Spring Training For Your Dog

Spring Training For Your Dog

Spring Training For Your Dog

For our four-legged friends, winter means sleeping by the fire, short walks, and a slower pace to the day-to-day happenings of life. Often it means gaining a few extra pounds and losing a little muscle tone. It can also mean less time using their basic obedience commands around the off-lead park or during on-leash street walks.

Then spring hits and it is all about getting outside and having fun for both the furry members of the household as well as the two-legged, non-furry variety. How many of us do humans overdo our first long walk on the first warm, sunny day of spring? How many of us look and feel as fit and toned in shorts as we did six months prior, before bundling up in sweaters and long johns? Those short days and times sitting by the fire reading a good book took their toll on our health and fitness level, and the first few weeks of spring usually come with a series of aches, pains, and injuries.

It is no different for our dogs except often, the injuries are far more serious. Easing your dog into spring can alleviate those sore, stiff muscles and help guarantee your dog does not suffer any unnecessary accidents!

Obedience Training ‘Refresher’

Why do dogs need an obedience ‘refresher’ after the long, sedentary winter? Even an older dog who has many years of training under their collar can lose their ‘edge’ when it comes to obedience if they have not used it for a while. ‘Sits’ are slow, ‘stay’ means only for a moment or two, and ‘come’ is easily ignored, at least until the human resorts to bribery. And this is all while you are still in the house!

Now add the fun and excitement of a green grass on a sunny …

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SIX THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE BUYING PET FINCHES

Six Things to Consider Before Buying Pet Finches

SIX THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE BUYING PET FINCHES

1. Finch Ownership

Are you ready to own pet finches? Finches are known for ease of care and can be nifty pets for almost anyone, including apartment dwellers, those with kids, and even those with other pets. That being said, you should make sure that other family members are really ready to have finches in the house, can they be considerate and careful around finches, can you keep your current pets under control around the finches, do you have a proper place for their cage, etc.

2. Finch Varieties

Which finch variety should you get? These active small birds are colorful, have varied patterns and personalities. They come in many popular varieties including the Zebra Finch, Gouldian Finch and the Society Finch. Ask your local bird seller for their opinion and recommendations.

3. Keeping Finches

The fact that finches are very friendly birds allows you to maintain them with other of these diminutive birds or even with other hard billed birds if you have a cage with enough space.

Because aggressive behavior can be exhibited by bigger bird species toward smaller bird species, it is not a good idea to keep finches with hook billed birds like parakeets and lovebirds as these birds have a more belligerent nature. In order to avoid feather picking do not keep too many of these tiny birds in your cage.

Finches are normally social birds but when grouped with other types of birds there may be some aggressive behavior among them. While some species of birds, like Parrots, may sulk when they cannot interact with their owners, these tiny birds are different because they are so gregarious and will be quite happy to play among themselves when left alone.

4. Taming Finches

Because these diminutive birds are so gregarious among themselves, they probably won’t …

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