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a supermarket checkout person asked me what I was going to do with the chicken necks I was buying. When I said I was going to give them to my dogs

I’ve sort of turned into the volunteer coordinator at my local shelter. That’s the best way I can help the animals there – by trying to bring in, train, and support other volunteers. But I have to admit, I have been feeling kind of burned out lately.

It happens every year: In our February issue, we review dry dog foods, and list the companies that make the dry dog foods that meet our selection criteria in our “WDJ’s Approved Dry Dog Foods” list. We list the foods by company, because if we listed them by the name of the food, we’d have to repeat the company information for some companies many, many times.

I got to dog-sit my son’s new puppy, Cole, this weekend, while he was out of town at a tournament with his sports team. I actually pulled rank on my son’s girlfriend, who volunteered to be the one who dog-sat Cole this weekend. I wanted to see how Cole’s training was coming along; my son shares his college home with four other young men, all of whom love dogs and have dogs back at their parents’ homes, but who all have varying amounts of proper dog-training knowledge and experience.

I know a couple who adopted a shelter dog, and, some six months after that fact, have decided to give the dog up following an incident with the dog. The wife took the dog to a friend’s house, and due to a lot of factors (that were entirely predictable to anyone knowing much of anything about dogs, but apparently, undreamed of by the inexperienced owner), the adopted dog attacked the dog who lived in that…

The Arctic weather plaguing much of the country wreaks havoc with our dogs, too. Paws get frozen quickly in temperatures like these. Snow between your dog's foot pads can cause frostbite and lameness, and crusted snow and ice can easily cut his feet. Trim the excess hair from the footpads and toes of longhaired dogs; this will make it easier to remove ice and snow.

I have fostered a lot of adolescent dogs for my local shelter, dogs who are really sweet individuals who have been in the shelter for months and months without getting adopted. Usually they are the ones who have personality quirks (and sometimes, quirky looks) that make it difficult for them to get adopted. And their behavior, especially after months in the shelter, is almost always rather unacceptable – to people and to other dogs. While shelter volunteers may have been working with them to learn to offer a calm sit, the shelter has few enough experienced volunteers to also work with them on more advanced behaviors, such as leash manners.

A few weeks ago, the talk of the dog-related section of the Internet was Trifexis, the oral flea-control medication introduced a year or so ago by Elanco Animal Health. News reports alleged that more than 700 dogs have been killed by adverse reactions to this drug. To verify that number, I looked to the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), the agency responsible for collecting and analyzing reports of adverse effects of veterinary drugs on animals.

My son, a senior in college, has been counting the days until he can have a dog of his own. For like, the past seven years. You see, he’s one of those children of divorce, so he split his time between mom’s house and dad’s house – and when he was in high school, he said he didn’t want to make a dog move back and forth, or stay with one parent without him every other week

I have to admit: I have met dogs I don’t enjoy, and one type that I have a lot of admiration and respect for, but would never want to share my home with, are hunting dogs.

I’m grateful, beyond what words can express, for the companionship and health of my near-perfect “heart dog” Otto, a six-year-old scruffy mixed breed. Our early years together were a challenge but worth the effort, and I count on him to behave well in all sorts of circumstances and he *almost* never lets me down.

So, one of my sisters visited recently. She lives out of state, and I loaned her my car to drive for a week, which she was going to spend traveling to see her daughter -- about 6 hours drive from me -- our other sister and a friend about five hours from there, and then come back here. All that happened.