4 year old dog become inactive. Should I worry?

[auddieme]

Hi everyone, please give me your advice about my dog health. I am bad at explaining so bear with me. My dog is 4 years and a few months old. He is a local breed, which is hard to describe. Basically, people in the mountain area doesnt really care how their dogs breeding so there is official record about this breed. This dog breed live very well on rat, small animals they hunt, human food, and known for living more than 10 years. My dog is a left over in his litter, very small when I got him, but already changed his baby teeth. I have him fixed about half a year later. He grow up well, at 19kg when he is about 1 year old and now, only put on 0.5 kg more, so I think he is not overweight. He look very fine, well defined muscle, perfect hair. The problem is since the last year, I notice he become less and less active. He dont play with balls anymore. He used to be the fastest dog at the dog park, other dogs whine and cry when they can catch him. Since the last year, he run less. Now, he only run a tiny bit, not even fast, then walk and lie down. I took him to the vet, but they said he is in very good health, it is normal, my dog is fixed so he will be lazy and get old quicker than the male dog. I dont know if I should worry or not, but honestly I am freaking out. Should I tried to exercise him more? I never put him on collar before, only use harness. It is impossible to drag him to run when he dont feel like running, but I afraid using collar will hurt him.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@auddieme You should listen to your vet it’s pretty normal for a dog’s exercise needs to decline as they age. You could always try introducing new toys & activities, or taking your dog to play in new areas that he hasn’t seen before to see if the novelty energizes him, but it’s not a good idea to push him to exercise more than he wants to. He could get injured if he’s pushed past his body’s limits and that would make it even more difficult for him to exercise.

Also if you have some doubts regarding the advice from your vet, it’s always possible to get a second opinion from a different vet, sometimes vets are wrong and it’s OK to double check. Hope you can get everything sorted out!

 

[auddieme]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Thank you for your advice. This is the second vet I took him to. I will take him to a new park and see if it help.

 

[judgenotbutyourself]

@auddieme Some breeds when full grown, and in their prime, are fine with more or less exercise/walk time and will be satisfied with anywhere to 30-40 minutes once or twice a day. I heard that dogs will normally sleep up to 16 hours a day (all night and naps during day). If he is eating well and looks good is a good sign of health.

Do you walk him regularly? He may have lost interest in what used to appeal to him. He may enjoy outings with you the most. My dogs just laze around until they think I am going to take them out. Do you have walk/bike paths ? Some dogs that love to run can learn to run alongside you.

 

[auddieme]

@judgenotbutyourself I walk him 15 min in the morning and 1 hour at night. I already tried run along exercise, but he is a piece of shit. He will run with me for a bit then lay down in the grass, wait for me to run pass again in the next lap, and get up, run with me for a bit more. In the end, he only run 1/5 of the time I run, and pretty smug about it.

 

[lelouch]

@auddieme Im not familiar with your breed but I have a doodle and a poodle. They are 4 and 5 and both weigh 60 lbs. they are extremely active.

Last year, our doodles behavior changed. He was 4. He stopped having interest in food. He loved long 4 mile hikes but suddenly started to drag behind on a quick 1 mile walk around the neighborhood. I noticed he started hesitating to sit down and would then sit differently(with one leg carefully tucked in front of/under him.)

I took him to two vets. One vet even did an X-ray and said he was perfectly fine. Finally, it was time for his annual blood work which resulted in a positive for anaplasmosis(tick related illness). I was relieved to finally have a diagnosis! They had to do a urine check. Which he also had a uti! Last but not least, since we were going to the vet more-they started to notice his strange sitting and did another X-ray. He actually had a torn CCL ligament that required a $3000 TPLO surgery.

He was not fine. He was a very sick little boy.

After anaplasmosis medication, uti medication and his surgery—- now he is 100% back to normal!

I’d seek a second opinion and insist on further testing. You know your pup better than anyone!

Your dog seems smaller than mine and it’s my understanding that smaller dogs are supposed to live longer and have more energy. If you had a larger breed with a lifespan of 8 years, then I could see how they may start to slow down at the age of 4. But it sounds like yours should not be slowing down yet.

 

[refei]

@auddieme Exercise levels decrease with age but saying that fixing him made him lazy is BS. My dogs all have stopped playing with toys around 4-5 years old. They like puzzle games more at that point. Hiding treats, etc. Here are some puzzle toys you can buy. I just smear peanut butter on the inside of a bone or Kong and then freeze it. They have to work to get the treat and keeps them happy and entertained.

 

[auddieme]

@refei I will try the puzzle toys. It is so hard to give him treat He is spoiled brat, only eat what is freshly home-made food, he refuse to eat store bought cake, KFC... but beg for the cake I baked, my food. I think I can tried some puzzle toy and put dried tendon in.