Doggy Mentor

Archive for December, 2008

puppy training

Setting out on your journey to learn to train a puppy will be greatly enhanced if you master some simple organizational and note making skills. I know that sounds very “fuzzy” and lacking substance – there’s a lot more to it than you think, as it will give you something to refer back to, and will help you identify techniques that work when teaching new tricks. The information you record is an instant tips sheet of what worked for your dog, along with areas that either need improvement or a completely different technique. It’s just the same as “normal life” – spending time planning increases the odds of doing things right otherwise you’re simply planning to fail. It’s worthy of some time and effort.

Drawing up a plan of action is one of the first things you need to consider when you start thinking about train a puppy, because it will have a big impact to relocating a young dog or puppy from his happy and playful home to his new and unrecognizable surroundings. A young pup can suffer separation anxiety when he is taken away from his mother and siblings, and he finds himself in new and unfamiliar surroundings with completely alien smells and faces to get used to.

And it’s not just puppies and young dogs. It happens with older dogs to – they can get depressed by everything new that happens to them when they get relocated. Regardless of their age, your new dog has no idea what awaits in his future; all he’ll see in his new home will be strange surroundings and no familiar faces.

If you have the time, the perfect way to get to know your new family member is to visit him before he moves in with you. He’ll get to recognize your face and smell and make his move a lot less stressful. When you start out, tips for training a puppy your training program will be more effective as he’s more comfortable with you from the start. I appreciate this is not always possible so, perhaps you will be able to take something from the dog’s former home with you – like maybe a piece of clothing that he’s slept on, or anything that will help the dog adjust to his new surroundings and adjust to his new home.

The best time to bring a new puppy or dog into your home is at a time when you’re going to be at home for a few days to help him settle in and get to know you. A holiday period is perfect. But you do need to be at home with your dog during the holidays. He’ll settle down a lot quicker if you’re there with him 24-7. Spending lots of time with him when he moves in will pay dividends in building your relationship and go a long way to beating his home sickness and stress of leaving his friends.

Just as parents prepare for the arrival of a new baby by creating an environment to satisfy the baby’s needs and requirements, tips for training a puppy should be just as exciting. Having a different number of legs shouldn’t mean you get less priority.

A sectioned-off area in the kitchen or bathroom is the ideal place to start your puppy off, as this will help a lot come house training time too as accidents can easily be cleaned up off the tile floors of these rooms. The kitchen is an especially suitable place as we tend to frequent these areas regularly, as this helps your puppy get accustomed to his new home.

Before you moved your new puppy in with you, he was used to lots of playmates. Since they’re not there any more he’ll get lonely so you’re going to need to give him lots of love and attention to keep his blues away. Just don’t go spoiling him too much – you shouldn’t allow him free reign round the home for his first week or so then try to train him out of those habits once your training routine begins. Puppy housebreaking is a continuous process and should commence as soon as you bring him home.

Your puppy will get mixed signals if he isn’t being taught the rules right away, as it will confuse him when he finally does start. All the techniques and tips used to training a puppy are equally effective when working with older dogs, in pretty much the same way. Being homesick and lonely is not just a puppy issue. Introducing a new dog to your family requires lots of patience, training and consistency. Having said that, your puppy will love you for it.

Pet industry already crossed $40 billion mark and it has increased 20% over the past 5 years. This is the fastest growing industries in the United States. More than 80% of American people own at least one dog. Most of the dog owners take extra care of their dogs with pampering them with pet gifts, toys or pet supplies. Dog owners have a number of options when it comes to buying pet supplies.

Dog owners most often visit a local pet store to purchases pet supplies for their family dog. Pet stores are so popular because a shopper can physically examine each item before purchasing it. This gives many dog owners the opportunity to study the quality of pet supply before buying it for their dog. 

Online pet store is another choice because it is very convenient for dog owners. You can purchase your much needed pet supplies like dog treats all in a matter of minute’s from online pet stores. People like to purchase from on line pet stores because they do not have to leave their home.

Benefits of online pet stores

1. Purchasing pet supplies online is all about convenience because dog owners need not to visit a pet store regularly.
2. Purchasing dog supplies online can help you to save money. You can search online to find a store with discounted price.
3. Traveling to pet store is costly if there is no pet store in your locality. It is cheaper to pay shipping cost rather than traveling to a store which could cost a decent amount of money in gasoline. You can also buty from a store who offers free delivery or charge minimum if you allow a week time to deliver the product
4. Most of the pet shops provides money back guarantee so you are really not risking your money.
5. I personally think the greatest benefit to purchasing pet supplies online is the selection of products available because like retail stores they are limited by floor space, staff, store etc. It is easy to find a product using on site search engine. 
6. You can buy cheap products as well as designer products also from an online store.

