Selasa, 21 Mei 2013

Tornado Survivor Finds Dog

Here's a sweet miraculous story of hope during an Oklahoma tornado... –Kim

Tornado Survivor Finds Dog During TV Interview

Miraculous stories of survival emerge after one of the strongest tornadoes in history tore through an Oklahoma suburb.

May 21, 2013
An elderly woman whose home was destroyed by the Oklahoma tornado found her pet dog among the rubble during a live TV interview.

The footage of Barbara Garcia came as fellow survivors began reliving the terror they felt while winds of up to 200mph obliterated their neighbourhoods.

Mrs. Garcia was standing among the twisted wreckage of her home as she was interviewed about her experiences by a reporter from CBS.

"I was sitting on the stool holding my dog," she said.

"This was the game plan all through the years, to go in that little bathroom (together in an emergency). I rolled around a little bit and when it stopped – I was right there (and) that stove cooker is what I saw.

"I never lost consciousness, and I hollered for my little dog and he didn't answer, he didn't come. So, I know he's in here somewhere."

But as she spoke, a member of the camera crew spotted a dog's head poking out of the twisted remains of her home.

Mrs. Garcia is seen crouching down before exclaiming with joy as she spots her pet.

"Well, I thought God just answered one prayer to let me be OK, but He answered both of them, because this was my second prayer," she said, before being led away from the ruins with her dog.

Meanwhile, one mother who survived the storm described how she and her children took refuge in their bath as the tornado tore their house apart.

"My husband told us to get in the bathtub immediately and put on a mattress," she said.

She said she had to hold her daughter's hair to stop her slipping away when the tornado struck.

Another family locked themselves inside their cellar – only to have its door ripped open by the twister.

Ricky Stover said: "We thought we'd die. We saw the latch coming undone and we couldn't reach for it ... glass and debris started slamming on us."

Source: http://news.sky.com/story/1093711/tornado-survivor-finds-dog-during-tv-interview
Copyright ©2013 BSkyB

Also, see: Woman Risks Life to Save Her Dog from Tornado

Minggu, 19 Mei 2013

How to Train Your Dog at Home

Valuable Resource...

How to Easily Train Your Dog...
Like a Pro

It's essential for dog parents like you to know certain basic factors that determine your relationship with your dog and can go a long way in training him effectively.

Before you begin training your dog, it is absolutely essential that you build a loving bond with him. This is important as it helps you to understand his needs and instincts and also allows your dog to have complete trust in you.

Let's see how.......

How To Bond With Your Dog

Building a bond with your dog is the first and the most crucial step involved in training him successfully. As soon as you bring your dog home, you must first try to develop a caring and loving relationship with him in order to win his trust and confidence.

When dogs are secure in the knowledge that they belong to the family, they are more likely to respond better to their owners' training commands. Just like with any relationship, there must be mutual trust and respect between you and your dog.

Trust takes time to develop and respect comes from defining boundaries and treating any breach of those boundaries with firmness and fairness.

Without enforceable limitations, respect can’t be developed. And when there is no respect, building a bond with your dog is almost impossible.

Four Golden Rules to Building a Relationship with Your Dog:

Spend quality time together;

Take him out in the world and experience life together;

Establish and promote a level of mutual respect; and

Develop a way of communicating to understand each other's needs.

Building a bond with your dog will not only help you manage him better but will also make your dog calm, quiet and an extremely well-adjusted pet.

Love your dog and he will love you back!

When you're successful in building a bond with your dog, you can rest assured that training him and teaching him new and clever tricks will be a cakewalk.

Learn how to bond with your dog with this free mini course.

How Your Dog Learns...
Your dog's learning period can be divided into five phases:

The Teaching Phase – This is the phase where you must physically demonstrate to your Dog exactly what you want him to do.

The Practicing Phase – Practice makes Perfect. When a lesson is learned, practice with your dog what you have just taught him.

The Generalizing Phase – Here you must continue practicing with your dog in different locations and in an environment with a few distractions. You can take your dog out for a walk, or to a nearby park and command him to practice whatever you've taught him.

Practicing the learned lessons in multiple locations and in the presence of small distractions will help him learn and retain lessons better.

The Testing Phase – As soon as you're sure that your dog has achieved almost 90% success – he responds correctly almost every time you give a command – you must start testing his accuracy in newer locations with a lot of distractions.

Example: Take him to the local shopping mall and ask him to obey your command. He may not come up with the correct response the very first time you do this, but you must not lose hope.

