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Petco has stopped selling shock collars and it’s calling on others in the pet industry to follow its lead. The San Diego, California-based pet supply retailer announced on Tuesday that it had stopped selling all electronic shock collars, including both human- and bark-activated models. Petco CEO Ron Coughlin said in the announcement that shock collars “have been shown to increase fear, anxiety and stress in dogs.”

Like you need another reason to play with your pet…but here is a fun challenge that is taking social media by storm. It is surpassing the “what the fluff” challenge. The “snoot challenge” is simple but so much fun. Videos of pet owners worldwide are popping up with adorable pets putting their noses through the shapes their owners make with their hands. A little trick is to teach your pet the “touch” command or bribe them with a treat.

Cute video at link. What a smart dog!

Ever wish you could peer into your cat, dog, skink, or betta fish’s brain? It would give you a far better perspective of the world—or at least help you be a smarter pet parent. We’re here to demystify your animals (to some extent), while also shedding advice on how you can best thrive together. Welcome to Pet Psychic. Are you a cat person, or a dog person? The answer to this age-old question could reveal a little bit about your personality, some research shows. For example, there are notable differences between dog and cat people as demographics. In 2014, Mikel...

Archaeologists on Thursday reported finding the remains of a dog from more than 8,400 years ago at a human burial site in southern Sweden... The Swedish archaeologists said the dog was buried with a person, noting that survivors often leave valuable or sentimental objects with the dead. Such findings "makes you feel even closer to the people who lived here," Persson said in a statement. "A buried dog somehow shows how similar we are over the millennia when it comes to the feelings like grief and loss."

The Veterinary Specialty Centre of N.L. is looking for more recruits for donation programGiving the gift of life has gone to the dogs — literally. The Veterinary Specialty Centre of Newfoundland and Labrador's pet blood donor program began in 2015, when the clinic opened its doors in Mount Pearl, and it's looking to recruit more dogs and cats to take part. Dr. Trina Bailey, a veterinary surgeon and an owner of the VSCNL, said it's a life-saving program. "I have had patients in surgery that have been bleeding … and without having blood in the building that we could just...

Disturbing video shows CEO Jeffrey Previte abusing 4-month-old dog A business CEO was caught on horrifying video violently tossing around and slapping his 4-month-old pup — and cops have now launched an investigation into the incident, reports say. Jeffrey Previte, the 46-year-old head of a California environmental-consulting firm, was caught on the disturbing surveillance footage grabbing his pitbull Beachy by the ear and neck as he dragged the pooch into a hallway off the parking garage at his Santa Monica condominium building Aug. 22, the Daily Mail said. A worker manning the front desk said he heard the dog crying,...

FAIRFIELD, Idaho — Great Pyrenees dogs that are working to protect flocks of sheep in the southern Idaho wilderness keep getting “rescued” by people who think the dogs are lost. Flat Top sheep rancher Cory Peavey is frustrated because he is spending a lot of time picking up his expensive dogs that he uses to protect his herd from shelters or people’s homes. There are many sheep ranchers in Idaho, and many use Great Pyrenees dogs, something that might look out of the ordinary in the woods to someone camping. Peavy understands that it might be strange to see a...

Archaeologists have unearthed what they believe could be the oldest ever remains of a domesticated pet dog. It is thought the remains could be between 14,000 and 20,000 years old, spanning back to the very dawn of the special relationship between humans and canines. While dogs are known as man's best friend and one of the most domesticated animals on Earth, the origin of this dynamic is still a relative mystery.

It often seems impossible to know what's going on in Fido's head as he lounges on his dog bed. But a handful of new studies offer surprising insights about how our canine companions age, perceive human speech, and find their way home. A study published last month found that dogs understand verbal communication just as we do, parsing out tone and then meaning as separate aspects of human speech. Dogs may also use Earth's magnetic field like a compass to find their way home, other recent research revealed. And another study published this summer found that puppies age much faster...

A highly decorated U.S. Forest Service police dog suffered nine stab wounds during a marijuana raid in Northern California. But he survived after he was airlifted to a veterinary clinic, the agency said Friday. What's more, it's the second time the dog, an 11-year-old Belgian Malinois named Ice, recovered after being seriously injured on the job. Ice was wounded Aug. 27 in the Klamath National Forest south of the Oregon border when he was released to catch a suspect who had fled down a steep hill to escape the raid that unearthed more than 5,500 marijuana plants. He kept hold...

