Dog News

After four films, one spin-off series and more to come, it’s hard to imagine John Wick happily driving off into the sunset with his puppy. Marking the hit action film’s 10th anniversary, producers David Leitch and Chad Stahelski revealed that star Keanu Reeves helped them fight to kill off the titular character’s furry friend in the first installment, sparking his franchise-long fight for revenge. “We were told, ‘It’s bad luck.’ ‘It’s bad juju,’” Leitch explained to Business Insider. “‘It’s Old Yeller, you can’t do this!’ ‘No one will want to see this on screen; you’re going to alienate the audience.’ And I’m like, ‘We’re going to execute people at close range; killing the dog is one thing, but what about the brutal massacre of all these human beings? Are they going to be able to accept that?’ Watch on Deadline “They didn’t understand that we were making a genre movie. We are genre fans to the core, and we know those hard-boiled moments are what make memorable moments,” he added. In John Wick, Reeves stars as the legendary assassin who has retired to marry the love of his life. But when thugs still his prized car and kill the puppy his late wife gave him, Wick sets out on a bloody quest for vengeance, which pits him against the criminal enterprise to which he once belonged. Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 4. Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection Stahelski recalled, “Dave and I were very in sync on how we were going to shoot the scene. We were going to use a baby lens; John gets hit hard in the head, so it’s going to be dream-like; the dog death happens off-camera, and all you are going to see in the aftermath is this trail of the blood making it look like the puppy tried to crawl to him. “So on the day, Keanu was acting with a stuffed dog. Crying. He’s all beat up. He looks awful in his pajamas. Everyone behind the monitors must have thought, ‘Okay, this is the worst idea; these first-time directors are done,’” he said. “For the next couple of weeks it was suggested that we shoot an alternative ending revealing that the puppy actually isn’t dead. But Keanu stood up for us. And Basil stood up to the investors, and eventually, they just felt, ‘F— it, let’s see what these guys can do.’” John Wick (2014) grossed more than $86 million worldwide, with the franchise crossing the $1 billion mark last year with John Wick: Chapter 4. The franchise will continue with From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas and premiering June 6, 2025 in theaters. Meanwhile, Donnie Yen is set to reprise his role as the highly skilled, blind assassin Caine in an upcoming Lionsgate film. A prequel anime film is also in development. In addition to last year’s Peacock prequel limited series The Continental, the sequel series John Wick: Under the High Table is in the works. Read More

A dog owner’s hilarious warning about the “teenage puppy phase” has left internet users howling with laughter. The poster, who goes by the social-media handle @bear_thegerman_shep, shared a chaotic video of her German shepherd, Gus, caught in the act of shredding a house plant on her cream-colored couch. The destruction, which showcased Gus lying proudly among the soil-covered remnants, quickly went viral, amassing over 510,300 likes and more than 5.5 million views on TikTok. “No one warns you about the teenage puppy phase,” the exasperated owner captioned the scene of mayhem. She asked, “What did you do? Oh my God,” as she surveyed the carnage. Gus, ever the mischievous teen, lay nonchalantly beside the uprooted plant, his innocent expression doing little to hide the hefty mess he had left behind. More From Newsweek Vault: Learn More About the Walmart+ Perk Aimed at Pet Owners Newsweek reached out to @bear_thegerman_shep for comment via TikTok. We could not verify the details of the case. German shepherds, known for their intelligence and loyalty, can be challenging to train—especially during their adolescent phase. More From Newsweek Vault: Pet Insurance 101: How Much Does It Cost and Is It Worth the Price? The American Kennel Club says these dogs require consistent training from an early age to help channel their high energy and natural instincts. This training timeline is crucial in managing their behavior as they transition into adulthood. The teenage phase often starts between six and 12 months, and lasts until 18 to 24 months. It can be particularly difficult as dogs push boundaries, much like human teenagers. The U.K. charity RSPCA says that adolescent puppies may exhibit stubbornness, increased energy, and destructive tendencies, making training and patience essential. More From Newsweek Vault: The Top Rewards Credit Cards for Pet Owners Consistent exercise and mental stimulation are key to keeping them occupied and reducing destructive tendencies. Owners are encouraged to engage their adolescent pups with activities such as obedience training, agility courses, or interactive toys that challenge their minds and channel their high energy in constructive ways. A stock image of German shepherd laying on a couch. A similar dog made a mammoth mess after stealing his owner’s plant, and the video went viral. BigDuckSix/iStock / Getty Images Plus TikTok users couldn’t help but relate to the trials of raising a German shepherd, finding humor in Gus’s antics. “German Shepherd puppy stage is not for the weak!!” one user commented, while another added: “He literally looks like a teenager, idk [I don’t know] how to explain it.” A third TikTok user named Oscar referred to it as the “velociraptor stage,” and said: “He’s like, hi mom.” Willow posted: “A German Shepherd with a white / cream / beige couch—you are brave.” “We love what he’s done with the place,” added another user. Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? We want to see the best ones! Send them in to life@newsweek.com and they could appear on our site. Read More