The idea is to test your dog to see how he responds in an environment that is new to him. Set-up a situation where you are in control of the environment and your dog.

There are only 2 possibilities:

Your dog succeeds!!! (Trumpets please!)

In case your dog fails, re-examine the situation. Review and/or change your training. Then, try testing again.

Keep on testing until he succeeds. Follow the rule of the three Ps: patience, persistence, praise.

Internalizing Phase – Finally, comes the extremely rewarding phase where your dog does everything he is taught to do even without your commands.

Remember:

Never scold your dog if he fails. It's not his fault. You have failed as a trainer!

You must be patient and persistent for your efforts to show rewards.

Appreciate and praise your dog when he does it right! A little encouragement will work wonders for your dog.

Dog Training is easy when you do it right.

Continued - Learn how to train your dog better with this free mini course.

Kamis, 16 Mei 2013

For Your Computer...

Cute pictures, and they DO get the job done! –Kim

Free Screen Cleaners

Take your pick!

Rabu, 15 Mei 2013

Ditch This Pet Food Now!

Here's another important pet food recall article. –Kim

Corn Products can be Deadly to Your Pets

By Dr. Becker
April 3, 2013

In an article last November, I reported on the very real danger of future widespread aflatoxin contamination of commercial pet food, primarily dry dog food. Thanks to the very hot, dry summer of 2012, experts predicted U.S. corn crops would be heavily infested with two types of mold – Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus.

These molds produce metabolites called aflatoxins. Aflatoxins cause acute lethal illness and cancer in animals and humans, and are among the most carcinogenic substances on earth. Aflatoxins poison the liver, and their carcinogenic properties can lead to tumor formation.

Recalls of Aflatoxin-Contaminated Dog Food have Begun

Reuters reports high levels of aflatoxins have been discovered in bags of dog food on store shelves in Iowa. And according to Michael Wright, the CEO of Pro-Pet, a pet food company in Ohio that recently learned some of its product was contaminated with aflatoxins, "Last year's corn crop – it's a huge issue. We test every load coming in. And we reject a lot of loads."

During the last week of February, the Hy-Vee Inc. grocery chain was forced to recall five different products in its private dog food line due to high levels of aflatoxins in the corn used in the formulas. The dog food was produced at a Kansas City Pro-Pet plant and distributed across eight Midwestern states.

As I explained back in November, the behavior of the A. flavus and A. parasiticus molds makes it very difficult to control or minimize aflatoxin contamination, or to accurately assess the extent of the problem. There can be pockets of plants that are heavily contaminated, while the rest of the crop is relatively mold-free, so analyzing occasional random samples of corn plants can give misleading results.

Corn used in pet foods
The corn used in the recalled Hy-Vee formulas had been tested before it was added to the dog food, and the finished product was reportedly tested as well. But the contamination wasn't discovered until a random bag was pulled from a store shelf in Iowa by an inspector for the Iowa Department of Agriculture.

According to PetfoodIndustry.com, Hy-Vee officials say the recall is only a precautionary measure and no illnesses have been reported. The recalled products were distributed to Hy-Vee stores in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin between October 26, 2012 and January 11, 2013. Specific details of recalled products can be found here.

If you happen to have a bag of recalled product, you should stop feeding it to your pet. You can also return the food, opened or unopened, to a Hy-Vee store for a full refund.

How to Avoid Aflatoxin-Contaminated Pet Food

Aflatoxin-related illness is seen much more often in dogs than cats, because more commercial dog foods than cat foods contain corn products.

To be very safe, I recommend you transition your pet away from all dry food. Replace it with a high quality canned food, a commercially prepared raw diet, dehydrated raw, a balanced home cooked diet, or a combination.

If you want to continue to offer dry food to your dog, I recommend you study the ingredients carefully and avoid products containing corn in any form, including corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, corn flour, etc. Corn is not only highly susceptible to aflatoxin contamination, it is also allergenic and difficult for most pets to digest.

Source: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/04/03/aflatoxin-contaminated-dog-food.aspx
© Copyright 1997-2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola

Also, see:

Kamis, 09 Mei 2013

The Truth about PETA

There's GOT to be a better way! –Kim

PETA to Local Shelter: "Kill More Animals"

Normally, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) – the latest entrant to the drone market – takes every media hit it can performing stunts to oppose the killing of animals. Whether for clothing, eating or curing AIDS, you can be sure PETA "lettuce ladies" will be out in force trying to stop the use of animals.

