1. After he and his fellow monks sang morning prayers in their church nestled in a forest, Brother Luke walked back to his residence to be greeted by a different kind of choir. Lucy and Iso excitedly woofed as they spotted the Orthodox monk, who heads the monastery’s German shepherd breeding program, coming to take them and 10-week-old Pyrena for their morning walks. For nearly six decades, the monks of New Skete in upstate New York have financially supported their community and deepened their spiritual life by breeding German shepherds and running on-site, weekslong training programs for all kinds of canines. (via The Associated Press)

2. Researchers led by Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences professor Joanna Aizenberg are developing a new air quality sensor inspired by a dog’s nose that promises more specificity than existing products. Dubbed the Sensory Nature-Inspired Fact Finder of Indoor Air — or SNIFFIA — the device detects specific volatile organic compounds in the air and aims to broaden the number of detectable pollutants. The researchers — from SEAS, Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and the Wyss Institute — received phase one funding from the National Science Foundation in January 2024 and are projected to enter phase two in 2025. Unlike existing air quality sensors — which passively test the surrounding air — SNIFFIA attempts to mimic how dogs adapt their sniffing patterns based on changing environments. (via The Harvard Crimson)

3. In just a generation, we humans have abruptly changed the rules on our dogs. With urbanization increasing and space at a premium, the wild, abandoned places where children and dogs used to roam have disappeared from many American communities. Dogs have gone from working all day and sleeping outside to relaxing on the couch and sleeping in our beds. They are more a part of our families than ever—which means they share our indoor, sedentary lifestyle. Americans once wanted a dog that barked at every noise, but modern life best suits a pet that will settle nicely under the desk during remote work, politely greet guests, make friends with cats, and play nice (but not hump) in the dog park. (via The Atlantic)

4. Just days after Hurricane Milton hit Florida last week, about a dozen shelter dogs from a small town in Hendry County had already been flown to Texas. Several dozen other animals, from Pinellas County, had been taken by truck to shelters in Massachusetts and New York. They were part of the country’s latest diaspora of storm animals, dogs and cats scattered across the country by back-to-back hurricanes — Milton and Helene — which wreaked havoc across a vast swath of the United States this fall. Who transports these shelter animals and how does it work? Here’s what you need to know. (via The New York Times)

5. It was an accidental email that confirmed what many animal activists fear is widespread in Victoria’s greyhound racing industry: young, healthy dogs are being euthanized. In July clinic notes from a vet intended for a greyhound trainer were mistakenly sent to a rehoming group that had been to the same vet for treatment of a rescue dog. “They aren’t our usual vet,” Elle Fisk from Greyt Greys Rescue told Guardian Australia. “We had requested a record of vaccination so it was a real shock to see the word euthanasia pop up on the screen.” The notes, seen by Guardian Australia, show a trainer had found their 12-month-old greyhound with a leg injury on their property. The vet suspected a fracture but the owner refused X-rays or treatment and instead requested euthanasia. The case is not an isolated one. (via The Guardian)

6. Ollie the labradoodle was 7 months old when he was boarded in a commercial boarding kennel in 2020. Owner Amy Baxter received a text from the kennel while the puppy was in its care, informing her that Ollie had been injured in a fight, according to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell. Ollie had in fact been mauled by other dogs, sustaining life-threatening wounds. He died as a result of the attack despite surgery and two months of round-the-clock care in an animal hospital. The boarding kennel in East Longmeadow was closed by the town. Now Ollie's name will live on in a law intended to avert similar tragedies. Co-sponsored by state Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, Ollie's Law was signed into law by Gov. Maura Healey on Oct. 10. (via SouthCoast Today)

7. Humans have been trying to talk to animals ever since we figured out how to form words. In modern times, we turn to technology for the solution—giving our dogs talking buttons to paw at, or trying to use artificial intelligence to help us understand whales. The latest and perhaps most direct approach at human-animal communication is a voice-activated collar that gives your pet the power to talk back to you. Or at least, that’s the idea. The company’s collar has a speaker on it; talk to your pet (or, really, talk to the collar) and you’ll hear a prerecorded human voice responding to you, creating the illusion that your pet has a humanlike personality and the ability to speak English. The collar is just for cats and dogs now, but McHale hopes to get into wearable devices for other critters and, eventually, humans. (via Wired Magazine)

