Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Bobby. Whining and being noisy upset neigbhours.

Whining and noisy past midnight for 3 nights

If the first-time owner knew how to handle a whining puppy, life would be so much different and better for him to stay in Singapore, but...see story below...


Extracts from a letter to Dr Sing


Bobby was born on August 9th, 2005, the (Singapore) National Day in the side house facing the fishing pond. He was the only survivor out of 7 puppies. The rest of the puppies just disappear within weeks after they were born.

We first saw Bobby on August 21, 2005. That was our first trip to the fishing pond. We adopted Bobby when he was only 6 weeks old as this was the only way to save him. But at my apartment, he often cried and made a lot of noise for 3 nights until our neighbour complained. We had no choice but to return Bobby back to the fishing pond.

By June 2007, the military wanted the land and the fishing pond back by not renewing the tenancy. The old couple's daughter-in-law went to check with the SPCA about rehoming the dogs. SPCA told her that the dogs especially mongrels would not be put up for adoption. SPCA has limited kennel spaces and there are too many of these dogs in Singapore. The solution is that SPCA will come and pick up 6 dogs at at time for a few times. The dogs will be put to sleep.

It was by chance that I only know about NANAS (Noah's Ark Natural Animal Sanctuary) on February 24, 2007 at the SPCA. A Schnauzer Cross entered my apartment. My door was open. It was the first day Chinese New Year and my relatives were around. I asked neighbours upstairs, downstairs and nearby blocks but had no luck finding its owner.

It was on February 24, 2007, that I surrendered the dog to the SPCA. The dog was not friendly to the SPCA staff. It peed and pooped on me as I was carrying it. SPCA said that this dog would be put to sleep within 24 hours or earlier if it bit any of the SPCA staff.

Some members of the public viewing the dogs for adoption at the SPCA came to check why this Schnauzer Cross was howling away and struggling when the SPCA staff tried to scan it to detect a microchip. A couple heard my talk with the SPCA and mentioned NANAS. That was how I managed to find Lynda Goh for help.


(The write spent past 2 years with Bobby at the fishing pond. The family went there to fish. Bobby would rush to welcome them.

After Bobby's tail was hacked and then amputated, the writer took him home. But the Schnauzer Cross barked all the time when Bobby there. Another dog did not bother about Bobby. So, Bobby had to join his pack at NANAS).




HOW TO HANDLE WHINING PUPPIES FOR FIRST 3 NIGHTS?

As there is no way to turn back the clock, I write the following for those who adopt puppies and face noisy ones for the first few nights. The following tips may be useful:

1. Ignoring the puppy is one way. But that has to be done by all family members.
2. Crate the puppy and put in your bedroom. Cover the crate with a blanket.
3. If not possible, switch on the light, radio or put a clock next to the puppy at night. This may or may not work.
4. Sleep beside the puppy at night for the first few nights.

Home Toilet Training

Book: home screen printing Paul Thimou 128 pages
COVER
Home Toilet Training

do-it-yourself techniques for playpen, grates and others

Sing Kong Yuen

BE KIND TO PETS



CONTENTS
Introduction.....8
How to Set Up a Small ...Studio....11
Puppy Equipment
Basic Supplies
Choosing and Using Newspapers

SECTION 1
BASIC TOILET TRAINING METHODS
Project 1
The Playpen
Materials
Basic Toilet Training Guidelines

Project 2
The Crate




SECTION 2
SPECIAL TOPICS
Project 6
Playpen
Materials
Preparing a playpen for toilet training
Choosing a Plan pen design
The playpen in use

WEHRE TO FIND IDEAS AND INSPIRATION
TROUBLESHOOTING: Common toilet training problems and their solutions
GALLERY
GLOSSARY
RESOURCES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Friday, July 13, 2007

Manga: 60 yrs of Japanese Comics - BOW WOW WATA

By Paul Gravett

"Bow Wow Wata", Kazumi Umekawa, a certified vet, tackles realistic pet problems and medical issus as well as young romance bet pretty dog-loving Misato and Tasuke, a vet's son who has inerited his fox-spirt father's gift for conversing with animals.

