Rack the McNab Superdog is just now starting to slow at almost 12.

Here I sit on my chair.  Had a long workout, but that is normal.  I do 7 hours of Cardio every week, four workouts.  We will call this afternoon Recovery.

On the other hand, or rather at my elbow, is Rack.  Looking like a pile of dog parts tossed on a blue pillow, he's resting as well.

Rack is my 11 and a Half Year Old McNab SuperDog (TM).  I think this is normal for us.  He would rather come with me when I go out to beat myself up four times a week, but even when he was a puppy I don't think he would have been able to keep up with me.

"Sorry Rack, it's a workout day, I'll be back before Lunch.  Good Boy, you get to Watch The House".

Ears go down, posture changes to what passes for disappointment, and he wanders off. 

I could always find a way... no, inline skating is an extreme sport and I can't see towing 40 plus pounds of dog in a cart behind me or having him trot along side.  My cardio is roughly 20 miles each workout, bike or skate, about two hours each.

On my return, the routine is that he meets me at the front door, shows me to the back door, and asks to go outside.  Never mind that all he does is a lap or three of the yard in a slow plod, it's the process that is the thing.

I may be at a level of training that can justifiably be called elite, so after cool-down and the rest of the ritual of winding down, I fade into my own version of a pile of parts.  Usually fall asleep in the chair.  A nap they call it, but at an hour and a half it feels like it's a bit much.

I look over my right arm after hearing something tap against the wall and that pile of parts has shifted. 

Later he gets to go out and walk.  Upwards of four miles a day.  That's where we realize what he had been doing, winding up the spring. 

It can be a bit ironic to think.  He was always a jumpy dog.  Bounding around with the kind of energy I find difficult to keep up with, I notice that the edge is off that particular blade.

He used to run around the yard like a crazy dog.  Now that is a bit more sedate.  When he meets a puppy, he gives them the distance that older dogs used to give him.   As the pup's owner is apologizing I usually comment not to worry, this is what he was like when he was younger and he only gets stupid with people and very specific dogs now.

I guess he is slowing down.  He's got more energy than almost any almost 12 year old dog I have ever known.  I have been making his food all his life and that has a lot to do with it.  Not table scraps, but a balanced recipe.  I wouldn't feed any dog table scraps, human food has too much seasoning and for most it's too much food.

Besides, I'm on a training diet trying to hit My Macros every day so my own food is ... Weird.

For now, I'm enjoying his middle age, but I do see signs.  Not happy with those signs but not much we can do.