Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BrightMind #CollectiveBias

Some of you might recall a few months back I wrote a story about switching our dogs to a new kind of Purina dog food.  At that time I purchased one  dedicated to “weight management” as our Border Collie, Ziggy has a weight issue.  When I was shopping for a food to help with his weight I’d noticed Purina ProPlan makes a food for “Senior Dogs”, or a dog over 7 years of age.  About 44% of the 87 million dogs in the U.S. are senior dogs.  (That there are 87 million dogs in America is mind boggling to me!)  Anyway, Ziggy has begun to show signs of his age; things like sleeping more often and not seeming as alert as in the past.  He has always had this “eager” look in his eyes – all day – every day; but as he’s aged it seemed to be diminishing.

This photo is from when he was a pup but I think you can see the expression I am referring to!  He also has always been a relentless ball player!  As he’s gotten up in years he’ll fetch a time or two and then lay down and just hold the ball in his mouth.  A ball is still his favorite toy!

Having noticed these changes in our dog and the ProPlan “Bright Mind” food, my husband and I decided to transition him over to the senior food.  Of course we are doing this slowly, adding a bit of the new food at a time to his weight management food – we definitely don’t want to upset his tummy!  Purina states that using “Bright Mind” as a daily diet should make a difference in his interest to play and sharpen his memory.  The food contains enhanced botanical oils that promote alertness and attention span, and is formulated to increase cognitive awareness in senior dogs.  So we went to PetSmart to buy some new food.

Another trend we noticed is, Ziggy nibbles all day on a bowl of food, which I know many dogs do, but I am curious to see if the new food encourages him to eat more at one time.  If it helps him focus it should help with that too.  So I showed him a bag of the “Bright Mind” dog food.  He is paying attention!

I have launched the transition.  So far so good!  I am still in the process of making a complete switch.  In about 10 more days we will have made the full transition and I’ll be watching for significant changes in Ziggy and his behavior, alertness and hopefully his desire to play more. He does seems to want to eat more at one time now – so Purnia Bright Mind must taste good!  When we have been eating…oops there is no “we” in food…when he has been eating his new food consistently with none of the old food mixed in; I’m expecting a good prognosis and will report back soon.  If the results are favorable I want to pass that info along so that you can make the switch for your senior doggies!

Do you have an adult dog in your family?  Is fetching a ball his or her favorite activity?