My mom has a bichon mix and lately he's become...very grouchy. He is about 11 now but pretty healthy other than a little bit of vision problems. He enjoys walking, takes 2 walks a day and prances.
Well, he bit two of us in the last month (no blood or anything but still ouch) and has been growling. Just for little things like trying to get his leash on when he isn't in the mood for walking or waking him up.
Now this isn't a HUGE problem because he is a old easy dog who lives with my mom who doesn't expect much from him and he is fine as long as nobody tries to get him to do something he doesn't want to do...
now first off we took him to the vet and he is all clear other than typical old man stuff.
Now, the issue right now is do we..
A) live with it (which wouldn't be that hard to do) just kind of deal with him and work around his moods and keep him as healthy as we can
or..
B) Pursue this issue further..meds? behaviorist?
I don't feel like he's unhappy but we've never had an aging dog and don't know what to do really. Can he be happy even though he seems more grouchy??
MOST OF THE TIME, he is fine. Sleeps, eats, asks for treats, prances around, sits in the sun whatever.
I just hope this is normal for a small aging dog
Well, he bit two of us in the last month (no blood or anything but still ouch) and has been growling. Just for little things like trying to get his leash on when he isn't in the mood for walking or waking him up.
Now this isn't a HUGE problem because he is a old easy dog who lives with my mom who doesn't expect much from him and he is fine as long as nobody tries to get him to do something he doesn't want to do...
now first off we took him to the vet and he is all clear other than typical old man stuff.
Now, the issue right now is do we..
A) live with it (which wouldn't be that hard to do) just kind of deal with him and work around his moods and keep him as healthy as we can
or..
B) Pursue this issue further..meds? behaviorist?
I don't feel like he's unhappy but we've never had an aging dog and don't know what to do really. Can he be happy even though he seems more grouchy??
MOST OF THE TIME, he is fine. Sleeps, eats, asks for treats, prances around, sits in the sun whatever.
I just hope this is normal for a small aging dog