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My 10-year-old grandson is visiting from Boston and we went for a bike ride today at midday, to a local park. We were riding...

I occasionally teach a “leash manners” class at my friend’s dog-training center. In the first class, their hands are all over the place, and cues are, “NO! NO! STOP it!” I almost always see a tiny improvement in week two.

Chemist Paul Krebaum gets the credit for applying his chemistry knowledge to the age-old need for a substance that can neutralize the smell of skunk spray. He researched the putrid oil (which skunks can shoot out of special glands under their tails as a potent defense mechanism) and determined that the chemical responsible for the distinctive odor was in a class called thiols. The human nose is extremely sensitive to these organosulfur compounds, and can detect them at 10 parts per billion. But if you subject the substance to just the right compound, you can inactivate the chemicals responsible for the odor, as fast as a chemical reaction can occur.

My just-turned 14-year-old dog Otto has lost most of his hearing. Our communication is very limited now. He can no longer hear me tell...

What’s the cool new tool? It’s a searchable database of ALL of the foods on our “approved canned foods" list.

I’ve written a few times lately about how excited I am to be able to search for dog foods with certain attributes using WDJ’s...

I've heard it from a dozen different people in the past few weeks: "Oh my goodness, Nancy, that puppy LOVES you!" In every case, the person who made the spontaneous exclamation was prompted to do so by witnessing the same phenomenon: Seeing my new puppy sit calmly and stare, making direct eye contact with me.

The puppy, Woody, may well love me - I certainly love and adore him! But what's the true explanation? Does he stare at me because he loves me, or has he developed affection for me as a result of all the reinforcement he's received for that eye contact?

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

I follow three or four local “lost and found pet” groups on Facebook. These are places where people in the community can post photos...

There’s an old Chinese parable that goes something like this: A farmer gets a horse, which soon runs away. A neighbor says, "Oh, so sorry...

The dog shown here is half Bloodhound, half Border Collie. I was skeptical, too. Bloodhound I can see. But I don't see a trace of Border Collie. Then I learned her story. Indy was an accident" – the product of two purebreds owned by a family who actually breeds and shows Border Collies and Bloodhounds. I wouldn't have guessed that a fan of one of those breeds would also possess the other

I am not a regular reader of or contributor to Reddit.com. But somehow I started receiving  “digest” emails concerning dogs – it’s possible I...