My dog had canine dementia which is the dog equivalent of Alzheimers. She started to get it around 12-ish years old and at first it was just goofy behavior. She would go in the walk-in closet and start barking/howling. After a couple months she would go into the closet and bark/howl and get stuck to where she couldn't figure out to turn around and walk back out. We also noticed she was laying around and sleeping more, was less active and ate less. Took her to the vet and had her checked out and physically aside from a heart murmur that they found years earlier (that was supposed to do her in but didnt). After a few more months she started having accidents and would eat even less and be picky about food. We would make her steak with butter and cheese and she would not want to eat it half the time.

After a year it got really bad. She wouldnt get up and didnt want to walk even to go outside. She could be she just didnt want to. Most of the time she looked like a zombie and just didnt care but every so often she would randomly "click back" to her old self. Of course this made it even more heartbreaking. At 13 1/2 her muscles had atrophied enough that my girlfriend (who also has a bad hip) was having trouble lifting her up to get her to walk and I realized at that moment if this went on any longer my GF was going to fall trying to walk the dog. That was when I knew it was time.

I paid $600 to have a vet come to our house and put her to sleep on our balcony. It was a beautiful may morning.