He's certainly slowed down, and is starting to become a bit "feil" (as they say in Aberdeen). It kind of means otherworldly and on occasion he does seem that way. He's more easily confused, forgets what he's doing etc. He's also getting very deaf and will happily trot on ahead, not hearing your yells to alert him to the fact you're going another way. Eventually you get his attention and he turns to look and instantly speeds up back. Mind you, he's always had a touch of selective deafness! As the dog walker says, you have to keep him close!
He is more needy, comes for bosies when he never used to and gets upset sometimes when Richard leaves the house. He's even started barging into the bathroom on me, or barking outside the door! That's just in the mornings before their walk.
He eats a LOT slower; I'm considering not using the "Go Slow" food bowl any more as he goes slow enough anyway! On occasions he doesn't finish and of course Maddie is waiting to polish off any leftovers! It's a lesson on how to eat properly watching him - where before he (and still Maddie) would inhale the food as fast as possible, now he eats a bit, looks around, eats another bit, looks around some more... you get the picture.
However he still loves his walks and is not averse to a bit of growling at other dogs (if they start it) - particularly where there's a fence in the way! He'll still want a ball thrown into the sea to fetch a few times, before wandering off and refusing to give it back. He keeps a watch over the house and if we've been out, is always found, upon our return, standing at the doorway into the conservatory, barking madly! (the sound of the car obviously comes clearer through the conservatory windows and he thinks that's where we're coming from).
He has Jake and Duke to contend with - young whippersnappers, bouncy and desperate to play. As he's always done, including with Maddie, he ignores them as much as possible and they've got the message now and leave him pretty much alone. I think I've described here before how he would get up and walk over to them and growl at them if they were mucking about together and making too much noise!
So all in all our Murphy is in the twilight of a long and (hopefully happy) life and is aging fairly gracefully. He has some skin tags and a couple of fatty lumps, is very white around the muzzle and head and spends a lot of time snoozing in the living room (more often on the floor than before - does he find it harder to get on the sofa?).
But we love him dearly and he's daundering on...