Front Cover:

BOW WOW WATA gAUGAU wATA
Episode 1: Wata's Arrival


Boy Girl being pulled by Siberian Husky

JUST ANOTHER DAY AT YASHIRO ANIMAL CLINIC!
Art and story by:
Umekawa Kazumi

Turn pages from right to left

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Fundraising for NANAS

How to be successful in fundraising for dogs

"Where's the funfair?" I asked the school's security guard as I did not see any notice or banner outside the entrance gate of the Paya Lebar Methodist Secondary School nor the adjoing Primary School. An animal activist invited me to attend the fundraising for NANAS (Noah Arks' Natural Animal Sanctuary). I thought it would be a typical school's funfair with lots of stalls and food. Probably a boring hot but sunny Jun 14, 2007 afternoon.

"You mean the dogs?" the big woman security guard sat on her chair and pointed to the school canteen. At the corner of the canteen, I saw tables with white plastic top and merchandise laid out manned by student volunteers. It was nearly 2.30 pm when a very large crowd of young ladies swarmed round the tables.

During my 1.5 hours' observation, this fundraising was successful in that there were crowds. I will comment on the operational factors for the benefit of any group who does fundraising to help the animals.

1. CREATING AWARENESS
As this is a in-house affair, no external gate notice was put up.



2. WHITE BOARD LAYOUT

The advertisement was a white board to the left side of the sales area. The sales area consisted of a table for the laptop and photo printer and the other tables formed in a L-shaped layout for sales of merchandise.

2.1 "Fund Raising" should be written as "Fundraising". English can be a difficult language to master as I also used two words instead of one in my picture caption.

2.2 The layout of the advertisement is important to provide information efficiently and effectively. Before I took the picture of the white board for this article, the animal painting was covered by a black T-shirt and an A4 paper listing the price of the merchandise.

2.3 I took away the A4 paper and removed part of the tape sticking the T-shirt so that I could take an unobstructed view of the animal painting. This animal painting would be best positioned on the top left corner of the white board. The NANAS pictures and text would be placed on the left 1/3 of the white board so that the reader needed not look for the extreme right hand side of the white board to read the rest of the story.



The A4 paper listing prices of products (I stuck it at the bottom of the white board to take this picture), the "Photo With Dog" price list (near the Canon printer), the T-shirt and other matters would be positioned to the middle and right 1/3 of the white board.

The bottom part of the white board would still have the date and time in large letters as shown. "Help the animals" wordings might be more easily read if the words were in black ink.

3. TAKING PHOTO WITH A DOG. This service was not well publicised as the A4 paper listing the fees were in light blue words. The paper was taped onto the back of the laptop which is used for picture processing. You might be able to see this advertisement in the picture.




It would be better for the service table to be located in between the two tables selling merchandise so that there was greater awareness of this unique service which other fundraising events would not have.

4. The ELECTRICAL WIRE might need to be covered by tape. There was an electricity supply interruption during the printing one photo. The photo had to be discarded.

5. ADULT DOGS USED. Puppies should never be used for fundraising because they usually cannot take the stress of crowds and handling. Certain breeds like Chihuahua puppies are are likely to pass blood in watery stools and die, if they are exposed to crowds, in my experience of some cases.

The adult dogs enjoyed the low work load. They seem to enjoy the attention of posing in the shady garden nearby. One Miniature Dachshund had her beauty nap on a chair while sales business was being conducted. Was she not having sufficient work?

6. INSTANT PHOTOS. The use of an almost instant printing of photo service using the Canon printer belong to animal activist Lynda was a brilliant idea. This saved time and expenses in having to post pictures to prospects.



7. AN EXPERIENCED DOG PHOTOGRAPHER volunteer. Mr Nicholas Lee, a dog photographer was not full time but he took perfect pictures of students and dogs. Without him, the technology would be useless.

8. A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS. A variety of merchandise to attract buyers as you can see from the pictures. I bought a writing pad, a T-shirt and a dog picture. I wanted to buy a story book about the work of NANAS rather than a writing pad with pages to be torn out.

What better way to create market awareness than telling newbies what NANAS is all about and its history since its founding in 1995? 12 years had passed by and many achievements would be of great interest to animal lovers.

Overall, I sensed that there was great fun from the noisy secondary school students. Both the dogs and the students including 3 adult teacher assistants enjoyed the fundraising.

I wanted to buy an XL Nanas T-shirt for myself.



