During the third week in May, Doggone Safe Inc., Pet At Home Sitting Services, Inc., Pet At Home, and other organizations will be calling attention to one of the nations most commonly reported public health problems: dog bites. Half of all children will be bitten by a dog by age 12 and the majority of these bites are by the family dog or other dog known to the child.

Deedra Thompson of Pet At Home Sitting Services will be presenting the Doggone Safe Be a Tree childrens program on Tuesday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m. at All Paws Animal Clinic, located at 1011 North State Rd 7, Royal Palm Beach in the Regal Cinema Plaza. Bring your child and learn to be a doggie detective. The class is catered to school age children and there is no charge for the class, but registration is required. Please call All Paws today at 561-790-9225 to reserve a space for your child. One parent is requested to accompany the child.

Doggone Safe, a non-profit organization dedicated to dog bite prevention through education offers free information at its website http://www.doggonesafe.com to help promote safety messages during dog bite prevention week. Doggone Safe also promotes the Doggone Safe Be a Tree childrens program. This program is a short presentation with large photos and lots of activities to teach children to understand the signs dogs send with their body language. The central message of this program is Be a Tree. That is, stand still if a strange dog approaches or any dog is threatening or overly frisky. Children learn to be doggie detectives, looking for the clues that dogs give with body language to show how they are feeling.

Doggone Safe and Pet At Home offer the following tips for parents and dog owners to help keep kids safe:

The 3 Most Important Things to Teach Your Kids 1.Dogs Dont Like Hugs and Kisses Teach your kids not to hug or kiss a dog on the face. Hugging the family dog or face-to-face contact are common causes of bites to the face. Instead, teach kids to scratch the dog on the chest or the side of the neck. 2.Be a Tree if a Strange Dog Approaches Teach kids to stand still, like a tree. Trees are boring and the dog will eventually go away. This works for strange dogs and anytime the family dog gets too frisky or becomes aggressive. 3.Never Tease a Dog and never disturb a dog thats sleeping, eating or protecting something.

The 2 Most Important Things Parents Can Do 1.Supervise Dont assume your dog is good with kids. If a toddler must interact with your dog, you should have your hands on the dog too. Even if your dog is great with kids and has never bitten why take a chance? 2.Train the dog Take your dog to obedience classes where positive-reinforcement is used. Never pin, shake, choke, hold the dog down or roll the dog over to teach it a lesson. Dogs treated this way are likely to turn their aggression on weaker family members. Involve older children in training the family dog while supervising. Dont allow children to punish the dog. Condition the dog to enjoy the presence and actions of children using positive experiences.

The 3 Most Important Things Dog Owners can do 1.Spay or Neuter Your Dog Neutered pets are calmer, healthier and less likely to be aggressive. Neutering prevents unwanted dogs that may end up in shelters or in less than ideal conditions where they may grow up to be poorly socialized or aggressive. 2.Condition Your Dog for the World Give your puppy lots of new positive experiences. Train using positive methods i.e. clicker training. 3.Supervise Your Dog Supervise your dog at all times around children. Do not allow children to hug and kiss the dog. If visiting children are bothering your dog, put the dog away or send the children home.

About Pet At Home Sitting Services:

Pet At Home began serving pets in the community in January 2004 and is a family owned professional pet sitting service, insured, bonded, licensed and certified in Pet CPR and First Aid by the America Red Cross. Pet At Home is a proud member of NAPPS, the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters and PSI, Pet Sitters International. They offer professional pet sitting service to pet owners who want their pets treated like members of their family. Beginning a pet sitting service was second nature for the owner and President Deedra Thompson coming from a family that owned and operated a small zoo in Austin, Texas. Pets are my passion, and I take the responsibility of caring for them and the security of my clients home very seriously commented Deedra Thompson. I chose to teach the “Be A Tree” program to protect children from being hurt and to protect our canine friends from being in situations that would cause them to bite. To learn more about Pet At Home Sitting Services, Inc. or to schedule the “Be A Tree” program for a school age group or organization in the West Palm Beach area please call 561-686-2900 or visit its website at http://www.petathome.com.

About All Paws Animal Clinic:

All Paws Animal Clinic opened for business in July 2002 and is owned and managed by Dr. Patricia Forsythe, Medical Director. All Paws has rapidly grown into a well-established and respected veterinary hospital. The clinic has been chosen Best of the West for veterinarian in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009 by the readers of the Wellington Forum. We are dedicated to our mission statement Quality Care with Compassion for your Best Friend. Visit us at allpawsanimal.com!

