Toula - America's Most Talented Pet

Posted by Clare Bristow | 6 Comments

PETCO has named Toula, a three year old rescue Border Collie, as America's Most Talented Pet.

In a competition to find the next PETCO Star, Toula beat off the competition with her ability to get a tissue for her Mum when she sneezed, fetch a soda, flush the toilet and numerous other tricks.

Here's a video of Toula showing what a helpful house dog she is:

Clearly Toula's owner, Christine, has put an enormous amount of time and patience into training Toula to do these tricks.

You can train your dog to do similar tricks too. Every action Toula does is prompted by a specific word or sound, for example, when Christine sneezes she knows she needs to find the tissue box and get a tissue.

You can start with getting your dog to find the TV remote for you.

The first step is to teach your dog the name you are going to use for the TV remote and get him used to retrieving it for you. Do this by using the command 'find remote' when you send him to retrieve the TV remote.

The second step is to teach your dog to find the TV remote after you've hidden it.

To do this get your dog to sit, stay and watch you go and place the remote just out of his sight. Return to him and release with the command 'find remote'; repeat this a number of times so he really understands what the command means.

The third step is to make the game harder by going out of your dog's sight to hide the remote.

Keep making the game more challenging for your dog by hiding the remote in obscure places and giving the release command to find it whilst you're sitting on the sofa or wherever you sit to watch TV; remember to give lots of praise when he brings the remote back to you.

Once your dog is reliably finding the TV remote it's time to impress your friends with your dog's new trick - then start teaching him the name of other objects to find and bring to you.

Have fun!

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Filed Under Dog News, Blog 

Amber Necklace Repels Ticks

Posted by Clare Bristow | Leave a Comment

amberdog-fights-ticksA German company has come up with a novel way of - selling unpolished amber necklaces for dogs.

According to Amberdog, amber causes a static charge to build up in your dog's fur. Whilst the electric charge isn't strong enough for your dog to notice, it's sufficient to knock a tick off his coat.

The amber necklace should be worn continuously and the rubbing of the amber against your dog's fur produces a resinous smell which repels ticks. The longer your dog wears his necklace the more time this resinous odor has to spread through his coat thereby improving his immunity to tick bites.

Amberdog has successfully tested the necklaces over a 12 week period on 'Lady' a dog who lives in a tick infested part of Germany - only one tick bite was recorded, and this was at the start of the test.

As an alternative to using chemical products for tick prevention this has to be a far more attractive option - and the necklaces look rather nice too.


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Filed Under Parasites - Fleas and Ticks, Blog 

Fun Things To Do With Your Dog

Posted by Clare Bristow | Leave a Comment

dogs-playing-frisbeeThere are so many fun [tag]dog games[/tag], tricks other activities you can do with your dog, but do you find you stick to the same old favorites?

Johann The Dog has put together this Fun Things To Do With Your Pup Link Love Project so we can all have a great list of activities.

Zoe and Fritz wanted me to include their favorite game - Find It - where the 'It' is usually a food treat. As we are having a very wet winter here in New Zealand, we've been playing this game quite a lot - they never tire of it, must be the liver treats I use!

Please join in by adding the fun activities you get up to with your dog, the instructions are below.

It's not too late to join in the Fruit and Veggies Link Love Project, just add your dog's favorite fruit or vegetable to the list.

—————Copy and paste this line and below——————

There are all kinds of fun activities for us dogs, right? Well, let's make a list! And get some link love in the process.

Host Tag: Find It - Dog Topics

1. Agility - JohannTheDog
2. Disc Dog - Pop Dog Blog
3. A Day at the Dog Friendly Beach - The Dog Dish
4. Find It - Dog Topics
5. Canoeing with your Dog - Rescue Me
6. Activity
7. Activity
8. Activity
9. Activity
10. Activity
11. Activity
12. Activity
13. Activity
14. Activity
15. Activity
16. Activity
17. Activity
18. Activity
19. Activity
20. Activity

Instructions:

1.) Copy and paste the matrix of “Fun Things To Do With Your Dog” below, courtesy of Johann The Dog!

2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “Activities” in the matrix with the name of a dog activity and URL of your blog, just like I did.

3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “Activities”, practice good paw by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “Activities” below.

4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this can grow fast. And if your not a dog, but your blog about dogs, or own a dog, you are also welcome to participate!

Important: Once I get a ping back from you, I will add your anchor text and the associated link you designate as “Host Tag” here, replacing one of the “Activity” from the matrix above. As more and more doggie bloggers copy and paste this matrix, the more backlinks you will have with your anchor text. If everybody who copies and pastes from your blog does the same, pretty soon this will spread and go viral. So, the sooner you participate, the more links with anchor text you will receive.

There it is folks. This should help you improve your Technorati ranking, SERP and Google PR and get you noticed with more blogs - we all like making friends, right? Please leave a comment here if you have copied from this matrix so that I can add you just in case your ping-back didn’t reach me.

—————Copy and paste this line and above——————


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Filed Under Exercising, Bonding and Games, Blog 

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