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    Enjoying Your Older Dog (Old Dogs, Old Friends Book 1)
    Enjoying Your Older Dog (Old Dogs, Old Friends Book 1)
    Enjoying Your Older Dog (Old Dogs, Old Friends Book 1)
    Ebook116 pages2 hours

    Enjoying Your Older Dog (Old Dogs, Old Friends Book 1)

    By Chris Walkowicz

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    About this ebook

    We all one day notice that our dog is getting older. Often suddenly realizing that they are no longer able to do all the things they used to, that their eyes are looking cloudy or seeing that gray hair is getting very noticeable on their face. Old dogs slow down and may take it easy but they still love a bit of excitement and they have become wonderful companions. It can suddenly be very disturbing to think of what the future holds.

    In Old Dogs, Old Friends Chris Walkowicz and Bonnie Wilcox have created a set of books about loving, living with, and caring for our old dogs, our old friends. The authors have collected wonderful personal stories from literally hundreds of owners of old dogs to illustrate what sharing their lives with our old friends can be like.

    If you have a four legged family member who has reached or is approaching old age the two books in the Old Dogs, Old Friends series—Enjoying Your Older Dog and Caring for Your Older Dog—make not only inspirational and moving, but also practical reading to have at hand.

    Enjoying Your Older Dog is about making the most of your companions later years and savoring them. Caring for Your Older Dog looks at many of the illnesses and problems that can occur as old age advances, and helps to show what can be done to alleviate them or provides advice that may help you to live with them.

    Illustrated with color photos.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPuppy Care Education
    Release dateNov 9, 2011
    ISBN9781921879760
    Enjoying Your Older Dog (Old Dogs, Old Friends Book 1)
    Author

    Chris Walkowicz

    Chris Walkowicz began showing and breeding German Shepherds in 1965, adding Bearded Collies in 1977. More than 50 Walkoway Beardies and Shepherds have finished their Championships and Register of Merits, and nearly 60 dogs have performance titles. Chris judges nationally and internationally and is an award-winning author of numerous books including Successful Dog Breeding and The Atlas of Dog Breeds of the World. She lives in Sherrard, Illinois with her husband, Ed, and her Beardies.

    Read more from Chris Walkowicz

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      Book preview

      Enjoying Your Older Dog (Old Dogs, Old Friends Book 1) - Chris Walkowicz

      www.puppycareeducation.com.au

      This book is copyright ©2011 Chris Walkowicz and Bonnie Wilcox DVM

      Designed by S Bush

      Cover design ©2011 S Bush

      Cover photo and other photos from R Samson, Dreamstime and 123rf photographers.

      This edition published in 2011 by Puppy Care Education

      Published by Puppy Care Education at Smashwords

      All rights reserved

      Ebook ISBN: 978-1-921879-76-0

      Disclaimer:

      No information in this book is given as, or intended to be taken as, medical advice for your puppy or dog. Only a veterinarian who has examined your dog is qualified to give advice about the medical health care of your puppy or dog.

      Reminder:

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review or article, without written permission from the author or publisher.

      Copyright:

      This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you require an additional copy please purchase it from Smashwords.

      Books by C Walkowicz & B Wilcox D.V.M.

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      Enjoying Your Older Dog

      Old Dogs, Old Friends

      Book 1

      by

      BONNIE WILCOX, D.V.M.

      & CHRIS WALKOWICZ

      ~

      Dedicated to old dogs and the people who love them.

      ~

      Blessed is the person who has earned the love of an old dog.

      SIDNEY JEANNE SEWARD

      ~

      CONTENTS

      Foreword by Carol Lea Benjamin

      Introduction

      CHAPTER 1: Memories Are Forever

      Why Are Dogs Living Longer?

      Tuned In to Each Other

      CHAPTER 2: Grow Old with Me

      Choosing the Older Dog

      The Rescue Dog

      The Older Dog

      Career Changes for Dog

      Foster Homes

      A Unique Solution

      A Change of Course

      CHAPTER 3: New Tricks

      Old Dogs—Old Tricks

      Old Dogs—New Tricks and Old Tricks

      CHAPTER 4: Steady as She Goes

      Keeping Up Appearances

      The Age of Respect

      Privileges

      CHAPTER 5: Shifting Gears

      Who’s in Charge?

