More animals are lost during the 4th of July celebrations than at any other time of the year. Loud noises from fireworks frighten animals due to their heightened senses of hearing, and they will do anything to escape the noise.

In talking with a local vet, I learned that when the loud booms from  read more »

Why Do Dogs Eat Grass? by Laura French
When passersby on the walking trail see my Sofie eating grass, they often make a comment like, “She must be sick to her stomach,” or “It must be about to rain.” I smile noncommittally at the comments. Sofie doesn’t throw up after she eats grass — although occasionally she has to make a “gack-gack” noise a couple of times when a blade gets stuck partway down. Nor have I seen any correspondence between her grass-eating habits and the weather. (Although she does show great eagerness to comp away on the first green shoots she finds every spring.)  read more »

Just don’t do it. I’ve blogged in the past about the perils of keeping a dog in the car on a hot day. But after just witnessing someone rollerblading with their dog on a hot afternoon — well, I guess there’s a need to blog about the perils of exercising a dog on a hot day. So, here it goes.

Dogs get hot. Dangerously hot. They don’t have a special organ or ability to process heat better than we do. The problem is, through this blog, I am preaching to the choir. Most of you seem like educated and concerned pet owners.

So the question becomes: How do I get this information to the people who need it? Partly, with your help. So, here’ some nifty facts to share with pet owners who seem to think their dogs can handle the heat:  read more »

My cat is dumb. Dumb isn't exactly right. The more appropriate description is, "My cat is so desperate for food, he does dumb things."

Darby is on a diet. What's worse is that he is on a prescription diet because he can't eat cat food. Any commercial cat food makes him have explosive diarrhea. We have tried every food on the market. It doesn't matter what the protein source is — if it's commercial cat food, he can't digest it. So, we've found a prescription diet that he can digest and we have slowly been adding various nutrients. It is a very delicate balance.

Back to the dumb part. Darby will risk his life to get food. Any kind of food. It doesn't matter if the food is in a boiling pot on the stove or in the back of the freezer. If it smells edible, he's on it, in it and all over it.  read more »

Factoid: Pavlov's Dogs
You CAN Teach An Old Dog New Tricks
By Laura French

Instead of saying," You can't teach an old dog new tricks," it might be more accurate to say that old dogs can’t unlearn old tricks. Ivan Pavlov demonstrated the canine tendency toward conditioned response back in the 1890s. He discovered that dogs would start salivating when they heard a signal they associated with dinner, long before the food itself actually arrived.  read more »

Sunday evening, I was flipping through the channels when I came across a program called
NATURE’s Underdogs that tells the story of two dogs whose lives were saved by people who saw their potential for greatness and gave them jobs.

Holly, a young bloodhound had been through several homes and was at the end of her rope at a rescue shelter, when a professional who trains dogs for law enforcement agencies spotted her. He saw a young dog who was smart but needed to have a job in order to end her destructive behavior.  read more »

I love entrepreneurial thinking. Two seemingly different companies, Walker Elder Suites and dog training business Fresh Air Training have come together to create a symbiotic relationship. Fresh Air Training runs its Pint Size Play group every Sunday at Walker Elder Suites and it couldn't be a healthier relationship—for the businesses, the dogs and the residents who live at Walker.  read more »

Sometimes love alone cannot heal the deepest of wounds. Jeannine Moga, today's guest blogger, has shared her life with many animals, some of whom came into her life with the tell-tale signs of suffering from trauma. Many of us who have rescued animals can relate to Jeannine's experiences and sentiment that sometimes love is not enough to help the animals who cross our paths.

When Love Is Not Enough
By Jeannine Moga

There was a time when I thought that love and effort could right any wrong, could heal any hurt, could mend that which was broken. That was before I welcomed a severely traumatized animal into my home. I learned the hard way that love is not enough.  read more »