Assessing quality of life in aging dogs is one of the most important and challenging aspects of companion animal veterinary care, requiring structured approaches to support owner decision-making.
Quality of life assessment in senior dogs matters most at the point when owners and veterinarians face end-of-life decisions. Structured assessment tools provide a framework that can reduce emotional bias and ensure important dimensions of wellbeing - pain, mobility, appetite, emotional engagement - are systematically evaluated rather than assessed only when in obvious crisis. The welfare principle that guides best practice is that dogs should experience more good days than bad, and that the decision to continue or end treatment should be based on honest evaluation of the animal's experienced wellbeing rather than owner attachment or grief-avoidance.