      Babies All

      New Horizons

      Foreword

      The new puppy, everyone’s friend, a single wiggle from head to toe, is all promise. Then, where did the time go, he’s all grown up. No longer clumsy, he gaits with purpose now. And better still, he sits, he stays, and the kitchen floor is clean. Mere moments later, or so it seems, his walk is slow and stiff. Where little black whiskers went every which way, now grey ones grow. And so it goes when you let a dog capture your heart. One day you wonder if the ticking clock wrapped in a towel will really work so that you can finally get some sleep, because it’s the last thing you know to try on a puppy’s first night. And a couple of moments later you notice that the eyes that look so lovingly into yours have become milky and have to strain to see the face, your face, the dearest thing they have ever seen. In the scheme of things, a dog’s life seems but a minute long.

      The dog who has grown up and old at your side, the promise fulfilled, the dog who has moved, in a single, graceful stroke from being an adorable pain in the neck to becoming a dignified companion, this dog merits our attention to the last.

      Knowing this, Bonnie Wilcox and Chris Walkowicz have given us just what we need—an easy-to-read, generous, delightful set of books full of information about the way to care for older dogs. These wonderful books are full of tips, reminders, cautions, advice, and even inspiration to help us keep our dear old canine friends as happy and healthy as possible for as long as possible. As if that weren’t more than enough, the authors have sprinkled in many pertinent personal stories, some funny, some sad, all perfect.

      Bravo, authors, from this dog lover and her sweet old girl, Scarlet.

      Carol Lea Benjamin

      author of MOTHER KNOWS BEST, THE NATURAL WAY TO TRAIN YOUR DOG

      Introduction

      A scant few years ago, when you crawled out of a cozy bed for 2:00 a.m. backyard jaunts in answer to demanding puppy squawks, you thought this was a long way off. But one day, seemingly just a moment or two after wiping up the last puppy puddle, you notice a gray whisker on your best friend’s muzzle.

      Emotion suddenly clouds your vision—you can’t bear to think of losing your buddy. You hug him, realizing you’ve got a gray hair or two yourself. Then he drops his favorite ball at your feet and barks an invitation to play. Hey, there’s plenty of life in the old guy yet!

      Pets are living longer today. In the past fifty years, their life span has nearly doubled, a cause for rejoicing. A recent veterinary study showed that now, after puppies are weaned (infancy, as in humans, is the greatest danger period), the average life span has increased from 5.1 years to 8.7 years. By the time the dog celebrates his first birthday, life expectancy reaches twelve years of age. In a 1988 survey conducted by Dog Fancy magazine, 48 percent of the respondents owned dogs aged ten to twelve. Another 35 percent had thirteen- to fifteen-year-old dogs, and several happily reported having dogs of fifteen to twenty-plus years!

      The 1990 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records lists an Australian Cattle Dog named Bluey as holding the record for canine longevity, at twenty-nine years, five months. Bluey worked as a stock dog for his owner, Les Hall, in Australia for nearly twenty years! Close on Bluey’s heels is Adjutant, a black Labrador Retriever who accompanied his gameskeeper owner, James Hawkes, around the Revesby Estate in England for twenty-seven years, three months.

      Even if our pets could triple their life spans, it would still be too soon to lose them. There’s never a good time to lose a friend or member of the family. Although it’s not so, sometimes it seems as though our dogs age overnight. Susan LaCroix Hamil explains this in an article, As Time Goes By, in Dog Fancy magazine (March 1989). In contrast to human aging, which takes place mainly during the latter one third of our lives and is spread over a period of twenty-five years, the canine equivalent is only four years. Therefore, Hamil says, "Significant changes can occur in your dog’s physical appearance and organ systems in as little as three to six months."

      As a practicing veterinarian and a dog breeder for more than twenty years, we would like to help others relish and remember the good times with these special dogs and ease the difficulties.

      In Enjoying your Older Dog, each chapter covers a topic of concern in your relationship with an aging pet: building memories, acquiring an older dog, the active older dog, keeping things the same and adapting to change. In Caring for the Older Dog chapters cover health and paying tribute to our old friends. These health chapters should serve as reference guides for the future.

      Aging is not a disease. Some of the best years remain. Why not enjoy this special time with our best friends?

      Nugget, a Golden Retriever, has had good care and love all of his fourteen years. Despite his hip dysplasia, he still enjoys playing

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