This week newspapers and television news have splashed an alarming headline for those pet owners who love to share their bed with their pet. The headlines warn that sleeping with your pet can make you sick and even prove life-threatening in a few rare cases. These headlines are based on an upcoming February 2011 article in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases entitled “Zoonoses in the Bedroom.” In this peer-reviewed article, the authors, veterinarians Bruno B. Chomel, a professor of zoonoses at the University of California, Davis, and Ben Sun, the state public health veterinarian for the California Department of Health,

Trainers often debate about the use of electronic shock collars. Some trainers find these collars unethical and unsafe. The pro-collar camp takes a different stance. Some say it just distracts the dog, calling it “tap technology” and others say it may be painful at the instant but then the dog learns to behave and there are no lasting negative effects. In 2003, researchers from the Netherlands, Matthijs Schilder and Joanne van der Borg assessed the short and long-term behavioral effects of dog training with the help of shock collars. They wanted to know three things: Do shock collars cause pain

A reader recently emailed me about a hot topic of debate in his town of Carl Junction, Missouri. The town is considering revising their leash law to allow owners to walk their dogs on electronic collars including when they are running their dogs next to them in the street while driving golf carts. His specific question was, “Does this provide good control?” There are several factors involved in answering these questions. First, you have to understand how such collars work and how dogs need to be trained in order to learn the goal behavior of heeling next to their owners

It’s a multi-cat household where all get along, then one day a change and now everything’s wrong. Before they were buddies or at least sort of friends, but now one chases the other to no happy end. While disputes among human family members are often status quo, a sudden feud among felines can leave everyone frazzled. It seems strange that amicable individuals could erupt in a friendship-ending fight. Anyone who watches soap operas though sees it happen all the time with humans. Two college buddies are closer than a sock and a shoe. Then add a big party, alcohol, and

Every year members of the Golden Valley Harrier Running Club, to which I belong, start the New Year with a major fat burning event – an 18+ mile trail run. Well, I ventured on this run two years ago with Jonesy, my Jack Russell Terrier. He fared well. In fact, he probably ran 20 miles and had plenty of energy the rest of the day for other activities such as fetch. My legs however, were sore for days due to the several miles of downhill running right at the start. That and the fact that the longest I’d run in

What looks cute and charming when it belongs to a friend, but transforms into a screaming, food-throwing test of patience when it belongs to you? A five year old child? No, a parrot; one of the most demanding pets a person can own. According to Dr. Irene Pepperberg, adjunct associate professor at the Dept. of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA., “People often buy parrots because they think of them as low maintenance pets. They think they can put them in a cage, hang a toy, put in a bowl of seeds and that’s it. They don’t realize how intelligent these