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Beautiful Day at the Dog Park from Kelsey Wynns on Vimeo.

This great video shows what it is like for your dog when you and your four-legged pal get out to the dog park. The incredible clarity and quality of this video makes it worth watching, and the use of slow-mo is a lot of fun as well.

Enjoy!

The tension starts with something simple.

Maybe a dirty dish in the sink or a wet towel left on the floor. Then money issues start to creep up. How much can we spend? What can we spend it on? Just one too many visits from the in-laws, and it’s all down hill from there. Your marriage can quickly enter a tailspin from which it cannot recover, and the next thing you know you are filing for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences.”

This is not uncommon. In fact, according to the National Center for Health Statistics around 50 percent of first marriages end in divorce. Once lawyers get involved, it can get messy. Property and money is divided up, and custody of the children is hashed out. But often there is another life involved—the future of the furry, four-legged dependent must also be decided.

Pet behavior expert Steven May and family law attorney David Pisarra have each gone through the ordeal of breaking up with a spouse with whom they had a pet. Pisarra actually handled May’s divorce proceedings. As they began to talk more about their experiences, it became clear this was a subject that needed to be tackled.

Dealing with pet custody after a breakup happens everyday, but is rarely brought to the surface. May and Pisarra’s book, What About Wally: Co-Parenting a Pet with your Ex, hit bookshelves back in October. It offers a heartfelt approach to a situation that a lot of people can relate to.

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Happy Friday pet lovers! It’s almost the weekend and that means it’s time for our Weekend Pets Photo Contest! The theme for this week’s contest is: Big Dogs! Post your photos of your big dog (or your small dog acting like a big dog!) on our Facebook wall and you could win some cool TAILS prizes and be featured on our site!

Are you a Twitter fanatic? You can also Tweet us your Weekend Pet photos using the hashtag #weekendpets.

Good luck! Woofs and wags!

Photo credit: Theweek.com

If you had to guess how long ago dogs became domesticated, what would be your guess?

300 years? 3,000 years? Try at least 33,000 years.

Scientists have recently discovered two 33,000-year-old dog skulls in Siberia and Belgium with strong hints of loyalty to early humans.

The bone structures of these ancient dogs are more similar to modern-day canines than the wild wolves that are the supposed ancestors of the pets we have today. Through the bone structure similarities, especially the shortened snout, scientists have concluded that the animals found in Siberia and Belgium were domesticated.

The dog skulls that were found also have wider jaws and closer-cropped teeth than wild animals of the era.

With this new piece of valuable evidence, it can be assumed that dogs were probably one of the very first animals to be domesticated. They were most likely used for protection, companionship and maybe even as hunting aids.

But these ancient dogs are probably not the ancestors of our beloved pets of the 21st century.

The skulls that were found date back to before the last ice age, which occurred between 19,000 and 26,000 years ago. The ice from this period disrupted life and more than likely completely eliminated all lineage for both humans and animals alike.

Wow! We always knew the canine-human bond was strong but this new discovery proves that it’s one of the strongest in history! Woof!

I think we all know the love our pets have for us goes beyond this world, so it makes sense that we would be greeted in the afterlife by our furry friends that had passed on throughout our lifetimes.

I’d say this cartoon sums it up pretty well.

Robert Torres is a Boston-based graphic designer and freelance photographer who lives with three shelter-adopted cats and one swamp cat. His specialty is lifestyle photography and portraiture. As a freelance photographer, one week may be a fashion shoot, and the next might be cats or dogs playing with their people outdoors. But sometimes it all comes together when he gets to shoot a cat modeling fashion knitwear. Visit his photoblog, “cat in a tree,” to see cats in scarves as well as his latest photography projects.

RobertTorresPhotography.com, 617-363-0328

Photo credit: Petside.co.uk

So much heartache and suffering could be avoided if people would simply stop purchasing dogs from pet stores and adopt from a local shelter or rescue (or at least a reputable breeder). While it’s not to say a shelter dogs cannot get distemper, but the chances are much less.

Yesterday a third case of canine distemper had been confirmed and traced back to two pet stores in the Chicago area. Puppy mills are suspected at the root of the outbreak.

According to the Human Society of the United States, three puppies diagnosed with the potentially deadly and highly contagious disease were purchased at two Happiness is Pets stores in the Chicago area.

Dakota, a four month old Dachshund, is fighting for her life.

Earlier this month, James Hollensteiner and Natalie Sallee purchased a four-month-old Yellow Lab named Lucy. Soon after the couple welcomed Lucy into their home, she began shaking uncontrollably. The illness had spread to her brain and spine.

The couple ended Lucy’s suffering Tuesday.

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We’ve hit the middle of the week, and TAILS wants to cheer you up and keep you motivated to make it to the weekend. Enjoy these great pictures that have popped up on the web the last few days.

Happy Wednesday from all of us here at TAILS!

Last fall Michigan State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital performed the first successful canine open-heart surgery on a dog named Leo who suffered from a dysplastic mitral valve. When Leo was a puppy a valve in his heart did not form properly during development and resulted in improper closure and fluid congestion of the lungs.

Augusta Pelosi, a cardiac surgeon with the College of Veterinary Medicine, along with more than 20 veterinary and human health experts specialize in critical cardiology care, created a world-class team of experts who perform the rare surgery on companion animals.

“The only way to fully correct many cardiac defects is to target the problem itself with open-heart surgery,” said Pelosi.

Pelosi’s first success story – with hopefully many more in the future – is Leo, a 2-year-old Australian Shepherd from Ann Arbor. Post surgery Leo is back to his normal playful self – chasing balls, chewing toys, and barking at friends.

“There is a perception that heart surgery does not work for animals,” Pelosi said. “We have the need, we have the skills and we have the ability to do it successfully.”

For more information about the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine and the services at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, go to http://cvm.msu.edu/.

Photo credit: WSPA

Today 100,000 virtual dogs will “march” across the web to encourage the use of collars, not cruelty, in the fight against rabies.

The virtual march is a part of the World Society for the Protection of Animals’ (WSPA) “Collars Not Cruelty” campaign, which promotes vaccination as an alternative to mass dog killings.

“Every year, nearly 20 million dogs are needlessly and cruelly killed in misguided attempts to control rabies,” said Ray Mitchell, International Campaigns Director, WSPA. “Through this virtual dog march, we want to tell governments and people around the world that it doesn’t have to be this way – through mass vaccination, they can humanely and effectively tackle the disease.”

This approach to rabies control has already proven successful in many countries. Recently 70 percent of the dog population in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh were immunized along with 210,000 dogs in Bali.

Each dog was given a red collar to show local community members it was vaccinated, thus the name “Collars Not Cruelty.”

Celebrities Ricky Gervais, Kristin Bauer and Victoria Stillwell are also championing the “Collars Not Cruelty” campaign and encourage fans to also show support by signing up for the Jan. 24 virtual march.

Please join TAILS in marching to end rabies and cruelty. To participate in the march and to learn more, visit the WSPA website.