Lifestyle

It’s that time of year again: making a list and checking it twice. Many of us include animal-related charities on our gift list. But how do you choose which ones to support? There is no shortage of good causes. Here are some guidelines for how to evaluate an organization as a potential recipient of your hard-earned dollars.

The animal shelter where I often volunteer is less than a mile from a big box super store. Both are located in a low-income town in a low-income county – a rural area in northeastern California (i.e., not one of the parts of the state that you’ve heard about). Donations to the shelter are welcome, much-needed, and scarce. So, when the shelter gets a call, as it does occasionally, from a manager at that big-box store, saying that he has some dented cans of cat food or ripped bags of dog food or kitty litter that he’d like to donate to the shelter, an animal control officer is immediately dispatched to go pick up that donation, with gratitude. These donations tend to be small, but regular, and they definitely help the shelter feed and care for more animals than it would be able to otherwise.

Once upon a time, a harness was the last thing you wanted to use for a dog who pulled, because they were designed to make pulling comfortable. By distributing pressure evenly across the chest they removed pressure from the throat, where damage could be done to a dog's trachea – sometimes even to the point of tracheal collapse. Harnesses are better for the dog from a health perspective, but from a training viewpoint, a standard harness actually encourages pulling. There's a reason sled dogs wear harnesses! Head halters were introduced in the late 1990s as a gentle control tool. While they did, indeed, work well to control a dog's head (and where the head goes, the body follows), some trainers noticed that a significant number of dogs found head halters to be fairly aversive, requiring, in many cases, extensive conditioning to convince the dog to accept them.

I used to live with a Frisbee-addicted dog (a Border Collie named Rupert), and a disc-addicted son, who is now off at college (and still addicted). So how is it that WDJ has never before reviewed flying disc toys for dogs? There is a wide variety of flying toys made for dogs, with different key features for different applications. The overarching concept is to create a disc that flies well enough to inspire a dog to chase it, catch it, and return with it uninjured. Most of us owners want a toy that won't be ruined within three catches between a dog's teeth, but you don't want it to be so tough that it can hurt a dog's teeth or mouth if he doesn't catch it perfectly.

Special considerations should be taken when boating with your dog. The importance of life jackets for pets recently made headlines when a 5-year-old Pomeranian fell from his family’s boat on the Chicago River near Lake Michigan, and was missing for nearly 24 hours before turning up safe on land. For owners with dogs who love to swim, getting the dog safely back aboard the boat can be a challenge. Many owners underestimate the height difference between the surface of the water and the edge of the boat, and struggle to haul their water-logged dogs in from the water. That experience was exactly what motivated Jim Perkins of Waterdog Adventure Gear to invent his patented Wag Boarding Steps.

Life jackets for dogs are available at most pet supply and sporting good shops, but one size definitely does not fit all. A proper fit is critical to helping ensure the safety of your pet. When you put a life jacket on your dog

Most smart phones now feature cameras that shoot in 6-megapixels or higher, providing photos with good resolution and detail. The large screens make it easy to compose a shot without holding the camera directly up to your face, which makes some dogs shy away. (My Whippet seems to hate when I point a traditional camera at her; it’s something we’re working on. I joke that she thinks it will steal her soul.)

A picture is worth a thousand words, and when it comes to our beloved canine companions, we can never have too many memories preserved in perpetuity. Like people, dogs have unique personalities. Learning to capture your dog’s attitude, spirit and charm can make the difference between a so-so photo and a memory you just have to blow up and frame. The following tips will help you take your best shot. When you want jaw-dropping photos, it never hurts to let the true professionals work their magic by scheduling a professional photo shoot for your pet.

We fully support the internationally accepted principles: replacement of animal studies with non-animal alternatives, reduction in the numbers of animals involved in studies, and the refinement of methods to enhance animal welfare. We involve animals only if there is no valid non-animal option. We do not fund studies that require the loss of life of cats or dogs. We only conduct dog and cat studies that are the veterinary equivalent of nutritional or medical studies acceptable on people, including: urine, feces, blood and immune cell analysis, allergy tests, and skin and muscle biopsies.

Pet food companies that are the size of Hill’s Pet Nutrition (a subsidiary of Colgate-Palmolive Company) and Iams and Eukanuba (both owned by Procter & Gamble Pet Care) can afford to conduct a variety of research and development studies, as well as conduct their own feeding trials to meet regulatory requirements for nutritional adequacy. The following are the types of studies that large pet food companies typically conduct.

The Gold Paw Program was developed by the Humane Society of Washington County, Maryland, (HSWC) to help identify and work with dogs who have the potential to be someone’s beloved companion, but need some help getting there. Gold Paw volunteers undergo extensive training in canine behavior so they are prepared to provide these dogs with the help they need.

On the first day of the Crufts dog show in early March, the Kennel Club in England confirmed that business as usual wasn’t so usual anymore. This year marked the start of reforms put into place after the game-changing BBC documentary – Jemima Harrison’s “Pedigreed Dogs Exposed” – shocked the country with images of dogs so structurally unsound that the normal life of a dog was impossible. The result? Independent veterinary review of the judges’ selections for Best of Breed Bulldog and Pekingese deemed the dogs too unhealthy to be granted their awards. And this was just on day 1. What’s next?!