It is established that dogs are beneficial to the psychological and physical health of their owners and these positive effects seem to be particularly marked in older people.  Senior owned dogs tend to require less medical attention and are only 25% as likely to develop clinical depression as if living alone.  There are physical benefits as well and it is for these reasons that seniors, who would otherwise be alone, should get a dog as a pet.  However, some animal shelters have policies preventing elderly individuals from adopting, arguing that if the older person dies, the dog will be orphaned and that older individuals are too fragile to properly care for their dog.  To this I say, “Pooh-pooh” as a recent study provides data that challenges these policies barring seniors from pet adoptions.
Researchers from the University of Padova, in Italy recruited 222 people from two northern Italian cities and divided them into three groups of 74 participants.  One group consisted of adults between the age of 18 to 64 years, coming from the suburbs and rural areas around the cities.  Another group of elderly people were from the same area but all over the age of 65.  The last group was also over the age of 65 but were living in the downtown area of the cities.  The only requirement was the owner and the dog had to have lived together for at least six months.
Questionnaires were used to collect information about how the dog was cared for such as what it was fed, veterinary visits, inoculations, while additional questionnaires were given to determine the degree of bonding or attachment that each person felt for the dog.
The results of the study are straight forward.  When it comes to the welfare of the dogs, age does not make much difference and the quality of life for the pet depends more upon living in the center of a city versus rural or suburban.  There are only two significant differences when comparing the suburban adult group to the elderly suburban group.  First, suburban elderly people take their pets to the veterinarian less frequently while the elderly dog owners living in the city’s center take their dogs to see the vet slightly more than the adult group.  The suburban elderly group are found to be a little less likely to have treated their dogs for parasites than the adult or central city elderly.  There is no other difference between the adult and the suburban elderly group when all other measures of pet health are considered.  When it comes to diet, brushing and exercising the dogs, it was the elderly group living in the center of the city who care for their dogs the best.
As for the final set of measures having to do with the owner’s attachment and bonding with their dog, there was no difference between the suburban adult group and the suburban elderly group, however, there was a higher degree of attachment and bonding in the elderly group living in the city’s center then either of the other groups.
So Science says there is little or no difference in the care and welfare of dogs owned by elderly people compared to the general adult population.  A dog lucky enough to be adopted by an older person living in the center of the city is likely to be better loved and cared for than if he were adopted by an adult living in a rural or suburban setting.  But there are still a lot of shelters who refuse to adopt a dog to people older than 65 years of age.