8. Dog-training programs are implemented widely at correctional facilities in Western countries. It is reported that inmates who participate in these programs exhibit increased levels of self-esteem and personal responsibility. This in turn helps them effect a smooth return to society and leads to reduced rates of recidivism. But the reason for these effects has not yet been scientifically clarified. In the search for a scientific reason, Japanese researchers focused on oxytocin, otherwise known as the “love hormone.” In this program, inmates raise puppies that are candidates to become guide dogs. This is one of the research programs undertaken by the Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research, in which legal scholars, including Emeritus Professor Shozo Ota and Associate Professor Hiroharu Saito from the Institute of Social Science. are also participating. (via University of Tokyo)

9. A canine-loving Canadian broke a Guinness World Record by taking 38 dogs on a single walk for over half a mile. Mitchell Rudy led a pack of 38 leashed pooches on a .6-mile walk to break the Guinness World Record for the most dogs walked simultaneously by an individual. The previous record of 36 dogs was set in Goesan, South Korea. The dogs participating in Rudy's attempt were provided by the Korean K9 Rescue shelter. (via UPI)

Dog Photo of the Week

Photo by “Paris Sausage Walk 2024: The Dachshund Walk Returns to the Capital - The Route” (via SortirAParis)

Dog Video of the Week

Video by CBS News 2, “34th annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade”.

1. In 2019, Mexico got a big thumbs-up from the World Health Organization (WHO). They declared the country free of human rabies transmitted by dogs. Five years later, Mexico is still upholding this achievement. This is not a given. Keeping a country rabies-free is no easy task and needs continued work. Dr. Daniel Luna Rubio, state coordinator of the zoonosis program in Baja California, Mexico, tells us how his team and ours at Boehringer Ingelheim, keep working to maintain the rabies-free status in this region and the whole country. The key to success: vaccination, vaccination – and more vaccination. (via Buchinger-Ingelhem)

2. New research from Baylor University reveals that coyotes, like domestic dogs, have the ability to produce the famous "puppy dog eyes" expression. The study – "Coyotes can do 'puppy dog eyes' too: Comparing interspecific variation in Canis facial expression muscles," published in the journal Royal Society Open Science – challenges the hypothesis that this facial feature evolved exclusively in dogs as a result of domestication. The research team, led by Patrick Cunningham, a Ph.D. research student in the Department of Biology at Baylor University, examined the levator anguli oculi medialis (LAOM), the muscle responsible for raising the inner eyebrow to create "puppy dog eyes," in coyotes. (via Baylor University)

3. Washington DC’s District Dogs daycare has been ordered to pay $100,000, make safety improvements and not to reopen the facility where 10 dogs died in last year’s tragic flood. Jocelyn Lobos-Segura is among those who lost their dogs on Aug. 14, 2023 when severe storms flooded the day care on Rhode Island Avenue NE. Water rose six feet up the exterior before a wall collapsed and water rushed inside. The Office of the Attorney General said in a release that District Dogs internally discussed how dogs could be at risk after the facility flooded three times in 2022, but downplayed the risks to customers. (via NBC Washington)

4. Every service dog is trained to do work or perform tasks for a specific individual with a disability. Service dogs can be any breed and any size. One such hero, Zoe, has had extensive training to accommodate a host of issues as Zachary Ormsby’s service dog.   Zachary, Field Manager for the Bureau of Land Management’s California Central Coast Field Office, became disabled in 2014 after encountering a wild boar and falling down a steep mountain slope. Due to his injuries, both physical and psychological, Zoe received extensive training to assist him. Her tasks include seizure intervention and alerts during periods of high stress. She’s also trained in wildlife aversion, alerting to rattlesnakes, clearing trails, running perimeters, and has even driven bears up trees. Most of Zoe’s work is conducted off leash and she typically wears her service dog vest, complete with BLM patches. (via Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land management)

