Penny is allowed on beds, sofa and jumps into the 'wayback' of the car. Lately she's been slow, reluctant to jump up. She acts like she wants to but holds back, seemingly to gather courage. Yesterday, after refusing to jump onto the tall bed to play with us, I found her resting her chin on the lower bed in the other room. It seemed she was pondering the effort to jump up. She did so as soon as my back was turned. Getting into the car used to be immediate, even before the hatch was fully opened. Now I have to motion a few times, pat the floor saying 'paws'. She sometimes paces between the side door and the back door, looking for an easier way.??.

Could this be an early sign of arthritis? Or has she lost some of her youthful exhuberance? She still will play furiously with us and get the zoomies. She turned 8 January 3. Not sure if I should be concerned or not. Thanks.

I forgot to add that the vet is happy with her weight. And this doesn't happen all the time...about 50% of the time.

It sounds like she is either having a hard time now or she could have had a bad jumping experience lately. They sell steps for the end of your bed and ramps to get into vehicles.

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Jumping in and out of a car is hard on any dog's joints but particularly the seniors. All my dogs use a ramp to get into and out of the car, even the 10 month old. They make them telescoping and folding styles and are light weight and fit easily into any vehicle.
It is easy to train your dog how to use them.
I would suggest you look into them.

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"Beau" Mr. Beaujangles Dancin on a Wim CD, RN , ASCA CD (RIP my shining star 1-17-11)
"Baylee" UCD Baylee Golden Butterfly Wings CDX, RN , ASCA CD
"Baxter" Promise's Purpose Driven Vision (looking toward the future)

First, a thorough senior vet check just to be sure there's nothing going on with her! Then, if you haven't already done so, you might want to talk to your vet about putting her on some supplements.
My vet is a HUGE proponent of fish oil supplements for all dogs 7 and older. It has very strong anti-inflammatory properties. Also you might want to consider a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement for her.
It's much easier to prevent damage to the older joints than it is to fix it!

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Gibson's Golden Girl, CD, CGC, TDI (born 3-20-1997), a.k.a. "Tiny"

CH Rosewood Little Giant, UDX VER RA JH OAP NJP VCX WC CCA CGC FFX-OG (born 3-10-2007), also U-CH U-UD U-JJ U-RO1 U-HIT a.k.a. "Tito" (the Tito Monster) www.GoTeamTito.com

and my heart dog
Gibson's Golden Guy, CD, CGC, TDI ( 01-31-1998 - 01-02-2012) a.k.a. "Toby", "HRH"

^ Agree with this!

This is how Casey started acting with the car. He now puts his front paws up, and we lift his back-end into the SUV. I think it might be time to start supplements and make some adjustments at home to make life on her joints easier!

Okay, all of these ideas are kind of what I was thinking. She's due for her annual vet check up/vaccs, so I'll be sure to bring it up. I had been thinking it was time to go to a ramp set-up.

I agree that treating symptoms early is way better than waiting until they are more severe. I didn't do it right with our Angel Polly; I sure don't want to make the same mistake with Penny.

I started my old guy on glcoflex III and duralactin right after christmas. he was showing obvious signs of discomfort and was very stiff.

His gait and stiffness improved in 2.5 - 3 weeks. I believe the initial improvement was due to a massage/heating pad routine and then the duralactin (anti-inflammatory) took effect after a couple of weeks.

I think the glycoflex III(chondriotin/glucosamine) is helping too now. He even sleeps better. I guess he was in more pain than I knew. he had stopped going for hikes and now looks forward to them with his old zeal.
He has had pancreatitis and elevated live enzymes so we couldn't go the standard route with Deramaxx or Rimadyl and I like these supplements better since I could not find any side effects associated with them.

I hope your vet has some good suggestions for you and Penny.

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Copper's Mom (always )

Everyone else has given great advice, but I just wanted to add, if you have stairs in your home, you could buy one of those Lift-N-Aid pet harnesses. I wish I knew about those when my bridge golden was having trouble getting up the stairs.

I just wanted to say that my boy Winnie recently had trouble standing up and stopped jumping on the bed. I started him on fish oil and the 'healthy powder for dog's' (you can google it). They helped amazingly! I started him this week on glycoflex 3 this week, and am already seeing results. His energy level is up, and he's even been sneaking into the swimming pool! We live in TX, so it's not TOO cold right now. I couldn't recommend these supplements more highly, it's made a big difference to Winnie.

It does sound like she's starting to feel a little arthritic. I put Sam on supplements also. At one point the Vet tried a prescription pain med but he did better on coated aspirin. It may just be age is catching up with her and her best jumping days are behind her. You might think about getting a folding ramp that you can take with you when you're in the car. We used a ramp rather than have Sam put more pressure on his hind end.

I hope the Vet check doesn't find anything more than a gracefully aging Penny.

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Miss You Sam...
Aug 1, '94 ~ Jan 8, '07
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