Brittany Davis had always wanted a big dog. When she brought home an eight-week-old Great Dane, she got her wish, and then some. She called the puppy Zeus, after the Greek king of the gods. He would grow to be the world’s tallest dog, achieving celebrity status in their hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. “He was the biggest, most expensive gift I have received,” Davis recalls. Zeus was massive. Pictures of fully-grown Zeus sprawled across a couch next to Davis take a second to process, like images of trick rooms that make proportions warp. On four legs, he was over a meter tall. On his hind legs, he dwarfed Davis. Unaware of his size, Zeus regularly tried to sit on her lap. A home video shows Zeus attempting to perch on Davis’s son’s head during a happy day out. But just four years after welcoming Zeus, the Davis family said goodbye to him. His giant body was worn out, now missing a leg and wracked with aspiration pneumonia. “It happened so, so fast. He was fine one moment, and the next he wasn’t,” says Davis. Zeus’s story is heartbreaking for any animal lover. It’s also too common among big dogs. Larger breeds tend to die younger; Great Danes live just 8–10 years on average, according to the American Kennel Club. A lot of factors influence a dog’s lifespan, but body size is a big one. In a 2019 study of dogs that visited U.S. veterinary hospitals, body size was a better predictor of a short life among pet dogs than any other statistic, and researchers have since confirmed that the link between size and lifespan holds up regardless of breed. Body size vs. lifespan This relationship between body size and dog lifespan seems stranger when you consider that, looking across species, the opposite is true. “Typically larger animal [species] live longer, smaller animals don’t live as long, but then we see that opposite with dog breeds,” says Bobbie Ditzler, a veterinarian on the Dog Aging Project at the University of Washington. This means a larger body size alone doesn’t reduce an animal’s lifespan— otherwise, 90-foot blue whales would live like mayflies. LIMITED TIME OFFER The perfect gift for the history buff in your life. Give now and get a FREE TOTE BAG. Veterinarian Silvan Urfer, who also works on the Dog Aging Project, says several competing theories explain big dogs’ short lives. Urfer rules out an easy explanation based on inbreeding. “All modern dog breeds are already very inbred, and there is no reason to think the large ones are somehow more inbred than the small ones,” he says. He also points out that big dogs of a mixed-breed background live, at most, just a few months more than purebreds. One theory centers on growth. Despite their giant size, Great Danes begin as surprisingly small puppies. “Dogs are not that different in size as newborns,” says Urfer. Between all dog breeds, he says, there is at most a twofold difference in size. But a fully grown Newfoundland lives 9‑10 years and weighs up to 150 pounds. A Chihuahua lives 14‑16 years and weighs six pounds – not much more than a bag of flour. That leaves big dogs with a huge amount of growing to get through. You May Also Like This growth burden weighs on big dogs’ cells, says Urfer. As cells divide, protective bits of DNA called telomeres on the end of chromosomes get shorter, and the body produces more oxidative molecules that can damage DNA. As they grow, large dogs, he says, “accumulate damage in their cells for each division, including telomere attrition and … oxidative damage.” This genetic wear-and-tear means big dogs age faster than small dogs. Urfer’s previous research showed large dogs develop age-related cataracts earlier than small dogs. It also increases their risk of other health conditions.   (Can dogs get dementia, too?) Zeus was diagnosed with bone cancer in his leg when he was just three years old. It’s a diagnosis seen in many bigger dogs. Jack Da Silva, a geneticist at the University of Adelaide, sums up the relationship: For dogs, “the bigger you are the more likely you are to die from cancer,” he says. This pattern is echoed in humans; taller people are at higher risk for almost every type of cancer. Breaking Peto’s paradox Look across species and this association breaks down. Larger species not only live longer but also have a lower risk of cancer. This is known as Peto’s paradox. Da Silva theorizes that the paradox only holds when animals have evolved adaptations to having bigger bodies. “It could be that because large breeds have been developed fairly recently, in the last 200 years, that there just hasn’t been enough time for large breeds to evolve better cancer defenses,” he says. Da Silva is exploring whether there is a link between the age of a dog breed and its cancer risk but has been limited by the scarcity of genetic information on so-called ancient dog breeds like the Basenji. Urfer is less certain of whether an increased cancer risk is solely to blame for big dogs’ shorter lives. A host of small genetic changes drive size variation in dogs. Alterations in a gene called IGF1 accounted for around 15 percent of this variation. When IGF1 is suppressed in mice, they live longer. “It is fair to think that its overexpression in large dogs may have something to do with their faster rate of aging,” says Urfer. Ditzler also points out that regardless of what makes big dogs sick, they are harder to care for due to their size. For Davis, finding a vet who could accommodate Zeus was an ordeal. “Almost no one had any experience with supporting an animal his size. Most of what we found was actually made for horses, not dogs,” she says. (Could Fido be our best hope to reverse aging in humans?) Breeding healthier dogs Big dog owners can take steps to minimize