Puppy thoughts

Come here Daisy, originally uploaded by mposko.

Here's our Beagle, Daisy, at 8 weeks old. She is now 14 weeks old. I'll definitely have to post updated pictures as she has grown a lot.

Kimberly and I have learned a lot about puppies. We've read books, watched videos, and TV shows. One of my favorite shows is the Dog Whisperer with Cesar Milan on National Geographic channel, and most of the ideas learned listed below, come from his practices. It's interesting that most of books and videos we watched/read vary between each other. Each author has his or her own techniques, so I have to admit it can be confusing.

But here's a few things we realized:

1. A dog is a dog. When looking at a dog, most owners consider them as a human child and treat them as so. If we treat our dogs like humans, that empowers them to become the "pack leader", which is the source of most dog issues.
2. Be the pack leader. In most pack animal settings, there is a leader. This makes sense having a pack of dogs, wolves, or whatever, there needs to be a leader. The pack leader is strong, calm, and assertive. Someone has to fill this role. If the human doesn't, then the dog will. To be the pack leader, you have to set rules, boundaries, and limitations. If you don't, then the dog will assume the role of the pack leader.
3. Exercise, Discipline, then affection. This is true with all dogs. You have to take your dog out for a walk. It's as simple as that. Dogs travel in packs, with the leader out front and learn a lot of the pack hierarchy from this. So if you don't lead them out for a walk, then your asking for disaster indoors because they have all this energy to expel and now they assume they are the "owner" or pack leader, so they wont mind destroying everything in your house. The pack leader must correct all unwanted activity. Then finally you can give affection when the dog listens to you. Now you are reinforcing the behavior of following the direction given and for being calm while doing so. Sum up: Once the dog gets rid of some of their energy, they will listen better, and showing affection after this reinforces. If you do this out of order then they wont listen as well and your affection will support unwanted behavior.
4. Never, ever, EVER, give up. Giving up is a sign of weakness. You must persist and prevail. The extra effort at that time will save 100 times the effort down the road.

Puppy issues:

1. Never leave a puppy unattended. If they get into trouble, chew on things they shouldn't, and have accidents everywhere, it is the owner's fault! I cannot stress this enough because they puppy is a puppy and hasn't learned anything yet. Dogs do not reason, they learn from repetitive behavior and if you aren't leading that behavior, then the dog will never learn.
2. A puppy is teeth with four legs. Their "hand" is their mouth. As they grow and learn they will want to put everything in their mouth. Understand this: You cannot stop them entirely, nor should you, as they are learning. What you should do is create boundaries and continuously discipline them so they will eventually learn what's appropriate behavior. They will bite you and the clothes you are wearing. You need to redirect this behavior. Redirection is scaled on the behavior done. If the puppy bites hard, then I will hold her muzzle shut and say, "No!" in a stern voice. If the puppy nips lightly, then I will say "No." (Notice no exclamation point). In that situation I will not yank my hand out, but redirect her with an object or a sound if she doesn't follow. It's important to think how the mother would correct their puppies, as that will be their level of understanding. From what I've read, the mother will either hold the muzzle shut or grab the puppy gently (for a dog) on the back of the neck and growl, with her mouth. (Remember that the dogs mouth in this instance simulate our hands.) Do not, shake, hit, or yell at the puppy. This only will make it fearful and that will create a whole set of new problems. Finally, trim those nails! Keep in mind though this will be difficult since, she is experiencing the world through her mouth. :) Treats work well with this.
3. Accidents will happen. Dogs/Puppies live in the now. Correct them in the now. Another positive aspect is that if they have learned a negative behavior they can still be corrected, it will just take longer to do so.
4. They must learn permission. Permission is sitting down before doing something. The best time to learn this is at feeding time because food will have their undivided attention.. They must sit down before receiving a piece of kibble. They learn this by saying, "Name, Sit." While bringing the piece of kibble just above their head so they naturally sit down to reach. Sometimes you'll have to press on the back of the body to assist with this, but in most cases they will follow suit. We do this 5 times, then Daisy has to sit again to receive the bowl. They are learning three things, the audible command "Sit", when they sit and be calm(er) they can do/get what they want, and most importantly you're the boss and they don't get anything until they do what you want! (Pack leader) After that they must learn to sit before going outside, which is the next important step, and permission for a toy when you give one to them.
5. No aggressive activities. This one we learned a little bit later. No tug of war, no grabbing objects from the puppy's mouth. In the dog world, the pack followers drop the items for the pack leader on their own. Grabbing the item from the puppy is teaching that it is OK to fight back. The puppy will also learn that what it has is really important and therefore should keep it. You must get it to drop the object by redirecting it with a sound or another object and say, "Name, Drop!" Then quickly grab the object it once had.
6. A puppy is not a teddy bear. The sooner you learn that you are not going to cuddle up with your puppy all day long, the sooner you will learn to enjoy having a puppy. You cannot pet it anytime you want as well. Remember... a puppy is teeth with four legs.
7. Learn how to walk your dog. This is a week by week process. Your leash should be held so it's long enough to be just a bit loose when the puppy is next to you. At 12 weeks I made the leash into a choke type collar by running the leash through the handle making a "P" shape, then putting it over her head. As you walk you should be relaxed with your chin up. As you learn this, your puppy will learn too. I correct her to follow me with a quick tug on the leash. Keep in mind you should never drag the puppy behind you. At 14 weeks now Daisy is getting a lot better on walks. She can walk next to me a lot better now without running in all directions with the leash tight. This takes weeks/months to learn as a puppy. I've also learned that if the puppy is walking fine and all of a sudden darting for the grass for no apparent reason, she has to go potty. :) I can't stress how important the walk is, because this is where any puppy or dog gains the most respect for their owner.

