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What a difference a couple of generations make. From the 1960s to the early 1970s, Vietnam was engaged in a protracted war with the United States that led to devastating mortal and social consequences for our country. Today, Vietnam is a travel destination for adventurous Americans, celebrated in part for its lively street food culture and best exemplified by 2016 images of President Obama and the late chef Anthony Bourdain breaking bread on an episode of Mr. Bourdains television show. But it seems there is about to be a shift in the countrys vibrant food scene.

With some 1,000 locations throughout the UK, including at hotels and airports, the Wetherspoons chain of pubs has instituted a no dog policy. It has actually had such a policy in place for decades but never really put teeth into it.

Dogs have been a fixture on college campus for years as team mascots. But more and more, they are being brought to live at institutions of higher learning to relieve students often considerable stress. The University of South Carolina, for instance, has recently adopted therapy puppy Indy. Once her training is complete, she will hold office hours at the schools Student Health Services. The University of California also has a campus facility dog - Beau, a black goldendoodle who spends time ratcheting down students anxiety at the campuss health center.

As more states legalize medical marijuana (31 as we went to press) along with recreational pot (nine so far), more dogs are getting sick from it. They scarf down a discarded joint while out on a romp, for example, or snatch some unguarded marijuana-laced food off the kitchen counter. The Animal Poison Control Center says marijuana-related calls to its Pet Poison Hotline (855-764-7601) have increased 448 percent over the last six years. The ASPCAs Animal Poison Control Center (888-426-4435) has also seen a significant increase in calls about pets poisoned with marijuana. Ninety percent of the calls have been about dogs, who are much more adventurous eaters than cats.

To date, diagnosing liver disease in a dog has meant performing an expensive and invasive biopsy. Thus, it often has not been found until late in the game, making treatment more involved and lowering the chances of survival. But a new finding at the Royal School of Veterinary Studies in Scotlands University of Edinburgh is about to change all that.

Some dogs suffer from a genetically inherited skin condition called ichthyosis. They are born with the disease, and the skin becomes drier, scalier-looking, and more prone to infections with age. Thats because the skin barrier - the bodys envelope - breaks down and loses its ability to keep out foreign substances. (The disease strikes people, too. Infants who have it usually develop abnormal-looking skin within the first year of life.)

Noise phobia is one of the most difficult problems to treat in dogs, and people with dogs who are afraid of loud noises are reminded of that annually on July 4th and, very often, New Years Eve - two holidays that come with booming fireworks displays. Their dogs shake, whine, run for cover, destroy household effects, and, generally cope very poorly with fireworks loud bangs. Why shouldnt they? Dogs have no idea that fireworks are celebratory. For all they know, colorful warriors are invading from the sky and, in the process, hurting their ears, which are much more sensitive to sound than ours.

Who among us hasnt been slapped on the proverbial wrist because weve treated our dogs too much like people, imbuing them with human emotions and feelings and thereby breaking scientists cardinal rule not to anthropomorphize animals?

When a dog died last March during a Houston-to-New York flight on United Airlines after being stowed in an overhead compartment, a tragic mistake the company acknowledged and apologized for, United temporarily suspended its program for allowing dogs (and cats) to fly on its planes while reviewing its safety policies.

Has your dog developed a fearful or anxious reaction to loud noises that she didnt have before? Consider getting her to the doctor rather than the trainer.

You've probably heard that with their keen sense of smell, dogs can sniff cancer on their owners and even be trained to warn of a hypoglycemic attack in someone with diabetes because of changes in the odor of the persons breath. Now, researchers are learning that dogs can also protect our food supply - in a big way.

Wolves are raised by their mothers and fathers until they are two years old. Not so, dogs. Their mothers are done with them at weaning, around the time a puppy is about 8 weeks of age. Perhaps thats why theres such a high mortality rate among pups not living as pets; more than 80 percent of dogs die in their first year of life without human care. But not to worry - there appears to be an across-species evolutionary process at work that helps helpless, newly motherless puppies get adopted into human homes. It involves a young dogs peak adorableness.