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Play with your dog but on your rules. Your dog loves to play, so let him have this joy. At the same time, try to introduce new rules and restrictions in the game. Allow your dog to have a lot of fun, but teach him to obey your rules while doing this.

Keep the dog on continuous monitoring. This will help you evaluate the progress and understand where you have to work harder. In this way you can easily correct any mistakes that may occur.

The dog’s name is the most important training tool you have. It is also powerful instrument when asking him to follow your instructions. Use the name after every command you give. It will prove to be very effective.

Dog training is more about asking him to do something, rather than not to do one thing. Use only simple and clear commands, positions and object names. This will help you communicate with him and will help him to better understand you.

Always maintain dog’s agility. There are lots of available techniques you can use and work hard with obstacles. Include exercises with jumps, tunnel crossing, poles, contact approaches and others. Try to give clear commands and carefully plan your instructions.

When playing with obstacles, always offer directions before the dog reaches an object. In this way, he will know where to go and what to do and will be capable to well manage your instructions.

It is wishful for your dog to approach contacts and weave at the correct angle. Sometimes this could take an extra moment to straighten out. Still, this will make the pet run more efficiently and will cut down on lost time on future runs.

No matter what happens, don’t get angry! And never show anger in the training. On the contrary, use reward as much as you can. This will offer greater efficiency in the process and you’ll teach the pet to execute movements and orders in the right manner. Never punish the pet for your bad feelings!

When dealing with agility exercises, try to work to the sometimes rigidly and never give up. Sometimes, even experienced judges might miss calls for bars down or contacts that you think you have missed. Always focus on your work with the dog through the course. This is essential for the final success.

Be nice and enthusiastic when interacting with fellow competitors, judges, students and friends. Avoid discussions of what you may consider to be the fault of someone else. Try to be pleasant and kind.

Apply these golden rules tips and soon you will see your dog in greater shape and happier!

About the author: Anton Mihailescu is a Romanian dog trainer that writes on dog training techniques on his blog - caini de rasa.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

Feral, or wild cats are descended from domesticated pets. When cats are lost or abandoned, they return to a more primitive wild state, know as feral. Although feral cats may live alone, often they join large groups or colonies of other wild cats. Their lives are hard, and their life expectancies are much lower than their domesticated kin. Disease is rampant in these colonies, and competition for proper nutrition is fierce. Unaltered cats have many kittens, increasing the number of ferals in the group.

There are many rescue groups devoted to saving the increasing population of feral cats in the United States. These organizations rely on pet-loving volunteers to help them bring medical care to feral cats. Individuals catch the cats, often spending weeks feeding them outdoors to gain their trust. Once they’ve been captured, they are spayed or neutered, inoculated against disease, and treated for any injury or illness. They are then released in the same area in which they were first found. They are now healthy, and because they’ve been fixed, they will not continue the cycle by bringing more feral cats into the world. Those kind-hearted volunteers who originally saved the cats may be asked to continue to feed and monitor the feral cats they have rescued.

In some cases, feral cats can be rehabilitated and prepared for adoption. Generally, adult feral cats cannot be domesticated. They have lost their ability to bond with other species. Occasionally an adult that was once a pet can be brought back into domestication. Kittens are another story. If they are taken out of the wild early enough, they can make a fairly smooth transition to living in a home.

The best time to remove a feral kitten from its environment is between six and eight weeks. This is a natural time for a kitten to wean from its mother. At this age a kitten can make the transition from the wild to a home very quickly. Older kittens can sometimes be socialized. The older the kitten, the harder it will be to domesticate it. Often older kittens and young cats will bond to one owner and refuse to have anything to do with other humans.

Many cities in America are home to large feral cat populations. Trying to deal with these populations is controversial. Hunting feral cats is illegal in most cities, and has been proposed in others. However this possibility is considered outrageous and cruel to many animal lovers. Feral cats do keep rodents under control, thereby making them valuable. On the other hand, the sharp decline in American songbird populations is due in great part to feral cat communities.

Feral cats are the victims of human irresponsibility. Pets who are abandoned or lost must fend for themselves the best they can. The most important thing a cat owner can do to help end this cycle of misery is have their pet spayed or neutered.

About the author: Cat pert provides expert information on cats and kittens.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

If you have gone to your local pet store, you would have discovered that there really are a lot of different decorative bird house designs made up of a similarly dizzyingly variety of materials ranging from metal to colorful plastics to wood. However, if you would like to build your own birdhouse instead of buying a ready-made one, the best material to choose to construct your birdhouse is wood because it is easy to cut, it has naturally attractive designs, it is weather-proof and most importantly it doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb in the middle of your backyard.

Let’s dwell a little on the properties of wood as a material for your decorative bird house construction.

First, wood has good insulating properties. Choose wood that is at least three quarter inches thick to maximize its insulation benefits so that your nesting birds will be nesting in a comfortable temperature in your birdhouse.

Second, although wood is naturally durable, some woods are better then others at resisting decay. Since your birdhouse will be going through rain and shine everyday, you should pick a wood that is more decay resistant so that it will be longer lasting. Ideal material choices for wooden bird house will be cedar, redwood or bald cypress.

If you have an existing birdhouse that is made up of pine or plywood, you can coat it with a water-based exterior latex paint. Be sure to only coat the exterior of the birdhouse and not the interior or the birdhouse entrance. Usually, coating the exterior with a dull, earth-tone color will be sufficient to keep the boards from rotting.

Why do we recommend painting the birdhouse exterior with a dull, earth-tone color ? Well, a earth-tone color will not absorb heat as much as a darker or more striking color. Different colors absorbs different amounts of heat. Darker colors tend to absorb more heat and as a result, it becomes warmer. Light, earth-tone colors reflect more light and so the surface feels cooler. Another reason why we recommend painting your birdhouse a dull, earth-tone color because it is less likely to attract predators to your birdhouse.

Regardless of the colors that you chose for your birdhouse, you should never use paints that contain lead or use any harmful chemicals like varnish on the wood surfaces of the birdhouse. Wood surfaces, due to their inherent properties, will tend to break down and chip off after being exposed to the natural weather elements. If the birds accidentally ingest one of the wood chips that is covered with toxic paints or have been treated with harmful chemicals, the bird may die of poisoning. If you do need to treat the wood, use non-petroleum based, naturally occuring oils like linseed oil. Petroleum based liquids tend to stick on the bird’s feathers, causing them to be wet and sticky and as a result, it will make it very difficult for the birds to make a quick escape when a predator is near.

Next, to put everything together, you can either glue the wood pieces together or you can nail them together. If you want the birdhouse to last longer, glue the wood pieces first then nail them. However, one thing to note is that, none of your nails should not be sticking out. Nails exposed to the rain will gradually become rusty. When birds accidentally cut themselves on the exposed nail, it will be seriously injured. Moreover, when humans accidentally get cut by the nails, they may also get an infection from the rust.

For the interior of the birdhouse, you should consider placing some rough sawn wood to act as a “ladder” to make it easier for the nesting birds to get in and out of your birdhouse. Most birdhouse are quite small in size and since wood has a smooth texture, sometimes it is hard for the birds to get out of the birdhouse. You can also consider making small notches on the inside of the front face of the birdhouse which can also make the birdhouse more bird-friendly.

About the author: Alvin is a avid bird watcher and likes to help people Build Bird houses or Buy Birdhouses. His website also include tips on maintaining decorative birdhouses.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com