Dog Food Diet?

I had this sent to me, this morning. Made me chuckle.

Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer……..

Yesterday I was buying a large bag of dog chow at Wal-Mart for Athena the wonder dog and was about to check out. A woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

On impulse, I told her that no, I didn’t have a dog, that I was starting the Purina Diet again. Although I probably shouldn’t, because I’d ended up in the hospital last time, but that I’d lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry and that the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with my story.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no; I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter’s butt and a car hit us both. I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he was laughing so hard.

Britian’s Still got Talent - at least four legged

Have Faith in Your Dog

Written by Lisa Flowers for use in her dog training classes.

H = Have a PLAN before you begin to teach your dog something!
A = Always expect the same behavior-ie..sit always means sit!
V = vary your training sessions and keep them short! (5-10 minutes)
E = expect to experience the behavior you reward!

F = follow thru with each command-never give a command you cannot reinforce!
A = allow no gray into your relationship with your dog! Black & white!
I = ignore the negative—-reward the positive!
T = the more consistent you are-the more consistent your dog will be!
H = hyper dogs are harder to teach—go for a walk!

I = it is never too late to teach your dog something!
N = “NO” is not your dog’s first name!

Y = you determine how your dog will behave!
O = opportunities to train your dog are limited by your imagination!
U = use your dog’s name only if you need to get their attention!
R = “release” words end a behavior! Ie…”OK”, “FREE”

D = dog’s come from the womb needing a leader!
O = our job is to be the leader!
G = God made them to love you unconditionally-love them back the same way!

Property of HAVE FAITH IN YOUR DOG *2008*

As lisa says: ” Please share with anyone/everyone you want!  Those are just ideas I have adapted in my handling and teaching.  I didn’t make em up by any means…I just put them in something cute to give to people in my class so they could remember.”

Joke - Teacher’s Pet

Teacher’s Pet

On the last day of kindergarten, all the children brought presents for their teacher.

The florist’s son handed the teacher a gift. She shook it, held it up and said, “I bet it’s some flowers!”

“That’s right!” shouted the little boy.

Then the candy store owner’s daughter handed the teacher a gift. She held it up, shook it and said, “I bet I know what it is! It’s a box of candy!”

“That’s right!” shouted the little girl.

The next gift was from the liquor store owner’s son. The teacher held it up and saw that it was leaking. She touched a drop with her finger and tasted it.

“Is it wine?” she asked.

“No,” the boy answered. The teacher touched another drop to her tongue.

“Is it champagne?” she asked.

“No,” the boy answered.

“What is it?” she said.

“A puppy!”

What is a Title?

What is a title?

Not just a brag, not just a stepping stone to a higher title, not just an adjunct to competitive scores, a title is a tribute to the dog that bears it a way to honor the dog, an ultimate memorial. It will remain in the record and in the memory for about as long as anything in the world can remain. And though the dog herself doesn’t know or care that her achievements have been noted, a title says many things in the world of humans where such things count.

A title says your dog was intelligent, adaptable, and good natured. It says your dog loved you enough to do the things that pleased you, however crazy they may have seemed. In addition, a title says that you loved your dog, that you loved to spend time with her because she was a good dog, and that you believed in her enough to give her yet another chance when she
failed, and in the end your faith was justified.

A title proves that your dog inspired you to that special relationship, enjoyed by so few, that in a world of disposable creatures. This dog with a title was greatly loved and loved greatly in return. And when that dear, short life is over, the title remains as a memorial of the finest kind,the best you can give to a deserving friend. Volumes of praise in one small set of initials after the name. An obedience, agility or herding title is nothing less than true love and respect, given and recorded permanently.

Author Unknown

Keeping Chickens in Town Laws

just so I don’t lose this website.

ChickenLaws. From their website.

“What follows are laws from various US cities regarding the keeping of chickens”.

Now what is helpful for us Canadians are all the links at the bottom of the page. You can follow the links to all sorts of interesting chicken sites. It makes for interesting browsing.

Siberian Cats

I was over at the Pet Connection blog and learned something new. Apparently there is a breed of cat called the Siberian Cat that can be hypoallergenic. NOTE the operative word is CAN BE hypoallergenic. In other words, for some people with cat allergies this cat breed might work for them.

