Old Dog, New Dog — The Book Everyone Needs

Are you a dog trainer or behaviorist? Are you a veterinarian? Oh wait, do you just love dogs, have dogs, or care deeply about dogs? Then, honestly, get this book. It’s sort of like the sunrise and the sunset worked together t0 create the best day ever. Kathy Callahan, of PupStart, is an expert, no surprise, in getting puppies started on the right paw. Helen St. Pierre, of Old Dogs Go To Helen, is, you guessed it, an expert in caring for elderly canines.

The reason I suggest that every dog owner/lover/consultant needs this book is not because we are all considering adding a puppy to the pack. For me, waking up to sweet, milky puppy breath is long over. But anyone who has a dog will hopefully be lucky enough to care for them in their old age, something close to home to me with Maggie at 12.5 years and Skip, with his bad heart, at 8.5. The chapter on the needs of older dogs, “Savoring the Sunset,” is worth the price of the book alone. The section on planning euthanasia versus waiting for a “natural death” will save many an old dog from dying a painful, difficult death.

The chapter, “Welcoming a Puppy,” is equally valuable, and speaks to Kathy’s knowledge about how to handle the tsunami of joy and exhaustion that floods your life when a puppy arrives. It’s full of sentences I underlined, including a favorite, about trying to walk your senior and a puppy down the sidewalk: “You’ll get really frustrated and come home and exclaim ‘This is impossible!’ You’ll be correct.” The authors continue with advise–walk the dogs separately–and important questions, like do you have time to do that?

If you are thinking about getting a puppy when you have an older dog, this book is vital. Kathy and Helen wrote it because they saw so many families get into trouble when they did just that. I asked each of them what their “elevator” response was when someone asked about getting a pup with a senior dog. Kathy’s answer, beyond “it depends (you all know that’s one of my favorites), is a question: “What is your bandwidth when it gets challenging?” It occurs to me that this is the question we should all ask ourselves about many of life’s decisions, but it is especially relevant here. Because, things are going to get challenging, right? The older dog loves the puppy, until he doesn’t. The puppy won’t leave the other dog alone. The puppy gets giardia at the same time that the elder begins to need a lot more care. This is not a reason to not get a puppy, but we all need to ask ourselves “what will life be like when things don’t go well, and how much do I have in the “crisis tank” to deal with it?

Helen’s answer to my “elevator question” will get anyone’s attention. She asked “How do you feel about death?” She asks this, because sometimes puppies are a way for people to avoid facing the death of a beloved dog, and to bring the sparkler of joy into a family facing the end of their older dog’s death. But getting a puppy might be good for you, but not necessarily your dog. Old Dog, New Dog can help you sort through the pros and cons of bringing a puppy into your home. I went through that decision tree myself when Pippy Tay was ancient and struggling. I had decided against getting a puppy for that very reason, but when life kept reminding me how much she loved puppies, I brought home Willie. It made her truly happy, but I guarantee you that Maggie would not feel the same way. Yesterday she glared at me when an older lab  came to visit . . . no aggression at all, just a baleful look and a quiet withdrawal. Message received Maggie Mae, Mr. Skip is enough for now.

There are a few things I think are important that weren’t mentioned, like have the dogs meet outside when the puppy comes home if it is possible to do so safely.  If the older dog dies, let the body stay in the house if possible and it’s not stressful for owner–it can help the younger one adapt. I am all in on their suggestions for people to consider getting an older dog rather than a puppy–so much less work, energy, and stress–but I do think it’s important to remind folks that you may think you “know what you are getting with an older dog versus a puppy,” but you just never know how a dog is going to respond to a totally new living situation. (Circling back to “what’s your bandwidth for trouble?”)

In spite of those additions, it’s pretty clear that I love this book. Which is not influenced in any way by the fact that in the course of Zooming about their book for an hour, I have elected these two women as “Best Women to go to Lunch with and Laugh Yourself Silly.” They are both delightful people, extremely knowledgeable, and even if I didn’t adore them, I’d still sing the book’s praises. Here we are getting started talking, Kathy on the top, Helen on the bottom:

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Skip and I had a heavenly time working dogs with others on friend Janet’s gorgeous field and well-cared for sheep.

Working our dogs was great, but so was spending time with my good sheepdog friends, Roxanne, Janet, Rowie, Nancy, and Julie.

The bumblebees have been going crazy on these flowers in the onion family. The flowers are not native, but the bees love them. There’s a honeybee on this flower too, let’s hear it for diversity!

Here is the plant as a whole; if you look closely, you can see little black dots all over almost every flower. I wonder if there is a bumblebee nest somewhere near by. Do you see the blurry white sulfur butterfly?

Speaking of butterflies--here’s a swallowtail on a zinnia. You can see its proboscis probing for nectar. Seeing the butterflies is bittersweet, because we used to see so many more. If you have a yard, do all you can to help provide them food, they are yet another vital link to a healthy planet.

The mystery of the week: Blazing Star is a native flower that does well here at the farm. Or, it did, until the rabbits decided to make game of cutting the stems off and leaving the flowers lying on the ground. See the cut stems on the left and right? The cuts are diagonal, diagnostic of rabbit damage. But nothing is eaten. The stems with flowers are still there because I put dog hair around them. They then moved to another area with the same flower. But WHY are they doing this? Nothing is eaten, and they keep it up, night after night. Please someone tell me why, and maybe I’ll be less frustrated?

Here’s a pretty set of flowers I cut myself (no teeth were involved). I thought they would be a nice way to end the post. May your week also have moments of pure and simple beauty in them. See you next time.