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Animal Info

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Horses

A horse is somehow more than just a pet.  It's a lifestyle!  Buying a horse is a lot of money.  For board, horseshoes, stall cleaning, vet bills, blanketing, food, and wood shavings for the bedding, that's between $350 and $1,000 a month!!!  Of course, the cost is cheaper when the horse lives on your property.  

You don't have to OWN a horse to ride one.  If you're interested, try renting or leasing  a horse from a good stable or trainer. This might cost about $100 per month.You could also work around the barn or ranch where your horse is kept to help pay for your own horseback riding.  BAD NEWS: Horse trainers have found that, even with hours of training, my little pony cannot be taught to trot. 

Also, horses can learn to do tricks!  I know a horse that(when bribed with a carrot)bow.  It's so cool how Scout(the horse)liftsd up his front leg and lowers his head and touches them together!  If you have a carrot, he knows how.  Of course, after the carrrot is gone, he continues bowing, hoping to get another treat.  I'll have to work on that one...

Dogs

There are very good training tips and tricks to teach your dog, and they can be found at www.loveyourdog.com.  Then you can go to tricks.  Very professional, yet laid-back and personal.  Love the site, because it has trained my dog how to play dead, so respect it
Techniques

You have to be calm and persistent.  Don't start training your dog when you're mad.  The dog can sense that, and might get scared, and not listen.  That will cause you to get more angry, and it won't help either of you.  Also, I know this might sound like a lot of work rearranging your schedule, but you should try to train at least five minutes a day.  Not too much more, because dogs have the attention span of five-year-olds being taught long division.  Yeah.  That bad. 
Practice makes Perfect

After your five minute daily training session, it's not that hard to continue practicing.  While you're doing the laundry or sitting on the couch watching football, just tell your dog a command.  Example: You're reading on your bed and your dog walks into the room.  You tell him sit and he obeys.
Now wasn't that easy?  Yeah.  It was.
Teaching your dog COME

Begin by waiting until your dog is already
approaching you, then when two to three feet away, say
"Your dog's name here, COME".

When your dog gets to you, praise them. You
should repeat this exercise as often as you can for
several months.

As your dog begins to associate "COME"
with a good thing, you can gradually increase the distance.

If your dog does not come when called, then it has not
yet made the  association of the word to the action.

Give them time, they will eventually understand.

The key to success with this command is for 
your dog to always associate the
command "COME" with a good thing!

Animal Experiences

Due to a suggestion on the blog, I have decided to make a personal experience section with animals.  There is now a question on the blog, and you can put your animal stories there.  It just might end up on here!


To  egg, or not to egg?

That is the question.  I go horse riding with some friends from church, who own and board their horses in their own backyard.  There are trails there, and, for me, is one of the best places to be. :)  So,  they also own chickens on this farm-like ranch.  And, there are old chickens that stay with the rooster because they don't lay eggs anymore.  But, when one of them did lay an egg, Mrs. Wood(my riding buddy), was just going to take it like normal, but I told her that she should keep it in there and wait to see what happens.  She did, and I came back three weeks later(We usually go there once  a week or so, but we didn't have time).  I didn't say anything because I had forgotten.  I told myself it  didn't work anyway.  I went into the chicken coop to collect eggs, and I couldn't help taking a look in the old chicken/rooster pen.  Inside, there was one little fuzzy, adorable, yellow chick that was cheeping and nestling under the wing of one of the chickens!  I wonder what to name the chick.  I was thinking about Popeye...
-Random Road Stop Creator

Runaway Chicken!

My dad was an animal lover - all kinds. He had a soft heart and when he saw an animal in need, he did what he could to help. On an late afternoon drive to his daughter's house in rural Arkansas, he saw a chicken on the side of the road. Concerned, he was going to pull over -but my mom advised against it. Dad reluctantly gave in, but said that if the chicken was still there on their way home, it was a sign that he should do something.

A couple of hours later, my dad was searching for the chicken -- sure enough, he spotted it! Delighted, he pulled over (my mom was laughing her head off as she waited in the car). Dad, a husky man with a heavy, European accent, scooped up the chicken in his big hands and tucked it under his arm. Dad scanned the area and saw a small home in the distance. He approached the house carefully as it was now approaching dusk. My dad rang the doorbell and explained (in his heavy accent) to the person on the other side of the screen door that he'd found their chicken and was returning it safely. Surprisingly, my dad was thanked for his efforts, and they accepted the chicken! When my dad returned to the car and updated my mom with how things played out, she laughed until she cried. She was convinced that the chicken had simply fallen off of a truck (NW Arkansas has tons of Tyson chicken farms) and that the homeowner was either confused, frightened - or both - and just took the chicken to appease my dad.
-Sue

Drop the Doll, Get the Treats!


My friend had a animal experience one time. She was at a football game (at her school) and she saw a dog limping behind the bleachers. It was going to cross the street, so she told her mom she'd be right back, and she got close.  It barked and barked and she was brave, and got closer.  By that time,  the dog seemed like it had rabies. Her sister said stop! Then the dog ran across the street. My friend noticed that the dog had a little stuffed doll in it's mouth. So she pulled some treats out of her pocket and she said, "Girl come here. It's ok and the dog came not scaredd or anything! It dropped it's doll and ate the treat. While the dog was chewing, she found a tag on it's collar. Her mom called the number and the dog was saved. I call it a happy ever after! (By the way, the dog didn't have rabies)
-Hannah

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