Dog Daily News

The best canine news and features, paw-picked by our staff of intrepid news hounds

How old is your dog? The world’s oldest dog, a wire-haired dachshund named Chanel, died a few days ago at the ripe old age of 21. But how old is that in dog years? Some news accounts said 147, others proclaimed 120. We dogs know better. You don’t just multiply a dog’s age times 7. It’s not as simple as that, as an interesting article in Slate explains today. It’s got to do with the first year of a dog’s life counting as about 15 years. And it also has to do with weight. The whole subject completely confuses the minds of every one of our staffers, especially Jasper. So we turned to a fun, free tool, a dog-age calculator. I (your editor, Frank) am a sleek 26. Zulu, on the other hand, is well into his seventh decade. Add his penchant for worrying, and he’s probably about 90.

Star, who shops with her person at Whole Foods Market in Portland, gets disparaging glares from some shoppers.

Portland, Ore. has the reputation of being a super dog-friendly city. But it seems some people don’t like to see us dogs in places like food stores, and are putting up quite the fuss. The New York Times reported today that the food safety division of the Oregon Agriculture Department has received more than 600 complaints about canines cavorting down the aisles of places like Safeway and Whole Foods Market.

“Usually they’ll hold off and not make a complaint until they’ve seen a dog urinate in the grocery store or jump up and try to swipe a pack of meat,” Vance Bybee, the head of the food safety division, told the Times. “Or they’ve seen dogs pooping in the aisle, that sort of thing.”

We at Dog Daily News are extremely embarrassed that others of our kind would do these deeds. Please, Oregon dogs, you have a chance to make history and help pave a path for a more dog-friendly nation. Don’t ruin it by doing leg lifts on the Fruity Pebbles.

Dog tale: We bring you an update on a sad story from yesterday. The pit bull who munched the toes off a four-month-old boy while his mother slept a few feet away has been euthanized and tested for rabies, reports AP. The baby’s deep-sleeping mother and her beau remain in custody.