Take your dog to work

Three employees discuss a great pertk, being allowed to bring your dog to work.

Caveat: the dogs must be well behaved.

Who invited the dog?

A New York Times special investigative report:

Difficult guests are no longer limited to humans. The boundaries between humans and animals have been so eaten away by pet therapists, pet designer outfits and pet bar mitzvahs, that it has reached a point where devoted owners, who treat their animals as privileged children, lose all perspective on the pet’s role in their social lives.

More American households have pets than ever — 68.7 million of them in 2006, according to a new survey by the American Veterinary Medical Association, up 12.4 percent from 2001.

Soldier, sniffer dog partner killed together

On July 6, Kory Wiens, 20, and his golden lab, Cooper, became the first working dog team killed together since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. They were killed by an explosive while on patrol 20 miles southeast of Baghdad. Wiens and Cooper were cremated, and their ashes buried alongside one another in Dallas, Ore.

Hmmm

And what is the focal point of this photo of a very handsom labrador retriever?

Hmmm

Famous labs: Buddy

Aida Turturro, who played Tony Soprano's sister Janice and is now on Broadway, has a black labrador retriever called Buddy

Relationships can be so, well, “transitional,” she told the New York Times. “It’s better if I don’t say anything about men. Let’s just say that Buddy is the love of my life.”

She last had Labradors while growing up in a mixed neighborhood on the Lower East Side. Her parents divorced when she was a toddler, and she was raised by her father, Dominick, an artist, and her stepmother. She put herself through college, SUNY at New Paltz, by cleaning houses.

Read more.

Dogologist's top five book picks

Psychologist and dog scholar Stanley Coren picks his five top dog books for the Wall Street Journal and -- wouldn't you know it? -- they're all a bit on the wonkish side.

For the Love of a Dog
By Patricia B. McConnell
Ballantine, 2006

If Only They Could Speak
By Nicholas H. Dodman
Norton, 2002

If Dogs Could Talk
By Vilmos Csányi
North Point, 2005

Bones Would Rain From the Sky
By Suzanne Clothier
Warner, 2002

Always Faithful
By William Putney
Free Press, 2001