5. In 2016, Tracy Jennings received shocking news: A lifelong friend, a woman who had a farm with animals great and small, had died suddenly in an accident. A circle of grieving friends hastily arranged new homes for the woman’s beloved animals, including three older horses. But just two weeks after her death, her family had the horses euthanized. Ms. Jennings, 66, a semiretired landscape designer, lives on a 10-acre farm in Buffalo, Minn., and has her own menagerie: five cats, a golden retriever, two horses and a donkey named Niles. They would not meet a similar fate, she decided. She had a lawyer draw up a pet trust, a legal document specifying who will care for her animals when she dies or becomes unable to do so herself. (via The New York Times)

6. The Anti-Cruelty Society has stepped up to save 25 dogs displaced by Hurricane Helene. Now, the shelter needs Chicagoans to help foster them. The dogs arrived Wednesday morning in Chicago from shelters in Pasco County, Florida, an evacuated area where homes flooded from the hurricane. Helene, one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history, spun off the Gulf of Mexico last week and was powerful enough to spur windy, rainy conditions in Chicago. More than 130 people have died as a result of the hurricane, the Associated Press reported. The dog rescue effort will “strain” Anti-Cruelty’s shelter capacity in Chicago, according to a news release. Shelters like the Anti-Cruelty Society’s have struggled with capacity issues and an influx of pets since the pandemic. Those interested in fostering can learn more here or call Anti-Cruelty at 312-644-8338. (via Block Club Chicago)

7. For Jessica Daltrey, grooming dogs is a lot more than just giving them haircuts — it's also about making sure they're healthy and happy while they get the royal treatment. The 31-year-old owner of Franklyn's Paw Spa in Thorndale, Ont., took her passion and her Kerry Blue Terrier, Braz to an international dog grooming competition, called Groomania, in Belgium last month. Daltrey and her teammates brought home a silver medal and ranked second worldwide after they beat the top four groomers from 23 different teams at the championship.Daltrey herself won the best in show award against more than 400 groomers from 55 countries. (via CBC News)

8. Skiptown's plan to bring an upscale dog park and boarding facility to Atlanta's eastern edge is drawing opposition from some residents who would be living near it. Residents say Skiptown's plans for 200 Arizona Ave. do not fit the city's heavy industrial zoning classification for the site. They also worry that the number of dogs on the property would bring unwanted noises and smells to the neighborhood. Skiptown, a membership-based "dog social club" with locations in Charlotte and Denver, plans to open a 39,200-square-foot facility that will include indoor and outdoor places for dogs to play, day care and boarding facilities and grooming services. (via Axios Atlanta)

9. The most significant application to date of artificial intelligence and unmanned aerial aircraft has been unveiled: the Poopcopter. It does what it says on the tin. It scoops poop. No more plastic bags. No more furtive glances while out walking to see if Fido’s emissions have been observed by truculent neighbours. According to its inventor, the Poopcopter is the ‘world’s first self-guided dog poop removal system, using a drone, and 3D-printed pickup mechanism.’ The drone has real-time computer vision and machine learning algorithms. A cloud-based system receives footage from the drone’s built-in camera, examines it, and looks for any excrement in the surrounding area. (via The Spectator)

Dog Photo of the Week

Photo by AKC Library and Archives, “Basenji History: From Jungle Hunters to Agile Athletes” (via American Kennel Club)

Dog Video of the Week

Video by CBS 17, “Detection dogs help find, recover Helene Victims”.

1. Tina is smart and, sometimes, I’d swear she can read my mind. Monty is the sensitive one; when we make eye contact, he seems to ask, “What’s up?” and comes over for a consultation. They’re my dogs, part of the American canine population that is expected to top 100 million by 2030. Like a lot of people who live in remote settings, I spend more time with my dogs than with other human beings. I might be a typical American when it comes to dog-ownership demographics, yet I find myself in the apparently shrinking minority of people who consider coddling and fancy accoutrements antithetical to good dog ownership. Worthwhile “investment” in a dog involves time and energy but not much money. Use dogs for what they were bred to do, if you can, and treat them like, well, dogs. (via The Washington Post)

