Can age make a sweet dog cantankerous and mean?

When talking about dogs do you think that age can make a formerly sweet dog cantankerous and mean?

Everyone has a story about the mean old man or lady at the end of the street that turns the water hose on kids who inadvertently step on their grass.  We’ve all run from them at one time or another. Many of us have been the recipients of a tongue lashing from an aging neighbor who used to smile whenever we would retrieve our baseballs from their flower gardens.  And then, it changed. Our baseballs slowly rot in their yards. 

We just chuck it up to age making them a little bit meaner and we steer clear of their paths. But do sweet dogs who used to lick everyone within their reach suddenly become just like that crabby neighbor?

My dog, Maddy is a perky little Jack Russell terrier.  She was never the lovey dovey type, per se.  Maddy is 13 going on 14. In human years the early teens are an age when children get a bit harder to handle.  Although it seems plausible, in dog year’s she is more akin to my grandmother.

As Maddy ages, however, her crankiness reaches new heights.  Don’t misunderstand me; her energy level hasn’t decreased one iota.  It’s just that sometimes her energy will propel her to chase after a Great Dane on a walk.  Is it a death wish?  Nope, it’s just that she’s a grumpy old lady.  And don’t you dare disturb her naptime, grrrrr! 

Honestly she is mostly all bark and if she were human she would be wearing dentures.  I just wonder if there is something to the grumpy old man or woman thing even in the canine world.

Do you have an older dog that is getting grouchier than usual?