By Mary Fish ArangoWhen you add a pet fish to family life, you’re pretty much guaranteeing lessons about changing the water, life’s need for oxygen, and the daily responsibility of feeding and caring for another living being. A little later, you step up the game and get a pet guinea pig, hamster, gerbil, or rat. […]

Whole books, not to mention thousands of web pages, are devoted to describing the minutiae that distinguish one breed from another. However, the official AKC breed standards are supposed to be the breeders’ blueprints, so I found myself wondering if we could recognize the distinct personality of the Belgian Malinois based solely on its description […]

If I were a university professor and ventured the following opinion, I’d be stripped of my tweed jacket and PBS tote bag, denied tenure, and cast into the community-college wilderness. But seeing how I’m just a guy who works for a dog magazine, I can write this without fear of academic reprisals: One of the […]

Livestock-guardian breeds like the Anatolian Shepherd Dog have been bred for centuries to work much of the time independently of man. It comes as no surprise, then, that of all the dog-training commands, the recall command (“come”)—the most important obedience lesson of all—is the most difficult one to teach them. First-time owners are often taken […]

MACH Hailey Bell CD BN MXB MJB THD & Danielle Oss of Prior Lake, MN Danielle Oss and her family adopted Hailey, a Border Collie-retriever mix, from a shelter in 2008. The following summer on a trip to the Minnesota State Fair, Danielle saw an agility demonstration and knew that she had to try the […]

Good dog names are hard to come by. In the popular television series “Columbo,” the detective played by Peter Falk was sometimes accompanied by his droopy-faced basset hound. His dog’s name: Dog. Most dog owners are a bit more imaginative when it comes to naming their pets. The list of the most popular dog names generally doesn’t […]

When Aryn Hervel met Crush, her first thought was “this dog needs a job.” The petite cattle dog mix had gone through two owners who couldn’t live with her energy until dog trainer Hervel adopted her and put her to work. Hervel channels Crush’s exuberance into agility with great success. The former shelter dog has […]

He’s A PatchWork Puppy CDX CGC TDI OJP OAP OFP GN CD BN RAE Sheila Dempsey of Jane Lew, WV, wrote this special tribute to her amazing multi-titled All-American Dog, Patches, when he retired from competition at age 13 two years ago. Patches is now 15 ½ years old and enjoying his retirement, Sheila says. […]

By Jennifer Clark, Manager, Canine Legislation It was one of the busiest days of the legislative year in North Carolina, but that didn't stop legislators, legislative staff, and state employees from responding to the AKC's invitation to "stop by on your lunch break and hug a dog!" at AKC's 4th annual "Canines at the Capitol" […]

We are pleased to announce a new member of the Canine Good Citizen family- AKC Urban Canine Good Citizen. AKC Urban CGC is beginning in April 2015. The first AKC Urban CGC test in the country was recently administered by the Obedience Training Club of Palm Beach County. Organized by CGC Evaluator Marti Hohmann, dogs and their […]