Pets

Have you ever seen an ostrich? Do you know that ostriches are the largest birds in the world? Yes, ostriches are birds but they have lost their ability to fly. Ostriches are long necked, long legged, giant birds. I’ll bet you didn’t know that ostriches can run up to 40 miles per hour and live for over 50 years.

For many different reasons ostrich farming is spread all over the world. The first reason and the most prominant, is that ostriches have very healthy meat. Ostrich meat is low fat, low cholesterol and even low calorie. Ostrich meat is a healthier choice than beef or chicken. That is why many people choose ostrich meat for their diets.

The ostrich feathers are very beautiful. That is why they are desired from many of us. The ostrich’s leather is even more desirable. Only the ostrich farming produces this leather. Ostrich’s leather is soft but strong and it very famous with its distinctive quill patterns. The greater parts of ostrich farming profits come from ostrich’s leather sales.

Ostrich farming is very lucrative because ostrich feathers and ostrich oil are much-desired products. In order to produce them, however, many ostriches are needed. That is why often ostrich farming does not focus on production of ostrich feather and oil. Too many livestock is necessary for the ostriches to complete even one order.

Ostrich farming is probably more moneymaking business than farming cattle. Ostriches are very fertile. They can produce more than 40 young animals per year. Bird’s gestation period is about 42 days. Ostriches can be bred for over 30 years. You can calculate how many young ostriches ostrich farming can produce per year.

Ostriches are usually bred in pairs, in trios or in colonies. The male ostrich is able to serve to two or three females. The female ostriches lay the eggs but they often take breaks before they continue lying.

Nowadays it is very popular to talk about environmentally friendly ostrich farming. This type of ostrich farming gains more and more speed lately. Environmentally friendly ostrich farming means that farmers use method of breeding that is environmentally friendly. Ostriches are given no steroids, antibiotics, or hormones. Animals are not forced to eat against their will. They are left to roam freely and to eat natural food.

However, birds in ostrich farming are still slaughtered and sold for profit.

Ostrich farming encounters some problems. The first one is that birds are often fed poorly and improperly. Ostrich farming do not take enough care of the birds. Many farmers experience problems with selling their products, as marketing is a problem for them.

Ostrich farming is a really wonderful alternative to cattle farming. Ostriches are beautiful birds if you enjoy watching them. Ostrich farming is an enchanting and profitable industry.

Most of those who buy dogs, seek for the companionship that these beloved animals offer their owners. If you are one of these people who seek for companionship from a pet, then a Labrador retriever may be a good choice of pet for you. There are two types of Labradors: the English Labrador and the American Labrador.

Characteristics of Labradors

The two types of Labrador Retrievers may be differentiated from one another through their physical traits. Although the Labrador retriever is generally known for being a muscular dog, the English Labrador is actually heavier and looks more bulky while the American Labrador is taller and thinner. These dogs normally come in three solid colors of black, brown or chocolate, and yellow. Moreover, there is a rare silver or gray color of Labradors that are believed to have been from cross breeding. This, however, is still being disputed and its origins are still debated upon by various groups.

Apart from the Labrador being easy on the eyes, it is also an ideal companion because of its innate traits. This dog breed is known for being loveable and very affectionate to both children and adults. Moreover, this a very intelligent breed that is very trainable.

In fact, you will be interested to know that Labradors, also previously known as St. John’s Dog actually aided fishermen of previous eras. The Labrador then was trained to jump overboard to help with the nets. Nowadays, the Labrador is still as trainable as ever although they are used in other fields of service other than fishing. Some of this includes drug detection and aiding the blind and the disabled to name a few.

Labrador’s Specific Needs

The Labrador retriever may grow between 22 to 24 inches in males and 21 to 23 inches in females. The males will weigh roughly 60 to 75 pounds when they reach their mature height, and the females will hit the scales at 55 to 70 pounds. If you are living in a small apartment, you should be concerned about this, especially since there are also male Labradors that can grow to weigh 100 pounds!

Regardless of the size of your Labrador, this breed is an energetic lot which needs a lot of exercise. They will do well in small indoors, but they will far off better in houses which have small yards. You have to take this into consideration because your Labrador may end up being overweight and they may suffer from such health consequences.

There is no doubt that your Labrador will be a loveable and good-natured dog in your household. However, to be able to maximize their good traits it is best to have these dogs trained early on. Moreover, they should receive lots of human attention and affection. These dogs need lots of TLC and they will easily reciprocate. Knowing how to cater to their specific needs will benefit you and your dog. After all, the Labrador will be your companion and you might as well see to it that you’ll be a good companion to your dog, too.

