In today's issue:

-Meet our dog of the day

-Enjoy a laugh with our dog meme of the day

-Get great information in our featured article

-Take our action of the week

-Check out our family photo of the day

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The Vermont Country Store —Make it a Tradition

Welcome to The Vermont Country Store! Since 1946, the Orton Family Business has offered an incredible assortment of unique and useful products and a shopping experience unlike any other. Find new favorites like our exclusive bedding and sleepwear, heirloom-quality Mountain Weavers table linens, genuine Irish wool sweaters, and baked goods made from treasured family recipes. Rediscover beloved brands from the past, like Tangee, Lemon Up, and Mason Pearson. There’s more in store every time you shop to make each visit even better than the last. 

Make your experience extra special! Free shipping on orders of $75 or more.

Why Your Dog Thinks the Toilet is the Best Water Bowl in the House

Here's the deal. You invest in a beautiful, ceramic pet fountain or a top-tier stainless steel water bowl. You filter the water, drop in a few ice cubes, and place it perfectly in the kitchen.

Then, you hear it from down the hall. Slurp, slurp, slurp.

You walk into the bathroom to find your beloved pup, tail wagging, completely head-first into the toilet bowl.

While it might make us cringe and immediately reach for the doggy breath mints, to your dog, sneaking a drink from the porcelain throne isn’t a gross habit—it is actually a highly logical choice. From a canine perspective, the toilet is essentially an elite, high-tech hydration station.

The Super-Chill Temperature

Dogs love cold water just as much as we do on a hot summer day. Because toilet bowls are usually made of thick porcelain, they excel at keeping water temperature incredibly low. Furthermore, the water inside the bowl is constantly being replenished with cold, fresh pipes hidden within your home's walls.

Compare that to the plastic or metal bowl sitting on your warm kitchen floor for eight hours, and it is a no-brainer for your pup. The toilet bowl is simply the coldest, most refreshing option available.

It's Actually "Fresher" (In Their Eyes)

When water sits in a standard dog bowl, it becomes stagnant. Dust settles on top, hair floats in it, and a slimy layer of bacteria known as biofilm can quickly develop on the bottom and sides of the bowl.

Every time someone flushes a toilet, that stagnant water is completely replaced. To a dog's sharp senses, that swirling vortex means oxygenated, moving water. In the wild, animals instinctively seek out moving water because it is less likely to harbor dangerous bacteria than a still puddle. Your dog is just using those same ancestral survival instincts.

The Allure of the Scent

This is the part that makes human stomachs turn, but it is crucial to understanding canine psychology. Dogs experience the world primarily through their noses—they have up to 300 million olfactory receptors compared to our measly six million.

To a dog, a standard water bowl smells like... well, nothing. Or worse, it smells like old dish soap. The bathroom, however, is a wonderland of familiar family scents. The toilet bowl carries strong markers of the home and the people they love most. It might sound bizarre to us, but that scent makes the water feel familiar, safe, and comforting to them.

A Quick Note on Safety: While we now know why they do it, it's still best to keep the lid down. Chemical cleaners, bleach tablets, and automatic bowl fresheners can be highly toxic to pets.

So, the next time you catch your furry friend treating the restroom like a local watering hole, don't take it personally. They aren't trying to gross you out—they're just chasing the coldest, crispest sip in the house. The easiest fix? Just remember to drop the lid!

Dog Food and Supplement Recalls

Here are the recent recalls and advisories:

• Albright's Raw Pet Food - Chicken Recipe for Dogs: Potential Salmonella exposure

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We want to feature your pup!

We want to share your pup with our pack. Email us your favorite doggy pic or video with your pup’s name, and we'll try to feature it as a family photo in one of our upcoming newsletters or on our Facebook page.