Grooming a Senior Dog

When Is a Dog a Senior?

It depends almost entirely on size, which catches out owners of big dogs.

• Giant breeds such as Great Danes and Mastiffs are usually considered senior around six
• Large breeds around seven to eight
• Medium breeds around eight to ten
• Small and toy breeds often not until ten or eleven

A seven year old Great Dane and a seven year old Yorkshire Terrier are at completely different points in life, and the grooming appointment should reflect that rather than the number.

What Changes in an Older Dog's Coat

Coat texture usually changes before the color does. Many dogs develop a coarser, drier, more brittle coat with age, and it holds tangles that the same coat shrugged off five years earlier.

Some dogs get greasier as the skin's oil production changes. Others go dry and flaky. Both are common and both are worth mentioning to a vet if they appear suddenly, since coat changes can be the first visible sign of a thyroid or hormonal problem.

The gray comes in around the muzzle and eyes first on most dogs, and it means nothing for the grooming. Cats are the sharper example of the same story: an old cat often stops grooming itself properly because twisting hurts, and the coat behind the shoulders and along the back goes matted while the front stays perfect. That pattern is a reason to see a vet, not just a groomer.

Arthritis Changes How Long a Dog Can Stand

Joint disease is common in old dogs and it is often present well before an owner notices a limp. In a radiographic study of dogs older than eight, osteoarthritis showed up in the elbow of 57 percent of them, the shoulder of 39 percent, and the hip and stifle of about 36 percent each.

That matters at the salon because of what grooming asks. A dog on a table stands still for long stretches, then stands on three legs while the fourth is lifted for nails or feet, then gets asked to turn around on a hard surface. For a sore elbow or hip that is hard work, and the dog often cannot show it in a way anybody reads correctly.

What frequently gets called stubbornness in an old dog is pain. A dog that used to stand quietly and now shifts, sits down or objects to having a back leg lifted is usually sore.

Nails Become a Bigger Problem Than the Coat

This is the part owners miss, and it feeds back into everything else.

An old dog walks less and walks more softly, so the nails wear down far less than they used to. They keep growing at the same rate. Within a few months a dog that never needed a nail trim in its life has nails touching the floor.

Long nails change how the foot lands. The toes are pushed backward, the weight moves off the pads, and the dog stands and walks differently to compensate. On joints that already hurt, that makes things worse, and the stiffness gets put down to age.

Grooming at home has the method for taking a dark nail back safely, a slice at a time, without needing to see the quick.

Nails on an old dog want doing little and often, every two to three weeks if you can. The quick has usually grown out with the nail, so bringing them back to a sensible length takes several sessions and cannot be done in one.

Dew claws deserve a specific mention. They touch nothing, so they never wear, and on an old dog they curl round into the pad often enough that it is worth checking every single month.

Sanitary Trims Stop Being Optional

Old dogs get less tidy. Some are slower to move away from a mess, some have loose stools on medication, and some become incontinent, particularly older spayed females.

Urine sitting against skin under a coat causes scalding, which is painful and gets infected. A dog that lies in one position for hours will also get pressure points where the coat felts and the skin underneath goes sore.

A sanitary trim, meaning the belly, rear and the area around the genitals kept short, is a comfort measure at this stage. Ask for the hair between the pads to be kept short too, because it collects moisture and makes an already unsteady dog slip on hard floors.

Dogs With Cognitive Decline

Some old dogs develop cognitive decline, which looks like pacing, getting stuck in corners, restlessness at night, or forgetting a routine they knew for a decade.

For grooming, the practical answer is sameness. The same groomer, the same time of day, the same order of jobs. A dog with a fading memory copes far better with something it half recognizes than with a new salon that is cheaper.

Should You Switch to a Shorter Haircut?

For most old dogs with a coat that keeps growing, yes. A shorter cut means less time on the table, fewer tangles between visits and less brushing for a dog that has stopped enjoying it.

Double coated breeds are the exception, and age makes the case against shaving them stronger rather than weaker. A coat that regrows unevenly on a four year old may not fill back in at all on a thirteen year old, and that coat is the insulation keeping a dog with less body fat warm. The matting guide lists the breeds this applies to.

Take the length down gradually if you can. Going from long to very short in one appointment leaves an old dog noticeably colder, and a coat is insulation in both directions.

Signs the Appointment Was Too Much

Every dog is tired after a groom and most sleep it off. What you are watching for is something beyond that.

• Stiff or limping for more than a day afterward
• Reluctant to get up, or sore when touched around the hips or shoulders
• Off its food that evening or the next day
• Far more reluctant to go in the next time

Anything on the skin, rather than in the way the dog is moving, is covered in when a groom goes wrong.

Any of those means the next appointment should be split in two, or shortened, or moved to a groomer who comes to you. Say it plainly when you rebook, because a groomer cannot see what happened at home.