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I just found the ideal dog park. It's in Grass Valley, California, in a gorgeous public park called Condon Park. It's large, and set in a forested setting, with tall pines overhead, and the footing is thick with pine needles. It has two separate areas, with a smaller section (but still quite good-sized) reserved for small and shy" dogs. I love that the folks who set it up did not specify small dogs only. What do you do when you have a dog who needs to really run and romp and get tired

ill-mannered dogs brought into stressful public spaces by unscrupulous

I often scroll through posts on the Facebook page of a rescue group that I very occasionally have the opportunity to help. It’s a...

My brother passed away a couple of weeks ago after a fairly short and intense battle against cancer. He leaves behind a wife and young daughter. It's been a very sad, hard time for my family. We held a memorial service for my brother last weekend. We rented a rustic building in a beautiful, wooded park in a Sierra town near where he had lived for many years. My sister who is a chef lovingly prepared much of the food. My sister in law's many friends and co-workers helped up set up the hall, with live lavender plants on every table, and a local musician my brother had admired played the guitar. Friends and family members traveled from all over to help us remember my brother and celebrate his life.My dog Otto and my son's dog Cole were present for the event. Every member of my family loves dogs, not least, my brother's five-year-old daughter. She absolutely adores Cole, and his eyes light up when he sees her; they get along like peanut butter and jelly. I thought, correctly, that she would enjoy having Cole at the event – and I knew Cole would enjoy socializing with all the guests. He's happy and polite and well-mannered and his coat is like silk. I thought he could be a good therapy dog for the memorial.

too

a raised garden bed full of winter onions. "That's it! This dog is out of here!" my husband roared (before he calmed down).

Every young dog or puppy has to be civilized and trained

It's one of those jobs you just don't ask a native (and lifelong) Californian to do: review dog coats. The only time I tried it, I failed; I separated the products under consideration into two categories – rain coats and warm coats – and was taken to task, rightly, for not providing a choice for dogs who have to go out in freezing rains. Because . . . a freezing rain? I have never experienced such a thing, much less had to walk my dog in one.

I don't know why it always surprises me when someone refers proudly to their strict adherence to prohibiting their dog from getting any "people food."I understand they are proud because they believe they are doing the right thing – that they think "people food" is somehow bad for dogs and that they are keeping their dogs well (and well - behaved, even) by not "spoiling" them.What I don't understand is how people have come to regard what I'm going to call * real food * could be bad for dogs.

I don't know about you, but my Facebook news feed is often cluttered with posts regarding lost dogs. In the past week alone, friends or family shared photos and information about half a dozen different lost dogs, from all different parts of the country and lost due to all sorts of circumstances. I find these posts doubly sad, because not only are the people bereft for the loss of their dogs (and the dogs unquestionably scared out of their minds, cold, and hungry), many of the incidents described appear to have been avoidable - with hindsight, of course. But the point is, if people thought more about the bad things that can happen when they least expected them, and worked to prevent them, many of these tragic "lost dog" cases would never happen.

vaccinations

he will walk away from the bowl to investigate that thought

As I approached the front of the supermarket, I saw about six or seven people standing in a circle. Uh oh, I thought, and sure enough: There was a couple there with three pit-mix puppies. The pups looked like they were about 8 weeks old; they had the pudgy, unformed bodies and the stoic/exhausted expressions of very young pups.