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Justine Lee, an assistant clinical professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, offers dog lovers practical advice on caring for their dogs—and answers questions they might be too embarrassed to ask their pet’s veterinarian face-to-face. Here is a sampling from her new book, subtitled, “Everything you ever wanted to know about your four-legged friend.”

Why do dogs “peel out” [kick up dirt and grass with] their back legs after urinating or defecating?

Dogs have scent glands in their paw pads, and often scrape their back legs to mark their territory. . . . They’re basically trying to tell the next dog that they were here and this was “their spot.”

Do I really have to brush my dog’s teeth?

Veterinarians and dentists recommend that you brush your dog’s teeth as often as possible—some say once a day, some say two to three times a week. . . . For dogs, the most important factor in brushing is the abrasiveness of the toothbrush. . . . The mechanical scrubbing helps remove the plaque that builds up constantly.

Is my dog’s pacemaker from a deceased human?

[I]t’s true that these are often retrieved from deceased humans. While this sounds gross, these pacemakers are recycled to help save a life of someone hairier and happier! . . . We can still recycle those used in another animal, as pacemakers are a hot commodity and sometimes hard for us to get. Don’t worry—the pacemakers are well sterilized before we even think about putting them into another dog.

Can a Chihuahua and a Great Dane mate?

If it’s physically possible, then it’s physically possible. What more can I say? . . . Just remember that it’s always safer to breed a small male to a larger mother, as this decreases the risk of mom requiring a C-section.

Can I eat my dog’s biscuits?

Yup. Just ask Mel Gibson. In Lethal Weapon, he makes quite an impression by munching on a few Milk-Bones to win over a Rottweiler. That said, we don’t normally advocate that our clients eat their own dogs’ biscuits.

The Genius of C. Walton Lillehei and the True History of Open Heart Surgery
By Daniel A. Goor, M.D.
Vantage Press (2007)

Lillehei was a brilliant heart surgeon who performed the world’s first open heart surgery at the University of Minnesota in the 1950s. He was also an enigmatic and controversial personality who alienated many of his colleagues and peers. Goor, a former student of Lillehei’s, acknowledges the complexities of Lillehei’s psyche but argues that politics within the medical profession led to the unjust sullying of his reputation by colleagues who were envious of his genius or were merely offended by what they viewed as his arrogance.

The Great Starvation Experiment: Ancel Keys and the Men Who Starved for Science
By Todd Tucker
University of Minnesota Press (2007)

Near the end of  World War II, 36 conscientious objectors volunteered to be systematically starved for renowned scientist Ancel Keys’s study at the University of Minnesota in the basement of Memorial Stadium. The study’s goal was to find the best way to rehabilitate starving people in war-ravaged Europe and Asia. Tucker’s book tells the story.

Hated Ideas and the American Civil War Press
By Hazel Dicken-Garcia and Giovanna Dell’Orto (B.A. ’98, M.A. ’00, Ph.D. ’04)
Marquette Books (2007)

A cherished principle in American journalism is the notion that unpopular and even hated ideas deserve First Amendment protection. Media historians Dicken-Garcia, a journalism professor, and Dell’Orto analyze newspaper coverage of hated ideas—such as abolitionism and slavery—during the American Civil War to explore whether this principle has always existed, including during times of crisis. They found that the Civil War strengthened the idea of journalism’s responsibility to the public but that editors “consistently supported the larger political system over any professional journalism ideology, the ‘common good’ over individual rights, and military ‘discretion’ over constitutional principles.”

The Hidden Power of the American Dream
By Giovanna Dell’Orto (B.A. ’98, M.A. ’00, Ph.D. ’04)
Praeger Security International (2007)

Through analysis of thousands of Western European media articles and government publications about the United States, Dell’Orto shows what the essence of America is to non-Americans and why that matters to Americans in a very practical way. With the subtitle “Why Europe’s Shaken Confidence in the United States Threatens the Future of U.S. Influence,” the book argues that the answer to the question of where do we go from here—now that the United States is indisputably the world’s biggest power—lies in whether non-Americans keep believing in the American dream. Only if that dream continues to be the root of America’s power can America not go the way of all other superpowers in history: down and out.

Swallow the Ocean
By Laura Flynn (M.F.A. ’06)
Counterpoint (2008)

In her memoir set in San Francisco in the 1970s, Flynn recounts her mother’s slow spiral into mental illness while she and her sisters united to survive. Flynn’s mother had been an adventurous bohemian in the 1950s and ’60s before she became unhinged by what was later diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia. Family life became bizarrely unpredictable as her mother became attached to stranger and stranger notions and her father moved out and filed for divorce. What could have been a catastrophic childhood is instead a tale of resilience and determination.

Symphonic Aspirations: German Music and Politics, 1900–1945
By Karen Painter
Harvard University Press (2008)

Painter, associate professor of music, examines the politicization of musical listening in Germany and Austria, showing how nationalism, anti-Semitism, liberalism, and socialism profoundly affected the experience of serious music. Germans have long claimed the symphony as a pillar of their modern national culture. With the embrace of the Great War, the humiliation of defeat, and the ensuing economic turmoil, music evolved from the most abstract to the most political of the arts.

More than composers or musicians, critics were responsible for this politicization of music, aspiring to change how music was heard and understood. Painter traces changes in the critical discourse that reflected but also contributed to the historical conditions of World War I and the Nazi regime.

The World Historian as Poet
By David Kopf
North Star Press of St. Cloud (2006)

Kopf is a world traveler, poet, and professor emeritus in the department of history at the University of Minnesota. In this collection of poems, drawn from previous scholarly work, his travels, and his rich inner life, he seeks to validate poetry as a legitimate means of deepening our understanding of world history.