You can buy dog training ebook, video, collars or dog kennel everything from a pet store.

Dog show is one of the most interesting show in the dog-lover countries, for instance United States of America and United Kingdom. From the dog show contest, the possesor of a dog which becomes the winner of the show will not merely get much penny but also honor and prestige. Related to the condition, usually the fans of dog will do their best in order to achieve the most wonderful breed of their dog in order to participate and become the victor of the competition. This situation, actually will also enhance the willingness of the dog breeder to mix the breeds of dog to obtain much better dog breeds. Therefore, the show and also the breeding indirectly could lessen the extraordinary breeds of dog from extinction.

The Standards for the Breeds

The dog show champ is determined by the judges who are knowledgeable enough about the breeds of the dog contesting for in the competition. There are several standards which need to be met in order to be the champion of the show. The most eminent and most fundamental standard for the breeds is it has to be best fixed to the closest standard based on the conformation list employed by the judges.

The Judges of the Dog Show

The judges are folk who are awfully professional about the breed of dog they are judging. Favoritism and even bribery are also believed to exist in the contests. The dogs compete in a lot of dog shows in order to gathers points and get the title of champion. Each time a extraordinary dog wins a dog show the dog is rewarded points that go towards winning a championship title. The size of points that a dog collected is determined by the level of the dog show that it was selected as the victor, the number of dogs that were in the show and whether the dog show was considered to be a major show or a minor one.

It can be concluded that the bigger the point, the bigger the dog’s chance to be the champ of the dog show competition. However, every country will also have its own winning standard or bylaws. Thus, to be the winner the dog has to meet all the standards chosen by the country. So far, being a champion is not the most eminent thing since from the dog show we can still learn much to acquire much more prominent knowledge, widen our relationship to the others and we can also meet a lot of people from a lot of backgrounds of life.

Nevertheless, do you want to get more than fun? Find anything about dog show secret here, join the show and let your dog compete!

Poodle Puppy

They’re cute, curly, and cuddly, and you could be going home with one today! Poodle puppies make great pets, and you’ll need to know just what they need in order to be most comfortable in your home, so here are some for being a great poodle owner.

No matter which poodle breed you decide to purchase, you should know that some poodles tend to be a little reclusive or anti-social, and aren’t very friendly around strangers – unless they are trained. You will need to socialize your poodle puppies by placing them in an environment where people will be present often, so that it won’t be so overwhelming for the dogs when you have people over or take the puppies on an outing.

One of the things you need to do is to ensure that your poodle puppies are taken to vet often for their checkups, this is because poodles generally have vision problems quite often, Their eyes need to look alert and should be shiny. If you start noticing film around the eyes, or even if your poodle puppy’s are often running, it is a possibility of the onset of a cataract. being able to treat this condition in it’s early stages is an important factor, and you should take them immediately to your vet should you notice that your poodles vision seem cloudy. Poodle puppies tend to also be prone to ear infections, so you have to ensure that your puppy’s ears are check out by your vet also. Having a hearing test for your poodle puppy should also be done and don’t forget that the proper medication is given to them as directed by your vet.

Poodle’s tend to have sensitive skin and you may notice this often, so you have to make sure that some grooming products would not be used for grooming your poodle. It is common to see poodle owners dye their dog’s hair in different colors, or shampoo the fur with expensive shampoos. Be aware however, that the chemicals in some these products could be harmful to your poodle puppies, and this could cause skin irritations and rashes. Further your poodle might develop allergies with such products, so should notice that your poodle is sluggish, or is perhaps often sneezing, then you should leave the grooming to professionals or have them do it in your home.

In a dramatic press update on 27 August 2008, Sharp Corporation unveiled its latest technological weapon against bird flu! Incorporated in its ionic air purifier, the Plasmacluster Ion Technology (more on this in a later post) has just been scientifically proven to be 99.9% effective in destroying the bird flu virus known as H5N1.

As we have been constantly reminded by the press, bird flu is the prime suspect to cause mankind’s next pandemic. Pandemic sounds terrifying. It is. That’s when a deadly virus turns totally global, in a very negative sense. The 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 50 million people worldwide is the worst pandemic in human history! That deadly killer flu was confirmed on 5 October 2005 by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be caused by H1N1, a bird flu virus.