Many of us have bright, intelligent, and obedient dogs—inside the house. When we put our beloved canines on a leash, however, they pull like crazy or are so busy sniffing the ground that they won’t budge when we try to take a few steps. Well, the good news is that dogs can be taught how to properly walk on leashes.

The first step is to make sure you are setting a comfortable pace for your dog. Most dogs can handle and enjoy a brisk pace, but many older dogs will need a more leisurely stroll. Walk at a consistent pace so the dog knows what to expect.

To stop the bad behaviors we must reward the good behaviors. Getting into tug-of-war will not teach your dog leash manners and will give him the upper paw. Instead, start by praising your dog whenever he is walking beside you nicely. If you are clicker training, click when the dog is heeling.

Once the dog knows where she is supposed to walk, introduce her to the word heel, or whatever phrase you choose. Use it when your dog is heeling, and reward your dog when she heels when asked.

Make sure your dog is getting enough exercise and enough fun time outside. If you have a young dog with lots of energy, more than one walk a day is often necessary. A fenced in yard allows your dog to run around and play so he isn’t too full of energy at walk times. After your walk, you can sit outside with your dog and allow him to sniff around and enjoy the outdoors.

Leash training will take many walks to learn, especially if your dog has had bad leash habits for years. The most important things are to not give up and to remain positive. Even older dogs can learn new manners and don’t be frustrated by the process. Your dog knows when you are upset and this will slow down any training progress you are making.

Dog clothes are available in a variety of styles and patterns – all the latest fashions in the canine world. Body suits, beach wear, jackets, loungewear, shirts, t-shirts and sweaters are some of the more popular dog clothes. You can even get footwear and novelty outfits like sports, halloween, tuxedos, and so on. This list is just as endless as the list for human clothes! All this apparel is available in a variety of colors, fabrics, and patterns. Corduroy, faux fur, sequin, and tartan are some of the commonly used fabrics for dog clothes.

You will find a number of dog clothes pattern books available on the market. Crocheting, knitting and sewing dog clothes patterns are popular methods in making the clothes. You can either follow the patterns yourself (if you know what you are doing) or you can pay a pet clothing tailor to do the work for you and ensure the proper fit. Of course, if you do it yourself, you get full control over the types of details you would like on your dog clothes. Choose the option that works best for you.

Vests, scarves, sweaters, mittens and hats are “in demand” patterns for your dog. Knitting is a very popular method used to make dog apparel. Knitted dog clothes patterns very often come in inspiring styles, and hand-knitted doggie shirts, mufflers, suits, t-shirts, tanks and body suits are in special demand. Other dog clothes patterns include embroidered and quilted specimens. Handcrafted, embroidered items are popular but very inexpensive.

The German Shepherd dog breed has its origin in the late 1800s when Max von Stephanitz from Germany began developing a breed that would later become the dog we know today as the German Shepherd.Von Stephanitz desired to produce a dog breed that could be utilized as an all-around working dog.

Developed from various farm and herding dogs of his time, von Stephanitz’s original German Shepherd was derived from a herding dog he acquired in 1899, and he and his friend Artur Meyer formed the Verein fur Deutsche Schaferhunde which was the first club in the German Shepherd dog breed history. This club and von Stephanitz kept tight control over the breed until his death in 1936.

He determined which dogs would be used to breed based on how well they did in various shows and trials that were the precursor to the Schutzhund tests still performed today. His main criteria for judging a dog’s success were both its usefulness coupled with its intelligence. Von Stephanitz also promoted the utility of the breed to the German government for work in both the police and the military as well as other all-purpose uses as a working dog breed.

German Shepherd Breed History

Following the creation of the German Shepherd breed by von Stephanitz in the early 1900s, the breed’s popularity soon soared and became one of Germany’s most popular dogs. Serving in both World War I and II, the German Shepherd was a favorite military dog, primarily in Germany, but American and British soldiers were also impressed by the breed and brought the dog home following both wars.

In fact, one of the most popular German Shepherds dogs was Rin Tin Tin, originally from France, and brought to America by an American GI following the first world war. Rin Tin Tin went on to make 26 movies until his death in 1932 and contributed to the breed’s enormous popularity.

In addition to its use in the police and military arenas, German Shepherds have a history of usefulness in other areas, is known as a successful show dog and has been a popular family pet. German Shepherds were the first dogs used as seeing eye dogs in the late 1920s and Helen Keller, an avid dog lover, owned a couple of German Shepherds.

