Life With Old Dogs Podcast
Hi, I’m Dawn.
I’m the creator of Life With Old Dogs and the founder of Woody’s Place Senior German Shepherd Sanctuary.
For years, my life has revolved around caring for aging dogs — especially senior German Shepherds who needed safety, stability, compassion, and a place to simply grow old in peace.
What started as a deep love for older dogs eventually became something much bigger.
Life With Old Dogs was created as a space to share the real-life experiences, lessons, heartbreaks, humor, and meaningful moments that come with loving and caring for senior dogs.
Because life with old dogs isn’t always polished or perfect.
It’s muddy paws, medications, mobility issues, reusable diapers, special diets, grief, laughter, exhaustion, loyalty, and unconditional love — often all at the same time.
I’m also a Certified Professional Canine Nutritionist, and nutrition plays a major role in my care philosophy for senior dogs. I believe food can be a powerful tool in supporting comfort, mobility, digestion, energy, and overall quality of life as dogs age.
A large part of my daily life involves preparing home-cooked meals, toppers, and supportive nutrition for the dogs in my care, using simple, practical approaches people can realistically incorporate into their everyday lives.
Through blogs, podcasts, videos, courses, and storytelling, I share what I’ve learned from living alongside aging dogs and navigating the emotional and physical realities of senior dog care.
My goal is simple:
to help people give their older dogs the happiest, healthiest, safest, and most comfortable life possible.
I believe senior dogs still deserve adventure.
They still deserve joy.
They still deserve dignity.
And they still deserve to be deeply loved.
When I’m not creating content for Life With Old Dogs, I’m caring for the residents of Woody’s Place, working behind the scenes on sanctuary life, and continuing to build a peaceful life surrounded by animals and nature here in Pennsylvania.
Thank you for being here and for loving old dogs, too.
— Dawn
You can listen to the #Lifewitholddogs podcast at
https://www.wpsgss.org/lifewitholddogspodcast and on all podcast platforms.
#LifeWithOldDogs media supports Woody's Place Senior German Shepherd Sanctuary.
Life With Old Dogs Podcast
Interview With Dog Parent Coach and Author Angie Winters
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For dog parenting coach Angie Winters, who has worked with and rehabilitated over 1,000 dogs, the answer is clear:
Training does not work for family dogs.
In her new book Don’t Train Your Dog: A Pet Parenting Guide to Teaching Good Behavior, Calming Fear, and Raising Happy Dogs, Winters—whose record for fixing dogs who were deemed unfixable by experts is unparalleled—explains that training simply cannot teach dogs the skills needed for modern family life. Moreover, it causes most of the behavioral issues to develop in the first place. Its failure causes dogs to lose their homes, families, and often their lives. This breaks Winter’s heart, fueling her drive to help dogs and their families.
For the heartbreak to end, dogs need us to drop the animal training mindset and instead communicate and teach from a parental perspective, Winters says. This means providing love, protection, and guidance rooted in an understanding of dogs' emotions and what drives them, their ability to understand us, how they are intertwined with us, and how they are similar to, yet different from, human children.
With this understanding, dog families can drop the treats only or harsh obedience approaches that only confuse dogs and frustrate humans and offer instead firm but supportive parental guidance that teaches the essential doggie rules and family life skills, fixes fears, and ends aggression toward other dogs.
In addition to explaining Winters’ approach in clear, relatable terms, Don’t Train Your Dog provides a set of simple guidance recipes for techniques that are neither too harsh nor too permissive and are easy for dog parents to use in their daily lives. These are also demonstrated in a series of videos that complement the book.
Winters has seen that the results—happy, well-behaved pups harmoniously integrated into family settings—play out every single time.
You can learn more about Angie and her book here:
https://parenting4dogs.com/
https://www.facebook.com/angie.b.winters
You can find Woody's Place Senior German Shepherd Sanctuary online at:
www.wpsgss.org
https://www.facebook.com/woodysplacesgss
https://www.instagram.com/wpsgss/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Tb1hKnOWEamQstkqAxEyg
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You can support our podcast by going to http://www.patreon.com/LifeWithOldDogs
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