Ten Reasons You May Be Too Old to Adopt a Puppy

Ten Reasons You May Be Too Old to Adopt a Puppy

The Education of Velvet

1. You go to visit a batch of puppies right after you’ve been dismissed from the hospital for a procedure they do to folks after age 50, when they tell you absolutely not to sign any contracts or make any big decisions because of the medication they gave you.
2. You hope the dog doesn’t knock your feet out from under you.
3. You don’t feel like you can take a shower if he/she is awake for fear they’ll get into something.
4. You don’t remember much about the last puppy training you went through with grown daughters living at home, who actually did most of the training and night duty.
5. You get mixed up and keep calling her Violet instead of Velvet.
6. You wish you could just diaper the dog and be done with it.
7. You find yourself breathing a huge sigh of relief when she finally goes to bed for the night.
8. You give up your morning exercise class because you don’t want to make your dog’s day by herself alone any longer than it already is.
9. You give up your effort at doing real fall house cleaning.
10. When you visit the farm with the pups, you fall in love and take home the little thing anyway.

I promised to write and show our new puppy, Velvet, now nearing 4 months old. She doesn’t look like a puppy very much any more, but oh does she act like one.

Well, after I was released from that wonderful procedure in the hospital back in October, we consulted the paper about whether anyone had any free puppies available. We had looked for a dog at a local shelter twice, and nothing was working out for an older dog, who all seemed to carry the warning “may be aggressive towards cats.” We have two.

Our cat Riley’s domain.

We found an ad: Free puppies to good home. Australian Shepherd/beagle mix. “Let’s go check them out,” I told my husband. (Read more about that here.) I also wrote about how taking care of a new puppy reminded me of my daughters’ experiences with their newborns this past year.

A successful early squat.

Never again will I dismiss anyone’s worry that they are not up to managing a new puppy or kitten. Pets and babies take work, are inconvenient, make lots of messes, require body flexibility and muscle, and not a few dollars.

Perhaps this is a good time to remind not only us “seniors,” but young parents too, pondering whether they should indulge the little ones begging for a pet this Christmas. Maybe you should wait ‘till a saner moment. Like when you’re 60.

They say puppies/pets help us older people stay active, stretching and bending like here.

Of course I’m being a little on the dramatic side for the purposes of this blog. Velvet appears to be at least as smart as her owners, has taken to her crate training well with the use of a Kong, has survived her first visit to the vet (she weigh 22.9 lbs, in case you’re curious) and we are well on the road to what we hope is along and rewarding relationship.

All dogs are different, but as Velvet sits beside me in my study as I work, I remember how our last dog, Fable, was so tuned to my emotions that anytime I’d read a moving manuscript going through articles for the magazine I edit, Valley Living, and it would make me tear up or even cry, Fable would sense something was wrong and come over and put her face up to mine as if to say “I’m here. It’s alright. Are you ok?”

I want that kind of dog again.

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What’s your best advice on training a new puppy?