Blog

It took only a minute to trace the blood to its source: the backs of Woody's hind legs. In horses, we'd call this area his pasterns: between his paws and the knobby hock joints – the place where he skids when he's sliding to a halt from a run. On one of those three throws into the field, he obviously skidded into something sharp in the ground. He had two ugly, deep cuts, one on each pastern, with mud packed into each wound. I took him outside, hosed off all of the mud, brought him back inside, and started cleaning the wounds. It took only a few minutes to conclude they were deep enough that they should be stitched or stapled closed (not to mention cleaned more deeply than I felt comfortable doing). So off to the emergency clinic we went.

Anyone who has ever learned to do something physical – hitting a baseball, sewing a garment, driving a car, you name it – understands that you gain...

Hey, it’s September! Long-time readers know what that means! It’s time for Nancy’s annual reminder to PLEASE habituate your dog (and cats, and other...

WDJ Training Editor Pat Miller wrote an article for the June issue of WDJ about unconventional or unintentional cues - things that people taught their dogs that are far from the ordinary sit, down, stay-sort of behaviors. In the article, she and other trainers describe how they taught their dogs things such as locating a pile of poop that needs to be picked up, standing in a certain place and a certain pose that's convenient for grooming, and coming when it's time to take a daily medication. My favorite was, "You're not going!" - which is what Pat taught her Kelpie, Kai, to indicate he shouldn't get excited about going for a car ride, because he's not invited on that impending trip. Pat asked readers to send in descriptions of the unconventional cues and behaviors they had taught their dogs. I'm going to post some over the next couple of weeks; we're getting a lot, thanks! You guys are an unconventional bunch, apparently! And Pat will be selecting one – perhaps by random, because there are so many great ones to choose from! – to win a prize.

I walk with my dogs in a number of locations in my local “wildlife area,” which consists of thousands of acres of land surrounding...

Whole Dog Journal has a lot of nits to pick with the Clean Label Project ratings. We don't usually comment on other sites or individuals who rate or review dog food, but we were compelled to do so in this case out of sheer disappointment. When we first heard of the Clean Label Project, we hoped that the organization had somehow managed to fund a significant number of validated, independent lab tests of dog food, searching for contaminants and nutrient levels that were out of spec, and plainly report the results.

A warning from the FDA about a recently reported spike in the number of dogs developing dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) (linked here again) and a possible connection between DCM and the inclusion of peas, lentils, legumes, and potatoes in the diets of a majority (not all) of the dogs means we are going to be talking about diet a lot for a while.

As I write this, I am visualizing strength and a return to health for Buster, a dog who just turned three years old, and...

A good friend recently gave notice that he wanted to retire from a job he’s had since he was just a tiny puppy. My dog Woody’s best friend Samson, who has never weighed as much as five pounds, has been going to work with my friend Leonora since he was a 3-week-old foster puppy—and recently, he started telling Leonora that he doesn’t want to go to work any more.

AAHA recommends that adult dogs who have received those core puppy shots be revaccinated a year after the last puppy vaccinations, and every three years thereafter. This is a somewhat reduced schedule from decades ago, when most veterinarians would recommend giving all the core vaccines to every adult dog annually.

Here's another post to provide closure to some of the foster-dog stories I've shared with you in recent months.

In mid-March, I wrote about being fairly depressed by the arrival of two foster dogs. I had pulled the first one from my local shelter as a prospect for a friend of my son, who was looking for an athletic, medium-sized dog. I had never seen the dog outside of a kennel, first at my local shelter, and then, after we evacuated the shelter during the Oroville (Calif.) Dam scare, at a friend's house (she took in about 20 of the shelter's dogs!). He had a darling face, seemed quiet in the kennel, and looked like a Poodle-something-mix. As soon as it was safe for me to go back home after the evacuation, I asked to foster him.

It wasn't until I got him home that I saw he wasn't going to work for my son's friend. That young man is a professional athlete, and was looking for a dog he could take out for runs; this dog could barely stand up! He had as little muscle tissue as I've ever seen on a dog, and he stood and walked way back on his wrists." It seemed clear he had been kept in a crate or tiny pen for most of his life. He also had a bad habit of barking LOUDLY when he wanted something or when he was frustrated. This

Last week, I was stressed with too many demands on my time, and trying to finish the December issue in time to travel to Florida for a dog trainer's conference (the Pet Professional Guild). But Woody (my adolescent dog) and even Otto, my 9-year-old solid (canine) citizen, were both telling me they needed a run. So, instead of taking them out for an hours-long hike, as I prefer to do, I headed for a school field I know, to throw a ball for them for a while, instead.

A friend called a little while before I left and asked if I was walking that evening. When I told her my alternative plan, she asked if she could meet me with her dogs. Sure, why not?