About Doggone Safe Inc.:

The not-for-profit Doggone Safe organizations mandate was based on jurors recommendations following an inquest into the mauling death of 8 year old Courtney Trempe in Ontario, Canada. Along with their many educational programs, Doggone Safe also provides victim support and administers the Courtney Trempe Memorial fund, in honor of her memory, to help provide trauma counseling (not provided by insurance) for child dog bite victims and their families. Visit http://www.doggonesafe.com

###

Though there is a general impression that reward training is the modern type of training, in reality this training method is very old. As old as ever since the dogs were there to train. Even before that people were using informal reward training methods to train wolf pups, which turned out to be modern dogs. Modern reward training gains popularity only for the past 10 to 15 years. But people were using principle of reward training for many decades. Dog trainers prefer this method to other training methods like leash and collar method. But in some cases the combination of these training methods is found to be more effective.

Training methods will vary from dog to dog. Some dogs can be easily trained by using a leash/collar method where as other dogs need a reward training method. These dogs are happy with the reward they get and listen to a trainer’s command thinking of reward. Some dogs fall between these two categories. They need the combination of both reward training as well as leash/collar training method.

Clicker training is another form of reward training. This method has become very popular among the trainers. When the dog does something good, the trainer will use a clicker to make click sound. As soon as the dog hear the click sound it knows that it will get a reward, a treat. Gradually the dog starts responding to the click sound.

Reward training is associated with food. The Dog will get reward as a food. After obeying any order from the master the dog expects food immediately. For more complex exercises this system work wonderfully. People who train the dogs for movies and television uses this reward training exclusively, which gives great results. Police and military dogs are trained by using a reward-training method. They are trained to smell and track. This is helpful in training the dog about basic behavior like obedience. Some reward training include lure in reward training method. The trainer uses the lure to get the dog in certain position according to trainers wish. Later on the dog will get in to that position whenever the dog feels like. It is a sensible thing to train the dog with out physically interfering.

Training the dog without touching is very important. Positive reinforcement is the reward dog gets after every good performance. Reward they get is a positive reinforcement. Not only food but also word like ‘good boy’ and a pat on their head will do wonders.

When training the dog for some important job like in police, detection of drugs etc. the dog need to be reliable. So these dogs need to be trained in such environments. Surrounding people and sounds should not distract the dogs. The dogs need to be social with people and other animals around. The biggest mistake the dog trainers do is to train the dogs inside the house or in the yards. There only the trainer and the dog are present. When the dog is taken out, the trainer will accompany the dog as its protector. These dogs will not be able to perform well at a situation where so many people are there in the surroundings.

Another important thing to remember is that while taking out the dog the dog should always pay attention to its trainer. The dog should be alert all the time what the trainer is doing.

This is just a little bit of information of all the information available on dog training. I hope you have learned a bit from this article though. Good luck!

A Dog Training Lesson

Are you looking for some dog training tips?  Perhaps you have some dog problems that you just can’t figure out how to handle.  Maybe you’re in the middle of training a puppy.  Training dogs can be frustrating and a lot of hard work, but it is so worthwhile.

I’m by no means an expert in dog training.  But through my many years on this earth I have always had dogs in my life.  Most of them have been rescue dogs.  I would suggest rescue dogs for anyone interested in getting a new dog.  It’s a wonderful feeling and you will never regret it.

Now, on to the purpose of this article and this short dog training course. Over the years I’ve tried many different dog  training techniques to deal with dog problems that I’ve encountered.  Many times with rescue dogs, especially older rescue dogs, they might have some bad habits that their previous owner just didn’t want to deal with.  Those are the dogs I love to take because they end up being so lovable and sweet once you deal with the dog problem.

One dog training technique that has been very successful for me has been something so simple and yet so effective.

What I do is take a small tin can and put a few pennies in it.  Sometimes I will have a few cans around the house so they are handy when I need them.

When your dog exhibits a behavior that is not welcomed, just give the can a shake and at the same time say “No!”  This catches the dog’s attention and startles them.  They don’t like the sound of the pennies in the can, and after doing this a few times, you’ll see  that the unwanted behavior stops.  So what you are doing is conditioning the dog  to know that when they do the unwanted behavior, they will hear this noise that they don’t like, and therefore after a few times they will stop the behavior.  After a few times, you won’t even have to use the can but only say “No!” and they will stop the unwanted behavior.

This is why I have a few cans around the house because you want them handy so you can shake the can immediately when the dog is doing the unwanted behavior. 

