My "Green" Dog

[Richard in Smithville]

I have a very large shepherd cross who is pushing nine. She was an abused pup when we rescued her from the pound. We are not sure just what she went through but it took many years to get her social outside of our family. She is highly devoted and very affectionate. It pained me to see her develope artheritis in her back hips and struggle to get in and out of the back door. The other day my neighbour tore out his deck so I asked if he would mind my scrounging through the wood. Yesterday #1 daughter and I built a series of 3'x4' platforms to lead up to the back door. Now my dog is proud to stand there at door level when she "woofs" to come in.

[dlminehart]

I'll need to do something similar for our aging mini poodle. Max insists on sleeping at the foot of our bed, by which I mean ON the bed. Lately he's been having trouble jumping up, signaled by a few false starts followed by a desperate leap and scramble. His papillon buddy, who ironically prefers sleeping on the floor, is a year younger and enough nimbler that he has little difficulty making the leap to join us when we have coffee in bed in the morning. Unlike the poodle, who insists on doing it himself even as his capability wanes, the papillon will wait for you to give an assist if he thinks you're nearby. So much for intelligent design of dogs' minds and bodies! More like prankster than watchmaker!

[gerti]

Joint Max or similar products may help. It makes a marked difference for our aging Alaskan Malamutes.

[cabinetman]

We have two German Shepherd Dogs that we give a supplement daily. It's from Excel, called Joint Ensure - Moderate Care. There is an "Advanced Care", but they aren't at that stage yet. The stuff works.
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[Ed62]

It's really hard to see one of our pets go through something like that. About 2 years ago, we had to put one of ours down because he got to the point where he could hardly stand up, once he laid down. Hopefully one of the products named will be of help.

Ed

[jziegler]

We have two German Shepherd Dogs that we give a supplement daily. It's from Excel, called Joint Ensure - Moderate Care. There is an "Advanced Care", but they aren't at that stage yet. The stuff works.
.

You can also just buy Gloucosamine and Chondroitin for people and give it to dogs. For you smaller dogs, you would probably need the lowest dose or to cut the pills. We give the greyhounds pills from BJs or Costco since it is much cheaper than the dog supplements.

Jim