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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Foundations podcast. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Today's episode is all about senior dogs and

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Speaker 1: the issues that come along with watching your sidekicks start.

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Speaker 2: To age out a little bit.

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Speaker 1: As the owner of a nearly twelve year old lab,

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Speaker 1: I'm feeling the old dog situation big time.

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Speaker 2: One of the worst, if not the worst.

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Speaker 1: Things about loving and owning dogs is that their lifespan

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Speaker 1: is just so condensed compared to ours. Aging is generally inevitable,

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Speaker 1: and while it sucks, there are some things we can

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Speaker 1: do to keep our grizzled veterans out and about, you know,

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Speaker 1: kind of doing stuff late into life while actively working

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Speaker 1: to increase their quality of life while they still keep

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Speaker 1: doing stuff.

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Speaker 2: It's all tied together. That's what this episode is all about.

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Speaker 1: Jeanne Cattlemant was born in eighteen seventy five. She didn't

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Speaker 1: shed her mortal coil until she was one hundred and

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Speaker 1: twenty two years and one hundred and sixty four days

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Speaker 1: old in Get This nineteen ninety seven. This means that

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Speaker 1: the year she was born, the world got its very

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Speaker 1: first vinyl records. For most of you listeners, that's an

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Speaker 1: analog storage system that is basically a flat disc with

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Speaker 1: a bunch of grooves on it. One of the things

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Speaker 1: that makes me feel almost as old as her is

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Speaker 1: that I have a very vague memory of getting records

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Speaker 1: with a meal at Hearty's, the fast food chain you

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Speaker 1: definitely don't see very often these days. Those records were

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Speaker 1: for a promotion for the original Gremlins movie, where each

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Speaker 1: one told a part of the story of those little

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Speaker 1: rascals that you couldn't feed after midnight or drip water

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Speaker 1: on otherwise real bad shit would happen. Now that I'm

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Speaker 1: ready to jump in front of a bus, since I

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Speaker 1: probably only have a few years left before I age out,

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Speaker 1: let's look at the other end of her life. The

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Speaker 1: year that she died, nineteen ninety seven, the first DVD.

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Speaker 2: Was released into the world.

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Speaker 1: And you know what you could watch on those DVDs

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Speaker 1: without having to buy a Frisco burger and some fries.

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Speaker 1: That's right, freakin Gremlins. Bro That would be a good

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Speaker 1: distraction if you're sitting there petting a senior dog and

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Speaker 1: trying not to think about the gray muzzle and the

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Speaker 1: slow movements, maybe a little limp after a nap, of

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Speaker 1: which there are many naps. It's an unfortunate situation that

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Speaker 1: we have to watch our dog's age at such an

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Speaker 1: accelerated speed, genuinely to the tune of about seven times

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Speaker 1: faster than us, which is where we get dog years from.

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Speaker 2: You want to know what the oldest living dog was.

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Speaker 2: Get this.

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Speaker 1: It was an Australian shepherd named and I am really

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Speaker 1: not making this up Bluey. The dog was born in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ten and didn't head to the big sheep herting

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Speaker 1: fest in the Sky until nineteen thirty nine, which means

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Speaker 1: he made it about twenty nine and a half years.

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Speaker 1: Imagine if all dogs could get to three days decades.

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Speaker 1: They can't and most dogs would be real lucky to

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Speaker 1: get to about forty percent of that mark. The average

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Speaker 1: Labrador retriever scratch that, the average black or yellow Labrador

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Speaker 1: retriever is looking at about twelve years. Chocolate labs don't

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Speaker 1: have the same shelf life and they generally live to

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Speaker 1: about ten and a half. For the German short hair

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Speaker 1: fans out there, the life span of that high drive

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Speaker 1: breed that is part goofball and part mission focused lunatic

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Speaker 1: ranges from ten to about fourteen years. Size has a

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Speaker 1: huge correlation on lifespan in dogs, and so does weight.

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Speaker 1: A study that came out of the Banfield Pet Hospital

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Speaker 1: that looked at the median lifespan of several different breeds

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Speaker 1: of dogs found that, on average, the lifespan of overweight

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Speaker 1: dogs is two and a half years shorter than healthy

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Speaker 1: weight dogs. Let's let that sink in for a second.