I’ve used this technique on a number of dog problems that I’ve had through the years.  It’s been especially helpful in stopping dogs from barking too much.  One of my dogs was a very yappy dog until I tried this technique.  After a few shakes of the can, he now does not bark all the time and is much more pleasant to be around.

Another dog problem I’ve handled with this technique is a disgusting behavior of eating their own feces.  I know, so disgusting.  Two of my dogs now have done this in the past and I was so happy when this technique worked for them.  I would have to watch them while they were outside for a few days and keep a window open.  Then when they started going toward their own feces with an eye to eating it, I would shake the can from the window and that was enough to stop them.  It only took a few times.

I hope you will try this technique and let me know if it works for you.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Also, I have found another great dog training book that has some great simple ideas to help with dog problems that you might want to try.  The title is Secrets to Dog Training, formerly known as SitStayFetch.  It’s a great resource, PLUS you get six bonus books with it.

http://4e4f41k-omv9wxsenitdqkcm78.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=T1J8YQ6Y

http://www.usfreeads.com/3027520-cls.html

Vintage $ 1000 Bill

Sheila Hornsby has worked in the Uptown area of Dallas for Park Cities Pet Sitter for nearly five years. Many of the pets she cares for reside in the high rises that dot the Oak Lawn, Turtle Creek, and McKinney Avenue streets. On the evening of Monday, July 28th, she was taking a dog from the 1900 McKinney Avenue building outside for a walk, cutting through the parking garage in the back of the building to get outside. Ms. Hornsby noticed something on the ground at the edge of the parking garage where she was walking, and initially stepped over it. As she glanced back at the item on the ground, she looked more closely and saw that what she stepped over looked like a $ 1000 bill, enclosed in a plastic sleeve. Ms. Hornsby picked up the plastic sleeve and examined it, feeling pretty certain it had to be a fake since she had never heard of a $ 1000 bill being circulated. She put the item in her back pocket with the intention of doing a little bit more investigation about it later that evening.

When Ms. Hornsby arrived home, she looked online to see if a $ 1000 bill had ever been issued by the federal government. She found that, indeed, there was. She learned that the U.S. government had last issued the $ 1000 bill back in 1945. Ms. Hornsby then took a photograph of her find and sent it to her mother, who had worked in a bank for 26 years, to see if her mother could determine if it was authentic. After her mother looked at the photo, she told Sheila that it was likely a real $ 1000 bill.

Once Ms. Hornsby realized that she had found an incredibly valuable, vintage $ 1000 bill, she said that her first thoughts were about how she would locate its rightful owner(s). I know many people probably think that I legitimately found the $ 1000 bill, so I should keep it. But I know that if I ever lost something of great value that I would hope whoever found it would be kind enough to try to locate me. So my instinct was not to keep it; instead I immediately felt this huge responsibility to find the person who had lost it.

Ms. Hornsby searched the internet to determine what options she might have to find the owner of the $ 1000 bill. Contacting the police, posting in Lost & Found areas of community websites, and posting flyers around the neighborhood where the item was found were all things she considered. After sleeping on it, she decided to first create a brief flyer and give it to the concierges at the 1900 McKinney Ave building. The flyer said, FOUND POSSIBLE COLLECTIBLE ITEM. Found near building while walking dog on Monday night, 7/28/14. If someone is missing a collectible item, please have them call me and describe it, in order to ensure that it is returned to the rightful owner. Thank you, Sheila.

On the morning of Tuesday, July 29th, Ms. Hornsby went to the 1900 McKinney building and spoke to Concierge Susan Gutierrez. Ms. Hornsby told Ms. Gutierrez that she had found a collectible item the previous evening, and wondered if anyone had reported the loss of any valuable items in the last 24 hours? Ms. Gutierrez told her that, yes, in fact a resident of the building had reported losing a vintage $ 1000 bill, and had contacted the buildings management about the loss on the off-chance that the item was turned in. Realizing that the owner of the lost $ 1000 bill had been located, Sheila made arrangements to meet the owner later that evening when she could come back with the item.

On the evening of Tuesday, July 29th, Ms. Hornsby met the rightful owner of the vintage $ 1000 bill in the lobby of the high rise building, with a number of concierges and passersby in attendance. When she returned the bill in its sleeve to the resident who had lost it, she was overwhelmed by the positive response of its owner and of those witnessing its return. It was so gratifying to see how surprised, thankful and happy the owner of the bill was to have it returned, said Ms. Hornsby. He kept saying how upset he had been at himself that he had lost the sleeve with the bill, and was certain no one would ever turn it in upon finding it. I really felt like I restored some of his faith in humanity by doing the right thing and returning what I had found. The people that were in the lobby that night when I returned the bill said it really inspired them to want to do similar good deeds, because doing so clearly created a lot of happiness. I did not realize how simply doing the right thing could be so inspiring.

