Lifestyle

The best safe and durable dog crate is the one that fits your dog and is able to withstand any escape attempts.

All-weather shoes protect dog paws year-round, but are most appropriate for protecting paws from hot pavement. We tested six designs from five companies – Ruffwear’s Grip Trex were the best.

Not every dog is a good match for talking buttons. Older dogs or those that have never shown interest in solving puzzles may not get much benefit from the device.

The natural thing to do when someone complains about your dog is to get defensive. My dog? Causing a problem? How dare you?!" Don't go there. Defensiveness exacerbates hostilities

Don’t give a regular beer to your canine companion (the alcohol is toxic to dogs), but you can share beer’s festive spirit with dog-friendly alternatives.

Options for replacing Elizabethan collars include simple DIY versions and a few comfortable commercial devices.

A perfect storm has hit the animal rescue world, and many shelters nationwide are bursting at the seams. Fostering is one way to help during the current animal shelter crisis. By taking a dog out of a shelter and fostering, you may even save another dog's life by freeing up kennel space in a facility.

Walking with a dog in the dark can present a number of challenges for many dog owners. You may not be able to see well in the dark; this can make you take a hard step off a curb or trip on a rise in the sidewalk. Finding your dog's poop at night (so you can pick it up and dispose of it properly) is also a problem. Although definitely in the minority, some people walk their dogs off-leash at night. I've met a number of people at night who were walking off-leash dogs on the wide trail that tops the river levee that parallels my town's main street. If I wasn't a dog person, I would probably be unnerved by the fast approach of a strange dog in the dark. And as it is, if the dogs were mine, I'd be worried that one of them would wander off or get lost if I couldn't keep sight of them.

The first popularized Doodle was a Labrador Retriever and Poodle mix, bred in 1989 by Wally Conron as a guide dog prospect. He aimed to create a dog with the temperament of a Lab, but the non-shedding coat of a Standard Poodle for a woman who needed a guide dog, but whose husband had dog allergies. In a 2014 interview with Psychology Today, Conron said that he regrets popularizing Doodle breeding. "I opened a Pandora's box, that's what I did,” he said.

Yes. Dogs can tear them apart and swallow the threads, which can result in an obstruction and costly surgery.

Not to be outdone by the veterinary profession (See Alphabet Soup

I have floofy dogs, so I learned to remove dog hair from my car. I also became a fan of preventatives. For example, if...