Doggy dementia

Hi everybody, I'm posting on here over concerns about my terrier cross. He is quite an old fella, not sure of his age exactly as he was adopted from a farm a few years ago, possibly 12 for arguments sake. Now he has dementia, and that in its self, although heart breaking as I know I'm slowly loosing him, for the most part he is happy more times than not at the moment. The problem we have is he is having very aggressive out bursts, mostly towards myself but yesterday he snapped at my Mum's dog too, no warning, just completely out of the blue. When he has ago at me its nothing in particular that I can say has caused it but the last couple of times it's been very nasty, snarling and attempting to bite me, it's actually been quite scary and I'm very nervous of approaching him now. Of course I love him and will take a bite from him and carry on because I know it's the condition and it's not really him but my concern is with his aggression towards my Mum's dog and if he ever turned on my Mum, he sees them most days as my Mum looks after him when I'm at work. I have another dog also but he's never shown any aggression to her at all, in fact he doesn't like to be seperated from her which is all part of the dementia as he's always been a very independent dog and enjoyed his alone time!
I can't just lock him away from everyone, what kind of life would that be for him! But the thought of putting him to sleep when in body he is the picture of health absolutely breaks my heart.
Any body have any similar stories or advice they can give as I'm struggling with what on earth to do.
Many thanks

Hello Tamzin , firstly canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD) can be helped with medication , is your dog being treated with medication.
The sudden aggression could be caused by fear, once familiar sights and sounds may now be alien and certain situations may make him feel threatened.
Try to work out what happened at the time of the aggressive outbursts, particular sounds and the actions of those around him.


The aggression could also be unrelated to the CCD and an indication of pain somewhere or some other medical condition like a tumour.

You really need to discuss all the possibilities with your vet.

I don't have experience about this kind of disease before but i've learned that you can slow the progress of dementia in dogs using anipryl ask your vet about this to give you the right dosage to give in your poor dog, and I know there's a generic tablet that similar effect like anipryl. Ask your vet about this, because I know i'm not that expert, but I hope this can help you with your situation keep us updated.