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On last Friday’s Fit Dog post Jodi asked:

Thunder won’t be doing tests this year, is that right? Would that be why you aren’t doing a lot of training with him?

Thanks for asking and Thunder is flattered that you noticed his absence.  🙂

He won’t be running tests so I have not been featuring him on the blog much as part of my training posts.  I take a lot of pictures over the course of a training day so I decided to post more about Freighter and Storm since we plan to run them in tests this summer, but Thunder is still training.

Since he turned 8 last month and we think it is as important as ever to continue with his training.   Hubby would like to be able to hunt with Thunder for as many seasons as possible and in order to do that, he needs to stay fit and in condition.

We did not run Thunder too much at group training when the snow was deep or hard because we wanted to minimize risk of injury.  Also, if there are a lot of dogs, Thunder may only run one of the set ups.  He is welcome to run them all, but it really isn’t necessary, so hubby decides as he goes.  When hubby takes our dogs out to train himself, Thunder usually goes along and runs what the others run.

At last weekend’s training, we ran a series of double marks to work on the dogs taking the direct route to the mark.  Thunder ran all three series.  He loves marks and it was a good opportunity to reinforce him taking a straight line.  He had a blast and got a good work out too.  I don’t see him slowing down anytime soon.

We are joining the Fit Dog Friday blog hop hosted by Slimdoggy, Peggy’s Pet Place, To Dog with Love.  Today is their one year anniversary.  Happy one year of fitness and have a great weekend!

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31 thoughts on “Keeping A Senior Dog Fit”

  1. It’s good to see someone keeping their senior dogs in good shape. Besides, I’ll bet he’d be bored to death just sitting on the dog bed.

  2. Thanks for the update on Thunder…I was kind of wondering about him too – guess I assumed he was so good he didn’t need as much training 😉 So great to see him still so fit and vital at 8. He has many years and many hunts left in him! Thanks for joining the Hop and being a part of the FitDog Friday Family.

  3. It is indeed wonderful to see a senior dog living it up! And I love that you are committed to keeping up with his training. I used to have quite a few new Rally students with senior dogs. They wanted to keep the dogs happy and stimulated in the golden years. Hooray!

  4. I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Thunder looks GREAT for his age. 🙂

    It’s great that you balance keeping Thunder fit with trying to prevent injuries. Nothing worse than a retriever who wants to run and isn’t allowed to while they heal up. 🙁

  6. Yup, lots of go in Thunder – show those younger pups how it’s done big guy 🙂

  7. Hi Y’all,

    As you probably recall, my birthday is only a few days from Thunders. I don’t like all this “senior dog” stuff! It just started a couple of weeks ago. I bet Thunder doesn’t like it either. What is it with you Humans anyway?

    Y’all come back now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

  8. Awesome, thanks so much for answering my question! Thunder looks like he is totally enjoying himself and he looks pretty darn good for a ‘senior’ dog. “-)

  9. Thunder is definitely fit and ready to keep up with hunting 🙂 It’s amazing the difference you can see between two older dogs, one who’s been kept fit and active their entire life, and one whose owners never bothered.

  10. Pawsome that Thunder isn’t being left out just because he isn’t as young as the other dogs. I bet he’ll be going for another eight. At least!

  11. That is great that he is continuing to train and hunt. It certainly doesn’t look like he will be slowing down anytime soon!

  12. That is great that Thunder is still super active. Eight isn’t that old, I’m sure there will be many more good hunting years.

  15. Thunder is a lucky boy! It’s great to see that someone cares about the old dog’s needs. He looks so enthusiastic! You guys did a good job.

  16. Good boy Thunder, we are in the same boat with Nellie. If we train with people we don’t usually get her out as she is retired but if home we train her too because she can still hunt. He is doing so well for a older guy. Have a great weekend.

  22. Looks like Thunder gets plenty of workouts! I’m sure he can still keep up with some of the youngest and most energetic of pups. Much love, The Scottie Mom.

  23. It’s important to keep senior fit and active. We are doing the same thing with Sugar. Golden Woofs

  24. I didn’t realize that Thunder and Jeffie are the same age. I’m curious about something. Do your other dogs ever watch each other during training? We’ve observed our pack’s monkey-see monkey-do behavior and I wonder if Freighter and Storm have opportunities to watch Thunder doing things correctly. Rosie spends quite a bit of time observing her brothers and then imitating them. (Thankfully in good behavior)

    1. Yes sometimes. It depends on what we are working on. With the kind of training we are doing, it can help or hurt. It helps if you have a dog that is not quite sure about things. But sometimes if they watch too much it can be hard to get their mind off what they have seen and think about what they need to do. For example, if they have been watching marks, they may think they know where it will fall. But sometimes it doesn’t end up in that spot and it can be hard for them to forget the old spot.

      Last Saturday, it was a long haul to the car so we had two dogs out at one time for part of the training. Didn’t seem to help or hurt. More on that later. 🙂

  26. With both Sophie and Dakota being seniors, keeping them healthy and fit are becoming more of a challenge, and truthfully is a losing battle as age takes over. Dakota at the age of 9 still has the energy but not the endurance, and we have to limit her exercising somewhat since she doesn’t know when to quit. Sophie at 11 1/2 has the enthusiasm of a puppy but her back end is becoming weak as I noticed last weekend.

  27. So do you not run Thunder as much, because of risk to the joints as he ages? What do you feed your dogs? How often do you work out with them? Thanks!

    1. Not just that, we worry about heat stress. Most of the tests here run are in the middle of summer and temps can push 90 or 100. It is just not worth the risk of heat stroke, since he is a large and now senior dog. Also, one summer the ponds were shallow and he injured his leg and ended up in a cast for hunting season. We don’t want to do that again. He lives to hunt. Thunder and Storm eat Taste of The Wild Pacific Stream (salmon). Freighter eats Earthborn Great Plains (bison). This time of year, we try to get them out to train 5-6 days a week, depending in weather.

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