2. South Korea will help re-home almost half a million dogs bred for food and give dog farmers subsidies and incentives to help them prepare for a ban on the practice set to take effect in early 2027. In January, parliament passed a bill to ban the eating and selling of dog meat, ending the controversial centuries-old tradition in a country that has seen growing support for animal welfare and a waning appetite for the food. Park Beom-su, vice agriculture minister, said the government would spend about 100 billion won ($75 million) on incentives for dog breeders, farmers and restaurants to encourage them to shut their businesses. Farmers can also get up to 600,000 won ($452) for each dog they surrender, and the authorities will try and get as many of these animals adopted, or rehomed in shelters, he added. (via Reuters)

3. I have been a heritage breeder and exhibitor of pekingese dogs for more than 30 years – though I’ve rescued more than I’ve bred. Eight years ago, one of the dogs I rescued had canine distemper, a nasty disease that can cause developmental problems, and he spread it to one of our puppies. Sadly, despite thousands of dollars’ worth of vet bills, we weren’t able to save our rescue dog, but we were able to save the puppy. We called him Smurf. Later we changed his name to Wild Thang because he looks like something from Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. I entered Wild Thang into the annual World’s Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in California after someone told me that he was the ugliest dog they’d ever seen. Lots of people say ,“He’s not ugly!” I tell them that he’s perfectly imperfect. (via The Guardian)

4. Is it possible to reliably—and safely—extend a dog’s life? Last November, the Food and Drug Administration told Loyal it had a “reasonable expectation of effectiveness” concerning the drug LOY-001, based on its evaluation of the company’s early lab and animal data, which suggested that the drug can prolong a large dog’s lifespan by preventing or reducing the risk of age-related health issues. LOY-001 is thought to do this by lowering levels of a hormone that can be more abundant in big breeds. The declaration was an important part of the company’s development of the drug. If the FDA gives its okay to Loyal’s safety and manufacturing data on LOY-001, Loyal expects to receive conditional approval of the drug by 2026, which would allow it to market the drug to dog owners while large-scale clinical trials are underway. (via Gizmodo)

5. Of all times to learn this, global warming's effects will include making us humans even more bad-tempered and violent - and impair the ability of sniffer dogs trained to detect explosives. That is not a good combination, and recent events do not suggest that humanity is mellowing. As the temperature rises, we are growing more irritated. And now we learn that we may find it easier to blow each other up, in the sense that detective dogs currently help the police detect explosives. But when we can't take the frustration of not being able to blast the neighbors to kingdom come anymore, we will be able to dash to our stash that the heat-addled pooch (presumably) missed. (via Haeretz)

6. Dog lovers can attest to the range of benefits that come with having a canine companion, but improved gut health likely isn't one of them. That may be about to change following research from Sinai Health and the University of Toronto that shows exposure to dogs during childhood is linked to beneficial changes in gut bacteria, gut permeability and blood biomarkers. The study, published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, found living with a dog between ages 5 and 15 is associated with a healthier gut microbiome and reduced risk of developing Crohn's disease. The research shines new light on how environmental factors influence the onset of Crohn's—an inflammatory bowel condition—and could inform future prevention strategies. (via Medical Express)

7. The dingo is a wild dog endemic to Australia with enigmatic origins. Dingoes are one of two remaining unadmixed populations of an early East Asian dog lineage, the other being wild dogs from the New Guinea highlands, but connections between these groups have long proved elusive. To investigate this issue, scientists from the University of Sydney and elsewhere examined ancient dingo remains found at Lake Mungo and Lake Milkengay, in western New South Wales, Australia. Their findings suggest that the dingo came from East Asia via Melanesia and challenge previous claims that it derived from pariah dogs of India or Thailand. (via Sci-News)

8. There’s been a surprising amount of scientific research into the musical preferences of dogs. In fact, I have several channels on my Roku that play nothing but dog-friendly music. My two English bull terriers are typical in that they have an affinity for reggae, the most popular genre among dogs (so says science) because the tempo matches their resting heart rate. The deep bass seems soothing to them, too. There’s now an over-the-air radio station In Durango, Colorado, devoted just to dogs called Doggy FM. (via A Journal of Musical Things)

