Most dogs do not announce that they have got older. The walk gets a little shorter, the stairs get a pause at the bottom, the afternoon nap gets longer — and because it happens over months, it is easy to miss until something forces the issue.
The routine that suited your dog at five will not suit them at ten. Here is what changes, when, and what to do about it.
When a dog becomes senior
It is about size, not birthday. Larger dogs age faster. The 2023 AAHA Senior Care Guidelines define senior as roughly the last 25% of expected lifespan:
| Size | Senior from about |
|---|---|
| Small breeds | 10 years |
| Medium breeds | 9 years |
| Large breeds | 7 years |
| Giant breeds | 6 years |
A seven-year-old Labrador is a senior. A seven-year-old terrier is middle-aged. If you have a big dog, the adjustments below start earlier than most people expect.
What actually changes in the day
Four things shift, and each one has a practical answer.
Sleep gets longer and lighter
Senior dogs sleep more in total but wake more often. That means the quality of where they sleep matters more than it used to: a supportive bed out of draughts, away from the traffic of the house, and somewhere they do not have to climb to reach.
If your dog has started sleeping somewhere new, it is usually about temperature, joints, or noise. It is worth working out which.
One long walk stops working
The single biggest routine change is splitting exercise up. An hour in one block that was fine at five becomes two twenty-minute walks at ten — same or less total time, spread out, on softer ground where you can find it.
Watch for the dog who is keen for the first ten minutes and flat for the last twenty. That is not stubbornness, and pushing through it usually costs you the following day.
Toilet breaks come back
Bladder control declines with age. A dog who was comfortable for six or seven hours may now need a break every three or four. Accidents in a previously reliable dog are worth a vet conversation rather than a telling off — they are frequently the first visible sign of something treatable.
Meals may need to change shape
Some senior dogs do better on two smaller meals than one large one, particularly if they are losing condition or have a fussier appetite. Weight in either direction matters more now: carrying extra weight makes arthritis worse, and unexplained loss is one of the most common early signals of illness.
A realistic senior day
| Time | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Morning | Toilet break first, then breakfast, then a short walk once they have loosened up. Stiff dogs do better moving after eating, not before. |
| Midday | Toilet break. Sleep. A short, low-effort bit of mental work — a scatter feed or a snuffle mat does more for an older dog than another walk. |
| Afternoon | Second, shorter walk at the cooler end of the day. |
| Evening | Dinner, quiet time, last toilet break later than you used to do it. |
| Overnight | Water available. Accept that the night may now include one trip out. |
The three things worth tracking
With a senior dog, the useful information is almost never in a single day. It is in the direction of travel over weeks — and that is exactly what is hardest to see when you live with the dog.
- Weight, every two to four weeks. A slow drift is invisible day to day and obvious on a chart. Both directions matter.
- Mobility. Which surfaces they now avoid, whether they still take the stairs, how long it takes to settle after a walk.
- Good days versus hard days. Not for anything grim — simply because a run of harder days is the signal that something needs adjusting, and memory is unreliable about it.
Track the trend, not the day
The BlueTarg Weight & Body Condition Tracker turns a run of readings into a chart you can print for your vet, and the Quality of Life Journal scores the seven comfort domains vets use so you can see the pattern rather than guess at it. Both are included with membership.
Twice a year at the vet, not once
This is the single highest-value change most owners of senior dogs can make. AAHA recommends an in-person exam twice a year for senior dogs, with screening bloodwork every six to twelve months.
The reason is not that older dogs get sick more often, though they do. It is that a year is long enough for kidney disease, dental disease and arthritis to move from manageable to established without anything visible happening at home. Six months is short enough to catch the drift.
Take your weight chart with you. “She has lost 1.4 kg since March” is a far more useful sentence than “she seems a bit thinner.”
What is not just old age
Ageing is gradual. These are not, and they warrant a call rather than a wait:
- Sudden change in appetite or thirst
- Weight loss you did not intend
- Difficulty getting up, or reluctance that appeared in days rather than months
- Confusion, pacing at night, staring at walls, getting stuck in corners
- Any new lump, or an old one that changes
- Coughing, laboured breathing, or tiring much faster than last month
“He is just getting old” is true eventually. It is also the sentence that delays a lot of treatable diagnoses.
Where this guidance comes from
Life-stage definitions and the twice-yearly examination recommendation follow the 2023 AAHA Senior Care Guidelines for Dogs and Cats. Time-alone figures follow RSPCA guidance. This is general information rather than advice for your individual dog — your vet knows their history and should set the plan.