How Will Pet Overpopulation Ever Get Solved?
A lack of access to affordable spay and neuter appointments has led to an overabundance of unwanted puppies and kittens. Charitable organizations are organizing to deal with the problem, but more needs to be done.
Use Your Words: Communicating with Dogs
A study published in PLOS One on August 28 proved that dogs can recognize, comprehend, and respond to words from soundboards. The results open up a world of opportunities for expanding our ability to communicate with our dogs.
“Save Me! I Have Only a Day To Live!”
Euthanasia lists are not an answer to overcrowded shelters. Animals adopted just to save them often end up neglected, or back in the shelter system.
Grandkids and Dogs
Oliver came to California for an end-of-summer, two-week visit with us. I most enjoyed watching Oliver when he didn’t think anyone was watching him, playing with, talking to, and wandering around our property with my dogs.
Pros and Cons of Large Pet Food Companies
From time to time why we don’t include foods from giant dog food companies such as Mars PetCare, Purina, or Hills.
What Works—and What Doesn’t—to Help Your Dog Through Adolescence
I have become more and more obsessed with how what is now called “force-free” dog training can help adolescent dogs in particular. I see so many parallels between the most effective ways to raise a teenager and how to get a dog through adolescence.
Whoa! Stop Pulling
What does riding horses have to do with dogs? You can condition a horse to pull (and race) against you pulling on the reins during a ride the same way dogs can be conditioned to pull against leashes on a walk.
Use Schedules to Help Your Dog Cope
Dogs are incredibly quick to pick up on patterns of events that predict what we are about to do, or what we are about to make them to do.
House-Training Is Simple, But Not Always Easy
There are lots of reasons that a house-training failure can occur. Perhaps the dog has a particularly small bladder or had a urinary tract infection. Perhaps the owner wasn’t able to let the dog outside as frequently as needed to support the house-training habit, or didn’t have the means or ability to manage the dog’s environment,
Nobody’s Perfect! Least of All Me!
I strive to be a good dog—I mean, a good dog owner. But recently, I was stuck between being a responsible dog owner and being responsible for my dogs’ well being, and I broke a leash law in order to protect my dogs. And I got yelled at, a couple of times.
Make an Evacuation Plan Today
I am sure this is tiresome, having me write one of these every year, but it seems to come up frequently here in northern California. We have a fire burning close by, and neighborhood after neighborhood has been evacuated today as the fire has progressed, close and closer to my house.
How Do You Brush Your Long-Haired Dog’s Teeth?!
WDJ’s authors have previously cited a widely reported statistic: 80% of dogs over the age of 3 years have active dental disease. The odds have finally caught up with me and Boone.
Latest Blog
Old Dog, New Dog
I had the opportunity to read a pre-publication proof of WDJ contributor Kathy Callahan’s newest book, co-authored with Helen St. Pierre, and I can’t recommend the book strongly enough. Old Dog, New Dog helps dog owners anticipate the potential pitfalls of bringing a new young dog into a home already inhabited by a senior dog—and adroitly steer around them in order to seamlessly create a joyful, trauma-free blended canine family.