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Speaker 1: If you've ever had to put a dog down, you

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Speaker 1: know what you'd pay for another week or another month,

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Speaker 1: another year, let alone two and a half years. That's

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Speaker 1: like us getting another fifteen or twenty years of life.

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Speaker 1: If you need better evidence to keep your dog in shape,

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Speaker 1: I don't know where to find it. This is something

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Speaker 1: that a lot of people with senior dogs struggle with

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Speaker 1: for a couple of reasons. First off, who doesn't want

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Speaker 1: to spoil their dog? After a lifetime of what a

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Speaker 1: dog just gives us, they deserve some treats. No, maybe

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Speaker 1: it's time to be a little loose with the feedings.

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Speaker 1: Maybe well no, Unfortunately, the best way to reward an

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Speaker 1: old dog is to get on the floor with it

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Speaker 1: and give it some really good belly scratches.

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Speaker 2: The weight thing with.

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Speaker 1: Senior dogs only gets worse when you factor in the

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Speaker 1: reality that they can't go burn off energy quite like

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Speaker 1: a younger dog can. When we got our younger lab, Sadie,

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Speaker 1: it blew me away watching her play with our old dog,

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Speaker 1: even though Luna was only eight at the time. It

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Speaker 1: was like watching a speedboat drive circles around a large

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Speaker 1: Not only do older dogs not have the physical ability

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Speaker 1: to exercise the way younger dogs do, but the recovery

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Speaker 1: time takes a lot longer too. They are more susceptible

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Speaker 1: to injuries, meaning a simple walk on a hard surface

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Speaker 1: can put them in a bad state for a little while.

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Speaker 1: One of the reasons I like dogs that like water

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Speaker 1: is because water is a very forgiving medium in which

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Speaker 1: to exercise. If you go to the gym and watch

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Speaker 1: someone run on a treadmill versus swim laps in the pool,

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Speaker 1: this becomes pretty evident pretty quickly. The thing about this

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Speaker 1: is you can't just give up on your old dog's fitness.

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Speaker 1: Diet is probably the biggest factor because you can one

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Speaker 1: hundred percent control that, and you should, but finding ways

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Speaker 1: for an older dog.

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Speaker 2: To move its body is huge.

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Speaker 1: My bride is a physical therapist and people often ask

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Speaker 1: her for advice on injuries or about getting into shape.

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Speaker 1: She often tells people, and not necessarily older folks, but

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Speaker 1: definitely them too, that most ocean is lotion. Bodies are

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Speaker 1: kind of like outboard boat motors in that they need

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Speaker 1: to be used properly to work best I have a

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Speaker 1: workout shirt that is embroidered with the saying movement is medicine.

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Speaker 1: It is, and that applies to us and our furry besties.

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Speaker 1: I realize I should probably word that differently because you

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Speaker 1: could have a bestie who is a furry and who

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Speaker 1: also is definitely not a dog. There is a part

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Speaker 1: of the messaging about getting into shape and being healthy

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Speaker 1: that so many people miss. It's not about taking your

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Speaker 1: shirt off at the beach and not looking like a

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Speaker 1: cave dwelling sea mammal just crawled from the ocean. It's

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Speaker 1: about the mental side too. That is a huge component

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Speaker 1: of being generally happier. And the same rules apply to

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Speaker 1: our dogs, although they often don't seem to struggle much

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Speaker 1: in the mental health department, you know, at least not

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Speaker 1: like we do. But they still need to move their bodies.

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Speaker 1: They need to exercise, They need to put those joints

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Speaker 1: and muscles in lis ligaments and whatever else to use

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Speaker 1: along with their minds. Swimming is a wonderful way to

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Speaker 1: give this to aging dogs that are all about that

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Speaker 1: water life, and it's incredibly low impact exercise. But maybe

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Speaker 1: you have the kind of dog that believes there are

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Speaker 1: sharks in any body of water bigger than a bathtub.

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Speaker 1: Or maybe you had a huge lapse in judgment and

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Speaker 1: decided to set your roots down in central Minnesota, where

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Speaker 1: for about six months of the year, the water is

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Speaker 1: either hard as pavement because it's frozen, or at least

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Speaker 1: cold enough to make your giblets retreat into your chest

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Speaker 1: cavity when you dip a toe in. Swimming isn't always

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Speaker 1: an option, but trying to figure out some level of

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Speaker 1: low impact movement.

