5 Good Dog Books We Can't Even Give Away!Books arrive here at our New York offices by the bushel, sent by publishers in hopes of an AKC Family Dog review or a plug in our social media. For every book we review there are dozens more that, for reasons not always connected to their quality, […]

The marketing and advertising industries experienced unprecedented growth in the 1950s, and a gorgeous rough coat Collie led the way. The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications tells us, “Lassie helped to demonstrate the potential development of ancillary products associated with television programs, appearing in everything from comic books and Big Little Books to […]

Sir Edwin Landseer (1802–73) was Victorian England’s leading painter of canine subjects. He was said to be the Queen’s favorite artist, and to this day museums and private collectors treasure his works. But the amusing little dogatelle related here begins not in Victoria’s British Empire but in the Macedonian empire built in the fourth century […]

Meet Hungary’s russet-coated dog-of-all-trades: the Vizsla. While talking with the breed’s American fanciers, it seems the exclamation point and the Vizsla were made for each other. If this breed could talk (one of the few things it can’t do—yet) it would say things like “Yes I can!,” “Go for it!” and other such interjections that […]

Deep in the AKC Gazette photo archive is a battered old Kodak film box. It contains several rare—and extremely fragile—glass negatives taken by Rudolph Tauskey. They date to the early 1920s. Canine photography buffs have assumed for years that all of Tauskey’s glass negatives were lost, but six survive. Using a sophisticated scanner, the AKC Publications […]

It’s National Dog Week! You have a right to be skeptical of these “national weeks.” It seems like every Monday brings the start of another national something week: National Kumquat Week, National Duct Tape Week, National Braunschweiger Week, and who knows what else. Mostly, PR flunkies of limited imagination concoct these faux celebrations because they […]

It’s not primarily about the ribbons and titles but about forging a closer, more fulfilling bond between dog and owner. But let’s face it: After all that time and effort, adding an official title to your dog’s name can be awfully satisfying. Let’s take a look at the latest ways the AKC has enabled you […]

  Since the first issue of AKC Family Dog in 2003, we have been telling the stories of service dogs who guide the blind, hear for deaf, perform household tasks for wheelchair users, indicate on impending seizures and diabetic trauma, and perform many other jobs for disabled owners. During our 13-plus years of interviewing service-dog […]

I’m a caricaturist. I draw funny faces. That is, I draw faces funny. It’s an important distinction. Any decent draftsman can draw a funny face; a caricaturist finds the funny in a nondescript or even beautiful face. And caricaturists who aspire to a certain level of sophistication, those of the "New York School" whose dean […]

The Scottish Terrier is among the most recognizable of purebred dogs. It has been a mainstay of American iconography since its great wave of popularity in the 1930s, when the breed was a celebrity fad. Humphrey Bogart was a Scottie owner. So were Charles Lindbergh and Shirley Temple. Both Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were […]