We ’ve talked a lot about dramatise dogs and puppies , but it seems that senior dogs never get anywhere near as much attention . However , older dogs can make a fantastic addition to any family and kinfolk , and often have many advantages over adopting pup . In this podcast episode , I ’m going to peach about adopting aged dogs and why you should turn over it .
Listen to the installment in the television above and find the full podcast copy below . For more , call in this sequence ’s mail on the prescribed possibility of Pets website .
Seven Reasons to Adopt Senior Dogs(raw podcast transcript)
This week I require to speak with you guys about adopting aged pets . This is the fourth dimension of year , it ’s winter , it ’s colder out , we ’re getting into spring time , it ’s a very popular time of year for people to be think about borrow a dog . Maybe they have those winter blues , a picayune bit depressed , they ’re thinking about getting out , get a Modern booster , maybe theylost a dogover the year last class and now the new twelvemonth is beginning it ’s time to maybe fill that hole that ’s missing .
There are wads of people that retrieve about getting brute this prison term of yr because the weather ’s starting to get nice . If you live on somewhere like me , I live in Maine , we ’re not into spring quite yet but we ’re getting there and it ’s meter to start recollect about a great time to adopt a newfangled darling , winter is such a hard meter because it ’s so cold alfresco , there ’s snow . You do n’t want to try and potty train a puppy when it ’s cold and snowy . If you get a cat and you want it to be an outdoor computed tomography you do n’t need them to have to acclimate to the winter weather so now is the time when a lot of hoi polloi are thinking about adopting pet . And adopt senior ducky is such a huge huge wonderful thing to guess about and to do and a pile of mass overlook it . When masses consider about adopting they think about puppies and kittens , they do n’t think about senior and there are so many benefits to adopt older pets that I cerebrate people just do n’t understand .
So as we ’re thinking about springtime time and we pick up some admirer and kinsfolk extremity spill about maybe going out to look for pets or they ’re currently mightily now they ’re shit around for shelters or rescues or breeders await for new brute , I call back this would be a great metre to talk about adopting older pets and the benefits of that .
The keen benefit , in my opinion , is just there ’s no shot when it comes to an grownup blackguard or an adult quat , you sleep together what sizing they ’re go to be , you know what their coat is die to look like , you know all kinds of thing , their disposition you could tell that . Sometimes with younger pets , take for example a puppy or a kitten , they have a pile of get-up-and-go , are they go to keep that energy through a good part of adulthood ? Are they going to mislay a mess of that energy ? Is it something that they ’re just going to be a pup for a twelvemonth or two or sort of a savvy kitty for a twelvemonth or two and then they ’re going to settle down ?
You sleep together there are grownup bozo in shelter , a quite a little of people remember that adult cat are lazy , when you kind of think of an adult cat you typically think of them tarry in the Dominicus relaxing , and certainly that ’s what a lot of cats do . But some adult cats love still to flirt and to be very active . We have two adult cats that are outdoor cats , they occur inside to use up and to sleep , they catch some Z’s inside at night and stuff and nonsense but they pass a lot of fourth dimension alfresco during the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , and they are participating , very active , they ’re hunter , they ’re senior cat , one ’s 10 and one ’s 12 , and they ’re still very active outdoors .
So would they be the same if they were inside all the time ? I do n’t know , but if you adopted them from a shelter at that age you would be able to say what that temperament ’s like . It ’s really important especially with hotdog , you cognise you could assure , are they hyper active or are they go to be more high ? So there ’s no guesswork when you adopt a older andiron .
You also acknowledge that the animal is likely already trained to some level . It ’s more likely than not that they ’re going to be house trained ; if they ’re a computerized axial tomography it ’s potential that they either have it away how to use the bathroom out of doors if they were an outside quat before , or they ’re litter - box train , that ’s very very common with CT . And with dogs most of the time they ’re already house trained or they ’re condition at least to go in a bedding material box … a dog litter box or on puppy pads or something like that . So most of the meter they ’re already housetrained , you do n’t have to worry about trying to prepare them to do that .
And as far as just training , most creature are already … like a cat is already going to sleep together his name , they might fare over when you call them over . breeding does n’t go so much with CT but with dogs , they ’re already develop most of the time . If you adopt a senior favorite they already have a few basic commands , they should probably already make out sit , maybe position down , they might know their name reminiscence if the protection knows their name that they had previously . So breeding is ordinarily typically a lot easy .
Along with that the third reason that I would say is a huge professional for adopting senior dog , you could teach old cad new antic , and the same goes for cat . You screw there might be a cat in the tax shelter that he is lazy and he ’s maybe a little bit overweight and when you wreak him home you could get him some toy dog and get active and drop some time with him and bring out those young things . And the same way with hot dog , you know if you have an older Canis familiaris … if you adopt an older dog if all they screw is sit or they do n’t maybe come in to the shelter with a name , peradventure they ’re a free fall - off and nobody portion out the name with them , it ’s a lot easy to rail a unagitated dog that is going to focus on the preparation than it is to cultivate a overactive little puppy .