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Speaker 2: Is a necessity.

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Speaker 1: The value of being off leash somewhere and being free

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Speaker 1: to sniff around while even covering short distances cannot be overstated.

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Speaker 1: Dogs need physical exercise and they need mental stimulation. And

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Speaker 1: if you want your old dog to be happy and

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Speaker 1: potentially stick around longer, that's a really good way to

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Speaker 1: do it. Now, there are other concerns with older dogs

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Speaker 1: as well. If you look at the pet supplement market,

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Speaker 1: it's as overwhelming as the human supplement market. An issue

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Speaker 1: that most older dogs and probably all eventually will have

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Speaker 1: is arthritis. A common route to provide some comfort on

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Speaker 1: this front is through glucosamine and android in supplements. There

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Speaker 1: are a pile of them on the market, and they

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Speaker 1: promise relief to your pooch by simply giving them the

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Speaker 1: recommended dosage. But how do we know they work? Well,

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Speaker 1: we kind of don't, but we also kind of do.

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Speaker 1: Studies on both humans and dogs with traditional supplements have

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Speaker 1: yielded somewhat underwhelming results, but that's not to say there

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Speaker 1: isn't some benefit. Those studies also show that some level

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Speaker 1: of pain mitigation and better point health can.

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Speaker 2: Happen through those supplements.

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Speaker 1: A lot of veterinary professionals look at this sort of

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Speaker 1: like a very low risk but potentially somewhat rewarding remedy.

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Speaker 1: This is one of the reasons some countries approve the

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Speaker 1: use of ivermectin, the anti parasitic drug during COVID despite

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Speaker 1: it becoming a stupid political football. Ivermectin is an incredibly

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Speaker 1: safe drug that has been administered millions of times. It

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Speaker 1: was such a low risk thing for a potential reward

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Speaker 1: that it was worth it, especially after the patent ran

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Speaker 1: out and it just became this generic, cheap option that

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Speaker 1: was wildly available. Glucosamine androit and supplements seem to fit

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Speaker 1: kind into the same category for dogs, although there are

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Speaker 1: some potential side effects. The tricky thing about this, especially

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Speaker 1: if you live in the good old USA or maybe

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Speaker 1: up in maple syrup and hockey territory, is that we

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Speaker 1: are far more comfortable with pill form treatments. But you

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Speaker 1: know what, our dogs didn't have five thousand or ten thousand,

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Speaker 1: or fifty thousand years ago, a whole lot of canine

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Speaker 1: pharmacies to roll up to and order up medicine. What

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Speaker 1: they did was a whole bunch of wild animals to

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Speaker 1: chase around and eventually catch and eat, And inside those

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Speaker 1: animals is a lot of bioavailable glucosamine. This is something

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Speaker 1: that is missing from our modern diets, and a hell

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Speaker 1: of a lot of advice around our modern diets. Listing

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Speaker 1: what's in foods is great, but some stuff just doesn't

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Speaker 1: get absorbed very well into our bodies and therefore doesn't

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Speaker 1: do us nearly as much good as we think. That

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Speaker 1: holds true for canines too, there are studies that show

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Speaker 1: some benefits from oral supplements on this front, but also

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Speaker 1: the reality that natural sources are generally always better. The

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Speaker 1: problem with that is we have a hang up with

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Speaker 1: giving our dogs an actual pigs ear to chew on,

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Speaker 1: or maybe a chicken foot. I guess I should have

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Speaker 1: said this earlier before diving into this rabbit hole that

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Speaker 1: I just went down. But the truth about pain and

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Speaker 1: dogs is that the average person, say someone who mostly

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Speaker 1: writes squirrel hunting articles for a living, might not be

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Speaker 1: qualified to diagnoses aging, labs, maladies, and death. Definitely say

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Speaker 1: something like while she has arthritis, so it's time to

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Speaker 1: give her this pain isn't universal. What I mean by

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Speaker 1: that is that there's acute pain and chronic pain, nerve pain,

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Speaker 1: visceral pain, joint pain, and probably quite a few others.

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Speaker 1: If your older dog seems to be exhibiting symptoms of

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Speaker 1: being in pain, it's time to visit the vet clinic.