9. Twenty-two percent of both cat and dog owners reported taking their animals on at least three flights over the past year, up from 13% for dogs and 14% for cats in 2022, according to an August report from the American Pet Products Association (APPA), an industry group. Rates were up sharply for both types of animals tagging along on road trips too. Young people are driving the trend. Thirty-eight percent of consumers ages 18-34 told Morgan Stanley researchers this year that they often travel with pets; 30% of those 35-54 and 13% of people 55 and older said the same. (via NBC News)

Dog Photo of the Week

Photo by Greg Askew, “Meet Dory, the Raccoon Who Tried To Win Our Good Dog Photo Contest” (via Gun and Garden Magazine)

Dog Video of the Week

Video by Global News, “Dog survives cougar attack in Alberta, encounter caught on surveillance camera”.

1. In hour of reiki therapy. A multi-course raw-food brunch. A private movie screening in a mobile theater. No, this isn’t the average Sunday of a well-off tech founder — it’s the agenda of San Francisco’s most pampered dogs, thanks to a slew of services cropping up from entrepreneurs and pet lovers. With its glut of dog-friendly parks, apartment pet perks, and high-tech members-only veterinary clinics, the Bay Area is a good place to be a canine. Dozens of local entrepreneurs have built businesses in recent years around the idea that dogs are entitled to the same creature comforts as people. (via San Francisco Standard)

2. Sometimes it feels like your dog just gets you in a way nobody else does. That’s partially because of a neurological function underpinning social connection known as inter-brain activity coupling. In short, the phenomenon is like a telepathic path to friendship, where simultaneous brain activity between two individuals primes them for social engagement. Animals are social creatures and so it’s no surprise that the phenomenon of synchronized neural activity between individuals has been documented in humans, mice, bats, and monkeys, but never between two distinct species. Until now. (via Inverse)

3. Blaring music drowned out the barking, but there was no masking the neglect inside the sweltering Riverside County garage. Jamie Abruzzo, a Missouri middle school teacher who picked up a summer job trucking puppies around the country, was overcome by anger as he took in the filth and feces that surrounded him. Outside, the temperature neared triple digits. Inside, where the air conditioner wasn’t working, dozens of puppies and kittens were jammed into small cages and storage bins lined with soiled shredded paper. Water containers nearby were empty. (via Los Angeles Times)

4. It was understood that immigration would be front and center during Tuesday night’s presidential debate. More surprising was that the conversation veered into bizarre falsehoods about migrants eating pet dogs and cats in Ohio. While certainly strange, these accusations are hardly unprecedented. In fact, there’s a long history of accusing immigrants of eating cats and dogs. For context, in the last few days, vice presidential candidate JD Vance has echoed a rumor about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio eating people’s pets. Springfield, a city of around 60,000, has received 15,000 to 20,000 migrants in the last four years, many from Haiti. (via National Public Radio)

5. This growth burden weighs on big dogs’ cells, says Urfer. As cells divide, protective bits of DNA called telomeres on the end of chromosomes get shorter, and the body produces more oxidative molecules that can damage DNA. As they grow, large dogs, he says, “accumulate damage in their cells for each division, including telomere attrition and … oxidative damage.” This genetic wear-and-tear means big dogs age faster than small dogs. Urfer’s previous research showed large dogs develop age-related cataracts earlier than small dogs. It also increases their risk of other health conditions. (via National Geographic)

6. The British Army has trained a second group of Ukrainian military dog handlers, building on its ongoing military assistance to Ukraine. As part of Operation Interflex, a programme that has trained more than 45,000 Ukrainian personnel since Russia's invasion in 2022, the UK hosted 16 Ukrainian handlers for courses on combat operations, explosive device searches, and border patrols. The three-week training course, run by the British Army's 1st Military Working Dog Regiment, prepares dogs to detect explosives, locate ammunition, and assist in search and rescue operations. (via Force News)

