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1 month ago | 
whole-dog-journal.com | Nancy Kerns
Dock-diving competitions were featured at the county fair last week, and I couldn’t get enough. The dogs—so eager to leap, so graceful as they soared through the air, hitting the water with a tremendous splash, and swimming strongly to the toy/lure.
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1 month ago | 
whole-dog-journal.com | Nancy Kerns
I have never owned a dog with separation anxiety, thank goodness. The condition is hard on the dog who suffers from the condition and hard on the dog’s caretakers, too, including owners, vets, groomers, pet sitters, and dog walkers.
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1 month ago | 
whole-dog-journal.com | Nancy Kerns
I recently fostered a dog who first greeted me at the shelter that I sprung her from by jumping up on me. Front or back, it made no difference to her what side of the human was presented to her, she was just delirious with joy that someone opened her kennel gate and was paying attention to her.
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1 month ago | 
whole-dog-journal.com | Nancy Kerns
I’ve had a number of older owners book lessons with me lately—more than half a dozen individuals and couples in their 70s and even 80s, all wanting some training help with their new dogs or puppies. I’ve been impressed by their optimism and commitment in taking on a dog who may live 10 or 15 or more years as well as their dedication to training and improving the dog’s behavior. And almost all of these clients bought a purebred puppy.
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1 month ago | 
whole-dog-journal.com | Nancy Kerns
I came to the dog world from the horse world. I mean, my family had dogs before we had backyard horses.
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2 months ago | 
whole-dog-journal.com | Nancy Kerns
The increasing number of glass-fronted freezers appearing in pet supply stores is a clear indication that frozen diets made of fresh, whole-food ingredients are increasingly popular with dog owners.
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2 months ago | 
whole-dog-journal.com | Nancy Kerns
A couple of days ago, I received a text from a dog-training client, wondering about a video she had just watched—and which she linked in the text. “Is meat meal bad for dogs?” she asked.
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2 months ago | 
whole-dog-journal.com | Nancy Kerns
You’ve gone to the shelter, excited about the photos they posted on social media of a big litter of pups that look like just the kind you’ve been waiting for. It’s near closing time—you couldn’t get there until after you got off work!—and the shelter staff is clearly buttoning things up for the night. It turns out that the litter was popular; there are just two puppies left from which to choose! As you approach their pen, you see that the littermates are entwined in a small single dog bed.
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2 months ago | 
whole-dog-journal.com | Nancy Kerns
In the past few days, I’ve exchanged dozens of texts and phone calls and one FaceTime session with a long-time friend regarding his dog Leroy. Stephen and his partner adopted Leroy from my local shelter in September 2011—and in the 13½ years since, we’ve probably exchanged hundreds of texts and emails and phone calls about the happy, clever little dog.
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2 months ago | 
whole-dog-journal.com | Nancy Kerns
Whenever there is a high-profile dog attack, it seems everyone with a dog weighs in with their opinions about the dog, the dog’s origin, the owners, the specific situation, and the resolution of the event. People share their opinions, variously blaming each party (again, the dog, the place where the dog came from, the owners, the situation…), with almost no useful or accurate information about preventing or dealing with canine aggression resulting from the account or coverage of the event.
