Sharing your home and your life with a beautiful animal or bird, be that a bunny rabbit, a cat, a parrot, or a dog, is frankly an absolute privilege, and it is disgusting to learn of the number of poor pets who are abandoned at animal rescue centers, or worse, at the side of the road, by bad people every single week.

However, there are indeed millions of responsible, loving, and dedicated animal owners, and if you are someone who is absolutely besotted with your pet dog, then you have come to the right place. Continue reading to learn of the top three ways to look after your dog as they enter their golden years.

1. Pay Attention to Their Teeth

As with humans, oral hygiene and the health and condition of your dog’s teeth, mouth, tongue, and gums play a huge role in keeping their entire body, both inside and out, as healthy as possible and actively contribute to a high quality of life.

Additionally, if your dog starts to display different problems with their teeth that you do not address in a timely fashion, this may well start to impede the way in which and indeed how much they can eat. If your dog allows it, regular brushing will certainly make a difference, and if not, there are a variety of products on the market which are specifically designed to clean a dog’s teeth as they chew.

2. Exercise Depends on the Individual Dog

Obviously, each and every dog needs regular exercise, which is incredibly important for both their physical wellbeing and emotional health as well.

However, as your dog gets older, it is more likely that, unfortunately, but inevitably, they will develop one or more health conditions that will affect the amount of exercise they are comfortable with, as well as the amount of exercise they need. When exercising older dogs, it is essential to be aware of the main conditions which can affect the level of exercise they can partake in, which include dementia and memory loss, joint problems such as arthritis, loss of sight, deafness, and heart problems.

3. Obesity Can Kill

Every loving dog owner knows that it can be incredibly hard to resist the temptation to keep giving their beloved pet treats off their own dinner plate or else overfeed them from their dog’s treat packet.

If a younger dog has put on a little weight, this can be easily rectified and counterbalanced by increasing the frequency and duration of their daily walks or else steadily reducing the amount of food they consume. However, for older dogs, especially if the weight gain is more gradual, the extra weight they carry can put additional and sometimes even dangerous strain on both their cardiorespiratory and musculoskeletal systems. As a result, any smaller medical problems your dog may be experiencing can be made substantially worse, with medical issues such as arthritis having the possibility of becoming so serious that they may well never recover.