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A reader has a not-uncommon problem: A sofa-eating puppy. I asked my daughter, trainer Mikkel Becker, to help her out with some tips. Q: My 4-month-old Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy ate my sofa. Literally! What can I do? I can’t afford to buy much more new furniture. A: Congratulations — you have a normal puppy! That’s […]

The big news in preventing mosquito-borne diseases in dogs, cats, and humans continues to be what’s known as vector control. In other words, instead of focusing exclusively on preventing or treating the diseases, we need to incorporate a robust prevention of the mosquitoes. Which, considering most people hate them and their itching, burning bites even […]

A reader wants to know why her cat is vomiting all the time, but hesitated about all the tests her veterinarian wanted to run. Here are my thoughts. Q: My cat has been vomiting a lot, and my veterinarian wants to run all kinds of tests to figure out the cause. Is that really necessary? […]

I still remember the ad for Penzoil a few years ago when the greasy car mechanic talked about the importance of regular oil changes and said the line, “You can pay me now…or pay me later.” The inference, of course, was that you would pay much more later if you didn’t change your oil as […]

A reader asked if vitamin D supplementation was good for dogs as well as humans. The answer is maybe. Here’s what I told her. Q: If vitamin D supplementation is beneficial for humans, can it benefit dogs, too? A: That’s a great question! Researchers at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine published a study in […]