Adult dog care: weight, teeth and everyday needs

The single most valuable habit of this whole stage is measuring meals and checking weight monthly. Adult calorie needs are lower than most owners assume, and treats, chews and the crust from a sandwich add up faster than food does. Run your hands over the ribs: you should feel them with light pressure and see a waist from above. Teeth are the other quiet job — daily brushing is the gold standard, dental chews are the realistic fallback, and your vet is the person to ask what your dog's mouth actually needs and when a professional clean is due.

Adult dogs sleep a lot and mostly sort it out themselves, so the job here is quality rather than quantity. A bed big enough to lie fully stretched, in a spot that is not in a doorway, does more than an expensive one in the wrong place. For a large dog, or one who runs hard, a supportive bed now is not premature — the same bed that is a luxury at four is the thing that keeps a stiff nine-year-old sleeping through the night. If your dog has started choosing the hard floor over their bed, that is information worth mentioning at the next check-up.

Consistency beats intensity. A dog who walks properly most days stays sound; a dog who does nothing all week and then does a mountain on Saturday is the one who limps on Sunday. Vary the surfaces and the routes — different ground works different muscles, and different routes are most of the mental stimulation a walk provides. Watch the heat: dogs cool themselves badly, and a fit adult will keep going well past the point they should have stopped. Keep nails short, because long nails change how a dog stands and that changes what their joints do.

This is the need most often quietly dropped. The routine works, so nothing new gets introduced, and a clever adult dog with an empty afternoon invents something. Rotate puzzles rather than buying more of them; teach a new trick every few months for no reason at all; hide food around a room and let them find it. A short piece of scent work usually does more for a bored adult dog than extra pavement does. It also pays forward: dogs who keep learning through adulthood tend to hold on to more of it when they are old, and a dog who already knows a nose game has something to do when their legs stop being reliable.

Maintenance, plus one new thing. Recall in particular decays if it is never paid — a dog who has come back a thousand times for nothing eventually stops. Keep rewarding it occasionally and unpredictably, which is the pattern that holds up best. Then teach something genuinely new every few months: a scent game, a chin rest for grooming, going to a mat, a trick chain. It keeps the dog flexible, keeps you practising your timing, and gives a settled adult dog a project. This is also the easiest life stage in which to fix a small, long-tolerated problem, because nothing else is on fire.

Prevention, on a calendar. Annual check-ups are the mechanism by which slow problems get caught while they are still cheap, and the dental conversation is the one most often deferred. Parasite prevention is seasonal and regional and changes if you move or travel — ask rather than repeating last year's product. Heat is the acute risk of this stage: dogs cool badly, and heavy, dark or flat-faced dogs are worse at it. Keep the microchip registration current, keep a photo of your dog that would actually work on a poster, and know where the emergency hospital is before you need it at midnight.