Why having a dog changes your life: The Stress

Recently we've had to change the way we are with Luey our lab. at 11 years old we know how lucky we are, and we just want his life to be as happy and comfy as possible. Although we know he needs to take it easy he doesn't, he still thinks he's a puppy, he wants to chase tennis balls and go swimming, and because of this boundless energy that he displays we forget this from time to time too. Shortly before Christmas we took him on his usual walk, off the lead, lots of swimming and watched him chase after a ball. Seeing how happy he was and how much he enjoyed the walk we did the same thing the following day, not thinking about his age just about his happiness. The day after that he struggled to walk, he had very little enthusiasm for anything and just lay on his bed grumbling to himself. Now Luey can be a grumpy old man from time to time, but he always enthusiastic about the idea of food, and we were therefore really concerned. We all spent the few days watching him, encouraging him, not leaving him alone for a moment and we feared the worst. 

The the day before Christmas Eve he bounded off mum's bed that morning at half six, wagging his tail as he went down the stairs to greet Jack as he made his porridge. It was like nothing had happened. Christmas Eve, he did wake up with conjunctivitus, however, the trust he put in us to clean his eyes and put the drops in, reafirmed the connection he has with us. That trust goes both ways and it runs deep. He knows when we need him and he also knows when he needs us. The days over Christmas were wonderful with him and with the eye infection clearing up quickly over the past few weeks its been like getting our puppy Luey back. He's mischievous, stealing food, begging for treats and really wants to go for walks. We on the other hand have had to be restrained. Walks are frequent but short and on the lead, this way we can build up the muscle in his back legs and control the amount of walking he does. 

Treats well, they are more frequent than perhaps they should be. I mean he's eleven for goodness sake! And he has this way of looking at you and then looking to where the treats are kept then back at you. This wouldn't be a problem if there was only one of us in the house, but when there are six of us and he does the same cute trick to all of us, then he sometimes gets six treats... We've cottoned onto this trick now, but to be honest, we just want him to be happy. We've always been lucky with his weight, he's never been an overweight lab and if anything in the last year we've had the opposite problem where he lost a lot of weight and got picky with his food. Like a human being we've discovered that if he eats and is then sick, he then associates eating that food with being sick, which means we are often changing his food or at least the way he eats it - hiding treats etc. - just to get him to eat. 

The things we do for love. Dog love.