You might think your pet has a lot of toys. But she definitely does not have as many toys as Chaser, a female border collie. Chaser has more than a thousand toys, and she can remember the names of all of them. A recent study from South Carolina’s Wofford College details an extraordinary experiment in language comprehension and cognition in dogs. The researchers, retired psychology professor John Pilley, PhD, and psychology professor Alliston Reid, PhD, attempted to see if they could teach a dog (Chaser) to not only identify over a thousand objects, but if she could learn in a way similar to how human children learn. The study "Border collie comprehends object names as verbal referents," was published in the journal Behavioural Processes. Chaser learned the names of over a thousand toys over a three-year period. (Photo by Robin Pilley)

A recent report from the CDC highlights the need for routine rabies vaccinations of companion animals.

Pets eat weird things. Everyone knows that, especially veterinarians. But the full extent of the issue is sometime hard to appreciate.

The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) has expressed concern over a recent report on feral cat management from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The number of people hospitalized due to dog bites in the United States increased by 86 percent between 1993 and 2008, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reported.

 A Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine faculty member has invented a lifelike simulator to help student train for veterinary emergencies.

Scientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, have found a correlation between hormone levels and personalities in birds.

In the veterinary school setting, various materials are used to simulate skin and muscle tissue in order for students to practice incisions and sutures. Practice materials have included raw chickens, rubber sheets, orange rinds and even pieces of carpet padding. Now, veterinarians from Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) have created what they hope Is the best alternative to real tissue. VTH Director Dean Henderson, DVM, DACVS, and research scientist Fausto Bellezzo, DVM, invented a type of artificial tissue that simulates sections of animal anatomy including skin, muscle, fascia and even blood. "We had been concerned that the distance between the didactic training our students received and the first live animal surgery was too great,” Hendrickson said. “We felt like we needed something that might more closely mimic normal tissue in both characteristics and the ability to ‘bleed.’”

As if you needed it, here is another reason that cats are different from dogs: the way they drink.

Injuries in children due to metal landscape edging (metal strips half-buried in the ground to edge lawns) have been previously documented. A 2001 study showed that over a two-year period, 126 children were admitted to the Children’s Hospital in Denver for lacerations caused by metal lawn edging, mostly to the feet and knees. But what about the risk to pets? The danger of metal landscape edging to animals has not been documented until now. A new study shows that the sharp-edged landscaping tool also poses a risk of injury to dogs. Amanda Duffy, DVM, DACVECC, led the study while at Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH). Her team looked at the frequency and severity of limb injuries in dogs resulting from contact with metal edging. Over a 10 year period, the VTH admitted 60 dogs that fit the conditions for the study. These 60 dogs accounted for nearly one-third of all paw injuries at the VTH’s emergency service, according to the study.