Vera’s first owner left her to die in a box beside a busy road. A family discovered the puppy and rescued her until their landlord discovered the new addition. Vera had to go. The family found her a home with a teacher who had a soft heart for homeless dogs. But ultimately, the teacher had […]

A Tip from the AKC GoodDog! Helpline Humans are busy. We work; we go to school; we have families to take care of, errands to run, social lives to maintain, and hobbies to enjoy. Sometimes your dog takes a backseat to the rest of your life. Is that why he's suddenly chewing up the furniture […]

By Kelley C. KotchLast November I was assigned to steward for Mr. Edd Bivin at our Conroe Kennel Club show. I gathered up my things and headed to my ring. Mr. Bivin proved to be a nice man. He pointed out different nuances in some breeds and was very open to my questions (Lord knows I […]

Resource guarding is a challenging behavior to combat for new and experienced owners. Guarding possessions or food can occur between dogs in a household and/or between dogs and humans.  Early training is the best method to preventing resource guarding. It is important for puppies to learn at an early age that people touching their food […]

Wheaten Terriers have a penchant for making friends wherever they go, and it should come as no surprise that they excel at therapy work, provided they receive obedience training and have the right temperament. Participation in the AKC’s STAR Puppy program followed by Canine Good Citizen® certification is a great way for a dog to […]

Dogs have strong jaw muscles, which allow them to tear and chew many things. We have to remember, however, that their gastrointestinal tract is almost the same as a human’s. Anything (aside from dog food) that we would not eat, our dogs should not eat. There are three categories of foreign objects that dogs tend […]

AKC GoodDog! Helpline Trainer Breanne Long shares some tips on introducing your dog to the water so they have a positive experience and learn to love to swim. Many breeds are natural-born swimmers. Many retrievers and spaniels will swim with little encouragement, but dogs with body types less suited to swimming, like Bulldogs, may need more […]

It is easy to understand how and why a singleton puppy would or could develop into being a dominant dog. Why not? The singleton puppy never had any littermates around to dissuade this notion. The singleton will always be the only being in his or her universe (other than Mom), unless he or she is […]

When a dog visits my home, whether a puppy or a guest, I immediately go into pool safety training mode. It goes without saying that dogs should be supervised in the pool area at all times. But there’s always the possibility that they could get into the pool area undetected. Falling in the pool could […]

By Kathy Lorentzen "Reprinted with permission from Dogs in Review and author Kathy Lorentzen, from the April 2015 issue of Dogs in Review magazine." Having been raised in dogs by old-school breeders who were true animal husbandry experts, I have long believed that my dogs should be natural easy breeders and whelpers and fully capable […]