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When Senior Dogs Act Like Grumpy Old Men

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My senior dog, Otto, is nearly 13 years old. He often acts like a big grump around any puppies or foster dogs I have...

Hunting Dogs

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I have to admit: I have met dogs I don’t enjoy, and one type that I have a lot of admiration and respect for, but would never want to share my home with, are hunting dogs.

Dog Food Recalls and Salmonella Contamination

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Over the 23 years Whole Dog Journal has been published, we’ve discussed pet food recalls due to contamination with Salmonella a number of times....

Take the Sit/Down/Stand challenge!

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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...

Pat Miller Was Here

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I've been working with Pat Miller for the past 17 years. She's had an article in all but one issue of WDJ in that span of time – and that one issue that was published without an article from her was my mistake, not due to her missing a deadline. She's a gifted trainer, a lifelong learner who continues to read research articles and pay attention to new discoveries in animal behavior and animal cognition, and she has a consistent, calm, compassionate voice that advocates for well-reasoned training methods applied with kindness and patience. I met Pat when she wrote some articles for the publication I worked for prior to WDJ, a little magazine called The Whole Horse Journal! She wrote an article about clicker training for horses with extreme fear-based behaviors, and used her off-the-track Thoroughbred mare as a model for the article. When our publisher asked me to be the founding editor of WDJ, and I was rounding up writers to form the nucleus of our core contributors, someone mentioned to me that Pat, whom I knew only as that clicker horse trainer

Preparing Your Fireworks-Phobic Dog for July 4th

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The July 4 holiday is almost upon us – a source of distress for many dogs, with its days and days of popping and...

Playing Hide and Seek with the Dogs – Everybody Does It, Right?

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This is going to sound a little bananas. I think you guys can take it, however.

The most fun thing I've been doing lately with my dogs is playing hide and go seek. I'm a behavior geek anyway - I love watching dogs (and other animals) work and play and interact - but I can't tell you how entertaining it is for me to watch my adolescent dog learning how the game works, and try to anticipate my hiding strategies.

The house that I use as an office has three bedrooms upstairs. Sometimes, my husband and I rent them to students who attend a local trade school. In the past couple of years, though, we've had various relatives staying in the house on and off. At the moment, no one is living here, so I have both three rooms to hide in upstairs and no one to watch me at this ridiculous game! (Lest this sound rich - my second house! - let me assure you that the area where I live is so economically depressed, that the mortgage on this house costs us less than rent on office spaces in town.)

When Friends Breed Their Dogs

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I’m going to have to ask for forgiveness ahead of time: This post may well offend some of my friends, neighbors, and readers. I’m sorry – and conflicted. I’ve been asked a number of times for my opinion about breeding dogs. Do I know a good male Jack Russell to mate with their female; would I suggest buying a puppy from that breeder who advertises puppies on the billboard by the highway; how long should they wait until they breed their German Shepherd Dog?
dog looking sleepy

When Your Dog Hurts, What Should You Do?

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A few weeks ago I shared that my 14-year-old mixed-breed, Otto, was showing signs of age-related dementia. He’s also showing more discomfort related to...
dog pills

Morning (and Evening) Meds

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What you see in the photo here are the morning meds. I thought it was bad that all three of my dogs are currently...

Helping Dogs Adjust to Being Home Alone Again

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Though many people who have been sheltering in place for weeks report being confused as to the day of the week, I have been...
Doggy bags should never be put in a strangers trash can.

No, You Can’t

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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).