It's an apple. Whether crab or eater I can't tell you I'm afraid.

Flowering crabapple. The best time to prune it is when you have learned how to prune it.

I thought it was Crabapple! Thanks.

Google will have as good advice as I would on the when to prune. I suspect there is a season u are more likely to avoid fireblight or rust during.

As far as what to prune, this is a decent sized tree. I would vote for only eliminating the dead wood. What is your friend planning?

Well, she thinks it's "creepy-looking." I think because it isn't symmetrical. She does love the blooms, though. What would you think about maybe taking that very bottom limb off? It does look like it has quite a bit of dead and would do it a favor to remove that. Hard to tell much in the photo, though. I may go visit her house for a closer look.

She is a very young, sweet girl with whom I work, and she's just bought her first house. So, she's interested in finding out what her trees are, learning how to take care of them, and making her yard look pretty. :)

The bottom branch is too big to cut off now. Radical pruning of long-established trees is liable to be detrimental.

Cute dog.