With solemn but curious brown eyes, the mahogany spaniel in the doorway gazes upon a visitor. A well-formed male with power in his stance, the dog pads gently forward, in a slow, assessing approach. His big brown nose investigates the newcomer. They say that Field Spaniels can be reticent when first meeting a stranger, but […]

Sue Stejskal was inching along on her belly in a dark crawl space that may have once held the corpse of a murder victim. A headlamp was all she had for light. She was in that tight spot because of Chili Dawg, a sweet 8-pound Dachshund with wiry hair the color of a caramel milkshake. […]

Rottweilers are as loyal and loving as they are protective and confident. The working dog has been a long-loved breed that dates back to the times of the Roman Empire. And while they have played various roles over the course of history, today they make a fun-loving companion for families across the country. The breed is […]

My name is Maximillian Thompson. I’m currently seventeen years old and am from northeastern Minnesota. I started training for Rally, Agility, and Junior Showmanship back in late 2014, when I got my first dog, an energetic field Golden Retriever named Stella. She was one and a half at the time. Her family had given her […]

When a pup’s age is still counted in weeks, he’d be lucky to get much farther than the front door. But in 1954, a 6-week-old black and tan pup from the sub­ urbs of Sydney made a 7,500-mile journey on Qantas Empire Airways to his new home in La Crescenta, California. His name was Sir […]

The covert’s utmost bound Slyly she skirts; behind them cautious she creeps, And in that very track, so lately stain’d By all the steaming crowd, seems to pursue The foe she flies. -William Somerville, The Chace, 1735 William Somerville’s lyrical descrip­tion of a hare sneaking around behind a pursuing pack of hounds and tracking them […]

When we bring a dog into our family, most of us imagine that we will have that dog for the rest of the dog's life. While this is the ideal, it isn't always the reality. If your life circumstances change and you're no longer able to care for your dog, there are ethical ways to […]

The history of dogs might be very different without the people of Phoenicia. These seafaring traders sailed the Mediterranean from what is today Lebanon 2,500 years ago, During their trip, they did business in luxury items. As they went, it's assumed that the Phoenicians disseminated Egyptian hounds throughout the ancient world. The prevailing theory suggests […]

The bubonic plague, or Black Death, was unleashed in 1348 by the humble rat flea. The plague decimated the people of Europe and before the connection was made between the plague and rats, half of all Europeans — by some estimates 40 or 50 million — suffered an unspeakably gruesome death. In the wake of […]

Although its precise origins are unknown, the Shih Tzu is undoubtedly descended from lion-like Tibetan holy dogs and have existed for centuries.