Approaching seventy-three, my concern is that I will die before they do, particularly the Akita mix, Princess. She is the most devoted. She seems to recognize my declining physical condition and tries to help. Every morning, when I have to descend three steps to go turn on the internet in my wife's adjacent art studio, Princess is there to help me. She stands still so that I can lean on her shoulders. I can still get down the stairs without her, but her efforts to help are comforting.
Should something bad happen to one of our dogs, whom I would be unable to carry to the car, we have a worker who could do so. Also, there is a vet with a truck full of medical and lab equipment who could come and render assistance.
We have a 17-month-old purebred black brindle Akita. His predecessor was an Akita/Husky (we guess) mix. Your girl is very typical.
I’m 71 and when I walk Sumo in the winter and tell him “Careful! Slow for Mom!”(sometimes “Old Mom!”), he looks back at me and switches to a gentler slope or slows down to wait and follow my lead. While he loves to run, he has low stamina due to overheating and will be happy with a 20 minute run while we sit and wait. He comes back to us, ready to go home. The last dog would just walk with us for a short time and then turn around and go home and wait on his own. He knew his own limits when he was old.
I think he sleeps 60% of the time, although he insists on family recreation time, which is a good game of fetch and floor soccer with one of his balls. Outside in his pen, he does run and play by himself.
Loving and attentive breed. I do think about him outliving us and also about being 82 when his life is done. I know I couldn’t deal with a puppy at 82 or a large working dog, either. Our vet thinks that Shih Tzus are a wonderful breed of small dog. I know someone with an older one that is kept in a puppy clip. DH is unsure of having a tiny dog, though.
My husband is only 63, so hopefully, if I go first, he will have Sumo around for awhile. If something happens to us both, I hope our vet will be able to find a final home for him.
Our last AkitaX had significant rear end deterioration for about the last year of his life. He was 12+. As a show up, we were never that certain of his true age. Sumo’s line has consistently lived to 13 without a lot of back end problems. We tried to keep Bo, the AkitaX, for longer than we should. We were being selfish, as he was the perfect dog. This next time, I am praying for the strength to know when it is time and to let him go. It is very hard to do.
I hate thinking about all this and live in denial. My husband made a 2-person litter for our vet as a way to handle heavy dogs in need of being carried. So, if anything happened, I would call the vet for assistance. Barring that, our Sheriff deputies are usually very willing to help and so are the Animal Control crew.