Is your heart pounding away? Is it time to PANIC?

Not just yet. Updated on 10 Sep 2008, WHO statistics shows the death toll at 245 from 1996 when the H5N1 virus was first identified in China. So what’s the fuss? Scientists monitoring the virus fear that it may mutate into a form that transmits from human to human. As of now, there has been only one probable case of human-to-human transmission recorded in Thailand in September 2004. Don’t be surprised by the global pandemonium in the event that the dreaded virus mutation actually occurs.

Like other countries, Singapore (where I live) is conscientiously preparing for the worse (more on this in a later post). At our individual level, we should start doing some homework too.

Ok, so what has the Sharp ionic air purifier to do with all this. Is it not just another ionic air purifier? It is ordinary in that it performs the usual functions of the run-of-the-mill air purifier by getting rid of dust, dirt, smoke, dander, pollen, cuisine and pet odours, pollutants, allergens etc. If there is really a tested defence shield against a deadly virus, why not? The complete package is promised in Sharp’s Plasmacluster Ion Air Purifier.

If you’re value-conscious like me, the obvious question would be “yes, that makes a whole lot of sense but at what cost”? Here again, Sharp claims that it’s at no extra cost! Sharp contends that it is cheaper than any other ordinary ionic air purifier when measured over 5 years. Now, that’s value for money! But, how is this possible in this nothing-is-for-free world?

With the Plasmacluster Ionic Air Purifier Model FP-N40CX as the basis, Sharp contends that it is great value for money as there is no filter replacement costs for the first 5 years. Upfront costs at US$399 for the Sharp model is higher than the typical competitor’s US$160. But the latter requires annual filter replacement costs of US$100, adding to a total cost of US$560 over 5 years.

I would greatly appreciate any feedback on both sets of numbers above. Just email me if you have actual data.

My next move would be to seriously investigate the Sharp Plasmacluster Ion Technology. The time to research is now, while bird flu is still not quite at pandemic proportions.

Its never too soon to get ready. I have been there. Recall the last disaster movie when you saw people with terror in their eyes, many with the famed N95 face mask covering their noses as they commute to work. But it was no movie but real life in motion in many Asian cities. Those who could not find the scarce N95 face mask could only pray that they were not the next victim of the near-pandemic scenario that swept across Asia. In case you have not heard, the year was 2003. The SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus originated in Asia and infected 8,096 people around the world, resulting in 774 fatalities. Being well prepared is half the battle won.

Watch this space as we track exciting developments in our pursuit of safe, pure and clean air with nothing more than an ionic air purifier.

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You may have just brought home an adorable new puppy pal! Beside enjoying your little pal, you also want to protect your home so your furnishings and carpets aren’t ruined. Now what are you going to do?

By teaching your puppy where to relieve himself, you’ll also be protecting your home. How can that be accomplished?

Grab your free dog training course and learn more dog potty train methods that work.

Dogs act mainly from habits that have been developed over a period of time and that fact can help you as a dog owner. As the dog owner, you need to install the habits of your choice. Don’t let your pet create his own habits that you might not appreciate. Puppies have limitations and you need to be aware of them. Since his bladder is so small, he has to urinate frequently. Understanding and patience will help you deal with your puppy’s limitations.

Yelling at your puppy if he has an accident isn’t a good idea. You need to keep in mind that patience is critical while training your new pal. If your puppy has an accident on the living room carpet, be gentle with him. Tell him “no” in a gentle way. Then pick him up and place him where you do want him to go potty. Then tell him to go potty in that place in your own words.

Using a crate for puppy training purposes is a good idea. That’s because dogs don’t like to urinate or defecate where they spend a lot of time. A dog playpen can also be used for training purposes.

Be aware that there are certain times when your new pal is more likely to want to relieve himself. First thing in the morning is one of the times when your puppy will need to relieve himself. Your little pal will need to go potty after eating — such as right after breakfast or after any other meal. Be sure to take your puppy to his designated toilet area before he goes to bed at night. Play time will probably activate your puppy’s urge to relieve himself.

Your new pet needs close supervision. If he goes potty on his own outside, be sure to praise him immediately. If he should go potty inside the house, you need to gently but sternly let him know that isn’t the right place to go. Be sure to praise your puppy when he does go in the correct place. He really needs your approval.

