My editorial standards.
Every claim on this site gets two labels: what the research says, and how strong that evidence is. Every source is peer-reviewed or from a named institution. Every entry has a date. Here is the whole method, in plain English.
How I rate these claims
I don't grade claims on a single good-to-bad scale. That hides too much. Instead every claim gets two separate labels, and they answer two different questions.
Verdict: what the research says
- Research supports this
- The weight of the studies lines up behind the claim.
- Research contradicts this
- Studies have looked, and the claim does not hold up.
- It depends
- The answer changes with the breed, the dog, the product, or the situation. I say what it depends on.
- Overstated
- There is a kernel of truth, but the claim stretches it further than the evidence goes.
- No good evidence yet
- Nobody has really studied this well enough to say.
Confidence: how strong the evidence is
- Strong evidence
- Well studied, well replicated, and researchers agree.
- Moderate evidence
- A solid base of studies, with some open questions.
- Limited evidence
- Only a few studies, or studies with real limits.
- Emerging evidence
- Early work points one way, but replication is still needed.
These two axes are independent. A claim can be contradicted with strong evidence, or supported with only emerging evidence. Reading them together tells you both the direction and how much to trust it. The confidence label is meant to sit quieter than the verdict, because the verdict is the headline and the confidence is the footnote.
What counts as a source
In descending order of weight:
- Peer-reviewed studies in journals like JAVMA, JVIM, JSAP, Vet Rec, PLOS ONE, and Nature Communications. Highest weight, but I check for retractions and read the methods, not just the abstract.
- Named institutional statements from the FDA, EFSA, AAFCO, AVMA, CDC, and WSAVA. Not "veterinarians say." The actual named body.
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses in Cochrane, PubMed, and academic textbooks. Higher weight than any single study.
- Reputable news and NGO reporting for context and policy questions, not for the underlying scientific claim.
What does not count: influencer testimonials, brand-funded whitepapers not published in peer-reviewed venues, blog posts citing other blog posts, and any single video regardless of the credentials on screen.
On credentialed vets who go viral. A DVM behind a claim does not make the claim true. I have had to fact-check plenty of DVMs. The evidence is the evidence.
How I handle uncertainty
Most veterinary science is not settled. When the evidence is genuinely unclear, I say so. "We don't know yet" is a valid answer, and that is exactly what the "No good evidence yet" verdict and the "Emerging evidence" confidence label are for. Confidence should match the data, not the confidence of whoever posted the reel.
Corrections policy
If I get something wrong, I fix it, and I log the fix in public on the entry itself. I do not make silent edits. Every entry carries a Corrections field at the bottom, and once a correction exists it stays there with its date, so you can see what changed and when. If an entry says "Corrections: 0 logged," that means the page has not needed a correction since it was published.
Every entry also shows a "Checked" date and, when scheduled, a "Next review" date, so you always know how fresh the read is.
Submit a claim
Saw a dog claim blowing up and want it checked? Send it over. The more you include, the faster I can dig in:
- The claim itself, in the words it is spreading in.
- A link to the source, the post, the reel, the article, or the product page.
- Where you saw it, so I can note how it circulates.
Email me your claim submission and I will add it to the queue.
What I won't do
- No affiliate links in claim ratings. Products get judged on evidence. Recommendations on the products page are noted separately, and even those are not paid.
- No sponsored claims. Zero brands have paid Kona or me for anything on this site.
- No fear-based framing. Every viral dog claim has an anxious hook. I try to give you the answer without the anxiety.
- No medical advice. This site is for education. For your specific dog, talk to your vet.
Who I am
I'm Alexandra Dizon. I have no veterinary degree. What I do have is research training, a research-heavy day job, and a dog named Kona who is patient with my late-night literature reviews. Everything here is one dog mom's read of the research, sourced and shown. It is not a substitute for your vet.