However, when it comes to homeless pets, PETA doesn't mind the killing of animals; in fact, PETA itself kills dogs and cats wholesale. State regulatory filings show that PETA killed just shy of 30,000 pets since 1998.

And if you're an animal shelter trying to kill fewer pets, PETA will try to shame you into killing more. No, seriously – PETA sent activists to shoot undercover videos of shelters in New York State to make the case for more shelter pet killing. PETA is very efficient at shelter pet killing – those state records show that last year, PETA killed nearly 90% of the pets in its care. And PETA employees killed pets that court records in a North Carolina trial showed that they called "adorable" and "perfect."

PETA's stance isn't new: PETA wrote to a Florida newspaper that reducing shelter killing was foolish and only a "no-birth" pet community was acceptable. PETA argued feverishly against a proposed ordinance in its hometown of Norfolk, Virginia that would reduce euthanasia at the city pound.

So why might PETA be so vested in pet killing? The world's most ridiculous animal liberation organization claims mercy as its motive, but there's plenty of evidence that that's simply a cover story. In addition to the North Carolina evidence, a recent report from Britain suggests that there is dissent within PETA over the puppy-killing program's appropriateness. Also, other supposedly "death's door" pets picked up in PETA's backyard but sent to other shelters are living and thriving, no thanks to PETA's syringe.

But to PETA, animals living and thriving in human care might actually be a fate worse than death. An attorney representing PETA argued as much in open court about elephants being brought to zoos. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk has said that, in her vegan utopia, pets "would be phased out." Whether it is PETA's intent or not, PETA's animal shelter is keeping up its part of that desired phase-out.

Also, see:

Sabtu, 04 Mei 2013

How Well is Your Dog Groomed?

Here's a great article that I thought I would pass on...hope you find it interesting! –Kim

How to Groom Your Dog at Home

The reason one should groom his/her dog is simple – your dog's physical state influences the way he feels and the way you look at your dog. Extreme cases, where lack of proper care, cleaning and grooming can directly affect the behavior of your dog, are not rare.

Proper grooming not only infuses a healthy glow to your dog's appearance, but also helps develop his self-esteem; while it makes you a very proud parent, when you show off your dog to others.

The first step involved in dog grooming is: Brushing!

Brushing has been universally acknowledged by expert dog groomers as the single most important step in grooming.

The benefits of brushing are many. To name a few:

Better blood circulation
Shinier and healthier coat
Better bonding

Even if you know how crucial brushing is for your dog's health and well-being, we all know that there is a right way and a wrong way of doing anything. And without doubt, you would like to do everything the RIGHT way when it comes to your dog.

Yes, there's a method to follow while brushing your dog.

Here are FIVE steps to successfully brushing your dog that will prove to be extremely useful:

Brush against the growth of the hair first with a slicker brush and then with a medium or wide-toothed comb.
The slicker brush removes all the loose hair and the comb takes care of the tangles.
Brush your dog along the hair growth and make sure you reach the skin as you brush his way.
Then use a flea comb over the coat to get the fleas and remove any remaining tangles. Part the coat and start from the root and then comb through.
If your dog's paw pads are hairy, then clip them using electric clippers. Do not clip the hair in between the pads. Clip only the excess hair.

Brush your dog's hairs to prevent it from matting. Matting can be a very painful experience.

Regular brushing untangles the matted hairs on your dog's coat. Since this is a risky job to do, the best way out is to prevent them from forming in the first place. And doing this is simple: just brush and comb your dog regularly. If and when you see any mats or tangles, use a detangle solution and a medium-toothed comb.

Don't wait until your dog is dirty or matted to introduce him to grooming. That would make him associate the experience with unpleasantness. Moreover, many dogs learn to see their routine brushing as an alternate form of petting, i.e. another source of affection and attention.

Subscribe to this FREE dog grooming mini course and start grooming your dog all by yourself right from the comfort of your home, today.

Copyright © 2009 TrainPetDog.com

Kamis, 02 Mei 2013

Frozen Corgi Pandas

Here's a really cute video that I thought I would pass on... –Kim

Can't move! We're stuck!

These dogs in costume are not amused. You probably think dressing up your animal as another animal is adorable and hilarious, but did you ever ask your pets how they felt about it? These Corgis don't think it's all that funny, thank you very much.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqiE9CFJ4GI

Also, see: How to Win a Costume Contest