Your puppy will often let you know when he’s about to relieve himself. Wandering off, sniffing and circling are signs that your puppy is ready to relieve himself. You might catch him waiting by the door.

Patience and kindness goes a long way in dog training. Be sure to spend time training your new pal to urinate or deficate where you have chosen for him to go. The time and effort you put into training your new pal will be worth it when he knows the right time and place to relieve himself.

Watch free dog training video plus learn how to potty train puppy to go potty where you want your pal to go.

Pet Insurance - Pet Tips from HSN & Prince Lorenzo Borghese

Even though dog insurance has been available in the marketplace for almost two decades, many dog owners have never heard of pet health insurance and are somewhat surprised that such an insurance product even exists. However, since the beloved family pets are usually such an important part of the family, the availability of this form of insurance is welcomed news to dog lovers.

Anyone can relate to this sentiment of relief, if they have ever been faced with having to either clean out their savings account or run up their credit card balance in order to take care of an unexpected emergency. Having a pet plan can help to lighten the burden of the expenses related to a surgical procedure, long-term care for serious conditions, such as cancer and other types of diseases or emergency care due to injury or accident. Without insurance, some dog owners are faced with the awful decision of having to put their pet to sleep because the cost of proper health care is just too much for the family budget.

It is often a heartbreaking situation when a pet owner is faced with a choice of either paying for expensive, but needed, veterinary pet procedures or being able to properly care for the needs of the rest of the family in the household. This dilemma often results in the agonizing decision of having to put the pet down. This is just the kind of situation that illustrates the immense value, in emotional terms, of having dog insurance to assure the well-being and the health needs of the family dogs.

Just as with other health care expenses, the costs associated with veterinarian care for pets is also rising with each passing year. This fact has solidified the notion of acquiring pet insurance to handle the animal welfare as well as health concerns a higher attractive option. It has also made pet health insurance a more financially smart move for families. Over the long haul is is far simpler to work a small insurance premium for dog health insurance into the annual budget compared to trying to come up with many hundreds, or possibly even thousands of dollar if an emergency happens.

If you own more than one dog, then insurance coverage for all of them makes even more sense. Just making sure that each dog has received the vaccinations, health screenings and booster shots on an annual basis can stretch a budget to the breaking point. This situation can lead pet owners to decide to skip the routine health care steps that should be taken to prevent illness and diseases.

In most cases, a comprehensive pet insurance policy will also cover wellness and preventative care procedures. Luckily, the majority of the pet insurance policies appear to back the approach of doing the preventive steps, in terms of animal welfare. It has been well-documented over an extended period fo time that taking preventative steps as well as supportive wellmess care will lower the possibility for serious health problems for the pet further down the road.

Because of this, searching out companies that provide insurance coverage which incorporates preventative care is a wise course of action to take. The fact that a pet insurance company offers such coverage speaks to their commitment and philosophy about prevention of pet disease and the importance of animal welfare in general.

This type of dog insurance coverage will be more expensive to purchase, so you may decide to only buy a policy that covers the major veterinary pet expenses and not the routine, preventative vet visits. This way, you can lower the monthly insurance premium and it might be a viable option if you can cover the needed wellness care for your dog. However, knowing that you are choosing a pet insurance company that is willing to provide wellness coverage, is a good sign of the overall quality of the insurance company and their commitment to pet care.

For additional helpful content click here Pet Health Insurance and Affordable Pet Insurance as well as Pet Life Insurance

Greyhounds are wonderful animal athletes.  As they work and perform throughout their profesional careers, they usually work until they are between 1.5 and 4 years old.  During this time, they become adjusted to being walked and lead on a leash, so upon retirement from their profesional careers, they make gentle pets!

As a former athlete, they are intelligent, quiet, calm, clean, gentle, and all around good-natured and ready to adapt to a new home life.  They respond well to positive attention and reinforcement and thus they are a joy to train and work with for the new homes they become a part of.

Greyhounds love affection and while they do want exercise, they do not need as much room to run as many might think.  Inside the home, they prefer to curl up in a corner on a gentle blanket.  They are gentle creatures and very well behaved inside a home and around people.

Greyhounds spend most of their lives with other dogs, people, and handlers, thus they are very sociable breed and get along well with others.  Their personality makes them an excellent breed to be near children.  Their intelligence and dedication make them an excellent companion.  And because they are well mannered, they are great around company and in public.

