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I’m just back from a six-day trip that included two days of driving and a four-day educational seminar with world-renowned animal behavior experts: prominent...

One of the funniest things is watching similarly devoted dog owners miss their dogs. Everyone today has photos and videos of their dogs on their phones, and we all try to behave well and say nice things about our friends' dogs, so they will give us equal time and admire OUR dog photos. And of course when a spouse at home sends a new photo or video of the left-behind dogs, it's acceptable to tap the person sitting next to you (even though you are in the middle of a session, and listening to a riveting speaker) and angle your phone so as to show off the cute photo. Your neighbor smiles, or mimes Cute!" and you make a little sad face

With an illness spreading it may be smart to keep our dogs home, avoiding contact with other dogs, whether in dog daycare, boarding facilities, groomers, vet hospitals, or on walks or at the dog park – but is it really best for our dogs?

I took my two dogs—Woody, age 9, and Boone, age 3—to see their vet a week ago. I wasn’t looking forward to being chided for allowing him—nay, facilitating him—to gain a few extra pounds this winter. But I wasn’t at all expecting the health problems that my vet found.

It's been said before, but every time I have experienced the loss of one of my dogs, or have witnessed someone else's, I think to myself: That this is the price of all that love we have for our dogs, and all the love and joy we've received from our dogs. If it seems too much to bear, well, remember that the amount of pain we are going to feel is directly related to the love. Those heart dogs" – the companions we love as much as life itself? Well

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.

In the February issue, which will be in mailboxes and online soon, we have an article about a new model for communities looking to improve the...

Whether or not the dog DNA tests that purport to reveal the breeds that have gone into your mixed-breed dog are accurate, they are...

There is a trainer I know who posts a lot of short videos of her own dogs and dogs owned by clients of her...

We've all seen them: online pleas for donations on charity fundraising sites, supposedly to benefit a person or pet in need. Sometimes it's a fantastic cause, but please be aware that sometimes, it's a scam! I recently saw a short article on the website of my local TV news channel, telling the story of a dog who had been reported missing in February, who was found in late April, trapped in the basement of a home that had burned to the ground some time ago. The Lab-mix had apparently survived by drinking rainwater, but there was no food, and she had lost nearly as much body weight as she possibly could and still survive. She was reported to be more than 60 pounds when she went missing, and was down to 26 pounds when found, not much more than skin and bones. Dramatic photos accompanied the article, including one of the dog still trapped in the basement.

In the July issue of WDJ, we have an article about the mixed-breed dog DNA tests that are available to dog owners for a fairly hefty price. I have ordered a few of these tests over the years, gathering information about how they work and whether they appear to be all that helpful in identifying the breeds that have gone into a given mixed-breed dog.

It always makes me happy when scientists substantiate something about dogs that any loving dog owner already knows – but it’s icing on the...