Anna Jane Grossman

For most of the tens of thousands of years that canines have existed, they've been hunters and scavengers. Wolves and feral dogs may still work for their food, but most of the canines in the world today are domesticated and usually get their meals for free. For animals that evolved...

Queen Elizabeth is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee this year. The event marks a milestone in the life of one of the most famous dog owners in the world. Her Royal Lizness has always been pretty prim and private. But when it comes to her dog obsession, she's relatively loud and...

Shock collars for dog training have been around for decades. When they began to gain in popularity in the 1970s, there were FDA attempts to recall them. Recently, there's been a movement to ban them in Canada. In the States, there are occasional animal cruelty cases brought upon those who...

Last Monday night, Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, discussed a 'scandal' that has been plaguing her husband's campaign: During road trips with his family of seven in the 1980s, her husband used to habitually strap their Irish Setter, Seamus, to the car roof in a crate.

"He would see that crate...

Today we mourn the loss of a dog-lover extraordinaire: Dick Clark. He was 574. In dog years.

Clark was a big-time dog person. He designed his Malibu home so that it could accommodate all his dogs -- he sometimes had as many as five at a time. The showers were extra...

Last election, Obama's campaign's weapon of choice was the Internet. This election, looks like they're going another route: the dog route. Hey, people do spend money on their dogs. Below, some of the campaign-fundraising items now on sale at Store.BarackObama.com. ...

"Zeutering" is a non-surgical process that sterilizes male dogs. A solution of Zinc gluconate (like you take for a cold), L-Arginine  (a non-essential amino acid) and water is shot into a dog's scrotum. Within a month he is permanently sterile.

The Ark Sciences formulation was initially introduced in the U.S. with...

In his National Geographic show The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan talks about controlling dogs using "energy." But his real tool for controlling animals? Kicking them in the guts.

To any dog trainer rooted in the world of the science of behavior, the notion of "calm submissive" energy (or whatever he calls...

Today, despite all my efforts to better manage my time, I spent many minutes watching videos of actor Doug Hutchison, 51, and his new bride, 16-year-old Courtney Alexis Stodden. She's a good Christian teen who just happens to look like she could be Lindsay...

At ReadyMade.com I wrote about the trend of dog cloning, which is the subject of an excellent new book by journalist John Wostendiek, Dog Inc.

Cloning is happening on such a small scale right now that it...

Every now and then, one reads something and one thinks, "Sheesh, whoever wrote this is a real asshole."

As a flawless human being, I am of course usually above thinking such thoughts. The world is full of beauty and kindness. I've learned this from observing Amos, my dog. If you...

Yesterday I was at the cafe on Third Avenue where I met Ira a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago I did an online video about payphones in which...

A lot of memorable things happened on the yellow bus I took to day camp when I was a kid: I comforted a girl who started sobbing when we took an alternate route that passed the cemetery where her mother had just been buried; I was courted by an eight-year-old...

Have you heard that print media is having a hard time these days? Too bad -- I'm really going to miss it. I'm particularly going to miss the way in which one person's tossed off newspaper could be your travel companion or dinner date, encouraging you to tip...

Towards the end of Annie Hall, Woody Allen, as Alvy Singer, visits an edit room where his friend Rob is tinkering with footage from his new show. Every few seconds, Rob instructs the editor to add a giggle or a guffaw after his TV self delivers a punch line.

Allen, still...

As a veteran obituary reader, I have mixed feelings about this summer's coverage of celebirty deaths.

(But first: Am I the only one imagining what's been going on in territories above us? In the scenario that keeps popping up in my head, St. Peter is making a guest...