I recently ditched my affiliate relationship with a major / famous pet site that's owned by a huge pet products mega company -- both because I literally never earned a dime because their terms sucked so much and because I realized they sell (and lately promote a lot) shock collars (some of which now masquerade as GSP devices and dog activity trackers to mask their other purpose -- to train dogs using pain). So, if you're looking for new places to shop online, please consider these other sites with whom I have new affiliate relationships: K9Cuisine.com and Buster & Dickens. Ditch the megastores. Support small biz.

Through my long-time work as a journalist, I get access to stats and other information not always available to other dog folks. When I see something of interest (or that scares me), I'm going to start telling you about it. Here's how the trend toward people preferring smaller dogs may affect you.