The long reads.
I love this work. I love the science behind why dogs do what they do, how their bodies work, what we are still figuring out. When a question keeps coming up and the answers people are finding online turn out to be half the story, I want to go find the whole thing. That is what these are.
Each one takes weeks. I read everything I can find, I name every source, and I name who funded it, because you deserve to know that when you are deciding what to believe. This is the work I am building over time, and you are welcome to it.
Reading Dog Body Language
What a dog’s ears, eyes, mouth, weight and tail are telling you, the combinations worth knowing on sight, and the signals people most often get wrong.
The Ingredient Panel
The back of a dog food bag is designed to look transparent. Ingredients are listed by weight, but that weight includes water. One ingredient can be split into four different names. The guaranteed analysis prints the bare minimum, not a measurement. Once you know the tricks, the same panel tells a very different story.
The Front of the Bag
One word in a product name decides whether a bag must hold 95% chicken, 3% chicken, or none at all. There is a rulebook behind the front of the package that almost no shopper has been told about.
The Pulse Question
Grain-free diets and canine dilated cardiomyopathy: what the FDA investigation was, what eight years of research established, who funded each study, and what remains unresolved.
Hearth & Hounds
Hearth & Hounds is a Houston dog training and pet care company run by Kourtenay and Joshua Dolmos. We work with reactive dogs, anxious dogs, puppies, and families who want to understand their dog better.
For the shorter answers, there are the Training Notes.