# When does old age set in?



## Spencer (Oct 7, 2009)

I mean, when should I start considering Tate an old man?

Right after I first found him and took him to the vet, the vet estimated he was probably 4/5... well it's been over a year since then, which would make him 5/6... and in April, around 6/7!

Hard to believe he is the oldest in the house!
(excuse the slightly bad picture, it was taken in photobooth!)
(... would you look at that crazy top knot? I knew it was getting out of hand, but to see it in a picture... woah! Doesn't help that he had his ears all slicked back because he wasn't sure what I was doing! BUT STILL!)


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Small dogs are usually longer lived than larger ones, and most dogs have a long prime/middle age, and a blessedly rapid decline at the end. My vet offers free "senior" check ups to cats and dogs over 7, but that is in order to catch any problems in good time. I would not consider a small poodle elderly until they were going on 10, if then!


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## Spencer (Oct 7, 2009)

Oh don't get me wrong, I don't want him to be an elderly dog well before it is due... I was just curious! 

I have a mildly warped view of when dogs are old... we had a cocker spaniel that died at 9, another that died at 16, and a greyhound that died at 8. It's all a little off!

Tate hasn't slowed down at all in the year and a half I have had him, he is still the prancy happy boy he was before, thank goodness!


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## partial2poodles (Feb 11, 2010)

I set a goal over 10 years ago....my dog was 9 at the time. My goal was to help her see the age of 20 (in GOOD health) not in frail, feeble, zero quality of life. She is 21. Now obviously... good genes had to be in her bloodline. But she eats raw, cooked, kibble and a wide variety of other foods. She is bathed alot and never allowed to chew at herself....she has no infections and this is the same for all my dogs.....I hope my standard poodles live till 20 as well. I decided to give her the BEST food, Best nutrition and let her body live on healthy fuel. It seems to be working.


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## Ixion (Jun 23, 2010)

The previous toy that I have had lived to be 13.....she acted in a lot of ways like a puppy until the last week. The only signs of age I noticed from her was after she reached 10-11, her eyes started getting a little cloudy and she was a little stiff from arthritis but other then that she acted the same way she did when she was 2!


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## ArreauStandardPoodle (Sep 1, 2009)

In the past year, Thinker has become an old man. He coughs a lot, his eyes are cloudy, his hearing is impaired...but at twelve and a half, he still gets a bee in his bonnet and once in awhile decides he wants to chase the ball or something else that is being tossed. He is sound on his feet, eats well, is still the sweet fellow he has always been, but in this past year, his age has obviously caught up with him.


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## Spencer (Oct 7, 2009)

I hope that Tate stays much the same in his older years. I didn't get to see him as a sweet puppy, or want to tear my hair out when he hit his terrible twos, but I get him now... and he spunky and fun. So I hope he stays that way!

In the past two and a half years I have had to watch A's parents' older dogs slowly leave the family. All cocker spaniels and died at 17, 15, and 16 respectively. They were all OLDER dogs when I met them (arthritic, a little hard of hearing, vision slowly going) and it was very sad to see their somewhat rapid decline.

Here's to years and years with our pups!

Cracks me up to tell people he is "Oh... 5 or 6." People are always like, "...You don't know?" lol


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## Olie (Oct 10, 2009)

Tate has the dearest face. I think I am liking that shorter 5 o'clock shadow he is sporting.  I really do not have much to add on old age sorry but the picture is cute.


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## BFF (Jun 10, 2009)

The Tate is such a doll especially with his bed head hair do. 

I agree with the above. My first girl was very active at 17. She had cataracts, but she could still see fairly well. 

My second girl started her decline at 8. She had all sorts of problems structurally and had PRA. She lived to be 16. The last 8 years were slower paced, but her spirit was always there!


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## BFF (Jun 10, 2009)

partial2poodles said:


> I set a goal over 10 years ago....my dog was 9 at the time. My goal was to help her see the age of 20 (in GOOD health) not in frail, feeble, zero quality of life. She is 21. Now obviously... good genes had to be in her bloodline. But she eats raw, cooked, kibble and a wide variety of other foods. She is bathed alot and never allowed to chew at herself....she has no infections and this is the same for all my dogs.....I hope my standard poodles live till 20 as well. I decided to give her the BEST food, Best nutrition and let her body live on healthy fuel. It seems to be working.


This is such an inspiration. It's one of the reasons I decided to start feeding raw. Zulee is also the first poodle I have had where I am doing her grooming which means she gets groomed weekly (mostly) rather than monthly.


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

My first poodle, Tony, was full of energy until the day he died from cancer at 11


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

I know my mums miniature poodle that I grew up with was 16 before she went to the rainbow bridge, though she'd been blind since a 2 year old she did great!

my foxy X is 12 now, and still doing zoomies in the backyard as I type this! lol.

As others have said, dogs tend to keep going much the same, though perhaps a little slower, right until they are ancient and drop dead. They don't tend to have a very long extended 'frail old man' stage, though I have known a few exceptions!!

Over 10 for a small dog is getting older, but don't let our notions of 'old' get in the way, cos it's just as likely he'll be bouncing and zooming as much as he is now!


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## Ray-Ray's World (Sep 30, 2010)

Wait, what?? Poodles get OLD?! Since when? I don't think there's many poodles out there that actually realize this. 

Shh let's not tell them, okay?

Let them beleive they're puppies, forever. :call-me:


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## Spencer (Oct 7, 2009)

I was feeling a bit nostalgic yesterday, I suppose. My sweet TQ will be 4ish sometime from November to January, and TheGrey - ONLY after having him for two years this October - has become very attached to me, following me around, being bouncy excited to see me whether I have just gotten home, or am rolling out of bed (but only after he has stood with his head resting on the mattress and breathed his toxic greyhound breath on me until I surrender). He is 6 (thank you, racing greyhound ear tattoos!)

And Tate... my little Spud Monkey, Tater Tot, Poody Poodle, whom follows me wherever I go, scratches at the bathroom door if I don't let him in too while I am showering, tries to shove his little face and body through the baby gate separating my bedroom from the family room if we are separated and continually fails, and always tries to sleep beside my head so that if some boogie man is coming in my room I can feel him growl (...most of the time at nothing), and tries to curl up next to my face (whether or not I am standing/holding, sitting/holding, or laying down) to snuggle in when I have had a bad day - of which we have had a lot of lately. I can't imagine NOT having any of my dogs!

I know that they will, barring anything terrible, be around for much MUCH longer, and I hope that they are all as wonderful as old dogs as they are now as my young and middle aged dogs!

And Olie, lol, thank you... we like the scruff too and are letting it grow to an eventual fuzzy face again (probably to shave it when it gets too out of hand and start all over!). My only complaint about the scruff would be those prickly whiskers! I can't really cut them without cutting hair, too!


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## plumcrazy (Sep 11, 2009)

Age is only a number, after all! I agree that, in general, smaller dogs have longer lifespans than do larger breeds. I know the frustration of not knowing, exactly, how old a pet is - I adopted Hannah 8 years ago and the vet "guessed" her to be around 3 years old at the time (but admitted that she could be as old as 5ish...) So Hannah is somewhere between 11 and 13 years old, but I'll never really know for sure...

I'm happy Tate is doing well - the home cooking must be agreeing with him, huh? My wish for him (and you) is many, many more years of poodle play!!

Barb


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