Blog

I’m infamous among my friends and colleagues for asking people if they are aware that their dogs are overweight. It’s because I have seen firsthand how fat dogs suffer in their senior years when they are too heavy to exercise without pain! And their burden of carrying extra pounds makes the ordinary aches and pains of arthritis even worse. AND YET, I have to give myself a stern talking-to from time to time about helping my older dog stay trim.

Over the past few weeks, I found myself following posts detailing the stories of two lost dogs – and the extraordinary lengths that people...

There is no universal vaccination protocol for dogs because of differing opinion among veterinarians, and also because of the ways in which "DIY" vaccinations are marketed and distributed to pet owners. The truth about vaccinations is there is no puppy vaccination protocol! Whole Dog Journal editor Nancy Kerns covers puppy vaccinations in this week's blog.

After having a medical issue of my own recently, I had an epiphany: I'd rather see a veterinarian than deal with the human medical system.The usual routine with human medicine: If something serious happens suddenly, you have to go to the emergency room; your own doctor can't see you right away for anything serious.The ER patches you up enough to be released and tells you to follow up with your own doctor. At the day of the appointment, your doctor decides you need an x-ray or ultrasound or other test - and sends you to another clinic or testing laboratory where this is done. It takes days for the results to get back to your doctor, and when he gets them, he sends you elsewhere for treatment. At least, that's what happened to me, recently.

Something I noticed while on the elliptical machine at the gym (while trying to notice anything but my heart and respiration rate): There are...

I was dismayed to open the link to what sounded like an interesting new dog training product – the Pavlov Dog Monitor from the Apple App Store. The application is intended for pets at home barking and suffering with separation anxiety problems as a result of their owners being gone for long workdays.

Many of us animal lovers contribute in some way to animal charities. I donate (admittedly) small amounts of money to my local animal disaster...

My husband and I were talking about childhood dogs for some reason, and he said, "We got a dog when I was little and it died of distemper, and my parents said, 'That's it, no more dogs.'"When he said that, I suddenly remembered that my family, too, had lost a young dog to distemper when I was a child. I have a solid memory of my mother wiping up vomit, and the adolescent pup lying limply nearby, and my mother telling me, "I don't think she's going to make it." I was probably about four or five years old, but I knew that this phrase meant the dog was probably going to die.

Tens of thousands of people and animals have been affected by the fire, and thousands of people are helping those displaced. Several emergency shelters were hastily set up to contain pets. Some of the pets were left at the shelters by owners who were themselves homeless and staying in shelters; many more were rescued and brought to the shelters with either an address or rough estimate of where they had been rescued from.

I am a fan of dog-park rules, and I, too, have taken pictures of the posted rules at every dog park I have ever visited, in an effort to see how different communities have responded to the people and dogs there.

I've heard of it happening, but have never witnessed it before tonight: the horror of a dog getting his jaw twisted in another dog's collar. May I never witness it again.

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?