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My friends and family members, close and extended, often ask me questions about dogs. What sort of food should we feed our dog? Where is the best place to adopt a dog? What's the best breed? How do we train her to stop barking? Should I get the rattlesnake vaccine? Oh, and what's the best food to feed our dog? (I get that last one a lot!)RARELY do my family members and friends listen all the way, or take all of my advice. And I know I'm not alone; I'm sure it's the same with doctors and lawyers and therapists and car mechanics; people hear what they want to hear and do what they want to do. But when someone I know – a civilian, not a dog person" – does listen

One thing I dont do very much of is walking my dogs on leash. I am super lucky; I live in an area with any number of safe, interesting places to walk my dogs off-leash. However, I actually credit all this time OFF-leash with my dogs good ON-leash behavior.

It’s nine o’clock on Tuesday evening. I don’t know what to do with myself. The dishes are done, the dogs are fed. They are quite relaxed for Border Collies; they romped for hours in the warm spring air. I don’t want to sleep. Tomorrow everything will change. But right now my two B&W companions are snoozing happily next me on the bed. I want to hold this moment still for as long as possible. I want it to stretch out and wrap its memories around me forever. Right now, this moment, all is right with the world.

The February issue, the one containing our annual discussion and review of dry dog foods, has been published, and as is often the case, we missed a company or two that should have been included on our list of approved foods. WHEN will we be perfect? Not this year, sadly. We will update the online version of the list as errors or omissions are detected and include corrections in the March issue.

I went to a very large benched dog show recently. I haven’t been to one for five or six years, so it was slightly overwhelming. So many dogs, so many people, so much stress! But it was interesting to observe the event in a neutral way; I didn’t know anyone there, and wasn’t attending with a specific task in mind. I took my camera, took some pictures (to use as stock photos for potential use in WDJ), and took my time with whatever I wanted.

I am certain that if you have a child with a chronic and particularly challenging medical condition or behavioral disorder that cannot be readily...

The other day a photo of a beautiful young German Shepherd Dog caught my eye. The photo had been shared by a number of my local dog-loving friends on Facebook. The caption explained that the young dog, obviously a purebred and about six months old, had been found on a rural road in my area, and that the rescuer was trying to find the owner. The rescuer asked everyone locally if they could please share the photo, because she couldn't keep the dog for long at her own house, and didn't want to take the dog to the shelter.

Recently, a dog was admitted to a veterinary hospital in northern Michigan with symptoms that looked just like those of canine parvovirus type 2...

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...

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...

Not quite a year ago, I told you about Ruby, a Cardigan Corgi I had fostered for my local shelter three years prior; she had found a home, but was being returned to the shelter, and I had decided to foster her again, to try to assess what had gone wrong. When I first fostered Ruby, I had observed that she was a confident, tough little dog, who would freeze and give a hard eye" look at other dogs when they crossed her in some way

When you or I took guitar or violin or piano lessons as children, we were reminded that we needed to practice each day between lessons in order to retain competence. Those of us that didn't embrace this advice tended to give up the lessons for other pursuits. The flute or clarinet was returned to the rental store, the guitar went back to the closet to gather dust.But again and again I hear from people who took their dog to a puppy class or to a beginning obedience class and then expected the dog to know how to behave from then on. When I explain that reminders and practice and new skills are good for all dogs, I often hear resistance.