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Take the Sit/Down/Stand challenge!

My trainer friend Sarah Richardson, owner of The Canine Connection in Chico, California, recently attended a conference in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with a world-renowned...

I love dedicated dog people.

The company that I work for is based in Norwalk, Connecticut. I have worked for Belvoir Media Group for the past 22 years on Whole Dog...

What Happened to Odin’s Eye?

After months of weighing all options, I have finally agreed to have Odin's compromised eye removed. He is healing quiet nicely from the surgery, and seems to be enjoying not having to take medicine 12 times a day.

Making Weighty Decisions for Our Dogs

Using optical coherence tomography, the technicians were able to get images of the interior of Odins cornea. They observed that a tear or bubble has formed between the corneal endothelial layer and the next layer upward (outward), the Desemets membrane.

How NOT to Teach Your Puppy to Sit

I've always wondered the origin of the practice of pushing a puppy or dog's bottom to the ground in order to "teach her to sit." My guesses are these: People do it because it sometimes works; the dog or puppy learns that to avoid the discomfort of being forced to bend all the joints in their rear ends, they should just sit down. And that once someone has seen anyone else do this with apparent success, they think maybe they will try it, too! But these are poor guesses, because I've shown hundreds of people how to get their puppies or dogs to sit without touching them - and without saying "Sit! Sit! SIT!"

A Brief Vacation

I need to update everyone about Odin, my foster puppy - the last of the mange puppies. There isnt much news about his eye yet, though. Its been looking better and better, and hasnt caused him any discomfort for weeks, which is a really good sign. But its still mostly blue - filled with edema and scar tissue inside - and were only at about day 40 of a 60-day mini-trial of a medicine were hoping will help.

Sometimes Dogs are Best Left Home

I knew that with so many people coming to see the flowers, bringing a dog would be no fun for the dog nor me. First and most of all, because at this time there are so many other people out there, it would have only been appropriate to keep my dog on leash the entire time, and this would have seriously diminished the enjoyment for me and my dog.

Access to Information About Drugs for Dogs is Complex

On April 3, 2019, the FDA issued a press release, announcing that it is making the adverse event reports related to animal drugs and medical devices used in animals available online - including all the reports going back some 30 years. The reports will be available electronically on openFDA.gov, an agency-run digital platform used by researchers, statisticians and other academics to access large, valuable public health datasets collected by the FDA.

We Need to Talk About Dangerous Dogs

The other neighbor who owns a Beagle had seen and spoken to the woman who owned the three large, powerful dogs who attacked Brando. For reasons of his own, he had apparently told her angrily that animal control was on the way and they were going to seize her dogs. By the time the officers got there, she had put her dogs in a truck and fled the scene.
Soaking dry dog food in water can make it easier to swallow for senior dogs.

Soaking Dry Dog Food in Water

If youve ever soaked your dogs food, youre aware of how much dry dog food expands when immersed in water. Its a little horrifying, actually, to realize how much more space a certain amount of food will require in a dogs stomach and gut once the dogs digestive juices hydrate the individual kibbles. It nearly doubles in volume. The kibbles are like little sponges - some more than others. Ive noticed when soaking food for various foster puppies that some kibble is more resistant to soaking than others.

Odin’s Eye, Otto’s Kidneys, and Natural Disaster Training

On Saturday, I attended a training session conducted by the North Valley Animal Disaster Group (NVADG), as part of my increased interest in improving any future local disaster response. This session was about handling dogs and cats in an emergency - something I got a lot of experience with when volunteering in the emergency evacuation shelters during the Camp Fire disaster. And it was held at the shelter where I have been volunteering for the past decade, so that was fun.

Mastering On-Leash Dog Walking for Off-Leash Security

One thing I dont do very much of is walking my dogs on leash. I am super lucky; I live in an area with any number of safe, interesting places to walk my dogs off-leash. However, I actually credit all this time OFF-leash with my dogs good ON-leash behavior.

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No, You Can’t

Of all the “third rail” topics concerning dogs, here’s one I never could have guessed would make some people incensed: A passerby putting a bag of dog poop in their garbage can. Ack! Apparently, this makes some homeowners angry enough that they put signs on or next to their garbage cans, set up security cameras in order to identify and eventually confront the offenders, or threatening penalties for the alleged “theft of services” (using someone else’s garbage service).