I was just wondering if anyone subscribes to Whole Dog Journal? Do you find it to be informative and helpful to you?

I've subscribed for four or five years and I do find it both interesting and useful. Some of the articles are a little more than I can go for (like the one about crystals and earth energy and the one about color therapy) but they do have good nutrition information, good training and health articles, as well as general care, socialization, and other dog-related information. They seem to cover the whole gamut of dogs and owners, I'd recommend it.

Suzanne

I subscribe, not for my own benefit, but to be able to answer questions my clients may have about the content.

It's a nice publication, but I've outgrown the level where the information it gives is truly useful a long time ago and I don't necessarily agree with their ideas of what makes a food worthwhile recommending.

I got a subscription for Christmas. I feel like I get better food info from this board, I know most of the training info or can get it elsewhere when I have a specific issue, and some of the other stuff is on the "um, okay" side (the crystals and color therapy) for me. I still like reading it though. I might try BARK as my "dog magazine" 'cause it's more fun.

It is a little basic, if you've been around dogs - training, reading, etc - for any length of time a lot of it's probably stuff you already know. I save all the issues but I'll admit I don't always read all of the articles, same way with Clean Run though. OTH, the article about incontinence has been shared with several people because it has more information than we knew and it's helped us to talk to our vets about courses of treatment for our old girls.

It's been a l-o-n-g time since I had dogs that needed to learn the basics and I'd forgotten how to do some of it so I was interested in the article I saw last year about a different (to me) method for teaching 'stay' that I think will work well for my Food Shark.

The food issues this year did seem to be done a little oddly, it wasn't really anything that I would use but last year they had a series on home-prepared food that coincidentally came out at the time of the recalls. I just subscribed to Bark magazine, I'm looking forward to seeing it. My mailman would never know that we have dogs ;-)

Suzanne

If money isn't an issue and you want a publication that does not take adverts (which is important to me, if it's done right), then WDJ is just fine. I don't read everything and I agree with everyone about the food stuff. Actually, the stuff I find useful is the color therapy/crystal stuff most find kinda silly, since that's probably the stuff I know least about, of the topics they cover.

I *do* have major issues with their writing style, as well as how they tend to *gush* over some stuff with abandon (it is kind of alarming). The titles of articles are almost always ridiculously bad puns, too. I get really annoyed, but it could be that I'm just mean!

I really enjoy the WDJ, I continue to subscribe and have found some really interesting information. For example this month they have an article on Calendula and how to grow, dry and what type to look for to grow. I would not have "actively" looked that information up myself. So, now I'm going to grow some calendula this year. I like the information on herbs, although I have many herbal books they wake me up from time to time to new herbs

There are some articles I find very interesting and some I find a bit boring and skip over. But, that happens with many subscribtions I don't pay much attention to the dog food choices they make but it is good for people who are still feeding crap foods like kibbles and bits and gives them some choices...many people want to be told what foods to buy they don't want to learn to read the ingredients We have tons of customer's at the grooming shop like that.

I just got a subscription a couple months ago, but I didn't do it for diet tips - I get that on here. I think my last month issue said something about looking at the frozen prepared raw next month. Yah, the crystals were kind of out there, but still I found it interesting especially when we sometimes have seperation anxiety with Licorice. I did follow up to see what something like that entailed, the stones that it recommended the dog to wear, quartz or what ever it was. I pictured a collar stone necklace. It was rather expensive. I'd probably be more apt to try herbals for a calming effect on the dog. I'm afraid if I put a crystal necklace on my dog, my family would look at me like I had rocks in my head.

LOL! I just put a collar stone on Sunny, he said he needed smokey quartz -- it cost me I think $8. I paid $2 for the stone at a nice little crystal shop, and for $6 extra the woman wire-wrapped it so I could attach it to Sunny's tag ring on his collar.

I've seen stones and amulets for dogs' collars online that are ridiculously expensive, so I thought I'd mention that there are cheaper options if you have a rock/mineral shop anywhere close by you.

That's a good idea Connie. I'll have to go back and read the article again, I can't remember if it was rose quartz or what it recommended for dogs with anxiety. Anythings worth a try in my book. I think it was $80.00 or more for the source they listed in the magazine.

We've been having the floors finished this week and the dogs have had to be in the pen. Licorice normally barks a lot complaining about being locked up, but yesterday after the guys were gone & they were left in the pen while it dried for 3 hours (I was stuck in the back of the house with the cat, so couldn't let them out- at least I had a bathroom.)

Licorice then started to cry, just a low whine, not enough to bother the neighbors, but at times it was almost a howl, just enough to let me know how miserable she was, poor baby.

Oh, I'm editing to ask if you've seen any improvement with adding the stone to the collar or how long has he been wearing it?

I went to a local dog show and met the lady who makes those crystal collars. They're *a lot* cuter in person than on the web or in print, but it's still like..."NINETY DOLLARS?!?!?" It's just macrame or whatever. I think you're supposed to be paying for the expertise, though. I just decided to get a bunch of stuff that seemed to fit and will someday put a damn thing together so that MP can wear it! I did get a few loose stones from her at the show. They're sitting on my buffet and I carry one of them in my jacket pocket. According to the woman who makes them, there's no *need* to wear the stones at all--they can just be near them, or in the same room, or on their bed.

BarksaLot, *I*'ve noticed that I feel a little bit different when I have stones *on* me. In fact, the only reason why I even gave this crystal thing any thought is because Connie had sent me the coolest bracelet ever, and when I wore it, I felt GOOD. It's a little big on me and I haven't gotten it shortened (I would lose it otherwise), so I've worn it to bed--and I had *awesome* dreams. It's weird! I am, however, incredibly susceptible to placebo effect (my vet called me "self-healing" ), so if I believe in something, it usually works. I also think that Connie put her magic Connie-ness in the bracelet.

Crystals are something I don't grasp now but I've become a believer in animal communicators so I'm willing to accept that there's things I don't understand yet. No matter how strange they seem at first.

Suzanne

I've been a subscriber for years and, as others have said, there are articles of interest and articles I skip. This month's article on Shock Wave Therapy was very interesting to me. There was a featured dog who lives in NJ and was treated by a holistic vet not far from me! I belong to a Senior-dog group and a Conservative Management group and shared the info with them, since the treatment was successful for arthritis and ligament injury in the dog. I wouldn't have known about that treatment except for WDJ article.

I've subscribed for years.

A lot of stuff is basic, but I think I still pick up something in each issue.

The only other dog mag I get is BARK.