There is certainly a local Greyhound Pets of America chapter near you.  So think about adopting a former Greyhound athlete.  For more information, check out the Tucson Greyhound track.  Various chapters have different requirements and costs, but all will welcome you to come visit and learn more about whether a Greyhound might be right for you!

You can also help by volunteering your time.  All local clubs need volunteers to help with care, vet appointments, or even just shopping for doggie supplies.  Of course, financial donations are also needed, but your time and love is needed most!

Working in the comfort of your home is something a lot of people would like to do. There are times in your life for example if you are a stay at home parent, or when you are taking care of elderly family members that you are bound to your home but you would like to make some money by working at home. A few years a go I would advise you to start a (micro) business in dog training products but is this still advisable?

It sounds perfect in theory to start making a living with a small online business and there are many people who try it. But there are a lot of mountains to climb before you earn anything and it is easy to get discouraged. There is an immense amount of competition in the niche of dog training products. There are a lot of dog lovers out there who would like to have a career dog in training but did not have the time and had the same idea about an online business. There are a few that indeed have made some good money by selling popular dog training products. But almost all of the successful sites have started early and the ones who have just started and are successful often sell dog training products they have developed them self. Do some proper competion research before you start with an amazon or yahoo shop to sell dog training products.

Dog training products are very salable that is true but consumers do not just look for nice products they look for reliable sellers. Often consumers buy from the large and well known web shops and not from small shops that all look the same. If you do want to start your own web shop and sell dog training products or something else dog related you need to do some proper research and try to find products that are new, salable, are what they claim to be, and you need to find a good supplier. You also need a website that is eye catching and worth to remember, a site that people trust and where they will return if they want to buy some other dog training products.

Competition

making sure that people can find your website is also difficult. Because there is such a enormous amount of competition and the competition is trained to build high traffic websites, and they know exactly how to attract traffic to their website this is your biggest challenge. Your site and products need to be found in search engines by the people who are looking for dog training products. But because there is so much competition that will be very hard. The key to your success as a online dog training products shop will depend on the amount of research and time you put in internet marketing not in your knowledge about dog training products.

The last but certainly not least tip we want to give you, if you still want to start a internet business in dog training products is that you should not invest large amounts of money into your shop if you can not spear it. Paying a lot of money for building a website or for internet marketing does not guarantee that you will earn your investment back with dog training products in a reasonable amount of time.

Dog obedience training requires the use of some principles which differentiate effective training from training without results. Most dog training and dog behavior schools use these rules. They are the following:

Principle One:The first rule in obedience training is to be consistent. You must be consistent in the use of words, the tone of your voice and your actions, that go with your command. At the beginning of training you as the dog owner or trainer must make the decision as to what guidelines you will use to teach the dog. A word or a phrase, let’s say ‘come’, does not make sense to a dog. Your dog does not understand our language, nor does he understand or think, the way we do.

So to make the training understandable, you should use the command in a very consistent manner such that the dog will learn to associate the word with the meaning you attach with it. If you are using the word ‘come’ make sure everyone is. If you are using this command make it a point that you would not do actions that would make the command confusing for the dog. If your dog does not come to you instantly, do not punish him when he does. Your dog would attribute the command with the punishment.

Then what would you expect?He would not follow the same command since this leads to punishment. Consistency also covers the use of the same command by all people. For example, if you are using the command ‘come’, other people in the household should not replace it with words like ‘here’ or ‘come here boy’.

Principle Two:The hours devoted to training and the words used as command should be kept short. Keep in mind that the attention span of dogs is very short that making them engrossed with a specific activity would be very hard, if not impossible. Combining children with your puppy obedience training is an example of keeping your training sessions short as they would lose interest very quickly, so it is best to move on to the next thing.

Your dog simply does not posses the same amount of interest they had when they started the activity, they become easily bored. The same thing happens in training therefore, it should be limited only to 10 minutes to 15 minutes of regular training.

Principle Three: Do not use force and punishment to hurt your dog when training. Also, never force the dog to follow the command if he is not prepared for it or punish a dog for something he did. Whilst training the animal don’t push too hard.

The dog does not understand that he should learn things instantly and he does not realize that you are becoming impatient with the speed he is picking up the training. All he knows is that you are mad. Using force does not convey your meaning correctly whereas negative reinforcement does. Do not send him mixed signals, by making him feel praised for doing something wrong, only when he obeys the command, should he feel praised.

You have to be understanding and patient, especially during your dog obedience training sessions. The outcome will be a very responsive and well trained dog.