Park Cities Pet Sitters President, Joette White, learned about Ms. Hornsbys find and her attempts to locate the owner of the valuable item from the sitter herself. Ms. White said that upon hearing Sheilas story she simply felt a lot of pride in her sitter and in her company. My business is built on the credibility and trust of my staff. We ask our clients to entrust us with the care of their beloved pets, and are given access to peoples homes when they are away. Having dependable, honest and trustworthy staff is a requirement for what we do. But it is also part of our company mission to be thoughtful to the people around you and think how you can impact them in a positive way, said Ms. White. The actions that Sheila took to do the right thing, of her own volition, is exactly what I would want her or any of my staff to do in that type of scenario. I cannot help but feel proud and inspired by the thoughtful actions of one of my staff.

Park Cities Pet Sitter, Inc. has served the Dallas area 7 days a week, 365 days a year since 1992. Pet sitting, daily dog walks, pet taxis, overnight sitting, pet supply shopping, litter box cleaning and dog training are all part of the services PCPSI offers. Park Cities Pet Sitter is bonded and insured, and all sitters are employees–not independent contractors. A manager is on-call 24 hours a day to handle any emergencies. Additional information about Park Cities Pet Sitter can be found on their website at http://www.pcpsi.com.

Secrets to Dog Training (formerly named SitStayFetch) has been revamped and was officially launched on February 2, 2009. SitStayFetch has been the top selling dog training course for over four years, and it has been bought by over 64,000 dog owners world-wide. Having reviewed it in great detail, I can fully understand why it continues to hold the top spot . The revamped version promises to be even better!

Secrets to Dog Training is an extremely comprehensive guide, written by the world renowned trainer, Daniel Stevens. Although the 261-page manual is impressively detailed, its step-by-step format provides straight-forward instructions on how to quickly identify and solve dog behavior problems. It also includes many excellent pictures!

All of the training methods described in the book are tried and true, having been used by Daniel Stevens in his own life as a professional dog trainer.

A 5-page table of contents lets you know from the beginning that this guide is jam-packed full of information. The course is not just one more dog training guide, although that section alone is worth the purchase price. The first part is for owners of a new dog or puppy, covering subjects such as diet and nutrition, house training, how to puppy-proof your home, choosing a vet, grooming, general health, etc. These are just some of the subjects covered to give you an idea of the wide range of information.

Several different training techniques are outlined in the course, including crate training, clicker training, dog whispering, and more. Next, the more advanced behavior issues such as chewing, biting, aggression, digging, jumping, etc. are covered. Several informative and interesting case studies are included in this section. We all love a good story!

In addition, there is a chapter on how to understand your dog and the significance of the owner being perceived as the alpha in the home. Doggy facial expressions, vocals and body language are also included in this section. Aided by photographs, the chapters on obedience training are well articulated and the many stances and commands are presented in excellent detail.

I’ve outlined just a fraction of what is covered but I’m sure you will agree that it is impressive. I had already heard great things about this course before I actually took a look at it so had high expectations. I have to say that Secrets to Dog Training has not disappointed me – in fact, I’m amazed at the quality and quantity of the information offered for such a low price.

This book is well-written using easily understood language. My reading experience was enhanced by the fact that the book is broken down into small chapters, making it easy to understand and follow. Being faced with a wall of text can be quite overwhelming!

I was glad to see that Secrets to Dog Training provides instructions for obedience training for all ages and problem behaviors. All too often dog trainers offer training for puppies, not recognizing that these problem behaviors can continue into a dog’s adulthood.

Another excellent feature is the free consultations offered by the team at Secrets to Dog Training when you buy the course. Just send the team an email and they will provide you with an individual answer for your specific dog behavior problem. You’ll receive a response full of practical tips and expert advice.

The following bonus items are included when you buy the guide: an audio book plus 5 extra e-books on house training, security training, aggression, grooming, and secrets to becoming the alpha dog.

A new and exciting bonus being included with the course is a 30-minute downloadable video, which shows effective methods to solve those annoying obedience issues. It is presented by Dave Johnson, the extremely popular dog care professional, who makes it all seem so easy!

The detailed information covered is easy to comprehend and extremely effective. This book is not only useful to dog owners who need help with problem behaviors in their pets. The information in this guide would be of use to everyone looking to have a great rapport with their dog.