gently without being frightened. If that sense of smell is failing, the dog becomes disoriented and can become defensive. The dog may be losing the only effective sense it has left. This is sometimes the answer as to why older dogs lose their appetite and become picky eaters. Dogs assess their food with their noses and the food may not smell as stimulating as it once did. We begin to add things to entice the dog to eat when all it may take is heating it in the microwave for 30 to 60 seconds to enhance the smell for them. Back to our two roommates… It is my opinion that these two dogs both have taxed senses and limited patience. They are old. They are having to share and they don't want to do that. I would not leave these dogs alone unsupervised. The dogs are feeling threatened and may be taking it out on anybody trying to tell them what to do. And while snapping at the owner should never be taken lightly and a correction and expression of your displeasure should be made, these dogs are into a personal, instinctive survival mode. Giving each dog their own personal time and space should help the situation, but don't expect miracles. Live and let live.

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