When you bring home that adorable puppy her dog behavior is so cute. She puts her feet up on you to get your attention, jumps in your lap, jumps up and down on her hind legs begging to be picked up.

And what do you do? You reinforce all those dog behaviors. Give her attention, pick her up, make sure she’s comfortable on your lap. Then, lo and behold, she grows from 15 pounds to 75 pounds and is still jumping on you. That cute puppy behavior is now bad dog behavior. In fact, itÂ’s downright maddening and you canÂ’t get it to stop.

Humans often give dogs mixed signals -- telling them to do one thing, but reinforcing very different dog behavior. Or expecting dogs to read our minds -- is it ok to jump up sometimes but not others? Which is which? Dogs canÂ’t figure that out.

You probably donÂ’t even know youÂ’re sending mixed signals.

Situations change throughout the day- you love that your dog jumps up on the bed to wake you with sloppy, we... [more]

Lassie! Now THEREÂ’S a dog! If you said SIT, Lassie would sit. If you said FETCH, Lassie would fetch. If you said PLAY DEAD, Lassie would just about quit breathing. Why, you could just imagine Lassie bringing you dinner each night, couldnÂ’t you? Now THAT was a well-trained dog!!! Guess what? Lassie wasnÂ’t born that way; she had to go through puppy training!

Puppy training is very important if you want a well-behaved dog! You have to start training them when they are young and you have to be consistent. Baby dogs are just like baby people; they donÂ’t know how to do anything when they are just starting out. You have to teach them and you have to be patient.

There are lots of new things your puppy needs to learn but three of the most important things are it’s name, the word “no” and the word “good dog.” Those words are the words you are going to be using constantly during your puppy training period.

The puppy name is how the new puppy learns to iden... [more]

The hordes of homeless and feral cats everywhere are growing by leaps and bounds, and finally people are beginning to wake up to the necessity of neutering their cats.

Population Explosion

Because cats can reproduce several times a year, and kittens mature quickly, just 2 feral cats (the wild offspring of domestic cats) can quickly become 2,000. In fact, the feline reproduction statistics are staggering. 2 uncontrolled breeding cats produce: 2 litters a year, at a survival rate of 2.8 kittens per litter. Continued breeding will produce 12 cats the first year, 66 cats the second year, 2,201 cats in the third year, 3,822 cats in the fourth year, 12,680 cats in the fifth year, and on and on . . .

Unaltered Cats Spread Disease

Many of these feral cats are actually unaltered pet cats (or their offspring) that were released by owners who could no longer care for them. A colony of feral cats can spread diseases among pet cats and dogs in ... [more]