Dog Training Tips for Back to School                                         

By Amy Bender, About.com Contributing Writer

Bad Dog Behavior
Fall brings about lots of changes. The kids go back to school, our schedules become more hectic, and very often we're away from home for longer hours than we are over the summer. These changes can be especially stressful for our dogs, and this stress can lead to behavior problems.

Never fear! There are several things you can do to deal with a dog's back to school blues:

Don't Let Dogs Get Bored
Boredom is one reason dogs begin to exhibit common behavior problems when back to school time rolls around. You and your family may not have as much time to spend with your dog as everyone gets used to a new schedule. This can lead to boredom, which in turn leads to behavior problems such as excessive barking and destructive behavior.
Make a plan before the school year starts to bust your dog's boredom, so you can stop behavior problems before they begin. You can prevent dog boredom by ensuring that dogs get plenty of exercise and have a variety of interesting, mentally stimulating toys to play with.

Establish a Routine
Dogs are creatures of habit. Part of the reason dogs get so stressed when the kids go back to school is that it causes major changes in their routines. You can ease a dog's stress during this time by quickly establishing a new routine. While you're scheduling carpools and after-school activities, you should also schedule regular times for your dog's feeding time, walks, and time with you.

Take Dogs Back to School, Too
Back to school time for the kids may also be a great time to start an obedience program with your dog. You can do it yourself by practicing clicker training at home, or you may want to find a dog trainer or obedience class in your neighborhood. Either way, your dog is sure to benefit from brushing up on obedience. It will offer him mental stimulation, and it also provides some one-on-one bonding time for you and your dog. This can go a long way in getting a dog adjusted to a new routine.

Prevent Separation Anxiety
Separation anxiety is a disorder that causes dogs to feel extreme anxiety when left home alone. You may not notice that your dog suffers from separation anxiety if you and your family have lots of time to spend with him over the summer. Once everyone is back to school and schedules change, however, you may discover your dog becomes anxious and stressed when left alone.
One of the biggest clues that a dog suffers from separation anxiety is destructive behavior. Dogs who suffer from this type of anxiety try to ease their stress by chewing, digging, and barking. If your dog is suffering from separation anxiety, you can help to alleviate his stress through a process referred to as desensitization. This involves slowly getting him used to being left by himself. If you still have some time before the summer comes to an end, you can start working on preventing separation anxiety before everyone goes back to school

Join us at Animal Friends Humane Society's 1st birthday!

Best Friends Pet care will have a vendor booth at this event. Stop by and take a spin on the wheel to win your bestfriend a toy!

Missing Cincinnati Zoo Hawk returned home

Missing Hawk Returned To Cincinnati Zoo                           

Neighbor Reports Bird In Clifton Tree
POSTED: 12:28 pm EDT August 17, 2010
UPDATED: 1:37 pm EDT August 17, 2010

Zookeepers have found a hawk that flew off last week during a public demonstration."Tex," a 9-year-old Harris hawk, escaped Aug. 9 from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, during a "Wings of the World" bird show.

The zoo received hundreds of calls after reporting the bird missing, and a neighbor called Tuesday morning to report Tex perched in a tree on Lafayette Avenue in Clifton.
Gary Denzler, the zoo's head bird trainer, lured the bird from his perch with a whistle and mice, its favorite treat.
Tex spotted the snack, flew from the tree and landed on Denzler's arm.
"We are just happy to have him home," Denzler said. "We are so grateful to the people that called in and reached out to help us during our search. We could not have brought Tex home without the community involvement."
Tex will take a break from the bird show for the rest of the summer, and zookeepers plan to work with the bird and reintroduce him next year when the show resumes in May 2011.



Copyright 2010 by WLWT.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Off to the Rainbow Bridge.....

10 yr old Tribble Rashkin has passed away this week onto the rainbow bridge due to cancer.  Tribble's sister Honey and him have been coming for years to Best Friends. Both dogs are great dogs. Tribble will be truly missed!

Therapy dogs for our soldiers

http://www.akc.org/pdfs/cgc/eval_newsletter/0710.pdf

Cincinnati zoo keeper-the vet that does it all!

http://news.Cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20100809/NEWS01/8080333/

The man that takes care of the animals at the zoo that has a lot of experience from his job over the years he has served.