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Speaker 1: While it might just be general aging aches and pains,

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Speaker 1: there might be a specific reason for the discomfort that

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Speaker 1: needs to be addressed in a certain way. A professional

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Speaker 1: opinion here, along with a professional treatment plan, is a

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Speaker 1: really really good idea. You don't just want to go

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Speaker 1: to the medicine cabinet and grab a couple of advils

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Speaker 1: to sandwich between a slice of cheese and feed it

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Speaker 1: to your dog. That's a bad idea. Now, the physical

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Speaker 1: stuff matters, but as I alluded to before, so does

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Speaker 1: the mental stuff with our dogs. Our friend Yannispu tell

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Speaker 1: us here at Meat Eater likes to talk about how

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Speaker 1: the membrane between the mind and the body is real thin,

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Speaker 1: and he's not wrong. A healthy body will lead to

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Speaker 1: a healthier mind, and a healthier mind can help maintain

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Speaker 1: a healthier body. With aging dogs, it's easy to just

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Speaker 1: not challenge them anymore. It's easier to not engage with

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Speaker 1: them as much or to include them in as many things.

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Speaker 1: While some of this is just pure logistics on what

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Speaker 1: an individual dog can be expected to do, some of

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Speaker 1: this is just kind of us throwing in the towel

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Speaker 1: for them because we think it's easier and better for them.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: One of my daughters as crafty as hell and she

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Speaker 1: is an absolute dog lover. So recently she discovered a

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Speaker 1: thing called a snuffle mat. An interesting tidbit about that

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Speaker 1: is that snuffle matt was old cow's nickname in high school,

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Speaker 1: so read into that what you will. Basically, what a

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Speaker 1: snuffle mat is is a fleece blanket type thing with

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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of flaps on it that you can

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Speaker 1: hide small treats in. The dog has to root around

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Speaker 1: with its nose and find them all. And boy, do

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Speaker 1: retrievers love that game. I would guess many breeds of

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Speaker 1: dogs do. And my daughter made a snuffle matt for

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Speaker 1: our dogs, and that's how Luna gets her supplements and

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Speaker 1: her medications. And if her tail is any indicator, and

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Speaker 1: it certainly is, and she's a dog, she really seems

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Speaker 1: to enjoy that homemade snuffle mat. It's more than just

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Speaker 1: a clever treat delivery system, though. It allows the dogs

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Speaker 1: to solve a small problem or a series of small problems,

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Speaker 1: and they love that. It might not seem like much

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Speaker 1: to us, but it's not about us.

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Speaker 2: I keep a.

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Speaker 1: Fair amount of pheasant tails, you know, and feathers and

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Speaker 1: wings and all that kind of stuff from the fall

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Speaker 1: hunts in case someone I know picks up a puppy

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Speaker 1: and needs them, but also for my dogs in the

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Speaker 1: off season to get a snoot full of the good

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Speaker 1: stuff during a training session. Now Luna is officially retired

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Speaker 1: from hunting, which really really sucks. But the old dog's

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Speaker 1: heart likes the smell of pheasants the way I used

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Speaker 1: to like the smell of jim beam and poor decisions.

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Speaker 1: While training is generally thought of as a way to

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Speaker 1: teach a dog how to behave, it's also something that

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Speaker 1: good working dogs just absolutely love. They need a job

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Speaker 1: and they need some praise. And while it might not

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Speaker 1: be the same thing as hunting the cattails all day

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Speaker 1: for a limit of wild roosters, getting to course through

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Speaker 1: the knee high grass at the park to find something

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Speaker 1: that smells like heaven and feathered form is something I

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Speaker 1: have to assume is good for my old dog and

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Speaker 1: would probably be good for all old sporting dogs. This

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Speaker 1: is a quality of life issue that is probably more

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Speaker 1: important than we could really imagine, until at least when

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Speaker 1: we hit a certain point in our own lives where

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Speaker 1: we realize that we are that old dog in the

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Speaker 1: scent of a rooster might be enough to brighten our days,

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Speaker 1: just like a little metaphorical scritch behind the ears would.

