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“I don’t understand why Bruno doesn’t like the puppy. I thought he’d welcome a new playmate.”

I hear this lament from clients who are saddened, confused, and sometimes unnerved or scared by the reaction that their current dog has over the addition of a new dog, especially a puppy. Certain that their dog, “who loves other dogs” would enthusiastically embrace the addition of another dog, they can’t understand what went wrong.

In the June 2021 edition of The Whole Dog Journal, Kathy Callahan, CPDT-KA has five tips for introducing a new puppy to your older dog. She reminds us that a puppy is not a full grown dog, and while your dog may indeed enjoy other adult dogs, Bruno may not be all that enthusiastic about having a biting, climbing, toy stealing, toddler, who totally disrupts his normal routine, takes up his peoples’ time, and is there 24/7! When […]

A link to this opinion piece in the Washington Post, about people rehoming the pets they got during the pandemic, popped into my twitter feed this week. At Your Family Dog podcast, we found this subject to be so important that we covered it twice: Wrestling With Rehoming, and Rehoming: Sometimes It Is The Best Option.

It’s all too easy to assume that those who relinquish an animal are heartless, selfish individuals who, if they are so willing to abandon it, don’t deserve the companionship of a pet. But, before you jump on that moral high horse, named I would never do that!, remember that you do not know all the facts of the situation, nor do you have to live with that particular animal on a daily basis.

Rehoming a pet is not easy. I have been training dogs for eighteen years […]

Last night around 11 pm I opened the front door of our cottage to let Zuzu, the Flat Coated Retriever, and Clementine, our Clumber Spaniel, out one last time before bed. 99.9% of the time, this three minute ritual consists of them trotting out, doing their duty, and coming right back inside. Needless to say, last night was the .1% exception to this rule. Before I get to that .1%, however, I should probably mention that I had minor surgery on my right foot this week and though I can walk, I am not able to run or move quickly. This, as you will see, is an important element in the story.

So, to continue…

When I opened the door, instead of sauntering to the grass, Zuzu took off like a heat seeking missile into the night. Clementine was still meandering her way up the […]

Faithful readers of this blog know that I rely on the Whole Dog Journal for information on a variety of topics relating to the canine experience. In this week’s WDJ blog, editor Nancy Kerns, discusses what has been discovered in the last year about Covid-19 and dogs. The good news is that while the virus “can infect the pets who live with infected humans,… the infection doesn’t seem to adversely affect them. And there haven’t been any documented cases of COVID-infected pets causing infections in their owners.” (WDJ)

On the other hand,  according to an article in the March 19, 2021 issue of Science, “[t]wo reports released this week have found the first evidence that dogs and cats can become infected by B.1.1.7, a recent variant of the pandemic coronavirus.” The first incidences of pet infection came from the Ralph Veterinary Referral Center in Britain, […]