Advice around elderly ppl

As my mother-in-law has just lost her husband of 64yrs we have decided now is the time for her to move in with us so we can keep her company & look after her. She is coming up 89yrs old & very frail at just 40kgs.

I am looking for some advice on how we can condition Koda (2.5yrs, 19KG) for the transition. He is wonderful with her, knows not to thrust his toys into the back of her legs (saves that for us! ), & generally is very gentle with her. When we get home he gets mega excited & leaps straight at everyone (this isnt helped by our 5 kids visiting who cant resist it ), he knows with us he is not to jump and needs to calm himself before approaching us so he runs off grabs a toy and chews it to death with one madly excited tail smacking the floor at mach 10! She would happily have him sleep on her bed but he tends to lie across her chest so now we shut the door as she can't move him on her own.

My only concern is when hes excited hes a lot to handle, he does know there are rules & boundaries and typically hes great with then, i dont want to take away his excitement as its all part of his personality we love so much. My only real concern is that one day he will knock her over when excited if we're not around.

Im probably worrying over nothing as he sure knows how to be around her, i just wondered if anyone else is in this situation and has any advice for us. At the moment she sleeps over 1 night a week, & it is 8 weeks until she moves in with us. Thanks in advance!

Totally understand where your thoughts are Bek. My Brother in law has two huge blood hounds who's tails really do whip and they aren't the least clumsy of dogs which is the main reason my 95 yr old Grandmother in law doesn't really like to be near them. You can see the accident waiting to happen !

With Flo it's different though in a couple of ways. Flo is very delicate around her almost as if she knows and to be honest, she is smarter than the bloodhounds the only worry I have is if grandma inadvertently trips over Flo.

I know Koda is younger but he's no dummy, reinforce the no jumping rule and perhaps add a "Calm" command to stop him being too boisterous around her. I think you'll probably find that he will understand that grandma isn't for rough n tumble.

Good idea to keep him out of her room at night too... If I woke to find Flo on my chest I'd probably struggle too

I think I'd teach him some special tricks for her (and teach her too), so that she has something to ask him to do that is incompatible with him jumping up or hurling around. Something like giving a paw or even both paws, rolling over, stuff like that. The key is the 'incompatible' bit, if he is rolling over he can't be jumping up.

It's generally much easier to teach a dog to do something that not to do something and 'don't' leaves a void. As I have a sneaky feeling that Mr Koda is partial to food, 'do this' to get a favourite treat (bbq knob, for example) shouldn't be too hard.

I was in the same predicament with my nana bek I kept certain treats at her house and got mia to sit at my nanas legs next to her chair only when her bum was on the floor and she was calm she got the treats. got to the stage where id reach her front door mia would have a few zoomies beforehand and she was calm the time she reached the chair . quite often we would walk 2 miles before reaching nanas . I never made any excitement or fuss when at nanas . koda likes toys id use a specific toy for him and practice the calming technique hen a couple of times a day with nana if she wants to good luck keeping him calm it wnt be easy at first youll get there best of luck.

Thank you both. I have been working on 'gently' for the past 8 weeks or so, it seems to be going well but tbh I am there every second to ensure it does, I'm more concerned for when I'm not around. He seems to have figured out Nana is the one who gives him treats and is not the one to shove the ball into the back of her legs etc., so far so good. I really must stock up on BBQ knobs though, just in case ! Oddly enough I'm ok with Koda sleeping on my chest, but I'm twice her weight ! I can imagine the fear factor for GrandmotherIL with two huge blood hounds romping around too Ian !

if nana is able practice with nana bek our staffies are funny they know how to play us dnt they nanas cat used to love being around mia was the only quiet time she got

be good practice for koda around kids too bek

When oh's mum had her stroke, Katy seemed to know something wasn't right. We always told her to be gentle, which she was but did try & lay on her in bed. We had to move her to mum's good side so she could stroke her without getting squashed, after a while Katy figured it out & wouldn't lay on her

Im sorry to hear your MIL had a stroke. Katy is so smart, what a fab girl! I will keep working on 'gentle' & have a think more on the bed situation. Thanks!

You'll probably find he's calmer with her once the excitement of her being with you wears off anyway, Bek. I'm sure it'll all be fine.

I'm sure it will be just wanted to see if anyone else had experience in this area in case there's something obvious I've missed