By Jon Dunkerley (slaboflab)

www.web-rover.com

Showing off your dog in front of friends and family is something that I personally love to do. Having an obedient, happy slab of lab is like having an obedient happy child. Have you ever been in a supermarket only to come across a screaming baby and a blushing parent? I know I have, and my first reaction is to get as far away from disturbing scene as possible. I have also been in undesirable situation of being in public with an unobedient dog and I can say, I feel pain of frantic parent!

The term, ¡§A happy dog is an obedient dog¡¨ is one that I really believe holds a lot of merit due to its simplicity. If you have a relatively well behaved dog, that interacts well with family, it is fair to say that rarely will you or anyone else in that family be angry or even worse abusive towards your pet. On other hand if your dog is not obedient to a satisfactory level, and does not interact well with family, one can say that members of that family will have a hard time coping with pet and this trend can only escalate only leading to eventual departure of pet from family.

When teaching your dog basic obedience, it is wize to make sure that you first have an understanding of art yourself. Like people, dogs have unique personalities none of which are same, and it is a good trainer that will take time to figure out dog before trying to figure out how to best approach introducing basic obedience. Furthermore, there are many external resources out there for you to take advantage of in order to help you understand art of training. Books, articles, Obedience Instructors, and internet, are all viable sources that you should take advantage of when seeking advice, or just experiences from others in your situation.

Below I have listed my top ten components to keep in mind when working with your dog. I did not rank them, as they are all very important to keep in mind as they will only aid you in bonding, understanding, and interacting positively with your four-legged friend:

- Know what your doing ¡V Before comensing any type of training, do your research first! To offen, pet owners try to do all work their way, get frustrated and take out their frustrations on their pet. Having an understanding of methodology behind many types of training, will benefit you to know end.

- Consistancy ¡V Being consistent with your approach is very very important when dealing with your dog in any aspect of life. When working with your dog try to use same approach each time. Changing training methods mid session for example will only confuse your dog even more than he-she already is. Furthermore, set up training time at least twice a day, and keep to these times. Training time is important, more sessions you set up more productivity you can expect in long run.

- Keep your sessions short ¡V The attention span of a dog is frail at best of times, thus it is crutial to keep sessions short. Remember keep sessions short but do not sacrifice content. Rome was not built in a day.

- Keep training sessions fun ¡V Dogs as do people, like to have fun, and why shouldn¡¦t they? Training can be fun for you and your pet! Be lively, treat good behavior, praise your dog to no end, make him feel like he is best dog in world, even if he¡¦s not!

When wild mother cat brings her kittens out of nest, it is first time in their lives they have seen a human being, and they tend to be hissing, spitting bits of fluff that really look as though they mean business. And since they already have teeth and claws, I would rather not push issue. I also would rather not let them remain wild, living in my barn, having kittens of their own. Six kittens, within a year or two, could turn into 56.

As of early 2005, wild mother cat has had more than 20 kittens in our barn, and I have managed to tame them and to find homes for most of them (unfortunately, several were lost when wild momma kitty took them out to teach them how to hunt).

Here are some tips for taming wild kittens:

1. Buy some canned kitty food -- In my experience, kittens are always hungry and are always interested in canned kitty food. I have noticed it doesn't matter what brand, just so long as it has fish in it. The smell of fish seems irresistible to kittens.

2. Let kittens smell canned kitty food -- Open can and then try to get as close to them as possible so they can smell food. Once they get a whiff of it, and this is especially true of younger kittens that are anywhere from four weeks old to a few months old, they will be so interested in canned kitty food they will forget (somewhat) that you are right next to them.

3. Use a fork (or spoon) to scoop out some of food and let kittens eat off end of fork (spoon) -- This is an important step. Do NOT put a forkful of food down and then back off. From very first, hold fork toward kitten and let kitten eat off end of fork. Stick to your guns and do not give up. If kitten wants canned kitty food, kitten MUST eat it off end of fork or spoon. This is first step in getting kitten used to being close to you and in growing accustomed to your hand coming closer. This will be useful later on when you are trying to pet kittens. After kitten has eaten food off end of fork/spoon, THEN you can put a little food down for kitten to eat on its own.