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Could you evacuate your home 15 minutes from now, with everything you would need to live with your pets in a hotel for a few days, weeks, or months? What if you had an hour’s notice?

I just received the results of my youngest dog’s mixed-breed DNA test from Embark; I already had results from Wisdom Panel. Over the years,...

One of my friends has a dog, Lena, who recently tore her ACL. She's on as much crate rest as my friend can manage....

Rehoming a dog due to loss of income, loss of a home, or another extreme circumstance is understandable. In other scenarios it's less clear if rehoming is the best option.

I'm a big fan of "puppy socials" - a classroom-type setting to which people bring their puppies for socializing with pups of a similar age. It's a powerful opportunity for the puppies, especially the ones who are being raised with no other dog at home to learn basic canine social skills from - or the ones who DO share their homes with another dog, but the dog is super grumpy about puppies.

Last week, I flew to Tampa, Florida, and attended the first-ever educational conference of a relatively new organization, the Pet Professional Guild, "The association for force-free pet professionals." PPG is a membership organization "representing pet industry professionals who are committed to results-based, science-based, force-free training and pet care." The members are mostly dog trainers, as well as behavior-savvy vet techs, dog walkers, pet sitters, and groomers.

Decades ago, a chemist named Paul Krebaum (may his name be honored forever) cracked the chemical code of the stinky, sulfur-containing substances called “thiols” that are in the musk that skunks spray to defend themselves. Krebaum harnessed the power of oxidation, formulating a solution that changes the odorous thiols into odorless acids. He shared the recipe with a workplace friend who had been complaining about the smell of his cat, who had been skunked. Soon, other scientists heard about the formula and it went viral!

which he has a lot of experience with!üIt's easier to take a blood sample from the big vein in a dog's neck than it is from a smaller vein in the leg – as long as the dog is behaving as well as Otto is. He didn't mind the restraint and didn't even blink at the insertion of the needle.üThe veterinarian examined Otto while he was on the floor

When I was about five years old, my parents moved our family from the San Francisco Bay area to a rural farming area about...

My one-year-old dog Woody is maturing into a WDJ model, which is great for me; his ability to quickly learn a new behavior and to stand patiently in place while I change lenses or something gives me an additional option when I need to illustrate something for the magazine, or for a newsletter I sometimes produce (as a volunteer for my local shelter). Plus, he has a nice short coat; when I've had to take photos of collars or harnesses on a dog in the past, I've always had to borrow a friend's (untrained and/or inexperienced) dog rather than use my professional model, nine-year-old Otto, because it's hard to see gear on a fluffy or fuzzy dog model!However, everyone I know is giving me flack about it! Friends, acquaintances, and even Facebook "fans" of WDJ are commenting about the plethora of Woody pics in the magazine lately (Woody modeled with a lot of items for a "gift guide" in the December issue). I've heard "I miss Otto!" from any number of people.

In the November issue of WDJ, we published an article by a valued veterinary contributor regarding Librela, a new treatment for canine (and feline) osteoarthritis. This provoked much discussion between those that had good results, and those whose dogs suffered adverse side effects.

I’m thinking today about how communities interact with their local animal control/animal shelters and vice versa, and how shelters can most meaningfully affect the...