Surprise!!!!!

Please give a warm welcome to our 6 new boarders at our Bethany Pet Resort.  Vets told momma she was having a false pregnancy and well, the next morning the employees at Best Friends Pet Care got a great surprise!

Losing a pet......

If you have ever lost a pet you know how hard it is to loose your best friend. So I decided to post this story I found on the internet. It makes you laugh and cry at the sametime.

If you're an animal lover, you know a pet can seem like a member of the family. If you have kids, too, the pet is often even more important and beloved.
That's how it was for the family of my friend Ginny. Skittles, the family cat, never lacked for chin scratches, snuggling or attention. Ginny's teenage daughter was especially close to Skittles.
One day not long ago Ginny's husband, Mike, came home and whispered that he needed to speak with her outside, out of the earshot of the kids. While driving home, he had seen Skittles on Lebanon Road near their Deerfield Township home. The cat had been hit by a car and killed.
Ginny and Mike went inside, told the kids that they had to run a quick errand, and headed out for the gruesome task of bringing their pet home.
To be sure, picking your dead cat up from a busy road is a horrible thing to have to do. But when you love an animal there are some unpleasant times, and Ginny and Mike wanted Skittles to be buried in the family yard. Skittles, they were appalled to see, had been run over several times and was almost beyond recognition. They used a shovel to place him in a box upon his favorite blanket, and headed home.
The kids didn't take the news well, especially the daughter. They said their tearful goodbyes and buried Skittles in the back yard, beneath a rosebush.
The rest of the day Ginny was terribly sad, and her daughter was inconsolable. Finally, after hours of listening to her daughter sob, Ginny told her, "Let's go up to the pound and pick out a new kitten. It's the only way we're going to get over losing Skittles."
Now, it's true that one pet cannot replace another or truly help you grieve the loss of another, but Ginny figured it was worth a shot. Besides, she didn't know what else to do.
At the pound they picked out an adorable little poofball with a pink nose and a mischievous disposition. On the drive home they stopped at a store and bought a collar, food bowl and bed for their new family member.
They showed the kitten around his new home, covered him with kisses and gave him a bowl of food. Their hearts still ached, but they did feel a little better.
Before long they decided to take the kitten out to the front porch to play and show him off to the neighbors. It was early evening, with a light breeze and a full, robust moon. Though it was getting close to most kids' bedtimes, the street was still alive with kids riding their bikes and kicking a soccer ball, filling the air with laughter and slang.
It was the kind of late summer evening that makes you think everything is going to be all right, after all. Ginny sat down on the porch steps and took a deep breath. It had been an extremely emotional day, and she felt wiped out. But she was still grateful to see her kids happily playing with their new kitten.



All in all, she reflected, things were going to be just fine. From the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of a shadow moving. She turned her head and there, sauntering lazily up the driveway, was Skittles. Apparently, he had been out most of the day carousing.
These days, whenever we see Ginny my friends and I greet her with a loud meow or a "Here, kitty, kitty." Immature? Yep. Knee-slappingly funny? Hell, yes.
Ginny and her family enjoy the company of Skittles and their new cat. Come spring, when the roses bloom, Ginny will think of the Skittles lookalike buried in her back yard -- the one she scraped up with a shovel and mourned for hours. Who wants to bet she'll need a drink?







Read more: Pet kitty mourned too well, too soon - Business Courier of Cincinnati

Canine Good Citizen Testing

Please give a big welcome to our newest graduate of the Canine Good Citizen Program
                   CHARLIE

Pet food recall from P&G

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2010/08/02/daily2.html

Ms. Dr.Doolittle of OHIO

Donetta Zimmerman of Cincinnati has a unique gift. A petite woman with short, spiky blonde hair and deep brown eyes, she claims she can speak with and read the thoughts of animals, both domestic and wild.

