Senior Dog Care Guide | Health Checklist, Quality of Life Scale (PDF Download)

Senior dog care guide: 17 printable pages: pain signs, arthritis toolbox, DISHAA dementia checklist, fillable health trackers and the Comfort & Joy quality of life check.

"He's just getting old" is the most expensive sentence in senior dog care. Around 4 in 10 dogs show arthritis on X-ray, and in one study, most affected dogs had never been brought to a vet for it, because nobody read the signs. This guide teaches you to read them.

Made by New Dog Co, the small press behind the First-Time Dog Owner Guide. Built on AAHA's 2023 Senior Care and 2022 Pain Management guidelines, VCA behavioral medicine resources, FDA records and peer-reviewed research: every claim cited on the sources page.

WHAT'S INSIDE (17 pages)
• When "senior" actually starts: AAHA's last-25%-of-lifespan rule + size-based rough guide
• The Senior Checkup, Decoded: what the twice-yearly visit should include, in plain language, plus the questions to ask
• Pain Hides as "Just Old Age": the movement and behavior clues owners miss
• The Arthritis Toolbox, Ranked: weight, vet-prescribed meds (including the new monthly injection, with the FDA's caveats), modified exercise, omega-3s, and the truth about glucosamine
• Make the House Senior-Proof: comfort upgrades ranked by impact
• The DISHAA Brain Check: a fillable dementia checklist to score and bring to your vet
• Six Conditions, Early Edition: kidney, heart, dental, cancer, sensory, thyroid warning signs
• The Senior Logbook: monthly weight/symptom/medication tracker
• "Senior Formula" Is Marketing: the no-hype nutrition page (there is no official senior-food standard)
• Old Dogs Still Need a Job: low-impact enrichment that fits stiff joints
• The Comfort & Joy Check: an original, fillable quality-of-life scale, scored and explained
• Senior Red Flags: a cut-out fridge card of the signs that mean call the vet today
• The Take-to-the-Vet Card: a fillable card that makes the appointment go where your questions point
• The Good-Days Calendar: because "more good days than bad" should be counted, not guessed
• Full sources page

WHY THIS ONE
• Education + trackers in one: competitors sell one or the other
• Straight about evidence: we tell you what works, what's comfort-only, and what the studies couldn't prove
• Ranks treatments by evidence — including the glucosamine the studies say doesn't work
• The hardest chapter handled gently: the quality-of-life pages are a conversation tool — never a verdict
• Genuinely fillable: type into the DISHAA check, the logbook, the Comfort & Joy Check, the calendar and the vet card in the free Adobe Acrobat Reader (or print and write)

HOW IT WORKS

Buy: files unlock instantly at checkout
Download: both US Letter and A4 — print-ready and home-printer friendly
Print and track: checklists go to the vet, trackers go on the fridge
GOOD TO KNOW
• Digital product. Nothing ships.
• Fillable on-screen: all 128 form fields across 5 pages (DISHAA, the logbook, the Comfort & Joy Check, the calendar, the vet card) fill and save in the free Adobe Acrobat Reader — a browser preview may not save typed text. Or just print and write.
• A kind, genuinely useful gift for anyone whose dog is going gray. The gray muzzle is the good part.
• Educational content, not veterinary advice. Your veterinarian makes the medical calls: this guide helps you watch, track, and ask better questions.
• Illustrations were created with AI image tools, then curated, edited and designed into this product by us. (Disclosed per Etsy's policy on AI-assisted work: select the AI disclosure option when listing.)