 Senior causing traffic jams
#292746 - 08/19/2010 11:07 AM |
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In the last couple of months I have noticed Nico getting proggressively worse about being in the way when we are trying to walk through the house.
For years and years she would step aside or get moving when I needed to go past her.
"Scoot" in a polite voice is the command I have always used for this with all my dogs, she has known it since puppyhood.
"Move!" is an escalation of that for when it is really important. Usually preceded by a hand clap and their name.
Now we can say scoot and she just stands there, or she might look around or move into me instead of out of the way.
I have also noticed it takes her longer to realize that I am calling her, she can hear but it seems to take longer to register or for her to respond.
So how do you tell the difference between slowed mental processing and blowing you off in senior dogs?
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Re: Senior causing traffic jams
[Re: Jennifer Lee ]
#292751 - 08/19/2010 11:21 AM |
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I always like to give senior dogs the benefit of the doubt.
I would more think it's her hearing that might be causing the problem.
With my other dog i had the same thought, that he was blowing me off but then realized it wasn't that at all...he really just couldn't hear me all that well anymore.
You said you know she can hear, but it might be that she can hear "something" but she can't discern the command.
When you do the hand clap with move, does she respond quicker??
I know in the end, i would get Taz's attention by whistling if he was a bit in front of me. He never had a problem hearing something high pitched, so i did a little retraining. When he was short distances away I would whistle, he would turn to look at me) then i would say come. Pretty soon he learned that me whistling meant come.
Maybe start doing some hand signals with the commands?
Him taking a little longer to do some commands I let slide.....
i chalked it up to age and decided to make his senior years a bit less commanding...lol
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Re: Senior causing traffic jams
[Re: Jennifer Lee ]
#292753 - 08/19/2010 11:23 AM |
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When the terrier I had growing up started to get on in years she started "blowing us off". My father would get so annoyed that his "trained dog" was ignoring him....turns out she was going deaf (but hiding it really really well). I added hand signals to all of her commands and she responded 100%
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Re: Senior causing traffic jams
[Re: Jamie Craig ]
#292755 - 08/19/2010 11:33 AM |
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Wendy...
She does respond better to me saying MOVE! and clapping my hands, but the next step after that had always been a correction simply because sometimes you need them out from underfoot quickly.
(at this point in her life the only corrections she gets are her full name said sternly and maybe a loud sharp NO MAAM!)
She really seems like she can hear pretty well, but I do keep that in mind.
Since she is usually standing facing away from me when I need her to move maybe adding a light touch every time would be even more helpful than a regular hand signal.
Not moving at all would actually concern me less than when she actually moves more into my way or sort of shuffles but doesn't actually go anywhere. It seems like confusion to me 
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Re: Senior causing traffic jams
[Re: Jennifer Lee ]
#292758 - 08/19/2010 11:36 AM |
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That's why i was thinking it's her hearing.
She can hear that you are saying something, but can't tell what's being said, thus the confusion on her part.
how is she with other commands???
Taz would do that, he would know i was saying something to him, because i was looking at him...but he couldn't make out what it was i was saying so he would just kind of scramble a bit out of not knowing if i said sit or down or something else.
simple hand signals really helped like Jamie pointed out
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Re: Senior causing traffic jams
[Re: Jamie Craig ]
#292760 - 08/19/2010 11:42 AM |
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With seniors I try to take into account their physical abilities as well as what Wendy and Jamie posted. Maybe there is a slower registering signal to the brain and then they have to get those muscles fired up, bones loosened....sometimes I do think they blow it off as it just isn't worth all that work. But that is ok with me.
I was just looking at one of the girls this morning thinking wow her face looks so old, then she jumped over the couch and well it's not time to give her the respect for blowing me off yet.
In all the dogs I've had only one really showed 'dementia' signs, the rest I believe their body's tired faster than the mind. The dementia guy would do things like get lost in the house, sit facing the wall, go to the wrong door, try to lap the food and eat the water, things like that. That was tough on us both.
Edited by aimee pochron (08/19/2010 11:49 AM)
Edit reason: typo and didn't really address the question
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Re: Senior causing traffic jams
[Re: Wendy Lefebvre ]
#292762 - 08/19/2010 11:46 AM |
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To be honest I don't give her a whole lot at this point in her life. She is really low key and well behaved so I don't have to.
Really other than standing in my way a lot more than normal and occasionally begging she is really good girl.
I don't also don't do as much training because she about takes my hand off everytime I give her a treat and if I drop it on the ground she has a hard time finding it.
She does ok with Sit but that always has a hand signal, she does occasionally seem to get sit and down mixed up though.
She does well with "off" but she is usually working on "off" anyway because she technically isn't supposed to be on the couch so she only does it when we aren't in the room. It also can take a while for her to actually get down off the couch 
Reading this makes her sound worse off than she really is.
She is happy and eats really well and still rolls around and will even chase a ball a little bit.
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Re: Senior causing traffic jams
[Re: Jennifer Lee ]
#292773 - 08/19/2010 12:15 PM |
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from what your describing, i would definately chalk it up to old age & some loss of hearing.
I more meant, is she quick to respond to her other commands, or is her reaction time a bit late on all of them?
Her old joints are probably slowing her down a bit.
how old is she again? I noticed Taz slowing down once he was about 11 or 12.
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Re: Senior causing traffic jams
[Re: Wendy Lefebvre ]
#292777 - 08/19/2010 12:32 PM |
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She is 12, will be 13 in April.
Her reaction time is slower for just about everything but dinner time. She does seem to respond to the other ones better though.
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Re: Senior causing traffic jams
[Re: Jamie Craig ]
#292870 - 08/19/2010 10:12 PM |
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When the terrier I had growing up started to get on in years she started "blowing us off". My father would get so annoyed that his "trained dog" was ignoring him....turns out she was going deaf (but hiding it really really well). I added hand signals to all of her commands and she responded 100%
That's really cool. There was a study I read awhile back and the researchers compared dog recognition of commands that were verbal, visual, and verbal+visual. The visual-only variety was as high as the verbal+visual, and both were far higher than the verbal only in dog response.
Lots of bird dog trainers use almost exclusively hand signals. In fact, one prominent trainer, Mo Lindley, is deaf and communicates only with touch and hand signals.
Dogs don't talk. Almost all of their communication is based on visual cues.
A dog has alot of friends because he wags his tail instead of his mouth.
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