What age would you term a cocker an "oldie"

[blueroangirl]

Hi not sure if this is the right place to post but just wondering are cockers seen as oldies if they reach the age of nine? Just asking as we lost our beautiful blue roan boy Sweep to lymphoma in December 2013 at the age of nine and three quarters. I never really considered him old and was devastated to lose him at what I thought was a young age. Thanks.

[henryjack1dogs]

Hi,

I remembering following your posts on sweep, what a brave boy he was. I can understand the devastation you must of felt.

I don't think 9 is old for a cocker, with my past boys who lived to 14 and 15, at 13 they were still full of life and naughtiness.

I hope my boys live to a grand age also.

x

[Archie bean]

The springers  and sprocker we had when I was a kid all lived well into their teens. I lost my first cocker to lymphoma at 6 1/2 and I (like you I suspect) felt very robbed. My second cocker died of anal gland cancer on his 11th birthday but he had seemed to have so many more years ahead of him. Just the day before he died he met someone in the street who exclaimed "oooh a puppy" it nearly broke my heart.
But I wonder if our crazy cockers ever really seem old? Apart from some stiffness and maybe a little deafness the old age just creeps up on them and maybe we don't notice it.....until you get a puppy again!!   

[julie1]

On our walk today we met an 18 year old (who looked like a chocolate show cocker) she was really enjoying her slow "plod", her owner said she is very happy. 
I don't think I have ever met such an old lady/man,  that would make her 126 

[Jaysmumagain]

My boy Jay had just turned 10 years when we lost him to lymphoma like Sweep, he was my first cocker and I had westies and cairns prior.

I think it must be a hard question to answer, one westie lived till 16 the other only 10.

Somehow the illness came so quickly and was so advanced, didn't want by boy to go like that.

But to answer your question, Ollie is nearly eight and a handful, seeing him run rings around us up a hillside today his age never came into my head, I think they are individual personalities with individual life expectancies just like us all, my hope for you and me of course is that our little men grow old gracefully and have happy lives.

Julie

[Jessie_Pup]

Have two oldies. Well one who definitely thinks she isn't . Dylan is 14yrs will be 15 next June and Jessie who is 11 1/2 will be 12 next May.
Dylan is blind now and his walks are very slow often comes to a stop. Jessie although has slow down a bit still does zoomies round the house and goes on group walks of a couple of hours.

[zenon_bass]

Millie is 14 now and we came to a full stop this morning after she hurt her leg. I'm assuming a sprain type injury as I couldnt feel anything in her paw... Have a vet appointment booked last week for tomorrow, so resting and snoring until late this Pm.
But when she first arrived 3 years ago we could walk for 3-4 hours and she'd be investigating hedges and smells everywhere.

I wonder if dogs are like people? I know a couple where the gent is definitely in his 80s and I thought his wife was in her 70s. Turns out she's just had her 60th!  Also a friend of mine has just had her 70th, when I would have said she was 10years younger!  Depends on genetics and life experiences, I suppose! 

[Ben's mum]

Ben is 12 now, 13 in March.
He got older very rapidly, at the beginning of this year, with his sight and hearing going and stiffness all coming on over a few months, it was a bit of a shock.
However now I've got used to the idea that he is an older boy  I can see that he is still as crackers as ever, he still runs faster than Harry who is 6 and luckily is physically quite fit, in short bursts, but wears out quicker.
He does sleep more now 

[PennyB]

Wilf is now 12 and its only recently he's been showing signs of his age but he still likes to keep up with the others (apart from her dry eye and stomatitis 11-year-old Lady never acts old or her age either).

[daw]

The boy we've recently lost became very ill in his ninth year but just made it till his tenth birthday. We're still shocked at how short a time we had with him. (Our first cocker as a couple made it to seventeen.)

[elaine.e]

My first Cocker was 16 years and 51 weeks when I lost him, but in a lot of ways he'd been an old boy for many years. He was about 9 or 10 when he started having prostate problems, went deaf and was diagnosed with a heart murmur. He was a bit of a plodder after all of that, but still enjoyed life, just at a slower pace

William is 11 and a half and has Dry Eye, lumbosacral disc damage, cataracts, has gone deaf recently and has had 2 lots of surgery in the last 6 months, firstly to remove a small cancer on his tongue and then to remove a large fatty lump next to his penis and another small lump in his mouth (luckily non cancerous). Despite that he's very fit and lively and the only outward sign of his age is that his orangey bits have faded to pale gold . Watching him running about so happily on our walks is a real pleasure.

When we set up the Oldies board we didn't really make a conscious decision to arrive at over 9. Somebody suggested it and it seemed about right because 9 or so seems to be an age where some Cockers slow down a bit, or get niggly aches and pains, go grey, go deaf, all sorts of things generally associated with age. But they're all different of course

[PennyB]

When we set up the Oldies board we didn't really make a conscious decision to arrive at over 9. Somebody suggested it and it seemed about right because 9 or so seems to be an age where some Cockers slow down a bit, or get niggly aches and pains, go grey, go deaf, all sorts of things generally associated with age. But they're all different of course

and like some of us human oldies who are also falling to bits with age they will often act as if they're quite young still but its usually the underlying things that are different that define them as oldies