“Everything has a rational thought,” says Zimmerman, who believes she can help pet owners by using her “gift” to tell them how their pets are feeling and what they are thinking.
“When I touch them, I get quick little flashes of their thoughts. It’s like seeing a black and white photo in your head for a few seconds and it’s purely my words but it’s their thoughts,” explains Zimmerman during a visit she recently made to my home. Zimmerman says animals, which are by nature non-verbal, use mental pictures as a means of communication. And they know their masters best, perhaps better than we know ourselves. “They are much more in tune with us than we are with them because we play such a huge role in their lives.”
Zimmerman arrives at my door wearing a dark blue sweatshirt featuring a picture of two cats playing in the snow. She is here for an interview and a reading of my dog, a 13 year old mixed breed named Fozzie, who greets Zimmerman the same way she does all new people-with a wagging tail.
We move into my office so I can take notes during our talk. Zimmerman sits on the floor with Fozzie, first offering her a new toy-a brightly-colored fabric rope. But before she pulls the toy out of her bag, Zimmerman correctly comments, “We aren’t much of a cloth toy lover, are we?”
I’ve read all about Zimmerman before our meeting on her website, Donetta Animal Communicator.com. She first realized her “gift” as a young child. In fact, Zimmerman says she can’t remember a time when she couldn’t communicate with animals. She believes her ability is a heightened sense she developed to compensate for severe hearing loss and dyslexia, which went undiagnosed as a child. “I really believe everyone can communicate with animals but I have a special need. I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t do it. It was easier for a long time to talk to the cat or the dog,” remembers Zimmerman.
She strokes Fozzie’s gray, thinning fur and murmurs “Aren’t you a beautiful dog? Aren’t you a good girl?” repeatedly throughout the reading. Before she begins, she asks for Fozzie’s name and her age but that is the only information I've given her.
Zimmerman tells me that food is a big deal to Fozzie (for the record, we knew that!) and that if Fozzie had her way, there would be food in her bowl all the time. Fozzie is happy, she says, knows she’s been with us for a long time, and considers herself the primary babysitter of our two daughters. She tells Zimmerman that she enjoys the freedom she has to roam the house without confinement, even when no one is home with her. Zimmerman has only seen the front portion of our house-she would have no way to know if I keep a crate in another area. I don’t.
Zimmerman tells me that Fozzie’s long-range vision is fading, and that she’s lost more than half of her hearing (also true). Finally, Zimmerman says Fozzie has “rescue gratitude”, a sense that her life could have turned out much differently had we not saved her. We did adopt Fozzie at the age of three months from the SPCA. We were told that her mother had abandoned her and her siblings shortly after birth.
Zimmerman claims she can read wild animals or strange animals. She does not have to touch an animal to get a picture of their thoughts. Horse trainers and owners are among her most regular clients and she has worked for several zoos across the country, although she won't publicize names, because of possible negative public reaction to her visits.
Her oddest client, says Zimmerman, was a tarantula owned by a small boy in another Cincinnati neighborhood. He had heard Donetta could talk to animals and asked her to do a reading on a whim. The tarantula corrently told her it had lived in three homes of different sizes and that it disliked the dark.
Upon hearing this story, my daughters ask Zimmerman if she would be willing to read their goldfish. She follows the girls into their respective bedrooms and places her hands on their one gallon tanks, each containing one fish. My eldest daughter’s goldfish is a male, says Zimmerman, and enjoys living by himself because he doesn’t have to share food. He remembers a time when there was more than one fish in the tank (which is correct). My youngest daughter has a female goldfish who tells Zimmerman that she remembers being picked on by other goldfish at the pet store.
Zimmerman does not charge a set fee for her services. She is grateful for gas money and donations, which she passes on to animal charities. But Zimmerman will do a reading for free if a person is unable to pay, because she says all pet owners love their animals the same, no matter their wealth. (For the record, I did pay Zimmerman a small fee).
Zimmer believes her services are particularly useful when an owner is trying to decide whether to euthanize their pet. Zimmerman says she can tell when an animal is done with living and is ready to move on, and when it still has the will to fight and recover.
I ask Zimmerman how she reacts to people who think she’s a fake or who object to her readings for religious reasons. “I don’t try to educate people that don’t want to believe or listen. I don’t push my thinking on anybody.”
Whether you believe she’s telling the truth or not, there is no denying that Zimmerman has dedicated herselfto enhancing the relationship between animals and their caretakers. And pet lovers can't argue with that.