heart+disease/feed/rss2/Rawhide%20chews%20are%20potentially%20dangerous%20because%20they%20can%20be%20a%20choking%20hazard%20or%20cause%20gastrointestinal%20obstructions%20if%20your%20dog%20manages%20to%20chew%20off%20a%20piece%20that%20is%20small%20enough%20to%20swallow,%20but%20too%20large%20to%20pass%20unimpeded.%20In%20addition,%20some%20rawhide%20chews%20are%20hard%20enough%20to%20break%20or%20damage%20teeth. - search results

The final kindness we can do for beloved pets who are suffering from disease or painful effects of advanced age is to relieve and shorten their misery. Euthanasia should be painless and peaceful, giving a caregiver a last, loving embrace with her dog (or cat), and a memory of ending the pet's life in a quiet, dignified, fear-free, trauma-free manner. Many of us are at our most vulnerable at this time, wracked with sadness and distracted with deep concern for our companions – and, unfortunately, this may cause us to fail to ensure that the end we want for our pets resembles our hopeful vision of a peaceful end in any way.

Warnings about pets and fireworks are so ubiquitous on social media today, that it seems like repeating the obvious to warn pet owners that they should take extra steps to secure their pets for the holiday. However, there are some fine points to consider that I'd like to add to the suggestions that are most commonly shared.

The warnings all discuss taking various precautions to prevent your pet from being traumatized or escaping on the July 4th holiday. Actually, you had better ramp up those preparations NOW, since many people who buy fireworks start celebrating days in advance! With the holiday on Tuesday this year, I would expect to hear lots of snap, crackle, and pops this weekend.

After having a medical issue of my own recently, I had an epiphany: I'd rather see a veterinarian than deal with the human medical system.The usual routine with human medicine: If something serious happens suddenly, you have to go to the emergency room; your own doctor can't see you right away for anything serious.The ER patches you up enough to be released and tells you to follow up with your own doctor. At the day of the appointment, your doctor decides you need an x-ray or ultrasound or other test - and sends you to another clinic or testing laboratory where this is done. It takes days for the results to get back to your doctor, and when he gets them, he sends you elsewhere for treatment. At least, that's what happened to me, recently.

Some puppies have a naturally soft bite; some joyfully shred flesh without a hint of malice as they engage in normal interactions with the...

Dogs whine for a variety of reasons. Understanding your dog's motivation for whining will lead you to the appropriate modification approach. Misinterpreting the whine, or simply chastising or otherwise punishing your dog for whining, can exacerbate the behavior and even give rise to other more serious behavioral issues. Consider these possible causes.

Recently, I went on a vacation – a dog-free vacation. It was strange to not pet dogs for a week – and I kept having that startling sensation that I had forgotten to feed them – but it was interesting to receive reports from the people who were taking care of mine. Nine-year-old Otto stayed at my sister's house. Otto is tired of other dogs, having been present for the comings and goings of countless foster dogs and puppies over the past few years, and even though my sister has four small dogs, I thought her house would be the best spot for him.

Kennel cough, or tracheobronchitis, is comparable to the common cold in humans. Nevertheless, it is frightening to many new dog guardians to discover that their puppy or newly rescued dog has contracted the disease. An unrelenting goose-like cough is the hallmark of kennel cough in dogs, but fortunately, most cases are treated successfully at home. To ensure your puppy recovers from kennel cough in a minimal amount of time and without complication, Whole Dog Journal has outlined the necessary steps you, the concerned guardian, need to take.

This dog had developed a strong habit of urine marking in the house. His owner is managing the situation by making the dog wear a belly band (with a disposable sanitary pad inside), while also encouraging him to use puppy pads" to relieve himself if need be. A security camera confirmed that he's using the pads!üKeep a close watch on your dog

Training a dog to "drop it!" is extremely useful, but what about when you're dealing with a resource-guarding dog, or a dog who insists...

We'd love for you to take our dry dog food selection criteria into account as a starting place – only that, though, because there are a lot of other factors that people take into consideration when buying food for their dogs, and everyone will weigh these factors differently, depending on their individual needs and beliefs. If we made up a pie chart illustrating the weight of these factors, each dog owner's important food buying factors" chart would be different

The companies that appear on the Whole Dog Journal “Approved Foods” list offer products that meet Whole Dog Journal's basic dog food selection criteria: they contain good ingredients, they don’t contain any “red flag” ingredients, and their makers are reasonably transparent about their manufacturing and formulation. This dog food list is a start – meant to give you examples of companies with better-quality products than those found in grocery and big-box stores, and lower-end pet supply stores. The list purposely contains products that range in quality and cost, from “wildly expensive” to “not cheap.” Inexpensive foods will not meet our selection criteria, because it’s impossible to make a low-cost dog food that contains superior ingredients.

For 20 years, Whole Dog Journal has upheld its reputation as a leader in dog companionship and care information. We take our mission statement seriously, and we've gained a lot of respect for that over the years, bringing us more and more new readers every month! However, now we'd like to share with our readers both new and old three aspects of the dog guardianship world you will NOT find in Whole Dog Journal.