Pet food companies are employing increasingly-effective tactics to wed you to their brand. The newest? Recruiting your altruistic animal impulses. And I have to admit it’s a great strategy. How can you resist an ad that minimizes the product and plays up the dire need to find homes for shelter pets?

Spied in the Wall Street Journal’s back-page blurb in Media & Marketing this morning: “Dog...

For stressed-out dogs and rambunctious pups, there’s a remedy distilled from their mother’s milk—well, not really her milk, just the pup-soothing secretions from the sebaceous glands near her nipples.

DAP (aka, “dog appeasing pheromone”) is the result of this distillation—just don’t ask me how they get it…I really don’t want to know.

Supposedly—however questionable the method of obtaining...

Ever surf the Web looking for credible information on your pets? If you’re reading this I know you’re working on it. What say you, then, to the research that intends to warn you off blogs like this, lest they be chock-full of “unconstructive” information?

Two recent papers, one of which appeared in this month’s JAVMA (Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association) effectively urge...

The answer in the case of most species is obvious: No. Not when compared to the lifespan of their wild cousins. How could they? The animals are kept in zoos for reasons that have little to do with their welfare or lifespan as individuals.

Unless their habitats have been completely lost, the ideal place for any given animal is his natural home…not a zoo. There’s no argument there.

Though the...

If you know dogs this news will come as no surprise: Dogs are jealous creatures. Toy envy, treat coveting and kibble greed are no strangers to us dog-watchers. But now, researchers in Vienna have confirmed the not-so-surprising phenomenon:

Yes, dogs will fail to obey commands when distracted by the “emotion” conferred by observing another dog get a better deal. 

Sausage and bread…you get...

Think you already know everything you need to know about Xylitol? Time to re-think this…

In case you haven’t read my back posts on this (here’s the first and here’s another), Xylitol is a natural sweetener sourced from the birch tree. It’s a perfectly healthy substitute for sugar—unless you happen to be a dog…

…in which case your inability to break down this naturally occurring compound...

Spied in The Miami Herald Online yesterday: State inspectors in Florida will be on the lookout for non-compliant pet shops across the peninsula in advance of the annual puppy shopping extravaganza occasioned by the Holidays.

Here’s the scoop:

“State inspectors will conduct a sweep of pet stores during the next five weeks to ensure the establishments are complying with laws that protect...

“Sometimes you just can’t legislate common sense,” is what some dog owners are saying in response to the driving safety legislation making its way through many states’ legislatures. Some of these bills would specifically ban dogs from riding in the driver’s seat with their owners. Others mention pets specifically among a list of ticket-able “distractions.”

Dog owners who take their pets out...

When bad things happen at the vet’s, the groomer’s, doggy day care, etc., most of the time the establishment gets blamed for its lax protocols. That’s my take, anyway.

No, I’m not just referring to things that happen at our place. It’s also my experience that animals arriving with wounds from altercations (with both animate and inanimate objects) are attached to owners who blame the facility...

Let’s say there was a way for you to spay your cat without surrendering her to surgery. Would you do it? Would you neuter your dog via pill or injection?

If you’re anything like me (as I suspect you are) you’ll wait a few years once this currently non-existent technology comes to market before exposing your pet to its potentially unsatisfactory effects.

But it would undoubtedly be worth it if...