Dogs and Their Toys

So it is your dogs birthday or it is some other significate date in the life of your pet, so you go out and buy toys for them to play with and have fun.  Are the toys costly? If the answer is yes or no the next question is do the pets destroy them?  If they do this can be costly to you and it can be dangerous to the pet.  They could ingest pieces of the torn toy.  So without toys to enjoy and chew on, they will turn to other items to chew and enjoy ie: shoes, furniture, and magazines.   What to do? 

You need to train your puppy by using the toys as a positive reinforcement. What does that mean? While training your puppy to follow your commands, and they do what you ask them to do, give them the toy as part of the reward.  As long as they respect the toy and don’t try to tear it apart, let them play with it.  If you observe them being rough with the to, distract them by calling their name or clapping your hands.  Once you have their attention, praise them for being good and give them the toy back. If they continue to play rough with the toy, take it away from them until the next time you have play time. Just remember that you don’t want to punish them, just let them know they need to be nice with their toys.  This will save you money because you will not have to continually purchase toys.  If your dog appears tense or will not bring the toy to you when you ask for it, it may take a professional trainer to help you train the dog.

For new toys, I would suggest that you do not leave your dog alone with them until you feel comfortable that are happy with the toy and will not destroy it while you are away.  Having toys for your dog to play with while you are away will help them not get anxious while you are gone.

Have fun[O1] [O2]  playing with you dogs and their toys

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Training my new puppy with  needed  skills

I have bought a new puppy.  How do I socialize the puppy so it will interact with the family, and public, in a responsible manner?  Depending on how old the puppy is you, you can find a puppy school, if young, or go to an obedience school, if older.  A puppy school is usually found at a veterinarian office.  This sets up a relationship with the Vet, provided you will use this Vet for the wellbeing of your puppy.  The puppy school consists of a group of owners and puppies to teach the new puppies different commands i.e. sit stay come etc.  You want a class with a small number of puppies so that you can do more one on one time with the instructors.  Also, look to see if the school has one instructor and a couple of instructor’s aides. If the puppy is older you can find an obedience school to enroll your puppy.  If going to an obedience school remember you need to enroll yourself for the class with your puppy.  You should also work with your dog, at home, to reinforce what the puppies have learned in class.

Once the pet has graduated from school, you still need to reinforce the training all the time.  Make sure you tell all of your family members that they need not to overwhelm your pet.  Let them eat in private and do not crowd them.  Family members should spend quality time with the pets.  Make sure to walk them to get exercise.  That is a good method to socialize them with other dogs in the neighbor as well as other humans. 

Millions feed our feathery friends

There seems to be hundreds of people that feel the need to help our feather friends by putting feeders in the trees and bushes.  This is to feed both wild birds and domestic birds.  You might ask the question why? Well they do it to bring beauty and song into their lives for relaxation and education.  There are many different feeds that you can purchase.  You can also make many different feeds from all types of material.  Here are some of the feeders you can buy: suet, fruit, liquid, platform, free standing, tube, platform and ground.

Cardinals eat a variety of wild and "feeder" seeds, including sunflower, safflower and most other seeds in basic wild bird seed mixes. In warm seasons they also eat insects and worms and feed their babies mainly an insectivore diet.

The adult cardinal food consists of insects, spiders, wild fruits, berries, and weed seeds. In winter, they eat more seeds and berries since insects are few. Cardinals prefer to perch while eating at bird feeders, so the ideal bird feeder would be is a hopper type.

Cardinals also enjoy ground feeding.   The best wild bird food for cardinals include black oil sunflower, buckwheat, black and gray stripe sunflower, and safflower seeds.  Cardinals usually are the first birds to feed in the morning and the last to feed at night.

There are many species of birds throughout the states and so many regions within each state, that you will have a good opportunity to add bird feeders to your patio or garden any time of the year

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