Overtoun Bridge in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland was built in 1895 for ease of access to Overtoun house. While it is quite a nice looking bridge, it isn't anything special compared to most historical sites in Scotland... except for the fact that dogs crossing the bridge feel compelled to throw themselves to their inevitable demise.

This phenomenon has been occurring since the 1950s, with the bridge claiming the lives of dogs at an average rate of one per year.

Let’s say your long-term relationship totally implodes. Browsing for a new apartment, or a therapist, you hear your dog bark in the other room — and realise, with a start, that it isn’t actually your dog. Once you’re all moved out, the dog will be out of your life, too.

Stewing in self-pity, you think — and subsequently become convinced — that this dog, who you’ve fed and bathed who knows how many times, and coined several adorable nicknames for, will forget you ever existed within the year.

Do you know your dog's age in 'dog years'? You know: supposedly a dog is seven dog years old on its first birthday and all that? Well, as it turns out, that figure isn't really accurate at all, and it's thrown even further out of whack when you realise that all dog breeds age at different rates. So if you want to figure out your pooch's actual age in dog years, here's how to do it.

With the gloom of winter finally behind us, many Aussies will be planning holiday drives in the months ahead. If you're bringing a furry friend along for the ride, there are some health and safety issues you need to be aware of. This infographic from Holden goes through the basics.

For a lot of us, dogs are our children until an actual child arrives. Like any big brother or sister, they need to be introduced to their human sibling under the best possible circumstances.

It’s fine and very sweet for kids to engage with new dogs, as long as they do so appropriately (Rule No. 1: Approach the owner first), but there may be times when a dog greets them with too much affection or even aggression. Doggone Safe, an organisation focused on dog bite prevention, teaches kids to “be a tree” if an unknown dog comes near them. Why? Trees are boring to dogs.

Cutting onions is one of the easiest ways to make yourself cry and feeding them to your pet will make them extremely ill. The same chemical compounds are responsible for both adverse reactions.

Australia has nearly five million dogs, with nearly 40% of Australian households owning one. But it seems that 40% of Australian dogs are not walked enough and that a similar percentage of dogs are overweight or obese. With colleagues at the University of Sydney, we are interested in collecting more recent data on these trends.

So why do we need to walk our dogs? And how much is enough?

My dog, Alice, is an RSPCA special. She's a nearly 40kg mix of every medium-to-large working breed without any distinguishing traits. Alice is such a mongrel that she's registered as a 'mixed cross'.

Maybe Google Lens would be able to work out what breed she is. Its first guess was Dachshund/Corgi cross. That's not right. We took Google Lens to the local dog park for further testing.

No one goes into pet ownership expecting to have to give up their animal companion, but sometimes unexpected life changes make the decision unavoidable. As someone who was forced to relinquish a dog in the past, the emotions of loss, guilt and heartbreak are overwhelming.

That, combined with the implied time constraint, can make you overlook key steps in the rehoming process. It’s hard, but it doesn’t have to be as stressful as it seems. With some proper steps taken beforehand, you can reduce the likelihood you have to surrender your pet. If keeping your furry companion isn’t an option, you can follow these tips to make sure they find a home that is both amenable and accommodating to your animal.

When you own a dog, giving them a walk quickly becomes part of your daily routine. Sometimes you want to mix things up, to let Rover off their leash and have them roam more freely. That's not always allowed so we've found out where you can and cannot walk your dog off-leash around Australia.

You’re excited for a new HBO show, but the trailers look pretty violent. You can stand some fighting, but you really hate torture scenes. Or you hate puke shots. Or you need to avoid strobe effects. Or your actual dog just died, and you’d rather not be reminded by a movie. Look up the title on Does the Dog Die?, a site that collects warnings about anxiety triggers and unpleasant elements in over 6000 movies, TV, books and video games.

Some (not all!) grain-free dog foods are getting extra scrutiny from the FDA, after several dogs in the US who ate those foods developed a rare canine heart disease.

You don’t have to ditch your dog’s favourite food just because it’s grain-free, but it’s worth taking a look at why you chose it and whether it’s really the best choice.

Having a pet is getting to know their personality and all their quirks, feeling like you can communicate despite not really sharing a language at all. But have you ever thought about how your beloved pet sees you, your house and all the fancy toys you've bought for it to play with? Here's how your pets see the world.

You can swab the inside of your dog’s cheek to find out whether they have any genes linked to certain canine diseases — but it may be best if you don’t. These services have flaws similar to those of human DNA tests, including false positives and false negatives.

Pet owners will often swear their beloved pooch or moggie does wonders for their wellbeing, and now we have empirical proof. A new study has found dog ownership is linked to improved heart health for humans. This is an important finding, given heart disease is the leading cause of death globally.

Meeting dogs is fun, so we get why you might want to meet all of them, even service dogs. But it’s crucial — lifesaving — that you recognise the difference between a pet and a dog that’s doing a job. As the blog Mashable explains, if you distract a service dog, you could endanger the life of its owner.

My friend Sara tells this story about a road trip with her dog Dakota where somewhere during a 14-hour drive her Husky-mix got car sick and vomited all over the back of the car. Then, embarrassed by the vomit, managed to pee all over the back of the vehicle as well. Her car was never the same.

Chrome, Firefox: It's been a rough week for many of us and it's likely you're a little stressed out right now.