Welcome to part 2 of my big Cali coastal adventure! We headed down the coast a couple of miles to our main destination which was Carmel-By-The –Sea. It’s a very nice seaside town with a beautiful dog beach and it is quite possibly one of the most dog friendly places ever. You may have heard of it because director/actor Clint Eastwood was once the mayor of it. It’s also right next door to the world famous Pebble Beach golf course. Like I said, the beach is beautiful with fine sand and lots of space to roam and best of all, it’s a dog beach! It was almost too good to be true. Apparently the riptides make it too dangerous for humans to swim here but it’s nice for us dogs who don’t go out too far. When we got there I took in all the sites.

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Hi everyone…I’m back! After spending time mourning the loss of Ben & Jerry we decided we needed a change of scenery. We packed up and got ready to head up the California coast to the Monterey peninsula. I love adventure so I was really excited and ready to go….let’s get this show on the road!

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The contest that Saving Shelter Pets is taking part of ends soon. They need your help to get the most donations! SixDegrees (Kevin Bacon’s online charitable initiative) and Hanes, sponsor the contest, and the six charities who collect the highest NUMBER of donations will win a matching funds grant for up to $10,000. With just 9 days left in the contest (it ends 9/16), they are currently in 2nd, with a little over 300 donations) - but all the other charities in the contest are working VERY hard to collect donations for their causes. The competition is heating up!

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Milk and cheese are probably the only important sources of calcium and phosphorus among the foods that are not fed as much as they should to dogs, especially as sources of these minerals. Magnesium is found in nuts and beans, potassium in almost any natural ingredient. Most trace minerals in a natural diet are derived from the natural ingredients.

Liver: Newborn puppies, dying from the ‘’failing puppy syndrome”, have a tablespoonful of chopped liver added to their mother’s diet. Overnight, the pups snap out of it and start gaining again. Orphan puppies, stunted because their formula is inadequate, have a little liver puree added to that formula and those same puppies suddenly begin to grow and gain weight.

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Puppies and dogs learn new things or change their behavior only if the undesirable behavior is punished or the desirable behavior rewarded. We can reward a dog for performing certain tasks on command, such as sitting, lying down, or coming, with simple petting, affection, and praise. You can also use rewards for coming when called, for sitting when strangers arrive at the door rather than jumping up on them, or for going to rest on his bed when people are visiting.

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After the pup has a good idea of what you want him to do, begin to ease off using tidbits every time. Do not let yourself use tidbits as a bribe. It is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if you give a puppy a treat he will be good. But from the dog’s viewpoint, it looks like you are treating him as top dog and whatever he wants to do is okay with you. So only use tidbits when you are teaching a specific thing and only long enough to be sure he has learned it and associates the act with the word for it. Then ease off to the point of stopping the use.

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Compared to other types of breeds, Dalmatians possess a very unique metabolism. They handles purines, the parent substance for the uric acid compounds found in certain meat and vegetable proteins, more like humans and apes than like other dogs. Dalmatians will not thrive on diets high in purines, and some will develop serious, life-threatening health problems or die prematurely as a result of such diets. Dalmatians are not capable of breaking down purines beyond the level of uric acid, whereas other breeds go a step further, converting uric acid to allantoin before excretion.

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Vegetables: While a few vegetables may serve as natural vitamin sources, most vegetables have little value to a dog. Dogs can only digest about 30 to 50 percent of most of the vegetables eaten by man. Many of these vegetables are practically all water. What roughage they may contain can just as easily be obtained from cereal grains. Vegetables contain too little fat to be of any value as energy sources. Any plant protein they contain is likely to be of low biological value to a dog.

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It is important for your puppy to feel he is a valuable individual. Try to have your training sessions in a relatively quiet place. Because he is so playful, he can be easily distracted by other people and activities. If he is constantly being bombarded by other sights and sounds, it will be difficult for him to get the message from you that you enjoy being with him.

Use words:The only way he will learn to associate the command with the action is if you use the word every time you guide him into doing what you want. A puppy can learn a very large vocabulary with such words as “Outdoors,” “Bedtime,” “Go for a walk,” as well as the basic commands.

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I’m back! Some of my friends were wondering what happened to me because my blog went missing for a little bit. The company who hosts all our company sites moved to a bigger building and all the servers were down for a few days. That meant no e-mail or blogs for a few days. Everything seems back to normal now.

A lot has happened since I’ve been gone. First, both Chloe and Sunny found their furever homes! I sure am happy for them!

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