Posko's are in the hizzy!

Backside, originally uploaded by mposko.

Check out our pictures on flickr of our new house. We signed our lives away Monday April 30th. We're both very excited to have our new sinkhole, I mean house! Right now the kitchen and living area in our apartment is the size of our greatroom in our house, so the extra room is much appreciated.

Make a difference in the world...

... by reducing your toilet paper consumption.

According to Cheryl Crow, another Hollywood professor on politics, we need to lower our consumption on paper goods such as toilet paper and paper napkins. Her solution is to use one square per toilet visit and two to three on "pesky occasions". This, in turn, will help our efforts in preventing wastefulness and help reduce the effects of Global Warming.

I seriously don't know how to comment on this, because the idea is so absurd. All I can say, is that it's minds like Cheryl Crow that are funding and backing the whole Global Warming farce.




Cited from the Independent:
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/lifestyle/article2480996.ece

Hype!

About the time Hurricane Katrina hit, I finally realized how over-hyped the media is. So to help counter-act this, I'm posting a few links to articles about certain issues today.

Global Warming
Check out Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the outgoing Chairman of Environment & Public Works Committee's, official report about global warming. It's interesting that this isn't reported on the news...
http://epw.senate.gov/repwhitepapers/6345050%20Hot%20&%20Cold%20Media.pdf
...and here from the Center for Science and Public Policy
http://ff.org/centers/csspp/pdf/20070201_monckton.pdf

Media Hype
Check out John Stossel's articles on media hype.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/03/the_media_likes_scaring_us_and.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/04/worry_about_the_right_things.html

There's not much in ratings when you talk about the common flu, less then predicted hurricanes, and a non-existent global scare.

Closing on a house!

Well,

We are in the process of closing on our house. It's quite amazing all the "fees" in this process.

• Realtors get 6% of the closing costs, which as a buyer we don't directly pay, but indirectly since it's "included" in the selling price anyways. Normally the seller posts the price 10% above market, then the "standard" final negotiating price is -3% from the posting price. So basically the sellers get what they want AND the Realtors are taken care of as well. One exception is if the house has been on the market for a while, then the sellers have to bite the bullet.
• Then there's the whole inspection process. Luckily we had very minor issues with the house, but still $200-400 spent. Which looking at the final price is small, but seriously when is several hundred dollars small.
• Then there's the closing costs. This is my favorite because here's where everyone takes a bit for themselves. Let's see, you have 1%-2% of the selling price for the loan organization fees.
• Then all the other fee's total $4000-$6000. That comes down some based on property taxes due from the sellers, but still you're paying that later anyways.

So let's look at this. Let's say we bought a house for $200,000.

• 6% realtor = 12,000; 2% loan= 4,000; $4,000 fees
• 12,000 + 4,000 + 6,000 = $20,000 of fees.
• The final total would be $208,000 paid, because the realtor's fee is "included".

Let's look at the alternative:

• Pay house off in full (ha ha, yeah right)

So welcome to the real world, I guess. My concern is that does it really take ~$8,000 to prepare a loan? I understand loaning out hundreds of thousands of dollars is not something to take lightly, but in this age of computers I can't believe it is harder to process then 20 years ago.

By the way, we didn't pay any of these amounts as stated, they were just rough numbers thrown out there.

Edit twice for formatting.

On the web again...

Here we go again.

This will mark my third time that I'm on the internet. Now I'm utilizing a FREE service so when I stop posting for a while, I won't have to quit. I have to admit half the fun on my previous web pages was getting it up and running.

Ah well, we'll try this out and see what becomes of it all!