Fifteen year old Labrador Retriever

[rpcrowe]

My daughter's Lab is fifteen years old. Fifteen is really old for a large dog but, she is hanging on and the quality of her life is still good. She does do a lot of sleeping though but, at 81, so do I



I had been photographing some of our dogs in action using the Sony 70-200mm f/4G lens on a Sony A7iii camera using manual exposure (1/1,000 second @ f/4) with auto ISO, when I saw the Lab sleeping so calmly. I grabbed two shots which were in the shade of the patio overhang...



It turned out that the Auto-ISO was 2,000 for these shots. IMO, the quality is quite acceptable for an ISO that high. I have set the high limit of ISO to 2,000 on my A7iii and to ISO 1,600 on my Sony crop sensor cameras...

[lovelife65]

What a sweet face, and yes 15 is a big deal for a labrador. Our black girl is 14. Incontinent and struggles with mobility a bit.
Her fur looks a little longer than our pups. Is she an english lab?
Happy life quality remains. It's very hard to let them go, yet allowing them to suffer is also unfair.
Thank you for posting.

[rpcrowe]

Yes, Shadow is an English Lab... A bit shorter and stockier than one of your beautiful field Labs.

The Labs are great dogs and deciding between a field Lab and an English Lab is just a matter of choice or, as in the case of Shadow, availability at the time of acquisition. She was a rescue and my daughter has shared her life with this dog for about 14-years now.

It's tough to make the decision to let a loved friend go. Our 13-year old goldendoodle has early kidney failure and we are also going to have to make that tough decision some time down the road.

One thing is certain, it is selfish to keep the beloved friend around once they are in pain or when their quality of life is reduced.

Serena, our new Great Pyrenees puppy is not replacing our doodle, simply filling a spot that will be left open when our doodle leaves us. We always have one big dog along with the small dogs that we rescue...