The first German Shepherd Club in America was formed in 1913 and the breed was recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1908. Instantly recognizable, the German Shepherd continues to be a popular dog breed, and the German Shepherd is continually in the top five most popular registered breeds as determined by the AKC.

House training a Shih Tzu puppy is one of the first, and one of the most important things, that any new Shih Tzu puppy owner must do. It is easy to get frustrated if you do not understand the basics of this important process, so we have put together a few tips to make the process of house training your Shih Tzu puppy a little easier.

It is vital to establish good toilet and hygiene habits in the Shih Tzu puppy when he is young, since the patterns that are established in those first few months can last a lifetime. When you consider that house training issues are the number one reason why dogs are surrendered to animal shelters, it is easy to see why house training is so extremely important.

In most cases, a Shih Tzu puppy will not be completely house trained until he or she is six months of age. That is because Shih Tzu puppies younger than six months often lack the bowel and bladder control that they need in order to be reliably left alone in the home all day.

Shih Tzu puppies younger than six months should be confined to a single, small Shih Tzu puppy proofed room any time the owner is not available to supervise the animal. The entire floor of the room should be covered in newspaper or other similarly absorbent and cheap material. At first the Shih Tzu puppy will go everywhere and anywhere in the room. As the Shih Tzu puppy gets older and begins to display better bladder and bowel control, the amount of paper used is slowly reduced, until the puppy goes only on the established “toilet” papers. This toilet area will form the basis of later house training.

House training the Shih Tzu puppy – what to do: Provide the Shih Tzu puppy with constant, unrestricted access to the toilet area that has been established. Take the Shih Tzu puppy to the toilet area every 45 minutes when you are at home.

When you are away from home, or when you cannot supervise the Shih Tzu puppy, it is important to confine the Shih Tzu puppy to a small area that has been puppy proofed and covered with newspaper.

It is important to be sure that the toilet area does not resemble anything in the home, such as carpet or hardwood floor. Once the Shih Tzu puppy is used to eliminating on a particular surface, such as grass or blacktop, he will want to eliminate on that time of surface.

Always provide lots of praise when the Shih Tzu puppy does its business in the established toilet area. The Shih Tzu puppy needs to learn to associate eliminating in the established area with positive things like treats, toys and praise from you. It is important to keep a set schedule when feeding the Shih Tzu puppy, and to provide ready access to fresh, clean drinking water at all times. Providing a consistent schedule for feeding will help you learn to anticipate your puppy’s toilet needs.

Using a crate can help the Shih Tzu puppy to develop much needed self control. Shih Tzu are naturally very clean animals, and they will try their best not to soil their bed area.

And finally, it is vital to employ patience during the house training process. House training can take as long as several months, but it is much easier to house train right the first time than to retrain a problem Shih Tzu.

House training the Shih Tzu puppy – what to avoid Do not punish or reprimand the Shih Tzu puppy if it makes a mistake. The Shih Tzu puppy will not understand the reason for the punishment, and he may become nervous and agitated. This could set the training back even further.

Do not give the Shih Tzu puppy constant access to food. Keep the Shih Tzu puppy to a set feeding schedule instead of leaving food out all the time.

The Shih Tzu puppy should not be given the run of the house until he has been thoroughly house trained.

House training a new Shih Tzu puppy is not always easy, but it is important to persevere. By exercising patience, and rewarding your Shih Tzu with lavish praise every time he does the right thing, you will have your Shih Tzu puppy house trained in no time at all.

I have a dog, his name is Tuxcitto. Tuxcitto is a Border Collie who is always on the look out for an opportunity to use his herding skills. It doesn’t matter if the intended group of animals need or want herding, if they wander into the herding zone they get herded.

Tuxcitto is a pretty smart dog and is very easy to train for the most part. But if you are trying to train a dog against their natural instincts, it is an uphill battle. Tuxcitto and I have an agreement that if he won’t run around harassing other people and animals, he gets a treat. This system works about 95% of the time. But there is one big exception, so if you show up with several animals that look like they need a little direction, treats quickly lose their power.

This type of event occurs twice a day in our neighborhood. We live about 100 yards from a bay. Which means we have a lot of aquatic birds that frequent our area. Add to that fact that several people feed these birds and it guarantees they will continue to show up. Two particular types of birds that show up every day are ducks and geese. The ducks are year around but the geese just come in the winter.

The ducks in our neighborhood are pretty brazen. If they are crossing the street, they don’t care if a car or other vehicle (we have a lot of golf carts running around too) is coming, they just saunter across the road taking their sweet time. There’s a steady group of about 15 ducks but on any given day there can be more or less. And these fellows may take 5 or more minutes to walk the 15 feet to cross the road since they often go in a single line.

