Does anyone have any ideas on managing a dog that has become increasingly senile over the last few months? She forgets about house training much of the time, doesn't take any interest in things she used to enjoy. Sometimes when she goes outside, she seems to get lost and to forget how to find her way back. None of those are really problems, though its all a bit sad.

The real trouble is that she barks at nothing. Not a normal bark, a monotone 'woof...woof...woof', regular as a metromome, at about 6 barks per minute. Once she starts, she goes on for ages - she has been going for two hours now, and it may well go on all night. It did last night. This barking is incredibly annoying - we find ourselves tensing up and waiting for the next one. Another night of it and we'll probably be barking mad by tomorrow.

Sadly thier is not a lot you can do apart from loads of TLC
Is the barking when your in the same room as her?
if so have you tried reassuring her?
Sadly this is a problem that comes with becoming senile,in the short term does she sleep alone,
could you not let her sleep next to your bed so that you can re-assure her.
The barking is signs of insecurity from the senile condition.

best wishes for you and the old girl

Karl

Thanks for the repy and best wishes Karl. We've tried her in the bedroom with us, and I've tried having her on the bed with me in the spare room, but it doesn't help. She quiets for a few minutes, but the starts off again, and if I have her up on the bed with me (a treat she used to love) she just jumps down again to bark at whatever it is she barks at. She doesn't seem to be worried or upset when she's barking: more as if its a sort of reflex.

The only improvement we get by bringing her to the bedroom with us is that she doesn't start the others off so much. But the her bark is obviously that much louder and the others are musical in comparison. (Even funny - Lewis wolfhound begins with a few preparatory noises, then begins to sing basso profoundo. Cal deerhound comes in next to howl tenor. They all join one by one, until finally Piranha deerhound adds what almost sounds like the main song, with old Storm sheltie contributing a few barks as background sound effects. That goes on for a minute, then they all stop, take a bow, and go back to sleep!)

I do think that she still has a reasonable quality of life. She doesn't seem to be afraid, is still interested in food, which was always her main preoccupation, and has better periods and even days when she still comes for a cuddle or has a gentle game of football which was always her favourite.

Have you talked to the vet at all about this? Perhaps something like the equivalent of doggy valium or homeopathic might help make her sleep at night. She could also be feeling the aches & pains of joints which would keep her up at night hurting. MSM or Glucosomine might help that.
just a thought.
toodles

Hi Sara, I took her to the vet when the problems began but things were not too bad then and she wasn't barking. The visit to the vet was just to check if there was anything physical going on that I'd missed and to try to find out if she was maybe becoming deaf. (She does have enough cataract that I'd have them removed if she was a better anaesthetic risk, but not enough to make her completely blind.) She has been on Glucosomine for a while, not because she seems to have joint problems, but because I started all the oldies on it when I saw how well it worked for the arthritic ones. She hasn't been back to the vet since, so maybe it would be a good idea to have him go over her again. Thanks!

Sharon, I do know how you feel. I have a 13 year old GSP who has taken to bark in the early hours of the morning. Nowhere near as bad as yours, he just barks once every 30 seconds or so, for an hour and then stops ..... its like listening to a tap dripping! We tried everything we could think of, but nothing seems to work. He is not in any pain that we can tell and can see no reason why he does it. We have been giving him half an asprin daily for some time now, working on the principle that maybe something we can't see is hurting him. Whether it is just coincidence or if it has helped we will never know, but he doesn't bark every night now. Just a thought anyway :-)