so-much-wow

Hey Dr.King. My partner and I have a 16 year old dog who we believe is experiencing senility. He's fine and calm almost all day until the sun sets. After which he paces back and forth, barking almost non-stop from sunset until he passes out around 11pm.

We already give him all the attention he wants at night (I offer the affection and wait for him to come to me instead of chasing him). We take him for long walks in the early evening and a shorter one midway through his evening stress. We have been prescribed sedatives for him, which we would prefer to avoid and they also don't seem to make a difference for him.

Any advice on how to help him through the night?

Thanks for your response. It is indeed a grand old age - I hear similar sentiment every walk! It's reassuring to know that our instincts were more or less right. We will be moving in a few months and the routine change is a bit concerning for me.

Fortunately for us, both my partner have worked with seniors - she continues to be a care giver to this day. He takes several medications and suppliments for pain and other pre-existing conditions! The last few weeks we've been giving him a couple of drops of CBD at night which does seem to help him so pain may be apart of the problem.

Yeah I know it as sunsetting. I picture it as a kind of perpetual twilight zone at night. We've used pharamones, and other scents for him and nothing really seems to help him other than giving affection and even that is only a temporary reprieve for him at this point.

Yeah this seems to be good advice. Just started him on that a few weeks ago and he's been able to rest for alot more of the night.