Love Has No Age Limit is now available in audio. Wheeee! My co-author, Karen London, and I are deeply grateful for how it has been welcomed by shelters, rescues, and adopters. This booklet, about bringing home an adolescent or mature dog rather than a puppy, has sold almost 150,000 copies and was called “A one-of-a-kind educational jewel,” by Cathy Baier of the Florida Keys SPCA. Victoria Stilwell, of the Victoria Stilwell Academy said, “If you are considering adopting a dog from a shelter then Love Has No Age Limit will be your perfect companion.”
Karen London, of Treat Everyone Like a Dog fame, and I wrote this book together because, as we say in the Introduction:
“. . . there is something very special about bringing an older dog into your home. Puppies come with little experience behind them, acting like furry, little sponges who are primed to soak up knowledge. They attach themselves to any one who will feed them and rub their bellies, and then follow them everywhere. Older dogs are different in some ways; they arrive with a history behind them, having learned what to expect from life as they matured. They may come ready to bond with you, or they may need a little time to get to know you. They may come with good habits or bad ones. . . “.
After years of seeing clients, Karen and I realized that there was little or nothing written about bringing a dog with a history into your home. It’s in part like bringing a puppy home (house breaking-it’s a new house after all!), but not in many other ways. Your new dog might be terrified of men, or have never seen a cat, or learned to pee where they sleep. How should you prepare for their arrival? What if you have no time to prepare?! What to expect by day three, week three, and three months in? Why not to panic when your (so far) perfect dog develops a behavioral problem on day twenty two? What about your other dogs? Cat? Horse? Roommate?
You could write an entire book on these issues, but we wanted a booklet that was concise enough to be truly helpful, but not so detailed that few of us would make it through. Thus, Love Has No Age Limit was born. Every section in the print version begins with a photo of a rescued dog–here’s Pilot, for example:
(FYI, you can see all the photographs and the text in a pdf accompanying the audio. Slick!)
My favorite thing about this book is that everyone worked together (graphic artist, authors, printers) to keep the cost of the printed booklet as low as we could, so that shelters and rescue groups could give them away for free to adopters. It’s less than $10 as a single copy, but has huge discounts for bulk orders–$4.95 for 20-49 copies for example, and $2.95 each for 200 or over. Lots of folks have made large orders and donated them to their local shelter or rescue, which makes Karen and I about as happy as happy can be.
Of course, you can’t “bulk order” an audio book, but you can refer everyone you know to it. It’s $6.95 or free if you’re just joining Audible. Ideally, knowing how our brains work, I’d get the booklet and then listen to the audio book on the way to get the dog. I know–that sounds sooo self-serving, argh–but honestly, retaining information is a challenge for all of us, and the more ways you interact with information, the more you’ll remember. (I remember best if I writing things down–in cursive. It’s not just me, check out this research!)
Love Has No Age Limit includes topics ranging from preparing the house, the first day, introductions to other animals, and a raft of behavioral problems, like separation anxiety and the fear of strangers. I am not making this up when I say that I read it myself before we got Skip. Honest. Getting a new dog is scary stuff for those of us who take it as seriously as we should, and every trainer and behaviorist I know has butterflies in the stomach when a new dog, one we hope and pray will be a forever dog, enters our homes.
I am soooo so grateful to Dogwise for making this happen (Erika rocks!), and to the narrator, Debra Shieber, who does a fantastic job putting words into the air from the page. Kudos to her for being both warm and clear. (I tried doing a reading myself, and what you think will sound okay sounds mushy as soon as you hear it as an audio book!) And thanks to all of you who have supported this work; I think there are thousands of dogs who are grateful.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Friday morning was spent in heaven at Littledale Farm, the gorgeous property of Graham and Margaret Phillipson. They graciously invited me and some friends to work our dogs on their high-quality Scottish Blackface and North Country Cheviots. What a day, in beautifully kept sheep and pastures, great friends, and very happy dogs! I suspect Skip especially happy, because he grew up in the UK working these kind of sheep (flighty), versus the “heavier” sheep at the trials around here, whose response to a dog is more “Whatever” than “Let’s get out of here.”
I love these three photos below of Skip and a flock of yearlings, taken one right after another. Focus on the sheep in each photo. Notice that Skip has not moved (as best I can tell) but the sheep saw him, from a good distance away, and chose to leave without him picking up a paw. These kind of sheep can be tricky to work, because your dog needs to be quiet, quick to stop or lie down, and stay well away. If not, the sheep engage in hoof races that would complete with Olympic hundred-yard dashes. No one wants panicked sheep.
Lots of other dogs and friends got to work too. Here’s Tune in the photo below, a new dog belonging to good friend Rowie, working in the high grass. Found her? The sheep certainly knew where she was.
Here at the farm, a bounty of strawberries is assuaging my distress over someone (I’m talking to you, the daily doe) eating our lettuce, peas, chard, and spinach. Below is just one day’s pick, from our tiny little raised bed.
Our native honeysuckle vine keeps the hummingbirds happy, which makes me happy . . .
Last weekend some dear friends and neighbors rallied to plant a “prairie patch” in an area formerly full of sunflowers. The flowers were lovely and upkeep free and the insects loved them. So did a woodchuck, who denned in the hill and decimated all the plants. Discussions about this, mostly between Skip and this year’s woodchuck, are ongoing.
Thus, the weekend was full of good people rallying for good causes. My heart is full.
English (US) · 