plus: What Paw Preference Reveals About your Dog's Personality Hello Reader, He made it up the back steps this morning. Slowly. One paw, then a pause, then the next. You stood behind him with your hands out, not touching, just there. That pause is new. So is the way you hold your breath during it. It's July, the kind of heat that settles into everything and makes moving harder for all of us. For a lot of senior dogs right now, that hesitation on the stairs is something worth paying attention...

plus: Scientists find that walking changes in dogs... Hello Reader, He used to bolt out the back door ahead of you. Now he walks out beside you, steady and deliberate, and somehow that feels better. Maybe it's the July heat doing it. That thick, sitting-on-your-chest kind of hot that's been parked over most of the country this week. You've both slowed down. You've both started favoring the shade. But here's the thing about slowing down. It doesn't have to mean stopping. Today we're looking at...

plus: Why Are Dogs Lifespans So Short? Hello Reader, He used to clean his bowl in thirty seconds flat. Now he picks at it. Or maybe he's eating fine but losing muscle along his back and hindquarters, that slow narrowing that makes him look older than she did six months ago. You switched to a "senior" food. Lower protein, lighter formula. That's what we're supposed to do for older dogs, right? Turns out, maybe not. The research on protein and aging dogs is more complicated than the bag labels...