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My wonderful Scottie/Corgi/Poodle-mix, Bonnie, had long, fine, curly fur that tangled easily. She was relatively tolerant of my frequent insistence on combing out the...

The question of how best to feed dogs stimulates great debate and evokes strong emotions among dog folks. (Yes, this an intended understatement.) One of the most contentiously defended viewpoints in recent years is that dogs should not be fed diets that contain digestible carbohydrate (starch). Two primary arguments are used to defend this position.

There are many different ways of feeding dogs – commercially prepared dry, wet, semi-moist, freeze-dried, and frozen options, as well as home-prepared diets that are cooked or raw, including both BARF (bones and raw food) and prey-model methods. Because feeding can evoke a strong emotional response in the human who fills the food bowl – in our world, food is love, after all – our reflexive response is often to assume that the way we currently feed is the best way.

Vitamin D deficiencies in dogs can cause health problems over time, but so can an oversupply. Because vitamin D is fat soluble, it accumulates in body fat. Overdoses can be toxic and even fatal, but some vitamin D is necessary to a dog's health. Vitamin D will aid in the absorption of calcium and phosphate, increases bone cell activity, influences the formation and growth of long bones, and speeds the healing of fractures. Adequate D levels may help prevent heart disease, joint inflammation, skin and coat problems, cancer, vision problems, depression, mental illness, infections, inflammatory bowel disease, dental problems, hyperparathyroidism, and kidney disease.

Why do puppies chew? They chew to explore the world, and to relieve the pain and irritation of teething. But they also chew because it's a natural, normal activity for all canines, young and old. While puppies do eventually grow up and get past the stage where they feel compelled to put their teeth on everything they see, mature dogs also need to chew to exercise their jaws, massage their gums, clean their teeth, and to relieve stress and boredom.

See our top-pick pet memoirs, nonfiction books and dog ownership guides! If we had limitless time and funds, we could spend months reading nothing but dog stories. But time is short, so here's an overview of recommended dog-related books published since 2010.

When it comes to that most primitive part of us, there's nothing as basic as blood. In virtually every culture across the planet, blood represents the stream of life itself. Because its looping path always leads it back to the heart – that great repository of emotion – blood has come to represent all that truly matters to the human spirit: passion, heritage, mortality, atonement, commitment, sacrifice, even our connection to the divine.

The sequencing of the canine genome, accomplished as a public research project in 2004, opened the floodgates to endless possibilities for canine genetic testing. The holy grail for many scientists engaged in this work is the understanding of, and ultimately, the elimination of inherited canine diseases. For many dog owners, though, the most exciting outcome of this serious work is the possibility that they can learn exactly what breeds their mutts are made of. Though there are already several commercial companies offering products that purport to be able to do just that, our assessment of the breed identification tests is that the results may be just as mixed as the dogs they seek to explain. The test results may be nearly as varied, interesting, and enjoyable as our mixed-breed friends, but it seems that, at least right now, they may not be able to absolutely satisfy the question of your mutt’s parentage. The tests are getting better every day, though! And as the understanding of DNA, the size of the sample databases, and the power of computers grow, it’s likely that the tests will, at some point, truly live up to the marketing hype currently being used to sell them.

What could be better than curing your dog's cancer? That's easy! How about avoiding the illness in the first place? No one has done any clinical trials or statistical studies that prove you can prevent cancer in at-risk dogs. But common sense and clinical experience make a strong case for avoiding anything that exposes an animal to known carcinogens or weakens the immune system

Holistic care and home support are effective for treating canine cancer.

When we decided not to vaccinate Caleb, our Bouvier des Flandres, against anything other than rabies, my friend Janice and I knew we ran a risk that he might develop a dreaded disease. We also knew that vaccination doesn't always protect against disease, and believed it sometimes causes illness. We felt the home-prepared BARF (bones and raw foods) diet we fed him would help his body fight off many health problems. Naturally, we hoped that Caleb would never come down with anything serious like canine distemper virus (CDV). But, when he was three years old, we had to face and overcome exactly that challenge.

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