How would you like to have a dog for a client?

While this canine case reported by Stephanie Francis Ward in the article "Canine Case Is Doggone Tough" for the ABA Journal eReport may seem humorous to some, it is a serious matter for the lawyer who serves as a guardian to a 13-year-old golden retriever named Alex.  The dog became the subject of a custody battle after the death of his owner.  As unusual as this representation may seem, there are some perks:  the lawyer and the dog get along quite well and complaints to the state bar are unlikely. 

Need a course in dog communication?  It turns out that dogs wag their tail to the right if they are happy to see you and to the left when they are frightened, according to Italian researchers.   Rossella Lorenzi reports the findings in "Happy dogs wag tail to right":

“Professor Giorgio Vallortigara of the University of Trieste and team describe these ‘striking asymmetries in the control of tail movements’ as another example of how the right and left halves of the brain control different emotions.”

I'll go to see what my dogs want to tell me.