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The best in health, wellness, and positive training from America’s leading dog experts

Home Health

Health

When to See a Vet and When to See a Trainer

or gradually becomes uncharacteristically undesirable."
Dog near a beehive

Benadryl for Dogs

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Know your dog’s weight and how to recognize a mild allergic reaction before giving Benadryl to dogs.
A young woman considers dog food labels looking at its digestibility.

How Important is the Digestibility of Dog Food

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What is digestibility and why does it matter? Digestibility reflects a food's ability to deliver essential nutrients to the dog who eats it. This ultimately affects not only defecation quantity and quality (how much your dog poops and how the poop looks and smells), and a dog's propensity for flatulence (no explanation needed), but more importantly, a dog's long-term health and wellness. The graphic on this page summarizes how digestibility is measured using feeding trials with dogs.

Recovery From a ‘Fetch’ Injury

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You’ve played this game thousands of times. You’ve got a few minutes, and your maniacally loyal canine companion is eager to play fetch, begging for it, ball in mouth, dropping it at your feet, barking in joyful anticipation. Then it happened. Willie slipped, tried to stop, and twisted into a ball with a yelp. He lay paralyzed from the middle of the back down, lying quietly on the frozen ground as Rogers rushed over.
Leptospirosis in dogs

Leptospirosis in Dogs: What You Should Know

Leptospirosis is a disease caused by bacteria shed in the urine of infected wildlife. Deer, skunks, and raccoons are the biggest reservoirs, although rodents...

Why Does My Dog Have a Tattoo?

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Why does my dog have a tattoo on their tummy? Animal shelters and spay/neuter clinics routinely tattoo dogs with green or blue ink after spaying or neutering.

Torn Cruciate Ligaments in Dogs

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A cranial cruciate ligament injury in a young, healthy dog is typically an athletic injury. In older dogs, it is usually an injury of chronic wear and tear. This explains why its so common for a dog who has damaged the CrCL on one side to then tear it on the other side. When you take one back leg out of commission, the work load shifts to the other, increasing the strain on the ligaments of the good leg.

Anesthesia-Free Teeth Cleaning For Your Dog

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Most of us have seen signs or advertisements for anesthesia-free teeth cleaning" for dogs and cats. To most people

2017 Best Dog Cone Alternatives

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The term “recovery collar” is becoming the standard term to refer to what has been called an Elizabethan collar, a pet cone, or more humorously, a lampshade, a pet radar dish, and, of course, the misnomer “cone of shame.” There is no shame in needing help! The term Elizabethan collar is still heard frequently, but because it tends to be shortened to e-collar and because that’s also a shortened version of electronic collar, the phrase is falling out of use for this application.

Canine Adrenal Glands

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The adrenals are small glands located just forward of the kidneys. They are so small, in fact, they were virtually ignored by early anatomists for centuries. Although small in size, they are extremely important in the overall hormonal balance of the body and its ability to maintain homeostasis.
bermese mountain dogs high risk for hot spots

Hot Spots and Lick Granulomas

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Your dog has a weeping, oozing wound on her leg or a yucky red blob on the top of her head, and at first you wonder how she injured herself. But if you've been around the dog-care block, you realize that it isn't a cut or scrape. That gooey mess might be diagnosed as pyotraumatic dermatitis, wet eczema, or a Staphylococcus intermedius infection, but it's what everyone calls a hot spot.
Black and white dog carrying spotted soft dog toy in mouth, on frosty grass covered in Autumn leaves

False Pregnancy in Dogs

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This pseudo pregnancy is caused by hormones and is not life-threatening.