What does normal look like for my dog? How to build a baseline

Every dog has their own “normal,” and it is the most useful reference point for catching pain and illness early. This plain-language guide from Tether shows dog owners how to build an individualized baseline while their dog is healthy: a simple record of how the dog breathes, looks, moves, and behaves. With that record, “something seems off” becomes something owners and their veterinarian can measure. The guide covers: Baselines versus normal ranges: textbook ranges are wide enough to hide a meaningful drift for an individual dog When to start: now, while the dog is well. A few days of notes is a start, and about two weeks shows the real pattern. Sleeping respiratory rate: how to count it, what healthy dogs typically show, and when a rise warrants a call or an urgent visit Monthly weight, body condition, and muscle checks at home, including a five-site press test for muscle loss and left-to-right comparison Benchmark moves: rating three to five everyday activities weekly, modeled on client-specific outcome measures used in osteoarthritis research Comparing like with like: accounting for time of day, weather, and recent activity “Baseline creep”: why owners should keep the original healthy snapshot as their dog ages A ready-to-use tracking table and a three-question test for when a change matters, with wait-and-watch, call-tomorrow, and go-now guidance An overview of The Ruff, Tether’s collar-mounted monitor. It learns each dog’s baseline over its first two weeks and keeps updating it, without letting gradual drift hide. This guide is educational. It does not diagnose disease or replace a veterinary examination. Six references are cited, including AAHA senior care recommendations, the WSAVA Nutritional Assessment Guidelines, and peer-reviewed research on sleeping respiratory rates and client-specific outcome measures in dogs.