Dogs

Karen Fine talks about practicing Chinese medicine and acupuncture on sick pets, what "ADR" stands for, and the mental health issues many veterinarians face. Her new book is The Other Family Doctor.

Alexandra Horowitz is a professor of psychology and founder of the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College. Horowitz's new book is called "The Year Of The Puppy." Our book critic Maureen Corrigan says it offers readers plenty to chew on.

Blair Braverman, an adventurer and sled dog racer who finished Alaska's nearly 1,000-mile long Iditarod race in 2019, has some advice for aspiring mushers. Rule no. 1, she says, is to never let go of the sled or the dogs.

What does it mean to be a woman who had a boyhood? That's the question LGBTQ activist Jennifer Finney Boylan set out to explore her new memoir, Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs.

You may be shocked by what's living in your home — the bacteria, the fungi, viruses, parasites and insects. Probably many more organisms than you imagined.

"Every surface; every bit of air; every bit of water in your home is alive," says Rob Dunn, a professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. "The average house has thousands of species."

In his new book One Nation Under Dog, Michael Schaffer investigates the booming pet-care industry. He discusses how the $43 billion business reflects our ideas about consumerism, family, politics and domesticity.

Kittens don't play -- they hunt. And their aloof appearance has evolutionary roots. A new book explains cats' mysterious nature and how their relationship with humans has changed over the years.

Naturalist Mark Derr says our friendship with dogs and wolves goes back thousands of years more than previously believed. His new book explores how the relationship between humans and wolves developed.

Animal behaviorist John Bradshaw has spent much of his career debunking bad advice given to dog owners. His new book Dog Sense details what pet owners should expect from their dogs -- and what their dogs should expect in return from their owners.

Many of Spencer's novels feature a turning point -- a dreadful, unplanned act committed by one of the characters. In his latest book, Man in the Woods, a carpenter accidentally kills a man, which leads him to question himself and his relationship with God.

Wondering what your pet is trying to tell you with that bizarre habit or that pleading look? Dodman is the best-selling author of The Dog Who Loved Too Much and The Cat Who Cried for Help. His latest is Puppy's First Steps: The Whole-Dog Approach to Raising a Happy Healthy, Well-Behaved Puppy.

In his new memoir, writer Ken Foster talks about his experience in recovering and sheltering lost animals. His book is called The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets who were Left Behind. Foster also contributed to and edited the collection Dog Culture: Writers on the Character of Canines.

Jon Katz is the author of the book, The New Work of Dogs: Tending to Life, Love, and Family It's about how attached many of us have become to our dogs, treating them more like family members and human surrogates than pets.

Naturalist and biologist Roger Tabor has studied house cats for twenty years. He has prepared television series on felines for the BBC and has written several books on the subject. His latest book is called "Understanding Cats: Their History, Nature, and Behavior" (Reader's Digest).

Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a veterinary behaviorist, is the author of "The Dog Who Loved Too Much: Tales, Treatments, and the Psychology of Dogs" (Bantam) In the book, he describes his own methods for correcting dog behaviors, such as attacking the telephone when it rings or scaring company, and he includes many stories from his own practice.

Maureen Corrigan reviews "Lives of the Monster Dogs" by Kristen Bakis, which features, among other things, genetically engineered canines.

Caroline Hebard is the co-founder of the U.S. Disaster Response Team. She and her German shepherd dogs have carried out search and rescue missions at the world's most tragic disaster sites: earthquakes in Japan, Mexico and Armenia, floods in Tennessee, hurricanes, and bridge collapses. The work is dangerous: trainers often follow their dogs into a collapsed building. Hebard lives in Bernardsville, New Jersey with her husband, children and dogs. Her new book (written with Hank Whittemore) is "So That Others May Live." (Bantam Books).

Maureen Corrigan looks at a series of books and a movie with canine heroes: the "Taxi Dog" books and "Beethoven."

Writer, reporter, and animal rights advocate Roger Caras. Caras has written more than 50 books on pets and wildlife. His latest is called "A Dog Is Listening: The Way Some of Our Closest Friends View Us." Caras recently left his longtime position as a corespondent with ABC news in order to become president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Lewis has made two quirky, hilarious documentaries about the problems between humans and animals. His first movie, "Cane Toads: An Unnatural History," chronicles the havoc that ensued after a species of toad was introduced into Australia. His new movie is called "The Wonderful World of Dogs."