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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.

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.

I'm fostering a one-year-old hound, Maebe, who has a minor amount of separation anxiety. The other day, I left her in a wire crate for about two hours in the house where I have my office. When I returned, I found that she had escaped from the crate and went on a bit of a rampage in the house. She went "counter-surfing" in the kitchen and ate the better part of a cube of butter and a few English muffins. She found a bag of treats on another counter and ate them, as well as half of the bag itself. She got into the trash in my office. She was on my desk - !!! - and knocked over my computer monitor!

If you’ve ever been going through the final illness, or the final, rough year of a beloved dog’s life, you know how easy it is to neglect the other, young, healthy dogs’ needs.

I have the privilege (and responsibility) of dog-sitting two of the pups from my most recent foster litter – for a whole week! –...

On February 3, 2017, the FDA announced that Evanger's Dog & Cat Food had recalled five lots of its canned Hunk of Beef dog food, for a "potential contaminant," pentobarbital. One dog has died after eating the food, and three others were sickened. All four dogs belong to the same family, and ate food from the same can of food. The dog that died was necropsied, and some food from the open can of food was tested. The results: both the dead dog's stomach contents and the open can contained pentobarbital, a drug commonly used to euthanize animals.Given that the Hunk of Beef food - an incomplete diet meant for supplemental or intermittent feeding - contains nothing but beef chunks, Evanger's is blaming its supplier of the beef used in the batch of contaminated food. The company has announced a voluntary recall of that batch of food, as well as four other batches of food produced the same week with beef from the same supplier. The company says it has terminated its relationship with the supplier, despite a 40-year history of doing business together.

I’ve taught both of my grown-up dogs several positions where they will be rewarded for holding still while I – or, importantly, a stranger...

As one could predict, I was a bit of a mess last week. Making the euthanasia appointment for my beloved Otto, and being with...

My stepson and daughter-in-law have a son, who will be three years old in May. Their whole family moved to my town a year ago, so I've been spending a lot of time in my new role as Nana. When my own son was about the same age as my grandson, my mother accomplished the lion's share of his potty-training over the course of a single weekend, using M&Ms as rewards for going in the potty." So I feel a certain amount of responsibility to "pay it forward" to my stepson and his wife

The potential for the loss of liability insurance is closing shelter doors to volunteers. As many of you know from personal experience, volunteers in animal...

I’m generally a fan of places or experiences that dog owners can enjoy with their well behaved dogs—but not so much when it’s with other people’s unruly, reactive, or loud dogs. Couple any of that with owners who make no effort to limit their dogs’ intrusion into other people’s space or hampering wait-staff, and any progress that has been made to include dogs goes out the window.

After spending a couple days in the heavily dog-populated San Francisco Bay area recently, I found myself wondering: Why is it so hard for people to walk their dogs on a leash?Dogs are so numerous in that area that I'd estimate I saw at least 300 human/dog pairs or groups out walking. (I had my young dog Woody with me, and so I was out walking him, too. And on the last day there, I picked up my son's dog, Cole, and we stopped at a large, well-known off-leash area for dogs, Point Isabel, where one can observe at least 100 dogs at any given time of day.) I'd guess that a full 85 percent of the dogs I saw were either pulling or dragging their owners down the street. About half of these pulled steadily ("Come ON, let's GO!"), and the other half pulled intermittently ("Wait, I need to sniff this! Okay, let's go! Wait! I need to sniff that! Okay, let's go!").