A dog owner was left panicked when her labrador swam out of sight while chasing ducks - and fire crews found her one kilometre away, still happily paddling in pursuit of the birdsA labrador who really likes chasing ducks had to be rescued by firefighters after swimming in pursuit the birds for more than half a mile - and showed no signs of stopping. A crew from Victorian Fire and Rescue in Australia were taking part in a routine exercise on the Maribyrnong River when they were approached and asked to help out with a real-life situation. The distressed...

The German agriculture minister has announced she will introduce a controversial new law that will require dog owners to walk their canine friends at least twice a day, for a total of at least one hour. The rules would also forbid owners from tying up dogs for long periods of time or leaving them alone all day. Around one in five German homes has a dog; over 9 million dogs are kept as pets in the country. “Pets are not cuddly toys — and their needs have to be considered,” Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner said Monday. She said her ministry...

Who Is Saint Rocco? Saint Rocco was born of noble parentage about 1340 A.D. in Montpellier, France. At birth it was noted that he had a red cross-shaped birthmark on the left side of his chest. As a young child, San Rocco showed great devotion to God and the Blessed mother. At an early age, his parents died leaving him an orphan under the care of his uncle, the Duke of Montpellier. Soon after, San Rocco distributed his wealth among the poor and took a vow of poverty. San Rocco dressed in the clothes of a pilgrim and departed...

Scientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover have found that trained sniffer dogs could be used to detect COVID-19 in human samples with a relatively high rate of accuracy, a study published on Thursday revealed. Eight sniffer dogs from the German Bundeswehr were trained for only a weekto distinguish between the mucus and saliva of patients infected with coronavirus and non-infected individuals. The dogs were then presented with positive and negative samples on a random basis by a machine. The animals were able to positively detect SARS-CoV-2 infected secretions with an 83% success rate, and control secretions at a...

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, there are mysterious canines with short ears, pointy noses, and bushy tails that roam the undergrowth. The creatures, which are one of the least studied variety of dogs on the planet, are rarely seen even by scientists who have spent years studying the region.

I've had two dogs that I rescued 8 years ago. I started off with one but his separation anxiety was so bad I got the second one to keep him company. They were very attached to each other. Two weeks ago I had put the first one to sleep due to a severe medical issue. The second one has bitten 5 people over the last 8 years only drawing blood of a vet assistant yesterday. The others were nips. He has snipped at several young children too. I have made many attempts to socialize him to no avail. He just...

Our boy Mic’s symptoms were so subtle and their onset so gradual that we didn’t initially see them. In fact, our other dogs noticed them first. Mic, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi then 12, had always embodied good dog manners. He’d never met a dog who didn’t like him. Suddenly, he was enraging his pack-mates. We sympathized: his nighttime barking was fraying our nerves. Though a number of vet visits and lab tests revealed nothing, Mic continued to decline. When his spatial perception deteriorated, we realized that he was acting like some elderly people we had known, and concluded, almost tongue-in-cheek,...

Cleo the canine must have been a homing pigeon in another life. The pooch trekked 60 miles from her new home in Olathe, Kansas, to her old home in Lawson, Missouri, where she hasn’t lived for nearly two years. She had to cross a river — either the Kansas, the Missouri or maybe both — to make her way back. Cleo, a 4-year-old Labrador, settled in on the house’s front porch, startling the family who lives there now. Britney Colton spotted the dog first, said Michael Colton, her husband, according to KMBC News, a TV station in Kansas City, Missouri,...

An anti-Israel student protest in the Canadian regional center of Mississauga which featured antisemitic chants is the subject of a hate-crimes complaint filed by a local Jewish organization. Global News reports video from the rally appears to show a protester chanting an antisemitic slogan in Arabic, “Palestine is our country and the Jews are our dogs,” as others repeated the insult along with other chants. Sauga for Palestine, the group that organized the rally at Celebration Square, describes itself on Facebook as a group of “students passionate about Palestine … who want to make a statement against Israel and its...