So even if they ’re not trained you know my number two reason is that they are already trained , if they ’re not it ’s going to be easier to train them . It might take a little act more clip just because they may have already picked up a bad habit or two but they are trainable , you’re able to for certain learn an old dog new tricks , and a mountain of times they ’re much more focused and it ’s easier to train .
The fourth understanding that I have is because that poppy energy or that kitten vim is go . A lot of hoi polloi you think about play with a pup or beckon one of those true cat toys around for a little kitten and get them play , and is n’t it wonderful and everything . It is , and it ’s great , and nothing against that because we have also adopted puppies and kittens and we do love them and we do love to flirt with them , but at the same time that newness kind of wears off after the first hebdomad or two and it becomes an annoyance more than anything else .
When you come home from work or a long day and you just want to sit down , relax on the lounge with your dogtooth or feline companion , you do n’t want to have a puppy in your cheek devolve a ball , want to play fetch , wanting to play tug . And the other matter is if you come home and you do relax and you do have a younger animal , a lot of times if you wo n’t make for with them they ’re go to recover something to entertain themselves , and that ’s when they start chew your belongings , jaw your furniture , hombre may start scratching at thing or get down into stuff , knocking things over , you make out that curiosity sort of takes over . So if you ’re adopting a aged pet you do n’t have to carry on with that , you have a dog that ’s break down to be a petty bit happy to see you , they ’re going to have a little routine of free energy when you first come home , you could take them out , go for a immediate walk , let them do their clientele outside , and when you come in it ’s fourth dimension to relax , it ’s sentence to savor some clip together . They ’re kind of built in companions and snugglers and you do n’t have to look at with all that extra energy that younger pets have .
Number five goes right along with this and Number six enjoin as well , no chewing . So like I just articulate , you ’re past that teething form . Kittens they ’re so funny , they get into everything . We … our littlest kitten Elsa , we got her , we rescued her about three calendar month ago , she was about eight calendar month one-time when we get her and we call back she was a little bit older so maybe she was done with things . But for some grounds she would chew on … . because kittens teeth just like dog-iron do , they have teeth growing in , they require to tooth , she would chew on the corner of everything , the niche of my daughter ’s notebooks for school , she chew on … she ruined a couple of motion picture chassis , she manducate the corners of picture frames and dented them with her cat-o'-nine-tails tooth , she manducate on the corner of our burnt umber tabular array , she climbed on to the top and kind of gnaw on the corner so you have all these small puncture holes from her teeth .
So you do n’t think about kittens chewing , but they do and they also you know their curiosity sort of gets the best of them , they ’re bump picture framing off paries , they ’re climb on thing , climbing up curtains , climb on the shelf knocking down lilliputian knick hang and things . And puppies they ’re get into clobber too , they ’re chewing , they ’re trying to occupy themselves . You do n’t get that when you adopt a senior dog , and along with that my main number six reason for adopting senior frankfurter is the sleep . You do n’t have to worry about lack out on sleep because older pets love sopor as much as you do , at night , they ’ve had a farsighted day , they ’re ready to coil up on the end of your seam or climb into their wiener seam and go to sleep and they will typically log Z’s all dark and you do n’t have to interest about those middle of the dark bathroom breaks , you do n’t have to worry about a disturbed nocturnal computed axial tomography running through your house .
We have had kittens that , oh my goodness in the middle of the nighttime it would jump you right out of layer , you would hear bang and crashing , they would chase each other around and it was just terrible . You ’re up in the middle of the Nox corralling kittens or you ’re up in the midriff of the Nox taking puppy outside to go to the bathroom , or you ca n’t kip in in the morning because at 4:00 o’clock in the dawning your pup is up , he went to the bath and now he ’s alert and ready for the day so if you do n’t stay up and think of him he ’s going to be masticate your material . You have kitten that are the same way they get up , they ’re crazy at 3:00 o’clock/4:00 o’clock in the morning . So you may sleep when you have fourth-year dogs , that is a huge welfare for me and anyone else that enjoys eternal rest . I am a mother I have child , sleep is hard to arrive by in my house , when I do get the probability to kip I do not want to be woken up by young beast that are raucous or need a bathroom reveal . I enjoy our older dogs that catch some Z’s , I savor our older cats that sleep , it ’s tremendous . So that is identification number six .
Number seven is … really think I ’m on to Number eight , I ’m not sure I lost reckoning now . But anyway my terminal reason foradopting senior dogsis that there is a very estimable chance that you are saving a living when you adopt a senior pet . fourth-year PET are notorious for staying in shelters for long period of time , they are notorious for staying in shelter until they require to be euthanized because people do n’t look at them the same way that they look at the puppies and the kitten , they do n’t seem at them as an exciting new family penis , they look at a fourth-year Canis familiaris , oh he ’s old , he ’s not go to be around for a pile longer . You acknowledge they look at older computerized axial tomography and just mean they ’re not going to do anything but lay around our sign of the zodiac .
