Kathy Callahan & Helen St. Pierre - Old Dog, New Dog
Joining me for this episode are certified professional dog trainers and authors, Kathy Callahan and Helen St. Pierre. We have a chat about their new book, Old Dog, New Dog. Kathy and Helen teach us how to best support our aging bestdog friend, while welcoming a new puppy to their new forever home. From deciding the right time to add another dog, doing what’s best for your aging dog, committing time and energy to the new pup and how to say goodbye to your older dog when the time comes. Have a listen and learn a lot. Enjoy!
Listen to Episode #229 Now:
BIO:
Kathy Callahan
Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA)
This industry is not regulated — anybody can call himself a dog trainer! — so these letters are particularly important.
Licensed Family Dog Mediator (LFDM-T)
Using Kim Brophy's paradigm-shifting L.E.G.S. (Learning, Environment, Genetics, Self) approach, we FDMs put ethology at the forefront of our work.
Peaceable Paws Intern Academy
Positive training pioneer Pat Miller runs this top-notch, intense, course combining her lectures with hands-on work with shelter dogs.
250+ Rescue Dogs!
All of this study has been a complement to the hands-on experience of 250-and-counting rescue pups coming through our house since 2012. We get them healthy, help them feel safe, and play match-maker with good people. (For more, read my book 101 Rescue Puppies and watch our Dodo video.)
Writer, Whole Dog Journal
I've been lucky enough to write almost every month for WDJ since 2020. 50+ topics covered.
Therapy Dog Work, Delta & R.E.A.D. Qualifications
I've gotten qualified with several of our dogs to be a therapy team — visiting nursing homes, and reading with elementary school kids.
Puppy Culture
I took a deep dive into Jane Lindquists's amazing courses: Puppy Culture & From Newborn To Home, using every bit of it when I take in pregnant or nursing moms from shelters. Lindquist deciphers the research for the rest of us, and her best practice puppy protocol is a godsend.
Life With Dogs!
And finally . . . a lifetime of personal experience. Our daughters grew up surrounded by big dogs. (That's our firstborn below.) I learned a thing or two over the years about how parents and kids (and cats and friends and in-laws) can live happily, peacefully, joyfully with dogs. I've worked with hundreds of adopters and their puppies, and hundreds more clients and their dogs. I feel so lucky to get to do something so interesting, so rewarding, every day.
Helen St. Pierre
Helen runs and owns a professional dog training business and facility, so our dogs are thought of as members of our family. We have dogs, cats, parrots, rats, a tortoise, pigs, and a horse all at home with us.
Helen started fostering dogs when she began training, over 21 years ago, and gradually discovered over time the desperate need for willing fosters and organizations that supported senior dogs. One by one, she began taking in senior or hospice dogs, and giving them the care they needed and a soft place to land until they were ready to pass on. In return, they taught her more in just a few months than she could have learned in a lifetime without them.
Now, we take senior or hospice dogs and other animals into our home and give them the retirement they so deserve. We also actively support, foster when needed, and help care for other senior, hospice or special needs dogs all over the country, in shelters and in rescue. Our mission is to show others how much a senior dog can enrich a home, make a wonderful companion, and give the gift of unconditional love, no matter how long their time is with you. Even if you can't bring one into your home, you can still help and support our mission! We are a registered 501(c)3 with the state of New Hampshire.