Blog

Why can the same dog who barks his head off at the slightest leaf blowing across the grass seem not to see the treats on the floor right in front of him? It’s all in the mystery of canine vision. Here’s how I explained it to a reader who had questions. Q: I can throw […]

Didn’t I read something, perhaps a soliloquy from a doggy Shakespeare who exclaimed from beside a fire-hydrant, “To pee, or not to pee, that is not the question.”? A dog’s motto is to pee frequently with as much volume and elevation as possible. I long ago coined the now popular term “pee-mail,” which is basically […]

Obesity is an epidemic in pet dogs and cats, but there are pets who need to gain weight, usually due to a medical problem. So is your “skinny” pup really skinny, or are we just not used to what “normal” looks like? Here are some ideas I offered to a dog owner writing about her […]

We had a beloved blind dog, Shakira. I share some of what we learned with this dog owner struggling with her dog’s vision loss. Q: My dog is losing her eyesight. How can I help her adjust? A: Blindness doesn’t seem to stop the average dog. When eyesight goes, the nose and ears take over […]

Dogs have personal “bubbles” just like people do. They also have specific ways they do and don’t like to be petted. In the final video in her training series with our friends at Bissell, my daughter, trainer Mikkel Becker, discusses and demonstrates the good and the bad of petting. This video, like a couple of […]