Baby’s first pet: what pets are best for kids? One of the most rewarding bonds your child can make is with an animal. A pet not only provides warmth and companionship but also teaches life lessons such as responsibility around feeding, cleaning, and walking a pet...
The risk of animal-borne diseases from pets is small but real, writes Sarah McLean and Enzo Palombo Our relationship with pets has changed drastically in recent decades. Pet ownership is at an all-time high, with a recent survey finding 69% of Australian households have at least...
Dogs Australia is urging dog owners not to forget their pooches. The change in routine can cause many issues, including separation anxiety. As children go back to school, Dogs Australia is urging dog owners to prepare the family dog for the return-to-school routine changes. “The end of...
Susan Hazel and Julia Henning dispel 3 myths about cat allergies Cats are great companions, but for some people their company comes at a cost. Up to 1 in 5 people have an allergic response to cats, and this figure is increasing. There are many myths about...
A new TV series explores the journey of dogs, but science is giving us new insights into how we can help our canine friends thrive by Dr Mia Cobb Over the last twenty years, there has been a global explosion of science focused on our best four-legged...
Paul McGreevy and Melissa Starling look at ten common misconceptions about dog behaviour. It is difficult to refer to what dogs, as a collective, like and dislike and how they behave. Just as humans do, dogs all have their own personalities and learned preferences and so...
After Vanessa Holt tries many different pets for her daughter, the perfect one slithers onto the scene. It’s the perfect pet. It doesn’t make a noise. It doesn’t smell. At most, we feed it once a week and it doesn’t leave a messy bowl. It’s content...
When a beloved family pet disappears, the hardest thing to cope with is not knowing what happened, explains Gill Canning. It was the first day of the school holidays. “Has anyone seen Ziggy?” I asked my three boys at lunchtime. They shook their heads. No one had...
Australians like their pets, and for most of us by far, the dog remains our best friend, write Associate Professor Luke Smillie and Dr Ferdi Botha For the first time, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey that covers 17,000 Australians annually, has...
New research finds Australia is doing well in the desexing arena. But the age of desexing needs to be brought forward from six months to four months to close a "pregnancy gap" and prevent unwanted litters of kittens. Reports Elissa Blake Australians are being urged to...