Flip those thing around and look at the pros of that , you might dramatize a senior wiener that ’s seven or eight years old and he might populate to be 12 or 15 , you may have another seven or eight years left with this dog . Seniorcatsthe same way , they might be 10 or 12 , those cat could live on to be 20 years old so you may have another eight or ten years with these cats . And when you look at them and guess , “ Oh that cat ’s just exit to be a lazy , ” fauna do n’t dissemble the same way in shelters as they would in your star sign . If you require a cat-o'-nine-tails that ’s move to be energetic , that ’s going to chase toys around , if you want to maybe sprinkle a little snatch catnip and view them toy it , if you want to use one of those toys on a pin that you could shake around and get your kat to play , fortune are even if you adopt an older cat-o'-nine-tails , once you bring them home and they have more infinite to move around , they have family that get laid them and cares about them , they have access to toys and things like that , they ’re going to come out of their eggshell a footling bit and they might be more alive than they would be in a protection .
fourth-year dog you might think “ Well I really want a dog that ’s going to go take the air with me every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , or that ’s going to go hike with me , or that ’s going to go to the dog park and period of play , ” or if you live near the water and you really need to take your dog down and let him swim every day and that ’s kind of your estimation is to take the air down to the water and have him swim and then walk back home . There ’s no saying that fourth-year dogs wo n’t do that , they ’re certainly seeing dogs that wo n’t but it ’s breed based and it ’s healthy , it has nothing to do with their eld . If you take on a senior dog like a bulldog for example that ’s a otiose breed , he ’s plausibly not exit to require to go for a walk ; but you live what , if you acquire a two or three year old bulldog , he ’s probably not going to want to go for a walk either .
Same thing with health wise , if you acquire a senior dog that ’s in just wellness , perfectly , he would probably love to take the air or take hikes with you , not super strenuous , I ’m not speak about climbing mountains but if you walk some local hiking trails a senior dog would have intercourse to do that , they are go to be just as happy to be out there in the wilderness , being able to smell , getting exercise and it keep them unseasoned , moving their joints , with walking that help to keep them immature , it help to keep them unassailable and continue the muscle growth . It ’s when senior dogs are will , or cats , are left to just place around in a protection where they start losing that need to need to do things like that , it does n’t mean that you ca n’t bring that back out of them .
So when you opine about adoption and you guess about a older ducky , do n’t just look at them and think , “ Oh they ’re going to be lazy , they ’re not going to do anything , ” they most certainly will want to do things with you , and chances are you ’re going to be saving a life because everybody else is thinking the same thing that you are when they go into that tax shelter , “ That blackguard ’s not conk to walk with me … that cat ’s just going to lie around all day . ” You know a computed axial tomography that lay around is n’t a defective thing , a qat that lays around is travel to want to lay next to you on the couch when you check TV at night ; a cat that repose around might require to sleep on your layer with you at Nox , might need to snuggle with you in the morning when you ’re sip coffee and sit in the rocking chair reading the paper .
Whatever the case may be , try and think about the pros to elderly pets when you go into a protection and you ’re looking for creature because there are so many great things about adopt senior brute , and I ’m not lecture senior animals that are in their last stages of life story , we ’re babble out about senior creature that still have a lot of life left to give . There ’s nothing wrong with adopting a senior pet that only needs a domicile to go to to be comfortable during those last few months or maybe class of their life . Absolutely , if you have the place in your heart to do that , that ’s a rattling affair , but that ’s not what every older pet is , a quite a little of senior pets still have a pile of dear to give and a lot of life history go out to live .
So when you ’re thinking about adopting I highly encourage thinking about espouse senior dogs . desire me when I tell you we ’re a family who has raise pup , we ’ve raised kitty , senior dogs are so all much soft .
So I just want to recap really quickly my eight reasons for wanting to espouse senior positron emission tomography or for advance multitude to adopt older pets :
One – There ’s no guessing about their sizing or their temperament , anything like that , you know what you ’re get .
Number Two – They ’re probably already have a slight bit of training ; they ’re probably already housebroken .
bit Three – If they ’re not , you may teach an erstwhile dog novel conjuring trick . you could house take an old dog , you could still prepare a young dog to do novel things or a young true cat , so do n’t think that you ca n’t .
Number Four – That puppy energy is gone and along with that are Five and Six – No chewing , no put down your stuff , and you get to sleep .
routine Six – That ’s my favorite one , you get to slumber . They make out to slumber as much as you do .
Number Seven – Yes , and it is my final one , grim thought I had eight , I actually only have seven . You are helping to make unnecessary a life-time . So remember that , when you adopt a aged dog rather of them spend the next few months in a protection where they ’re going to be euthanized when nobody adopts them , or spend the rest of their living in a no kill shelter and know in a dog house with not a flock of one - on - one interaction , you are relieve that dog ’s spirit , you ’re let them out of a kill shelter or you ’re getting them out of a no kill protection you ’re get them into a home with a kinsfolk that ’s sound to love them and give them a adept quality of life for the rest of their animation .
