Dogs

A wolf puppy named Flea, among 13 pups tested in a new study. Sadly, Flea does not fetch.

Watch Wolf Puppies Play Fetch

New research suggests canines' love for chasing and returning tossed balls wasn't purely a product of domestication

Look at those good doggos.

How Dog Parks Took Over the Urban Landscape

Birthed from the counterculture of the ’60s, the pet playground has witnessed a major shift in how Americans relate to their canines

Presenting Smithsonian magazine's top ten stories of 2019

Our Top Ten Stories of 2019

From a 16-million-year-old tree to Confederate soldiers’ diaries, voracious snakes and England’s warrior king, these were the most-read stories of 2019

How many sheep?

Dogs’ Brains Naturally Process Numbers, Just Like Ours

Scientists stuck 11 dogs in fMRI scanners to see if their brains had a knack for quantity

A dog wears the Canine Auditory Protection System, or CAPS.

The U.S. Army Is Developing Better Hearing Protection for Its Dogs

Like human personnel, military dogs are susceptible to hearing loss from exposure to high levels of noise

Was This 18,000-Year-Old Puppy Frozen in Siberian Permafrost the Ancestor of Wolves, Dogs or Both?

DNA tests on the well-preserved remains can't determine whether the little canine was wild or domestic

The study involved 104 Labrador retrievers between four weeks and 16 years old.

Calculate Your Dog's Age With This New, Improved Formula

A study of the epigenetic clock in Labradors shows calculating a dog's age is much more complicated than just multiplying by seven

Sweet Narwhal will be adoptable soon, but he is not for sale. He is a very good boy, of course.

Meet the ‘Unicorn Puppy’ With an Extra Tail on His Head

Narwhal’s unique appendage may be the remnant of his parasitic twin

Texas state law classifies retired police dogs (and other law enforcement animals) as surplus government property not to be used for private benefit.

Texas' Retired Police Dogs No Longer Have to Be Sold or Euthanized

A new state amendment allows handlers and other qualified caretakers to adopt retired police pups at no cost

Canine Archaeologists Sniff Out 3,000-Year-Old Graves in Croatia

A new study shows how canines trained to find human remains could help archaeologists locate new sites

Wolves Gave Tibetan Mastiffs Their Mountaineering Genes

The big, shaggy dogs of the Himalayas are 50 percent more efficient at transporting hemoglobin than lowland pooches

Dog Breeding Has Changed Pooches’ Brains

A new study has found that key anatomical differences in dogs’ brains are linked to the behaviors they were bred to perform

Yvonne Morones embraces her dog Scamp the Tramp after he wins the World's Ugliest Dog contest.

Meet Scamp the Tramp, the World’s Ugliest Dog

Scamp took home the top prize in an annual competition that seeks to promote dog adoption

A dog being hitched to a travois in an 1844 painting by Karl Bodmer.

Ancient Dogs Weren't the Workhorses We Thought They Were

A spinal condition thought to be caused by carrying heavy loads is actually a function of age, a new study finds

I can haz Snausage?

Dogs Evolved a Special Muscle That Lets Them Make 'Puppy Dog Eyes'

Wolves don't have the muscle to make that classic wide-eyed gaze, suggesting strong evolutionary pressures were at play in our pooches

When you're sad, it makes your dog sad.

Keep Calm and Don’t Stress Out the Dog

When humans feel anxious, their dogs do too, according to new study

Instead of the tennis ball, imagine this Boykin spaniel holding an ornate box turtle in its mouth, ready to deliver it to conservation researchers.

Very Good Dogs Helped Track Threatened Turtles in Iowa

The dogs are trained to find ornate box turtles and bring them to researchers—part of an effort to save the struggling species

They're all good dogs.

Breathing Problems in Pugs and Bulldogs Might Have a Genetic Component

It might not be their smushed-up snouts after all

Experts believe the Neolithic dog is the first canine to undergo forensic facial reconstruction

Thanks to Facial Reconstruction, You Can Now Look Into the Eyes of a Neolithic Dog

The collie-sized canine was buried in a cavernous tomb on Scotland’s Orkney Islands around 2,500 B.C.

Very Good Dogs Can Detect the Scent of Seizures, Study Finds

But can they predict seizures before they occur?

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