This group of ducks is really looking for some direction, it’s plain to see from Tuxcitto’s perspective. One of the major duck crossings is about 100 yards away from our house. There is a fishing dock and boat launch that the ducks like to frequent. They actually land right in front of the boat launch and swim until they can walk right out of the water as easy as can be.

This has probably being going on ever since the first person showed up to feed the ducks. And many in the neighborhood come down and either leave some food or actually stay and dole it out to the ducks on a regular basis. These ducks can barely fly they are so well feed. They also have quite an “attitude” and if they feel tired will just site down and go to sleep. And if you would like to use the boat launch, or maybe drive down the frontage road, well that’s your tough luck.

In Tuxcitto’s first few weeks here he would often get out of the yard or off his tether and go wander the neighborhood. We have since overcome this little problem and he generally stays in our yard or may go over and visit the neighbor dogs. But on occasion, when the ducks are especially noisy when they arrive, Tuxcitto can’t resist and wants to go herd the ducks.

Now as I mentioned earlier, these ducks are pretty independent. To say they don’t want any crazy dog trying to make them go or do something they don’t want to is putty it mildly. But they have little choice when Tuxcitto arrives. The only problem is Tuxcitto has no idea where to take them. So he just groups them together and then moves them up and down the area.

To many this is better than just feeding the ducks, but others who have not seen this activity before think that Tuxcitto may eat one. There’s a whole lot of barking and honking going on and some of the ducks take flight, which adds to the circus. The ducks are not going to be denied their free meal and Tuxcitto rarely moves them toward the food.

I usually hear the ruckus, or someone calls, or Tuxcitto brings the herd of ducks home. Yep, some days we have a heard of ducks sitting right in our front yard. Tuxcitto seems to be pacified when he brings them home and as long as they stay in the yard he just sits and watches. And some days the ducks buy into this little circus.

So what kind of magic dog training do you perform to overcome inbred behavior? I’m not sure there is any way to stop these natural tendencies in this case. Border Collies were bred to do this type of activity. Tuxcitto is going to herd, that’s just part of his make up.

I have been working on trying to give him the opportunity to exercise this skill in the proper setting. I have a friend close by that has a goat farm. I take him down there often, and that is a real challenge since goats have quite a rude disposition. If Tuxcitto wasn’t as fast and agile, he would have been butted right in the head more than once. But an hour spent with the goats gives Tuxcitto quite a workout.

He’s pretty good for about a week after. That seems to help but I haven’t found any permanent solution and I’m not sure I ever will. It’s well to consider your dog’s breed and natural characteristics when ever training your dog. Try to work within the known limitations and not go against natural instincts. Dog training is both an art and a science sometimes.

Many dogs can adapt to new training, when Tuxcitto is within ten feet of me he won’t disobey a direct order. But if I’m not there to say no, he’s going herding come what may. So around duck feeding time I try to remember to bring him in or distract him. But in all fairness, I do have to agree those darn ducks do need some training.

The Old English Sheepdog comes to us from the west of England. It belongs to a working breed of dogs. This breed was bred because there was a need for a strong dog that was capable of fending off the wolves and protecting the herds. By the middle of the nineteenth century these Sheepdogs were used to herd the flocks to the market. Apparently working breed of dogs did not get taxed, but they had to have their tails docked to prove it. This practice continues in modern times with this breed of dog particularily.

The Old English Sheepdog was already recognized by the AKC in 1905.

AKC Ranking: 69

Family: Livestock, Herding

Origin: England

Date of origin: 1800’s

Function: Sheep Herding

Today: Herding Trials

These dogs could be brown, but today are only recognized in grey and white. This dog has a very compact body. This dog became popular as a pet with the media in the mid 1900’s. It is used mostly as a pet or show dog today, and rarely as a working dog.

This is a gently fun loving dog. It is a marvelous family pet and often entertains its family with loveable and funny antics. It is protective of its family members, looking after the children as it would the sheep herd. It is friendly towards strangers, but can be a little headstrong, because of its intelligence. Dog obedience training is very important with this breed.

This dog needs daily play and exercise, preferably a nice long walk. This breed thrives on company so it does not make a good outside pet. It needs brushing regularly otherwise it tends to mat. It has a lifespan of 10 – 12 years.

It has a bear like shuffle and tends to amble along. It has a very pleasing fun loving intelligent expression.

The Old English Sheepdog is great addition to any family.