DOG OWNERSHIP

Nothing beats the summertime heat like a dip in the pool or a visit to the beach or a lake, and many dogs, like their human family mates, enjoy all the splashing around. Theyre probably not going to be willing to go down the water slide with you, but toys and gear are available that will enhance their pool or shore-side experience. At the same time, a number of other items will help insure their safety. First, the fun stuff!

Rita Denton of Jefferson City, Missouri, is beside herself. Her daughters French bulldog attacks anything that moves, she says - big dogs, carriage horses, police on bicycles, children. I am afraid, Ms. Denton comments, my daughter will end up with a lawsuit on her hands!

May 2017 - Full Issue PDF

What kind of dog is that? Its hard to go to a dog park and never hear that question being posed. We love to know the breed, or breeds, of a particularly cute or interesting-looking dog whose features have us stumped. Indeed, we often wonder about the breed makeup of our own mutts.

The night that a blizzard dropped a foot of snow in my area this past winter, little Rosie was having trouble making her way over a snow bank that separated the road from a park. Usually shes pretty tough, but that night she was spooked and, although I had her on leash, she kept backing up further and further into the road. I had already let Franklin off leash, and he easily made his way over the bank and was walking further into the park.

When pitbull mix Brooklyn came to live with Rochelle Lucas and Aaron Roylance at the ripe age of 9, he tipped the scales somewhere between 90 and 95 pounds. The vet said, he cannot stay at this weight, Ms. Lucas recalls. Thats going to be really hard on his joints."

A common question vets get asked is What would you do if it were your dog? says John Berg, DVM, DACVS,

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), dog owners spend an average of $1,314 on items for their small dog, $1,580 for a medium-size dog, and $1,843 for a large one - in the first year alone! Multiply that by the estimated 70 to 80 million pet dogs in the United States, and it adds up to quite a lot of stuff - toys, beds, and other pleasure- and comfort-giving paraphernalia. That means a lot of wear and tear on the planet through the use of materials and manufacturing processes that leave a large ecological footprint.

Some photographers of dogs are born great. Others have great photographers thrust across the street from them. It was my luck to have moved across the street from Michael Weymouth, one of the most highly successful and sought after commercial photographers around. Thats how I got this great photo of my son, John, and our first dog, Ellie, when John was two.

February 2017 - Full Issue PDF

You keep making a typo when you refer to one of the veterinarians on your editorial board, a reader wrote. Cailin Heinze is always called a VMD. But the designation for a vet is DVM.

Wait, before you start reading, go get your wall calendar, or date book, or smart phone, or whatever it is you use to remind yourself of your appointments. Well wait.