The Individual Guide

Good long-term dog health has many causes, but the one common factor is an owner who takes his puppy care duties seriously right from the start. It’s no coincidence that in study after study, veterinarians and animal scientists report that when dog health is a primary concern of the owner from the outset, that pet often lives longer and suffers fewer canine diseases. The clear message to owners: put good puppy care at the top of your list from the moment you get your new friend home.

The first step to ensuring excellent dog health for the life of your furry friend is to get him checked out by a vet within a few days of bringing him home. Most doctors will recommend a puppy care regimen consisting of a series of vaccinations in the early months and good nutrition from the beginning.

While a dog’s psychological needs might make many readers scoff, it’s important to understand that proper dog health includes bonding with owners in a loving environment. That’s why puppy care involves more than just shots and food. Stress, both physical AND mental, can wreak havoc on a new puppy’s immune system, for example, which makes him more susceptible to many canine diseases (mange, distemper, parvovirus).

Finally, don’t forget your dog’s teeth in the overall dog health picture. A good puppy care plan includes lots of hard bones and crunchy treats to chew on regularly - preferably healthy versions, not typical pet store biscuits.

It is a well known fact that feeding live food to your fishes
will help them to grow better, show better coloration, and
improve vigor. Fish love a variety of foods, and live foods are
more closely related to what they feed on in their natural
habitat. Although raising live foods can take up a small amount
of space, and a bit of your time, the results in seeing your
fish thrive are well worth it!

Vinegar eels are basically fry food, and very easy to grow. They
are not really eels, but are classified as a minute nematode
worm (Turbatrix aceti. and feed on vinegar or acidic,
fermenting vegetable matter. These tiny roundworms are
bilaterally symmetrical, approximately .08 in. (2 mm) long, and
lives for around 10 months with a minimum effort of care.

To cultivate, fill a gallon jar with a quart of
undistilled apple cider vinegar, a quart and a half of
aged cool tap water, and an apple cut into 6 sections. If your
water is typically hard, increase the apple cider vinegar to a
60% ratio. Introduce your vinegar eel culture to the container,
and cover with a piece of cloth, held in place by a rubber band
to keep flies out of the culture.

The media will need to be replenished about once a month, due to
some evaporation and loss from harvesting the eels.

Culturing the eels is very low maintenance, as they have no
temperature requirements and a long life span. One consideration
is odor, for the apple cider vinegar will smell a bit like a
winery, and some may find it objectionable!

Be patient with the culture, as it may take up to a month for
the culture to be strong enough to see the eels in large
numbers. When you are able to see them in quantity, it is time
to harvest and feed to your fishes.

Harvesting vinegar eels is perhaps the most challenging part of
the whole process. The easiest way to accomplish this is to draw
the eel laden fluid up with a small baster, such as is used for
basting chicken or turkey. Transfer this liquid into a funnel
lined with a coffee filter placed over the opening of the
culture jar to return the excess fluid to the container. When
you feel that you have harvested enough for a feeding, gently
rinse the coffee filter under a stream of cold fresh water for
several minutes. Swish the inverted filter in your tank, and
feed the fishes. If feeding several tanks, swish the filter in a
beaker of water, and feed the eels using an eyedropper.

Vinegar eels will stay near the surface of the water, so aren’t
good food for bottom feeders. Surface feeders such as
rainbowfish will benefit greatly from feeding vinegar eels, but
a lot of cichlid fry are bottom feeders. This is why a variety
of live foods is important to feeding fry.

If you do not feed vinegar eels on a regular basis, don’t worry.
The culture will keep indefinitely for a year with little care
needed. A couple of times per year, thin out the culture by
using a coffee filter and funnel, remove about half the media,
and replace with fresh media in the proper ratio. You can then
gift a fellow aquarist with the culture to begin a vinegar eel
colony of their own.

Horse training can be a relatively mysterious subject to people who have not studied it. Even more mysterious is a behavioral problem a horse has that causes his owner stress and frustration.

What many horse owners don’t understand is often the handler, not the horse, is causing the problem.

That being said, that is the first consideration in unscrambling the horse’s ill behavior.

For instance, a common problem riders have is a horse being spooky. In layman’s terms, that means a horse is nervous and afraid something is going to “get him”. Thus, whenever the horse and owner go for a ride it’s not usually a relaxing moment.

As a matter of fact, both horse and rider are on edge.

So if we take the premise that the rider is causing the horse to spook, then we must ask, “How is the rider causing this.”

An uninformed rider may not be aware that perhaps he is sitting tensely in the saddle. Also, maybe he’s stiff as a board and has a white-knuckle hold on the reins.

Believe it or not, the horse can sense and feel this tense. When the horse is in the habit of feeling it then the horse’s spookiness is also the rider’s.

Picture it like this. Two deathly scared kids are walking home at night. They both hear sounds and see things. One kid thinks he saw something and nervously asks, “D-d-d-did you see that?” Seconds later the other kid hears something and cries, “D-d-did you h-h-hear that?” Together they intensify each other’s fears and their anxiety grows leaps and bounds.

So it is with the rider and horse. Maybe not to that extent, but still it happens.

And since the rider is human and capable of reasoning, then he or she must be the one to interrupt the pattern of behavior. The rider must loosen up while in the saddle. Relax. Have fun. Learn to watch the horse’s signals that he has spotted something - and then talk to the horse and start giving him confidence.

Soon, the horse’s demeanor will change and the result will be a more relaxed, fun to ride horse.

