Do you love a pup with chronic stress who gets worked up often, or a chill guy who only stresses when it’s truly warranted? Everyone experiences stress. Stress helped keep our human ancestors and our dogs' wolf ancestors alive. In fact, stress simply is a part of being alive. … [Read more...]

This just in: Dogs don't come hardwired for human living!Okay, okay. It's not "just in." We should know this, but it seems to surprise a lot of well-meaning folks.Dogs simply don't come to us knowing that we don't want them to eat from the trash can (but it smells so … [Read more...]

A couple weeks ago, my husband and a group of volunteers joined an employee from our parks department to take water samples from a creek in a nearby public park. John joined this group of volunteers last year, and twice a month, they visit parks to check the water quality and … [Read more...]

Hello, friends! And welcome to another edition of: Maggie climbs up on a soapbox and rants about dog stuff! It's been a while since I've been up here, and I sure do like this view...Recently, we've had a bunch of run-ins with dogs around town that I wanted to discuss. You … [Read more...]

Let's be real: Toddlers can behave like real jerks sometimes. That does not mean toddlers are jerks. They are so new here still with only one to three years under their belts.I'm not one to sugarcoat the reality of raising a toddler. It's hard. It's really, really hard. And … [Read more...]