We have a 9 year old bitch, she has been blind for the past few years but this has never stopped her getting on with life. However lately we are wondering if she is going senile. I don't know if any of you have had senile dogs and could advise on this?
Her symptoms are barking for long periods, the bark sounding like she's lost (if that makes sense). She wanders aimlessly, circles and spins on her hind legs, drools occasionally (she's not a drooly breed) to the point where if she's been in one spot long enough she leaves a wet patch on the floor.
She still eats well and responds to her name, gets excited when you fuss her and still enjoys her grooming sessions.
Its just the barking and odd behaviour worries me. It even causes scrapping with the other dogs, they seem to get annoyed with her barking and tell her off.
Our vet doesn't seemed concerned about this at all. Any experiences shared would be gratefully received!

My last Bearded Collie went a little doo lally.  I have a huge garden, and she would go to the very bottom to toilet.  If she didn't come back in I would go looking for her.  I often found her looking around vacantly.  She looked as if she was day dreaming, staring into space. 

She could be laid down in the house, seemingly asleep, then would raise her head and bark like hell.  I just put it down to aging, but she was a lot older than your dog.

Is 9 old for your breed? I'm going through much the same with my13 ½ year old but there's a breed which doesn't usually start to act old at all until around now. She is SO noisy it's unbelievable. Food on the go -bark and whine. Somebody else's food on the go -bark and whine. (She seems to forget she has already been fed.) Let her out for a wee -bark and whine within seconds to be let back in. Visitors arrive -bark even once they have entered the house. Etc etc. The other night I bumped into her in the dark when heading for the bathroom and she bit me on the knee -not hard and she was devastated when she realised it was ME, but something like that would never have happened before. I've just put it down to old age. To be honest, I miss the way she used to be, as the brain function definitely isn't the same -but I also treasure every day we get. In know you can get tablets from the vet for senile dogs but I haven't looked into it myself as my girl has had other more serious issues -we almost lost her in August so the constant barking etc is welcome in comparison. But it might be worth you checking with your vet.

A friend has a giant breed that has gone senile - diagnosed senile.

She forgets when to go out to toilet, messes her self. Barks in the middle of the night for no reason.

We have a working breed so when we are all camping at events and she is there she forgets which caravan is hers. Quite sad really :-(

On a similar note - my boy who has passed was on his way to becoming senile.

My elderly female (11 in 2 weeks which is old for our breed) displays some of the symptoms - but I know she isnt going senile :-) - I think they start to act different when in a larger pack as in the wild when they become old, they become less useful and would be ostracised by the pack. We find she barks and barks outside the living room until we 'escort her in' passed our alpha female - just as our elderly boy did. Alpha female has a bit more time for Ella as I guess females in the pack are useful for longer than males as they can care for the babies etc - but I can see the changes in the way the alpha behaves towards my poor old girl, and she must too as she has become annoying and seemingly needy - but is actually only behaving this way because she knows her position is vulnerable !

My boy is 14yr 4 m and he started showing odd signs just after his 14th birthday. Standing about 6 inches from the wall ( he has failing sight) not wanting to be on his own, barking for no reason, wanting to be let out, when he is let out wanting to come back in. The worse symptom was the pacing and whining and the constant jumping on and off the bed at night, generally being unable to settle.

I was concerned that he was in pain/distress and took him to the vet who basically said he was going dolally; he recommended vivitonin and warned me it did not work for every dog. He takes 1 and a half tablets twice per day and after one day the improvement was incredible. He is almost back to his old self, he occasionally will wake in the night and pace around for about 10 minutes but as far as we are concerned the medication has worked very well.

Hope this helps. 

Bramble is now 15+ and fortunately doesn't show any signs of senility - but a few 'quirks' have developed over the last 18 months. He used to love the fire, but last year became very nervous of any noises from it and would leave the room and not return - we have now decided that he is fairly deaf and must find such noises frightening now. The other is odd :) Both dogs get a taste of our evening meal after we have finished and Bramble (who is still a very greedy dog :) ) would always be under the table waiting for us to finish our meal and get his small taster. For some months now, the moment we start to dish up our dinner, he disappears from the kitchen and goes into the sitting room - we then have to call him back into the kitchen after we have eaten to get his taster. He only does this in the evening :) Other than that very normal, thankfully :)

Look up Aktivait, my vet has just given my 15yr old Westie this as he too is showing signs of not always being with it. He forgets about toileting and that he needs to go out and looks quite spacey at times. He is quite blind and deaf.
Only had the tabs for 3 days so no telling if they will work but they are antioxidants and suppose to help the brain.

Did your Vet test her hearing?  If she loses her hearing as well as her sight that could be quite disorienting to her.  Maybe she isn't so much lost as she's lost track of where you are because she can't hear as well as she used to?

My 14 yr old Akita acted the same way as Sawheaties dog.  Nothing crazy just a gereral 'lost' to her behaviour.  Our vet diagnosed her about 6 months before she died.  She loved to bark at the wall though.
Our other dog had started showing symtoms at 13 yrs old but I didn't notice anything other than her not answering commands so I took her along to the vet to get her ears checked thinking she was going deaf.  After realising she had pretty much perfect hearing, we realised she didn't KNOW the commands(including her name).  So very sad this one as she was so depressed with it.

Thanks for your input everyone, I really appreciate it!
The average lifespan of a pug is about 14 years, but some die from 'old age' as young as 10 and others just keep going to around 16.
I don't think she is deaf, she comes when called, responds to key words (usually food related!) and can hear me open the greenhouse from the other end of the garden (she's a fiend for tomatoes!). I 'll ask the vet about vivitonin and see if they'd be willing to prescribe it for her. Fingers crossed it may help!
Its just so sad when you beloved dogs start to age, makes you realise how short a time we get with them.

>Its just so sad when you beloved dogs start to age, makes you realise how short a time we get with them.

Ain't that the truth.   :-(

We are having similar problems with two of our oldies. Meg aged 14 sleeps most of the day . She gets up to go outside to toilet and wander around the garden She's blind and has no apparent sense of smell but loves her grub and adores being made a fuss of. But...we are kept awake a lot during the night by her restless whining and barking. She isn't in pain , as far as we are aware, but this nocturnal 'whinging' is exhausting. Kezzie aged 13 has become a reactive barker -you name it , she'll bark at it. She also wakes us during the night with outbursts of barking. Thankfully we don't have any near neighbours. Kezzie is otherwise well and very active during the day.

Sorry, I cannot offer experience, but, if I were in your unforunate position I would have 9 years experience of the dog & would base my decision on if I considered its 24 hour a day quality of life seemed to be at an 'OK' level for the dog itself.
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