Whether the rider realizes it or not, he or she is training the horse by just riding. The horse simply reacts to the stimuli he gets. If the stimuli is consistent, the horse’s reaction will become a habit until changed. If the stimuli is tense, causes fear reactions, and so on, the result is a spooky horse.

This is but one example of how us humans can actually be the reason the horse does or does not do something we ask of him. Although it’s true that the rider is not the cause 100% of the time, it’s a good place to start untangling the problem because it’s often where it begins

About the Author

Andy Curry is a nationally known horse trainer and author
of several best selling horse training and horse care books.
For information visit his website at www.horsetrainingandtips.com.
He is also the leading expert on Jesse Beery’s horse training
methods which can be seen at www.horsetrainingandtips.com/Jesse_Beerya.

Along with a baby’s crying, the persistant barking of a dog is one of the most annoying sounds. But is there anything you can do as a dog owner to ‘persuade’ your pooch to stop barking? Here are a few suggestions from an experienced dog owner.

The bark. It can be annoying. But, in effect, it is the way the dog is communicating to you. For example, it can mean, ‘hello’ or it can mean ‘go away.’ It can mean that they want to play or that they are protecting their territory. You may think your dog is barking too much, or your neighbors may think so. But, before you can put an end to your trouble, it’s best to figure out why she is barking in the first place.

Some dogs have been breed to bark so it is instinctive that they bark endlessly. For example, the beagle is a hunting dog and was trained to bark when it spotted the prey. Another example are some toy dogs which were bred to be a warning signals of invasion. Even so, some dogs within these breeds bark more than they should, some more than others.

Did you encourage this behavior in your dog? If you give your dog a reward for barking then they are thinking it’s a good thing. Not necessarily a treat, the reward may have been attention. Even if you think it was a scolding you gave her, she saw it as attention. Are you trying to quiet her? Did you bend down and pet her, sooth her or just talk to her? Yes, this is attention. You are actually encouraging this behavior when the dog barks and you react like this.

There are several ways in which you can work with your dog to stop this behavior. One of those ways is to use a bark collar. These collars all work in different ways but they can disperse a citronella scent that the dog doesn’t like or they can even provide a small shock when the bad behavior occurs. But, this will not work in all cases and some do not like the idea of ‘hurting’ the animal even though the dog is not harmed at all. Another solution would be to use a professional trainer or to pick up a few books that are how to’s on training your animal and work one on one with the dog to stop the behavior.

When a dog barks, he is protecting you or just warning you. The dog is trained by ancestors to do just that; to warn people. It makes sense then that the dog would be a little upset at there is a man approaching the house even though he visits daily with the mail. The dog wants you to know that the man is there and that you should react to the mailman. Those dogs that do bark too much may need some help. You can find a lot of help on training your dog to stop barking in books or with professionals. Use training as well as patience to help your dog learn when its okay and when it is not.

Best Dog Health Information is a resource which will help you find infomation, hints and tips to keeping your dog happy and healthy. www.best-pet-health.info
This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and live links are included intact.

The Shih Tzu with its long coat of hair requires regular, careful grooming. It is better to take a little time each day to keep the coat of your Shih Tzu in top shape than to allow it to go almost beyond repair. If you don’t set aside each day to properly groom your Shih Tzu, the coat will take a lot more time and energy to restore to its original luster and length. This is especially true if you are grooming for the show ring.

The first step is to choose a particular spot for grooming your Shih Tzu each time. Choose a spot where the light is good and where your Shih Tzu will have fewest distractions. Keep toys, treats and other distractions away from your Shih Tzu grooming area. Let your Shih Tzu know this is work that is absolutely necessary. Be firm but gentle.

You must groom a Shih Tzu from the skin out to be effective. Your Shih Tzu grooming table should be sturdy and steady to keep your Shih Tzu from becoming nervous on a wabbling table. A ribbed rubber matting is nice on the Shih Tzu grooming table and is easy to keep clean.

Time to groom your Shih Tzu will depend upon how much hair he has, the thickness of the coat and texture. Shih Tzu more heavily coated will of course require more time in grooming.

The correct brush for a Shih Tzu should have pin bristles. Brush your Shih Tzu’s coat in layers from the skin out to the very ends of the hair. Notice how your brush gathers hair. If the brush is gathering hair only on one side as you brush your Shih Tzu you are holding the brush in the wrong position. A Shih Tzu’s coat should be brushed in the direction in which hair is to fall. However, Shih Tzu puppies can benefit from brushing the coat in ever which way to stimulate the skin and hair cells to encourage growth of the permanent coat. Fluff the leg hair on a Shih Tzu puppy for a finishing touch.

Pay special attention to your Shih Tzu’s feet. The feet of a Shih Tzu are usually the first to get dirty and the hardest to get clean. They tend to tangle and mat easier. The hocks and elbows of your Shih Tzu should receive special attention.

If you find a find a bad tangle or mat in your Shih Tzu’s coat, brush away the surrounding hair and take the mat in your hand. Take a little of the mat at a time and shred it gently with your fingers, working it apart. Take your comb and carefully work it out from the ends of the hair first until you get to the skin of your Shih Tzu. Start at the bottom and work toward the body. When the mat has all been separated, brush the broken hairs out until all the remaining hairs are free.

Connie Limon is a Shih Tzu breeder. She publishes a FREE weekly newsletter. A professional newsletter with a focus upon health and wellness for you and your pets. Discounts are offered to subscribers. Sign up at: http://www.stainglassshihtzus.com