Crate training is a valuable asset to any training program for new puppies and can help enhance your relationship with your canine pal. A happy and comfortable puppy will mature into a well-mannered and loving companion.

So, now you are ready for weapons of “vast destruction”. You go for big guns. You will start using poison to back of neck. That ought to take care of them, if fleas come along first, before little hands. Of course, liquid can be absorbed into skin of pet getting into his blood stream and going to all parts of his body. Most hearts and livers don’t really require poisons. How about yourself, did you absorb any? Did you breathe in any vapors? Does product continue to emit vapors? If you can smell it, maybe you already know that vapors are there. Keep in mind that many of spot treatments contain chemicals that are known to be neurotoxins. Like most of population, you did not read label, nor would you recognize names of any neurotoxins. And you probably would not know that neurotoxins can affect brain. Your pet may develop a twitch from a neurotoxin. Don’t you wonder if same thing could happen to you? While pet is in most danger from this, person applying it is not home free! This stuff can rub off and be distributed anywhere in environment of pet, affecting any life form in this environment. It is important to realize that difference between poisons to kill fleas and poisons to kill higher life forms is simply size of dose. Since our bodies can store and accumulate poisons from environment, we have no way of knowing what could be in store for us as a result of exposure to these poisons.

Recently, there were more than 28,000 sites, on just one search engine, on internet related to pesticide poisoning from flea products. No matter what reasons were, poisoning happened because products were available, and a reasonably logical person thought them safe for use. We readily accept whatever we are used to seeing. Harmful flea products are in mainstream of our lives. Just go to any big food store, home improvement store, drug store, pet food store, and yes, even Walmart, and you can find an arsenal for combating fleas.

Until 1990, I used everything available for flea control. After many bad experiences, I realized that I was declaring chemical warfare on my pets, my home, my yard, environment, and on myself as well. Knowing that this had to stop, if I were going survive, I set out to find a pesticide-free way to keep fleas off my cats. My first step was to eliminate everything that had not worked for me in my war against fleas. So, I had to forget all flea products that I knew about. Living in Florida, meant combing off fleas every hour if cats went out on screened porch, but I did it, in addition to wearing out a good vacuum cleaner. After a couple of years of trial and error, I developed a simple, cheap, and safe method that is so effective that cats seem to be “invisible to fleas”. Not only am I happy to be able to keep fleas off my cats, but I feel good about giving up my life of crime against environment.

There are many sites on internet where you can find out all names of harmful chemicals used in flea products. Anti-pesticide groups offer a lot of valuable information, as does NRDC (National Resource Defense Council) and CDC (Center for Disease Control). Even some animal rescue organizations post warning against certain products. Personally, I think that terms KEEP OUT OF THE REACH OF CHILDREN and WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER HANDLING should give us clues we need. Plain and simple, do not use these products, there is something unsafe about them. Trust me, manufacturer is not just adding this information to make label larger. There had to be a law somewhere that forced them to put these warnings on. Restrictions of this sort don’t surface until harm has been done, and until a lot of action has been taken by environmental groups. Your best course of action is to do research yourself. Do not wait for mainstream (corporate) media to inform you about what to use to keep fleas off your pet. The information that they decide you should have is influenced by advertising dollars from chemical industry.

Visit NRDC flea product information sites and some Anti-pesticide group sites. They can be real eye openers. While you are looking at their sites, I hope you will take a few minutes to visit KEEP FLEAS OFF site at: http://www.liquorman.net/keepfleasoff/

I suggest that you download information concerning flea poisons, and use it as a guide to help protect your environment. After all, we are not just what we eat, but what we absorb through our skins and what we breathe into our lungs. Once a substance gets into your bloodstream, it has access to every cell that you own. One of few powers, that you still have, is power to control environment in your home, USE IT!