Weekly article archive
The following questions and answers have appeared in my weekly column in the Albuquerque Journal since July, 1996. Each week a new one is added. You'll find information on the physical and behavioral maladies of dogs and cats and a few other species too. I invite you to use the search feature to find the specific answer that you and your pet need.
Question: I have an elderly female cat, age 18. She has for 10 years pooped next to the litter box, not in it. In the last month she has started…
The South rim of the Grand Canyon is a wonderful 70° in early November. It’s a really dry place. We dropped 1180 feet as we hiked 3.5 miles to this…
Question: “Sage”, our female Lab mix, began to urinate on the bed during the night. She was diagnosed with a bladder infection, given antibiotics, and the problem disappeared. It reoccurred…
Mike is demonstrating Rally skills with “Bree”, his Pomeranian. At Sandia Dog Obedience Club in Albuquerque, Mike and Rene are instructors in the dog sport called Rally. It’s like obedience…
Are baby boomers concerned about their cognitive abilities declining? It gets my attention. I published my residency research on cognitive dysfunction syndrome in elderly pets. There’s a whole lot of…
My Border collie “Mick” loves to work for me because he always earns interactions and sometimes food. Dogs aren’t in the mindset of pleasing a master; they look to us…
Last in a series Fear is a miserable emotion. It happens in-the-moment, before there is time to think. And it can be dangerous. Whether a threat is real or imagined…
Fear and anxiety are miserable emotions. Whether a threat is real or imagined a freaked-out dog wants drive off a scary monster – who might retaliate. But if he could…
Third in a series Which of these statements is true? (a) Some dogs try to dominate their people and need us to keep them in line. (b) Dominance behavior among…