Successful Aging for Our Animal Companions

How well our dogs and cats age, and even how long they live, boils down not only to their genetics, but also to how we care for them throughout their lives. Consider all the ways in which lifestyle choices affect human longevity and the quality of our golden years: what we eat, how much we exercise, whether we smoke or drink, how much stress we place on our bodies and minds. Every day we make choices that have long-term consequences ("Would you like the fries with that burger?") Within the human aging literature the concept of "successful aging" became popular in the 80s. Aging successfully means keeping your odds of developing disease or disability low (through healthy behaviors such as exercise and lots of veggies), keeping your cognitive functioning high (by doing brain exercises, playing chess, continuing to work), and staying actively engaged in life. Aging successfully also involves adapting to age-related changes and learning to live with disease and disability.

Although I haven't seen any references to successful aging in animals, it seems appropriate to apply this idea to our companions. Our goal, as caregivers, should be to help our pets age as successfully as possible, given the constraints of individual genetics and uncontrollable environmental factors.

Another way to look at this is with the distinction gerontologists make between primary and secondary aging. Primary aging refers to genetically-programmed changes, which are built into the organism and more or less hard-wired. The changes associated with primary aging include fading vision, hearing impairment, and a reduced capacity to adapt to stress. Secondary aging refers to physical deterioration related to lifestyle and is largely controllable. We can offset secondary aging by living healthy lives: by eating well, staying fit, avoiding excesses of alcohol and tobacco, and by using medical services to effectively manage disease.

For our pets, secondary aging depends almost entirely on us. If we feed our dog cheap, highly processed food—the canine equivalent of Twinkies and French fries—and if we feed them too much, they will (like us) get fat and this will accelerate their aging. Between 25% and 40% of dogs are considered obese, and this number continues to rise each year, in step with the rising rates of human obesity. Although most veterinarians agree that the really cheap corn-based kibble is not the healthiest for our dogs, no one seems to agree on the ideal canine diet: raw or cooked? homemade recipes or prepackaged kibble? organic or chemically enhanced? Carnivorous or vegetarian or vegan? Incidentally, one of the longest-lived dogs on record-a border collie who lived to be 27-was fed a purely vegetarian diet, which I find interesting and surprising.

Exercise, fortunately, is relatively straightforward. Except that for those of us who don't live on a farm or large country estate, exercising our dogs is something we have to actually do. Getting our animals off the couch means getting ourselves off the couch, too. We have to either walk or run with our dogs, or take them to a dog park or some other area where they can stretch their legs.

Many people take a hands-off approach to their pet's health: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The problem with this is that often things are going wrong inside long before the animal reaches the point of medical crisis, and not only is the animal now suffering, but there may have been simple and effective ways to manage or even prevent the problem in the first place. I used to be a bit skeptical of those recommended Wellness visits, which were, I suspected, just a way for the vet to squeeze more money out of my pocketbook. I figured that if my dog Ody looked fine he was fine. But I usually went anyway, albeit begrudgingly, because I felt that I should, and I'm the type of person who likes to follow rules. But of course he wasn't fine, as a full blood panel revealed. His liver enzymes were sky high, which the vet thought indicated either bone or liver cancer.

Whether we spay or neuter can also impact our dog's health as he or she ages. Generally speaking, spaying and neutering improve a dog's chance of remaining healthy. We also, in various small ways, have to watch over the safety of our animals: making sure they are not loose near roads; seeing that they don't eat our socks, don't choke on chicken bones, and can't reach the chocolate truffles off the counter; cleaning their teeth at regular intervals; removing knots and burrs from their coats; and so on and on. It sounds very much like caring for a child, doesn't it?

In addition to the trifecta of pet health—diet, exercise, and veterinary care—we could also list various "intangibles" that can influence how our animals age, such as levels of stress, anxiety, pleasure, happiness, social contact, mental stimulation.

Those of us who try to live healthfully know that health isn't something that just happens; you have to work at it constantly, and you need a certain level of self-control and self-discipline. With our pets, too, successful aging requires careful thought, planning, and daily discipline. Most of us know from experience that there is no such thing as perfect, but we owe it to our animals to do the best we can for them.