Blog

The 4^th of July and the days immediately following are historically the busiest days of the year for U.S. shelters, but a bit of preparation before our nation’s birthday is key to preventing lost pets. Paying heed to these six preventive tips can help you keep your dogs and cats safe and sound this holiday:

The 4^th of July and the days immediately following are historically the busiest days of the year for U.S. shelters, but a bit of preparation before our nation’s birthday is key to preventing lost pets. Paying heed to these six preventive tips can help you keep your dogs and cats safe and sound this holiday:

The 4^th of July and the days immediately following are historically the busiest days of the year for U.S. shelters, but a bit of preparation before our nation’s birthday is key to preventing lost pets. Paying heed to these six preventive tips can help you keep your dogs and cats safe and sound this holiday:

According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP... it actually exists!) 43 percent of all dogs are overweight and 10 percent of all dogs are obese! That makes more than half of our dogs overweight or obese!. An overweight pet is more prone to heart problems, poor skin condition, lameness, and more serious illnesses, like diabetes. A study actually details how pets who free feed live an average of two years less than pets with limited calories.

Alec’s Training Tip of the Month

Our dogs’ neuroses and naughty behavior are caused by our inability to be patient with them.  Rushing to leash them when they are going bananas to get out on that walk, quickly putting the food bowl down when their barking might wake the entire house, or just plain rushing in and out of the house to go to the next fun activity are some of the behaviors we help encourage by not being patient.

When the Lend A Paw team began to visit the Los Angeles Mission with a group of therapy dogs, they had their work cut out from them. From talking to the children, Barbara Sulier, a LAP volunteer, has learned that most of them are fairly recently homeless and on the streets. They talk about what they have left behind and often of the pets they had to give up. But there are also children who have spent all their life on the street or are were too young to remember anything different.

Over the past several months, NLOL has begun to incorporate clicker training into our regular training and kennel routine. For those of you who may not be familiar with clicker training, it is a dog training system which is based on a positive reinforcement system with sound association and treats.

For those who have mastered other languages or even just taken a beginning course in a foreign language, you know what’s it like to be able to understand what it’s like to have a whole new world open up to you. Suddenly, you know exactly what food you’re ordering at a French restaurant, or perhaps you no longer need subtitles to enjoy your favorite foreign film.