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Speaker 1: There is one last point I would like to touch

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Speaker 1: on here when it comes to living with a senior

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Speaker 1: dog safety. I don't know how many shotgun blasts I

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Speaker 1: sent down range with my dog in front of you

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Speaker 1: over the years while we chased upland birds, or how

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Speaker 1: many times she was in close proximity to a volley

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Speaker 1: of non talk shots as the ducks circled in, but

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Speaker 1: it was a lot. She seems to have some real

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Speaker 1: hearing loss now and also some selective hearing loss. Not

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Speaker 1: being able to easily recall a dog is a great

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Speaker 1: way for them to get into danger somehow, oftentimes around traffic.

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Speaker 1: But be aware that your old dog might not hear

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Speaker 1: as well as it used to or see as well

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Speaker 1: as it used to, So this is important.

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Speaker 2: But that's also.

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Speaker 1: Big danger stuff, which is something we focus on because

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Speaker 1: it's in our nature. There's a reason we obsess over

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Speaker 1: bears and mountain lions and snakes and the things that

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Speaker 1: might actually kill us. It's part evolutionary, part curiosity. But

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Speaker 1: the truth is you're way more likely to meet the

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Speaker 1: old maker because you choked on a gummy nerd cluster

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Speaker 1: than you are to fight heroically to the death with

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Speaker 1: an apex predator out in the wild. At least I am,

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Speaker 1: and I actually spend a fair amount of time where

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Speaker 1: some of those predators live. Simple things like falling down

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Speaker 1: the stairs when their back legs start to get weak

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Speaker 1: can lead to cascading health issues, just like with aging

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Speaker 1: humans who don't have the grip strength or the core

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Speaker 1: strength to arrest a fall. And it's never the fall

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Speaker 1: outright that gets them. It's the broken hip from the fall,

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Speaker 1: and the surgery that takes a toll on gramma, and

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Speaker 1: then the inflammation in the weekend immune system, and you

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Speaker 1: get it. Our older dogs can follow a similar path,

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Speaker 1: where a seemingly innocuous injury or misstep can spiral into

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Speaker 1: something bigger down the road. Now, our house is a

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Speaker 1: normal split level, so our entryway is more suited for

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Speaker 1: gnome traffic than full sized humans. And for some reason,

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Speaker 1: my daughters always leave their shoes right out in the

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Speaker 1: one spot where not only do all of us have

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Speaker 1: to walk, but my dogs have to pass through on

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Speaker 1: their way outside to the yard. Watching Luna go downstairs

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Speaker 1: isn't much fun these days, and seeing her have to

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Speaker 1: try to navigate a small obstacle course which is often

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Speaker 1: wet in the winter, makes me want to be a

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Speaker 1: bad parent to my daughters sometimes, But they are young

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Speaker 1: and don't think about the struggles of their old dog

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Speaker 1: the same way I do, and I can't just make

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Speaker 1: them sit in a snowbank all night long to think

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Speaker 1: about it. On that note, please don't call child Protective

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Speaker 1: Services on me. I assure you my children are both

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Speaker 1: loved and spoiled plenty, and our old dog is just

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Speaker 1: chugging along trying to live her best life with as

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Speaker 1: much help as we can give her. It's not easy,

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Speaker 1: but it is inevitable, and after all that a dog

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Speaker 1: gives us throughout its life, the least we can do

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Speaker 1: is try to make their sunset years the best we

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Speaker 1: possibly can. So that's it for this week. Make sure

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Speaker 1: you come back in two weeks because I'm going to

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Speaker 1: talk about the ways in which we can all be

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Speaker 1: better dog trainers, even if we don't think of ourselves

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Speaker 1: as actual dog trainers. All right, this has been The

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Speaker 1: Houndation's podcast. I'm your host, Tony Peterson. As always, thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for listening and just showing up for

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Speaker 1: support at our meat Eater experiences, at our live tour,

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Speaker 1: at so many of the things we do. You guys

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Speaker 1: just show up and it is so awesome. You also

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Speaker 1: go on over to the mediator dot com and you

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Speaker 1: you know, you watch our films, you listen to our

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Speaker 1: other podcasts. Without that, we would be nothing, so thank you.

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Speaker 1: If you're looking for something truly cool to watch, go

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Speaker 1: to the mediator dot com and check out the film

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Speaker 1: that Clay just dropped on a crazy mountain goat hunt

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Speaker 1: up in Alaska.

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Speaker 2: Super cool.

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Speaker 1: While you're there, check out some articles, check out some recipes, whatever,

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Speaker 1: it's all at the mediator dot com.

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Speaker 2: Thank you,