Learning to Love Like a Dog

by Fran Withrow 08.2022

I was a little worried that “A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home” would be yet another sweet story of a dog who changes the life of their family but dies in the end. I would read, clutching my box of tissues, while swearing never to open another book like it. 

But I could not have been more wrong about Sue Halpern’s glorious book. Halpern’s story about her therapy dog, Pransky, is a wise and warm-hearted gem. And spoiler alert: the dog does not die in the end!

Pransky is seven years old when Halpern decides her dog needs a job. After much musing, Halpern takes Pransky through therapy dog training, and her description of the process is fascinating. Pransky and Halpern end up working at their local nursing home, and what seems like a simple assignment leads Halpern to explore ethics, compassion, and morality.

Initially, Halpern approaches residents with caution. But Pransky goes unhesitatingly into each room even if a resident appears to reject them. Slowly Halpern learns how to cherish the residents, and discovers what they can teach her about living life fully. As she deepens her connections with them, Halpern learns that wisdom and joy can be found in any setting. Halpern watches her dog accept everyone, no matter who they are or how they respond. She realizes that Pransky’s unconditional love sets an example of morality; showing her how we should live together with kindness and care.

As a way of pondering this concept of morality, Halpern focuses each chapter on a different virtue. “Restraint” hooked me immediately as Halpern describes her foray into dog obedience. Getting a dog who is used to running free accustomed to a leash is not easy. And don’t miss the story of Pransky’s lack of will power when left in the car with some oatmeal fudge bars.

“Faith,” which is (fortunately) about so much more than organized religion, “fortitude" in the face of the fragility of life in both dogs and people, and “hope” are chapters about residents like Clyde, Martha, and Dottie. Halpern learns more about morality from each of them. In the nursing home, Halpern comes face to face with how unutterably precious life is, and that there are gifts to be found even near life’s end. Halpern’s description of hope, in a place most of us see as hopeless, is lovely: “it stands up to the negative…it creates possibility in the world. It is a defiant act of creativity and of imagination.”

Halpern’s warm writing style and engaging prose make this book a “must read.” You are in for a treat if you follow Halpern and her beloved dog into the nursing home, where she discovers she has received more than she has given. By looking at mortality and morality, we are reminded not to go “squandering your inheritance.” Every day is a gift. How can we live with hope, resilience, and love during our brief stay on this earth? Maybe it is as simple as following your dog into a nursing home.

Or following your heart, wherever it might lead.