The Dog Blog

I had little optimism for Ollie’s future as we concluded his initial behavior consultation. Homes for 140-pound dogs who bite people are in short supply, and Ollie seemed about to lose his. Ann and Meredith (not their real names) had adopted him from a shelter less than two months before our appointment. Their relationship started out wonderfully. The big goofy Harlequin Great Dane quickly bonded with his new family and spent his first 2 or 3 weeks charming their friends and neighbors. Then his behavior took a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse.

Dog Food Ads: Hope or Hype?

Have you ever seen that dog food commercial where the puppy scampers up the wooden porch steps to the adoring child? Thanks to the magic of television, the dog is then an adult, walking up those same stairs to the now-teenager. Fast-forward another few years and the dog is a senior, climbing slowly toward his loving adult owner. Do the math, and you know what comes next—reaching for the Kleenex.

In 1971, I moved to the US to research dog sexual behavior at UC Berkeley. This might sound like a strange choice (the research topic not the place) but at the time, I was a veterinarian with an intense interest in both animal behavior and obstetrics and my two favorite domestic species were cows and dogs. A coin toss came down in favor of dogs and so, dog sexual behavior was a logical research choice. Berkeley was not necessary a hotbed of canine sexual activity but rather, the site for the longest running study on dog behavior.

My affinity for dogs was strong, unwavering, and readily apparent, by the time I was five years old. This attraction was almost certainly genetically pre-determined by generations of ancestors (including my parents) smitten with canines.