Wandering Pee Foot

I think it is very interesting how an animal such as a dog has changes in personality over its lifetime much as a human would. My very old dog, Ollie, who is seventeen years old, used to be very clingy and always have to be around his people. In the past few years he has changed a lot. He is stone deaf now, and his main occupation in life is patrolling the kitchen and the base of the bird cage looking for crumbs. He sleeps a lot more and is a great deal clumsier. He has a knack for peeing and then stepping right in it leading to the Indian (native American) name I have given him, Wandering Pee Foot. He frequently poops on our back porch, but I never punish him, because he knows what to do, it is just that he is slower than he used to be and he is a poor planner. He poops while he is on his way to the yard; sometimes I find it going right out the dog door! So I know he has the right idea, he just doesn't get enough advanced warning anymore. The way I look at it, it is my job to make him as comfortable as possible for the rest of his life as he has been a wonderful little companion for the past seventeen years (more than half my life!) and I love him dearly. So I don't mind picking up a little poop now and then.