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Beautiful tortie kitten under a red gingham cloth
Photo: photos2013 (Shutterstock)

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Three Long Term Plans to Make for Your Pet

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Every pet owner needs to think about these three things in advance.


By Zazie Todd, PhD

We love our pets, but sometimes it’s hard to think about the potential risks they might face. Here are three things it’s a good idea to think about and plan for, just in case.

1. Financial planning for vet treatment Everyone knows that vet costs come with owning a pet. There are vaccinations, flea treatments, de-wormers, the costs of spay/neuter, and any necessary dental treatment. But we also have to be prepared for the costs of treatment should our pet become unwell. Unfortunately, this is sometimes very expensive.

One recent study asked people how much they would be willing to pay for a vaccine that would stop their dog from dying from canine influenza (Carlson et al 2019). The conclusion was that the statistical value of a dog’s life is around $10,000 (US – approximately C$13k or £7.6k). In another survey, 52% of dog owners and 42% of cat owners said they would spend “whatever it takes” to keep t…
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Interview with Clive Wynne About Dog Is Love

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"The dog is a highly social living being that needs to have company or else it’s going to be in psychological distress."



An interview with Prof. Clive Wynne about his wonderful new book, Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You, about how he came to realize that what’s special about dogs is not their intelligence, but their capacity for love. Dog Is Love was the Animal Book Club’s  for October 2019 and was also on my winter reading list.

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Zazie: Your own dog, Xephos, is mentioned in the book. How has she influenced your research?

Clive: I tell people that she’s the book’s spirit animal. She really changed my views on what makes dogs special, what makes dogs so unique. For the first so many years that I was studying dog behaviour and dog psychology, I didn’t have a dog of my own. There were a variety of personal reasons: we’d recently moved internationally, we had a new baby, blah blah blah. But I also had a feeling that I shouldn’t need to …
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Which Dog Breeds Are the Best Alternatives to the French Bulldog?

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If you love Frenchies but the health issues give you pause, these are the dogs like  French bulldogs that you might like too.


By Zazie Todd, PhD

In 2018, French bulldogs became the most popular breed of dog in the UK, overtaking the Labrador retriever, which had the number 1 spot for almost thirty years. French bulldogs are also in the top ten dog breeds in the US (no. 4), Canada (no. 5),  and Australia (no. 3).

French bulldogs are lovely dogs but unfortunately they can suffer from a number of inherited conditions, which can be distressing for the dog and heart-breaking for the owner.  Because they have a squashed face, they are at risk of Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome, can have trouble breathing, be reluctant to exercise, and may overheat in hot weather.

Veterinarian Shaun Oppermann recently told The Guardian,
"We tend to say: ‘Oh, it’s a French bulldog – it’s normal for them to breathe like that. But if your child sounded like that after a walk in the park, you’d ha…
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