I am beginning to fear for my very dear Kali, who was 14 in April. He is still relatively vigorous, but he has an increasing number of "dithery days", when his legs may tremble a bit (and he falls over). He doesn't seem to notice, but I do . He is definitely harder of hearing, and doesn't see as well as he did in his youth (he still watches flies and helicopters, though!).

I remember when he was young, I used to take him to town and walk him via any shops I needed to visit, until we reached the pub, where I'd have a pint and he'd have a pie: I was so proud of him (I still am, just less publicly): I have lived with quite a few dogs, but he is the first who is "all mine" - the others were family dogs, not that they were loved any less for that - Kali has always been "special", and I can't bear the thought of losing him....................

Snorri

I've had dogs of 14 who had their dithery days, plus they used to stand there trembling on their wobbly legs sometimes, especially when faced with pottering down 3 steps to get out into the garden must have been quite daunting for them. Sometimes their legs would tremble when they were just lying down and I'd be grooming them, and I'm sure it's all part of the old age bit for dogs, coz both of these dogs I'm talking about went on up to 16 years old, bless. My last oldie got her old age symptoms quite early I thought, at around 10, the trembly legs the old age creaks when she got up from a sleep, but she led a much more active life than any of the others, so I always put it down to that, I sort of wore her out and in hindsight I think some days she had a bit too much exercise, but I'm sure she enjoyed every minute of it. Just interesting really, that the others lasted up to 16 with no major probs having led a less active life, and then I go and lose her at only 11 and a bit, old age crept up really quickly on her. It's very hard to come to terms when you see that in your dog when they've always been very active, we seem to think/hope that they will stay young forever don't we.

Must be sad for you to see Kali like this Snorri xxx

It breaks my heart.

thanks for that - lots of excellent tips.

deaf and blind is a double whammy form Maxie to cope with.

obviously it's hard to communicate with her now, I have to go right out into the garden to fetch her in.

only recently she was jjumping through hoops, and doing tricks with hand commands.