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Issues Near and Dear to Our Hearts...

If You're Considering Adding a Puppy to Your Family, Please Read This First!

Important Issues Concering our Four-Legged Friends

Behavior

House/Crate Training

Tips for Housebreaking, Crate Training, Barking, etc.

Housetraining Your Dog

A Guide to Happy Housetraining

The Happiness of Housetraining

Crate Training (Geared toward Cockers, but useful for many breeds)

Crate Training

Crate Training Q&A

More Crate Training Information

More on Crate Training

 
Fearful Behavior

The Fearful Dog

Fear of Thunder (or Loud Noises)

Trainer Achieves Dramatic Results with Fearful Dog (a Belgian Tervuren)

The Story of Babe, a Rescued Wild Collie, from Colorado

 
Chewing and Teething

Chewing, Teething and Biting

More Teething Tips

 
Other Issues

Behavior Issues

DownStay.com

 
Cruelty Prevention

Want to report an act of animal cruelty?  You should first try your local authorities, but many areas have no humane societies or shelters.  In that case, we recommend contacting the HSUS at www.hsus.org, or call (202) 452-110 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST.

Dogs Deserve Better (The name says it all)

 
Financial Assistance for Pet Emergencies

IMOM.org

United Animal Nations

Feline Veterinary Emergency Assistance Program

Help-A-Pet

Dogs and Small Children
 

This well-written, poignant contibution is courtesy of Kathleen Coleman MT-BC.  (music therapist-board certified)

 

Kathleen is a music therapist with 22 years experience working with children with developmental disabilities.

 

Dogs and Young Children

Myths About What Dogs (Pets) Can Teach Children

 
Travel

Traveling with your Pet Website

Traveling with Pets (click on 'Traveling with Pets')

Directory of Pet-Friendly Lodging in the US and Canada.

Want to Take Your Pets with You? Vacation with Pets!

PetsWelcome.com

Traveling with Your Pet (Especially Small Dogs)

Pet Friendly Travel

 
Other Issues

Providing for Your Pet's Future Without You

The Joys of Adopting a Senior

Happy Senior Tails

The link above will take you to a website dedicated to the joys of adopting a senior.  Our friend Pam (the website designer) knows first-hand the joys of adopting a senior.  Her beautiful boy, Waldo, was adopted from her local shelter.  Physically, he was a mess.  Luckily, she and her husband have huge hearts and saw a real gem in Waldo.  Months later, he's healthy and happy and living every dog's dream.  To see Waldo and read the whole story, click the link above.

Giving Up a Senior
 

Thank you to our friends at Animal Angels - www.anmlangls.org  - for providing us with such an eloquent, touching statement. 

Giving Up a Senior Companion Animal

Tray's Poem

One by one, they pass by my cage,
Too old, too worn, too broken, no way.
Way past her time, she can't run and play.
Then they shake their heads slowly and go on their way.
A little old woman, arthritic and sore.
It seems I am not wanted anymore.
I once had a home, I once had a bed,
A place that was warm, and where I was fed.
Now my muzzle is grey, and my eyes slowly fail.
Who wants a dog so old and so frail?
My family decided I didn't belong,
I got in their way, my attitude was wrong.
Whatever excuse they made in their head,
Can't justify how they left me for dead.
Now I sit in this cage, where day after day,
The younger dogs get adopted away.
When I had almost come to the end of my rope,
You saw my face, and I finally had hope.
You saw thru the grey, and the legs bent with age,
And felt I still had life beyond this cage.
You took me home, gave me food and a bed,
And shared your own pillow with my poor tired head.
We snuggle and play, and you talk to me low,
You talk to me dearly, you want me to know.
I may have lived most of my life with another,
But you outshine them with a love so much stronger.
And I promise to return all the love I can give,
To you, my dear person, as long as I live.
I may be with you for a week, or for years,
We will share many smiles, you will no doubt shed tears.
And when the time comes that God deems I must leave,
I know you will cry and your heart, it will grieve.
And when I arrive at the Rainbow Bridge, all brand new,
My thoughts and my heart will still be with you.
And I will brag to all who will hear,
Of the person who made my last days so dear.

Leslie Whalen
February 2001

The Atrocities of Puppymills

The Bin  

 

Do you know where I came from?  Where I was just the other day.
I was in a barn, No...  I was not snuggling happily on hay.
I was in a cage. Along with many, many other dogs.
We lived in filth I say.  
Almost like hogs.
 
My mother, she was by my side, Although... she never, ever... said a word.
just a painful whiny cry. This is all I have ever heard.
 
My brothers and sisters are gone.
You see... 
They never had a chance.
It was to cold and dirty. There was no where for us to prance.
 
My sis, she died.
I tried so very hard to wake her up.
For 5 days she just layed there. Finally I gave up.
They came and they got her body, and then they threw it into a bin.
Then my brother, he died... 
2 days later,  
the humans, they came again.
They did the same to him. And then they threw us a little food.
My mother wouldn't eat it.  
She wasn't in the mood.
 
The human, he hollered sooo loudly. 
 
you see...
 
He was very, very mad. 
He opened up the door...
It was really bad.
 
He brought his foot way back
You know, I tried so hard to duck.
My mother, she took the hit.
of all the rotten luck.
 
He broke her back in to two
And now she will never, ever walk again.
I imagine that in 5 more days
that my mommy.... 
She too, will go in to that bin...
 
"Still want to support PUPPY MILLS?"
 
written by: Bonnie Thomas

If You're Considering Adding a Puppy to Your Family, Please Read This First!

**We DO NOT use Sue Sternberg's Assess-A-Pet or any other extreme temperament tests on our dogs. 
 
If we used her methods to test Boston Terriers, who are usually highly stressed in a shelter environment, most of the Bostons that we have been able to save and place would be dead dogs instead of beloved dogs in new homes. That is where rescue comes into the equation and gets them out of that environment and into a home and then see how they unwind over a few days to see their true temperment while interacting with a family and not in a pandemonium of loud noises, rough handling, strange smells, and fear. So many of my babies would have been killed for being too timid, too food aggressive from starvation, too fear aggressive, too hyperactive, too something and they would not have reached their new homes and be the beloved dogs they are today so we DO NOT USE NOR DO WE RECOMMEND THIS METHOD OF TESTING!