Some words from Pet Connection Blog

Now, before you run off to some Internet kitty-mill site to order a Siberian from someone jumping on to the bandwagon, stop. Not all Siberians have the potential to be lower in allergy triggers and not all low-allergy Siberians will work for all allergy sufferers. You need to be careful to work with a reputable breeder who’s testing the cats for both allergy levels and the health problems (heart, in this breed) that can pop up. And you need to make sure you, personally, are not sneezing and wheezing around the breeder’s cats.

So it was neat to learn something new.

For more on these cats:

• wikipedia
• siberian cats canada
• Jokieva Cattery

This Caused an Early Morning Smile

Joke - Soap and Water

Soap and Water

We were asked to dinner by a new friend. When we sat down at the table, we noticed that the dishes were dirty.

“Were these dishes washed?”, I asked the hostess as I rubbed my fingers over the surface.

She replied, “They’re as clean as soap and water could get them”.

I felt a bit apprehensive, but started eating anyway. Dinner was delicious, despite the dirty dishes. When dinner was over, the hostess took the dishes outside and yelled, “Here Soap! Here Water!”

Basics - Teach a dog to come

Teaching a dog to come, or teaching a good recall, is a tool that EVERY dog and owner should have in their tool box.

Why?

• It could save the dogs life
• It saves you steps of having to go get the dog all the time
• It makes teaching games like fetch a whole lot easier

Variety of ways to train this behaviour. I’ll start with the easiest first.

1. Get puppy home. Get his attention, then crouch down in an inviting way, say Puppy, come. then reward puppy for doing so, while touching his collar. Do this anywhere and everywhere.
2. Catch your dog coming toward you. Fido, come! Reward.
3. Arrange things so that when you say “Come,” there’s a high likelihood that your dog will come to you. For example, say “Come” when your dog is looking at you and appears to be ready to return to you anyway. Or have really desirable treats to increase his motivation when you say Come. If your dog is motivated by play,hold his favorite play toy when you say come, and use a firm, positive, upbeat voice.

Let’s say your dog chooses to ignore this more oft than not. Do not let him get into that habit. Really…you just don’t want to go there.

1. Attach a long, light line to your dog.
2. Get your dog’s attention. i.e. If dog is actively digging a hole or chasing a squirrel now is NOT the time to ask your dog to come. Go to your dog, as close as you need to that you are noticed.
3. Call your dog’s name, say come. Do so in an inviting way, i.e. crouch down on the ground slapping your knees, tapping the ground or what have you.
4. IF your dog comes, then reward in a manner that works for your dog. IF he doesn’t come, give a slight pull on the lead to encourage forward motion. DO NOT get angry, just remain upbeat. Good boy Fido, Good boy. Fido Come!
5. Reward, reward, reward.

Some additional tools in teaching a come

1. If there is more than one person in your household, sit on the ground put the puppy between you, have one person call the puppy to you. Reward every time the puppy comes. Give a good petting. Then have the other person call the puppy, reward, and then continue back and forth.
2. Go for a walk in some place where you can walk your puppy off leash safely. ‘get lost’ (i.e. hide so that you are not immediately visible) and call the puppy. This teaches two things. First that your puppy must keep an eye on where you are and second to come when you call.
3. What often works for dogs that don’t want to come when they are called is for their owner to get that dogs attention and then race madly the other way. Dogs like to chase. When the dog is close to you, say Fido come in an inviting way, and then reward.

ALWAYS before rewarding touch the dog or grab hold of his collar so that he knows that coming means physical touch as well. Helps to prevent that dance of…I came, but I’m staying just out of reach of you, which gets owners frustrated with their dogs, which makes training a solid recall more difficult.

As with all training, proof it. As in, do in anywhere and everywhere, all the time. Noise, busy streets, quiet bushes, bustling people, just walking randomly etc. Fido come! Fido, what a good dog! Reward!

A PDF on using a clicker training method of teaching Come.

Other resources you may find helpful:

• how to train your dog NOT to come.
• come when called.
• the dog’s bone - come
• video series on teaching a reliable recall
• paw rescue
• This PDF contains some good advice, no need for me to reinvent the wheel.
• video on teaching a recall

Some things to avoid doing

• getting angry with your dog for actually coming to you (even if it’s after you called and called, even if it’s after the dog has torn up your flower bed etc).
• calling your dog when you know he’s not going to hear you (aka squirrel chasing)