Dogs

Figurines on display at Poland's Cat Museum

Poland's Only Cat Museum Puts Couple's Private Collection of Trinkets on Display

The pint-sized institution, which opened last year, is filled with 1,000 feline-themed knickknacks that journeyed with their owners from Ukraine

In 1985, Riddles was the first to cross the finish line after 18 days, 20 minutes and 17 seconds. Her win produced a new generation of women mushers competing in the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.

Facing Blizzards and Accidents, Iditarod’s First Woman Champion Libby Riddles Persisted

A sled in the Smithsonian collections marks the historic race

Researchers in India studied whether 160 stray dogs would react to commands like gesturing toward a bowl. This image, taken in 2012, shows street dogs surrounding an Indian tea vendor in Allahabad.

Stray Dogs May Understand Human Signals, Too

A new study has found that strays in India, when presented with two covered food bowls, were more likely to approach the one an experimenter pointed toward

A wolf puppy named Flea, among 13 pups tested in a new study. Sadly, Flea does not fetch.

Watch Wolf Puppies Play Fetch

New research suggests canines' love for chasing and returning tossed balls wasn't purely a product of domestication

Look at those good doggos.

How Dog Parks Took Over the Urban Landscape

Birthed from the counterculture of the ’60s, the pet playground has witnessed a major shift in how Americans relate to their canines

Presenting Smithsonian magazine's top ten stories of 2019

Our Top Ten Stories of 2019

From a 16-million-year-old tree to Confederate soldiers’ diaries, voracious snakes and England’s warrior king, these were the most-read stories of 2019

How many sheep?

Dogs’ Brains Naturally Process Numbers, Just Like Ours

Scientists stuck 11 dogs in fMRI scanners to see if their brains had a knack for quantity

A dog wears the Canine Auditory Protection System, or CAPS.

The U.S. Army Is Developing Better Hearing Protection for Its Dogs

Like human personnel, military dogs are susceptible to hearing loss from exposure to high levels of noise

Was This 18,000-Year-Old Puppy Frozen in Siberian Permafrost the Ancestor of Wolves, Dogs or Both?

DNA tests on the well-preserved remains can't determine whether the little canine was wild or domestic

The study involved 104 Labrador retrievers between four weeks and 16 years old.

Calculate Your Dog's Age With This New, Improved Formula

A study of the epigenetic clock in Labradors shows calculating a dog's age is much more complicated than just multiplying by seven

Sweet Narwhal will be adoptable soon, but he is not for sale. He is a very good boy, of course.

Meet the ‘Unicorn Puppy’ With an Extra Tail on His Head

Narwhal’s unique appendage may be the remnant of his parasitic twin

Texas state law classifies retired police dogs (and other law enforcement animals) as surplus government property not to be used for private benefit.

Texas' Retired Police Dogs No Longer Have to Be Sold or Euthanized

A new state amendment allows handlers and other qualified caretakers to adopt retired police pups at no cost

Canine Archaeologists Sniff Out 3,000-Year-Old Graves in Croatia

A new study shows how canines trained to find human remains could help archaeologists locate new sites

Wolves Gave Tibetan Mastiffs Their Mountaineering Genes

The big, shaggy dogs of the Himalayas are 50 percent more efficient at transporting hemoglobin than lowland pooches

Dog Breeding Has Changed Pooches’ Brains

A new study has found that key anatomical differences in dogs’ brains are linked to the behaviors they were bred to perform

Yvonne Morones embraces her dog Scamp the Tramp after he wins the World's Ugliest Dog contest.

Meet Scamp the Tramp, the World’s Ugliest Dog

Scamp took home the top prize in an annual competition that seeks to promote dog adoption

A dog being hitched to a travois in an 1844 painting by Karl Bodmer.

Ancient Dogs Weren't the Workhorses We Thought They Were

A spinal condition thought to be caused by carrying heavy loads is actually a function of age, a new study finds

I can haz Snausage?

Dogs Evolved a Special Muscle That Lets Them Make 'Puppy Dog Eyes'

Wolves don't have the muscle to make that classic wide-eyed gaze, suggesting strong evolutionary pressures were at play in our pooches

When you're sad, it makes your dog sad.

Keep Calm and Don’t Stress Out the Dog

When humans feel anxious, their dogs do too, according to new study

Instead of the tennis ball, imagine this Boykin spaniel holding an ornate box turtle in its mouth, ready to deliver it to conservation researchers.

Very Good Dogs Helped Track Threatened Turtles in Iowa

The dogs are trained to find ornate box turtles and bring them to researchers—part of an effort to save the struggling species

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