7. There’s the Blue Heeler family loved around the world in Bluey. There’s the fluffy stray who brings two strangers together in Colin From Accounts. And there was the charismatic kelpie from the Red Dog trilogy and the Maremma who protected a penguin colony in family film Oddball. Mad Max had a cattle dog named Dog. Babe was taken in by border collies Fly and Rex. And a beer-drinking, dope-smoking, foul-mouthed mongrel was so popular that the SBS cult hit Wilfred was remade for American TV. Hollywood has long loved telling stories featuring dogs - making Lassie, Toto, Beethoven, Marley and many others famous - and now canines have been turning up a lot as major characters on Australian screens. Author Craig Silvey, who has written a new film based on his bestselling children’s novel Runt, thinks he knows why. (via Sydney Morning Herald)

8. Virgin Australia is pioneering a groundbreaking initiative to revolutionize air travel for pet owners. It plans to become the first airline in Australia to allow pets onboard its flights. This innovative move will enable small cats and dogs to accompany their owners on specific domestic flights. Australia’s airline, Virgin Australia, has unveiled plans to make history by becoming the nation’s inaugural airline to permit pets onboard, as per Daily Mail. Thus, in the near future, small cats and dogs will be able to fly with their owners in the cabin, making the travel experience stress-free for both pets and pet parents. (via Dogtime)

9. Call this statement cliché, but the story of Ferg and his beloved dog, KrasH, sounds like a movie. Back in 2020, the rapper and entrepreneur gifted his then girlfriend, director photographer Renell Medrano, a puppy. The Australian shepherd ended up spending a lot of time at Ferg’s house in New Jersey. “You know how it is—you don’t live with each other, but y’all basically live with each other, so the dog was my dog as well,” Ferg tells me over the phone of the canine co-parenting situation. KrasH was not unlike most puppies: He loved to be outside and enjoyed a good game of chase—so much so that even if a door was just slightly ajar, he’d bolt out of it and “have the whole neighborhood looking for him,” Ferg says. He did this twice while at a dog sitter in Jersey. “Then, the third time, he didn’t return.” The experience, Ferg says, was traumatic. “I’d never felt like that before. It was alien, like losing a member of your family. I was speaking to psychics, asking, ‘Where’s my dog?’” A psychic told him that KrasH was in the wilderness, to which he replied, “That’s crazy.” But perhaps it wasn’t. (via Vogue)

10. China is grappling with a fast-aging population and shrinking labor force after decades of enforcing a one-child policy. The country is also one of the most expensive places in the world to raise a child in relative terms, easily beating Australia and France, according to a study from the Beijing-based YuWa Population Research Institute earlier this year. After ending the one-child policy in 2016 and making yet another major birth policy shift in 2021, the government now wants couples to have three children. But Beijing hasn’t been as successful in driving up births as it was in deterring them. Many Chinese couples like Hansen, 36, and Momo, 35, are not sold on children. Instead, they’ve become pet parents. (via CNN)

Bonus: They’re known affectionately as “wiener dogs” in North America and “sausage dogs” in Britain, but on Sept. 22 the dachshund will simply be “top dog.” That’s the day Germany hopes to reclaim its crown as the home of the short-legged, long-bodied canine. An estimated 1,500 dachsies, as they’re also known, are expected to gather with their owners from around the world in an effort to set a new record in the Bavarian city of Regensburg. They will be trying to topple the Guinness world title set in London when 342 canines strutted their stuff. Demand has been such that the deadline was extended for submissions, just two weeks before the puppy parade. (via Canada)

Dog Photo of the Week

Photo by A.I., “Apple Shared Its First Public AI-Generated Image. It’s Craig Federighi’s Dog” (via Wired)

Dog Video of the Week

Video by ViralHog, “Dog Leads Ducks Through Tricky Obstacle Course”.

1. Almost 200 people attended a protest at St Stephen’s Green in Dublin against the Government’s new rules around XL bully dogs, which are set to come into operation from next month. XL bully dogs will be banned when the new legislation fully comes into force next February. The first phase of the new rules will come into being on October 1st, when it will be illegal to breed, sell, re-home or import XL bully dogs. In the second phase, which will be introduced next year, there will be a ban on owning an XL bully dog, unless the owner has a certificate of exemption. The legislation is being introduced following a number of recent attacks, one of which was on Nicole Morey (23) who was fatally injured in Ballyneety, Co Limerick, last June, along with a number of other high-profile injuries in Wexford and Waterford. (via The Irish Times)

2. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Istanbul on Sunday to protest recent legislation that critics say is leading to the killing of stray dogs across Turkey. Last month, legislators approved the new law aimed at removing millions of stray dogs from Turkish streets citing safety concerns. Animal-lovers fear it will lead to widespread culling or dogs ending up in disease-ridden and overcrowded shelters. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the law was necessary to deal with the country’s “stray dog problem.” Sunday’s protesters called for the law to be repealed, brandishing posters reading ‘shelters are death camps’ and ‘withdraw the bloody law.’ (via NBC News)

3. If you have a pet, you’ve likely had an instance of your heart racing when your dog or cat accidentally got out. Sometimes pets come back, but other times they run away. An all-volunteer group, “The Retrievers,” is dedicated to bringing lost dogs back home. Soon, the group will have a new tool in its kit that could be a game-changer. The group is training a dog-scenting-dog, and she likely will be the first dog in the state trained to find lost dogs. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Miki Carlson, a case manager with “The Retrievers.” (via MPR News)

4. Most students at the Biological Sciences Building at Duke University are trying to master the finer points of cellular biology, genetics or evolution. In one classroom, however, students learn altogether different lessons, such as how to sit politely and walk calmly on a leash. These furry pupils are enrolled in Duke Puppy Kindergarten, a research project examining how dogs become who they are. Each semester, a new class of puppies arrives from Canine Companions, a nonprofit organization that trains service dogs. Over the course of 12 weeks, the dogs play games designed to assess their temperaments and cognitive abilities. The goal is to learn how to raise and identify dogs that can perform tasks like assisting children with disabilities or veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. (via The New York Times)

5. Canines have been used in battle going back to ancient times, and they've been a part of just about every U.S. engagement since the founding of the country. The Defense Department's current military working dog program is one of the best in the world, but the idea didn't really catch hold in the U.S. until after our military saw how foreign countries were using the animals in World War I. (via Department of Defense)

6. Labradoodles, puggles, dorgis, cavoodles, cavapoos: whatever you call them, there’s no escaping the explosion of designer crossbreeds parading along our streets and through our dog parks these days. People have flocked to these hybrid dogs as the health problems associated with pedigree breeds became more widely known. As the theory goes, crossbreed designer dogs are more genetically diverse, so are less likely to suffer the health issues plaguing purebreds. But are these designer mixes actually healthier than their purebred cousins? This was the question researchers from the United Kingdom’s Royal Veterinary College set out to answer in a new paper published earlier this week. (via ABC News)

7. A Montreal man who tied his dog to a parking meter while he entered a bakery is now facing a hefty fine for breaking a law he had no idea existed. He's warning other pet owners who may face similar fines. "It's something that I've seen other people do, myself included," said Dimitar Beshkov, with his four-year-old mutt Indy. On Thursday, Beshkov popped in for a croissant on Rachel Street and tied Indy to a meter outside. When he came out, less than five minutes later, a Montreal police (SPVM) officer was waiting to give him a ticket for $664. According to the City of Montreal's website, tying a dog to a tree or street furniture is prohibited under provincial law. At all times, a dog must be under the control of a person capable of controlling it. It is a law the SPCA supports. (via CTV News)

8. The details differ, but really it’s the same story, turning up every few weeks, for around a decade now. The revelation – and it’s always presented with a dramatic flourish – is this: animals are much more like us than we thought. Last week, it was that dogs could remember the names of their old toys – even when they hadn’t seen them for two years. Language acquisition, that “uniquely human” thing, was being encroached on, the researchers said: dogs could store words in their memory. Last month, it was that horses could strategise and plan ahead, overturning the assumption that they “simply respond to stimuli in the moment”. The mental territory we can claim to be “uniquely human” is shrinking at an alarming rate. (via The Guardian)

Dog Photo of the Week

Photo by Ben Garbacz, “Mushing Club at Michigan Tech hosts Dryland Dog Demo” (via The Daily Mining Gazette)

Dog Video of the Week

Video by WIBW 13 News, “1200 Dogs to Converge on Topeka for Annual Canine Competition”.