Wednesday, October 7, 2009

BASICS OF DOG TRAINING


Basics of Dog Training

It's essential for Dog parents like you to know certain basic factors that determine your relationship with your Dog and can go a long way in training him effectively.

Before you begin training your Dog, it is absolutely essential that you build a loving bond with him. This is important as it helps you to understand his needs and instincts and also allows your Dog to have complete trust in you.

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How To Bond With Your Dog

Building a bond with your Dog is the first and the most crucial step involved in training him successfully. As soon as you bring your Dog home, you must first try to develop a caring and loving relationship with him in order to win his trust and confidence.

When Dogs are secure in the knowledge that they belong to the family, they are more likely to respond better to their owners' training commands. Just like with any relationship, there must be mutual trust and respect between you and your Dog.

Trust takes time to develop and respect comes from defining boundaries and treating any breach of those boundaries with firmness and fairness.

Without enforceable limitations, respect can’t be developed. And when there is no respect, building a bond with your Dog is almost impossible.

4 Golden Rules To Building A Relationship With Your Dog :

  • Spend quality time together;
  • Take him out in the world and experience life together;
  • Establish and promote a level of mutual respect; and
  • Develop a way of communicating to understand each other's needs.

Building a bond with your Dog will not only help you manage him better but will also make your Dog calm, quiet and an extremely well-adjusted pet.

Love Your Dog and He Will Love You back

Once you're succesful in building a bond with your Dog, you can rest assured that training him and teaching him new and clever tricks will be a cakewalk.

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How Your Dog Learns...

Your Dog's learning period can be divided into five phases:

The Teaching Phase - This is the phase where you must physically demonstrate to your Dog exactly what you want him to do.

The Practicing Phase - Practice makes Perfect. Once a lesson is learnt, practice with your Dog what you have just taught him.

The Generalizing Phase - Here you must continue practicing with your Dog in different locations and in an environment with a few distractions. You can take your Dog out for a walk, or to a nearby park and command him to practice whatever you've taught him.

Practicing the learned lessons in multiple locations and in the presence of small distractions will help him learn and retain lessons better .

The Testing Phase - Once you're sure that your Dog has achieved almost 90% success....he responds correctly almost every time you give a command, you must start testing his accuracy in newer locations with a lot of distractions.

Example: Take him to the local shopping mall and ask him to obey your command. He may not come up with the correct response the very first time you do this, but you must not lose hope.

The idea is to test your Dog to see how he responds in an environment which is new to him. Set-up a situation where you are in control of the environment and your Dog.

There are only 2 possibilities:

  • Your Dog succeeds!!! (Trumpets please!)
  • In case your Dog fails, re-examine the situation. Review and/or change your training. Then try testing again.

Keep on testing until he succeeds. Follow the rule of the 3 Ps – patience, persistence, praise.

Internalizing Phase - Finally, comes the extremely rewarding phase where your Dog does everything he is taught to do even without your commands.

Remember:

  • Never scold your Dog if he fails. It's not his fault. You have failed as a trainer!
  • You must be patient and persistent for your efforts to show rewards.
  • Appreciate and love your Dog when he does it right! A little encouragement will work wonders for your Dog.

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Copyright (c) 2009 TrainPetDog.com


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Sunday, October 4, 2009

Pet Tax Write-Off / Post 2 about H.R. 3501

Your Pet Could Be a Tax Write-Off



See previous Post about this Bill before Congress


Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (HAPPY) Act (Introduced in House)

HR 3501 IH

111th CONGRESS
1st Session

H. R. 3501

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a deduction for pet care expenses.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 31, 2009

Mr. MCCOTTER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means


A BILL

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a deduction for pet care expenses.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the `Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (HAPPY) Act'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
      (1) According to the 2007-2008 National Pet Owners Survey, 63 percent of United States households own a pet.
      (2) The Human-Animal Bond has been shown to have positive effects upon people's emotional and physical well-being.

SEC. 3. DEDUCTION FOR PET CARE EXPENSES.

    (a) In General- Part VII of subchapter B of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to additional itemized deductions for individuals) is amended by redesignating section 224 as section 225 and by inserting after section 223 the following new section:

`SEC. 224. PET CARE EXPENSES.

    `(a) Allowance of Deduction- In the case of an individual, there shall be allowed as a deduction for the taxable year an amount equal to the qualified pet care expenses of the taxpayer during the taxable year for any qualified pet of the taxpayer.
    `(b) Maximum Deduction- The amount allowable as a deduction under subsection (a) to the taxpayer for any taxable year shall not exceed $3,500.
    `(c) Qualified Pet Care Expenses- For purposes of this section, the term `qualified pet care expenses' means amounts paid in connection with providing care (including veterinary care) for a qualified pet other than any expense in connection with the acquisition of the qualified pet.
    `(d) Qualified Pet- For purposes of this section--
      `(1) QUALIFIED PET- The term `qualified pet' means a legally owned, domesticated, live animal.
      `(2) EXCEPTIONS- Such term does not include any animal--
        `(A) used for research or owned or utilized in conjunction with a trade or business, or
        `(B) with respect to which the taxpayer has claimed a deduction under section 162 or 213 in any of the preceding 3 taxable years.'.
    (b) Clerical Amendment- The table of sections for part VII of subchapter B of chapter 1 of such Code is amended by striking the last item and inserting the following new items:
      `Sec. 224. Pet care expenses.
      `Sec. 225. Cross reference.'.
    (c) Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2009.



Saturday, October 3, 2009

YOUR PET COULD BE A TAX WRITE-OFF


Your Pet Could Be a Tax Write-Off





Imagine if your pet care expenses were tax deductible. I would wager that most pet owners have thought about it before - I do every year. After all, we can deduct our own health care expenses and many of our purchases, so why not our pets?



Soon, tax-deductible pets could become a reality if a proposed bill passes.


Enter H.R. 3501: the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years (HAPPY) Act, introduced by U.S. Representative Thaddeus McCotter. The proposed legislation would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow taxpayers to deduct up to $3,500 per year for the expenses of legally owned pets. Best of all, it includes veterinary expenses.



According to the proposal, there are two major factors to justify the bill. First, the 2007-2008 National Pet Owners Survey states that 63 percent of US households own a pet. In addition, they acknowledge the positive impact that the human - animal bond has upon people's well-being, both emotional and physical.



If passed, the legislation would be effective beginning in the tax year 2010.


To me, this is utterly amazing and, quite frankly, a bit shocking. We all know the high cost of dog ownership and that every little bit helps. This bill could bring a whole new light to saving money on our pets' expenses.



Do you want to show your support for this bill and help it get passed? With the help of the ASPCA, write to your U.S. representative and ask him or her to support and cosponsor the HAPPY Act.


Now we want to hear from you. What are your thoughts on this bill? Is there a downside, or is this simply a dream come true? Tell us what you think.


Due to the importance of getting this information out to as many people as possible this Post was taken from Jenna's Dogs Blog By Jenna Stregowski, RVT, About.com Guide to Dogs. Please contact your U.S. Represenative about H.R. 3501.