"Sorry, the T-shirts are cut and trimmed in size for girls only," Lynda laughed at me. "This is a girls' school you know?" Lynda presumed I needed to fix my eye sight. Or she deemed me an alien from another planet?

I guessed there were no big-sized girls requiring XL and no provision for men's T-shirt in this fundraising but it is always good to BE PREPARED (Scout's motto) when we want to maximise earnings for the fundraising for animals in need of help.

Anyway the student volunteers were persistent. I bought the black L-sized NANAS lady's T-shirt. I now need to tranform to become feminine.

Fundraising for NANAS

How to be successful in fundraising for dogs

"Where's the funfair?" I asked the school's security guard as I did not see any notice or banner outside the entrance gate of the Paya Lebar Methodist Secondary School nor the adjoing Primary School. An animal activist invited me to attend the fundraising for NANAS (Noah Arks' Natural Animal Sanctuary). I thought it would be a typical school's funfair with lots of stalls and food. Probably a boring hot but sunny Jun 14, 2007 afternoon.

"You mean the dogs?" the big woman security guard sat on her chair and pointed to the school canteen. At the corner of the canteen, I saw tables with white plastic top and merchandise laid out manned by student volunteers. It was nearly 2.30 pm when a very large crowd of young ladies swarmed round the tables.

During my 1.5 hours' observation, this fundraising was successful in that there were crowds. I will comment on the operational factors for the benefit of any group who does fundraising to help the animals.

1. CREATING AWARENESS
As this is a in-house affair, no external gate notice was put up.



2. WHITE BOARD LAYOUT

The advertisement was a white board to the left side of the sales area. The sales area consisted of a table for the laptop and photo printer and the other tables formed in a L-shaped layout for sales of merchandise.

2.1 "Fund Raising" should be written as "Fundraising". English can be a difficult language to master as I also used two words instead of one in my picture caption.

2.2 The layout of the advertisement is important to provide information efficiently and effectively. Before I took the picture of the white board for this article, the animal painting was covered by a black T-shirt and an A4 paper listing the price of the merchandise.

2.3 I took away the A4 paper and removed part of the tape sticking the T-shirt so that I could take an unobstructed view of the animal painting. This animal painting would be best positioned on the top left corner of the white board. The NANAS pictures and text would be placed on the left 1/3 of the white board so that the reader needed not look for the extreme right hand side of the white board to read the rest of the story.



The A4 paper listing prices of products (I stuck it at the bottom of the white board to take this picture), the "Photo With Dog" price list (near the Canon printer), the T-shirt and other matters would be positioned to the middle and right 1/3 of the white board.

The bottom part of the white board would still have the date and time in large letters as shown. "Help the animals" wordings might be more easily read if the words were in black ink.

3. TAKING PHOTO WITH A DOG. This service was not well publicised as the A4 paper listing the fees were in light blue words. The paper was taped onto the back of the laptop which is used for picture processing. You might be able to see this advertisement in the picture.




It would be better for the service table to be located in between the two tables selling merchandise so that there was greater awareness of this unique service which other fundraising events would not have.

4. The ELECTRICAL WIRE might need to be covered by tape. There was an electricity supply interruption during the printing one photo. The photo had to be discarded.

5. ADULT DOGS USED. Puppies should never be used for fundraising because they usually cannot take the stress of crowds and handling. Certain breeds like Chihuahua puppies are are likely to pass blood in watery stools and die, if they are exposed to crowds, in my experience of some cases.

The adult dogs enjoyed the low work load. They seem to enjoy the attention of posing in the shady garden nearby. One Miniature Dachshund had her beauty nap on a chair while sales business was being conducted. Was she not having sufficient work?

6. INSTANT PHOTOS. The use of an almost instant printing of photo service using the Canon printer belong to animal activist Lynda was a brilliant idea. This saved time and expenses in having to post pictures to prospects.



7. AN EXPERIENCED DOG PHOTOGRAPHER volunteer. Mr Nicholas Lee, a dog photographer was not full time but he took perfect pictures of students and dogs. Without him, the technology would be useless.

8. A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS. A variety of merchandise to attract buyers as you can see from the pictures. I bought a writing pad, a T-shirt and a dog picture. I wanted to buy a story book about the work of NANAS rather than a writing pad with pages to be torn out.

What better way to create market awareness than telling newbies what NANAS is all about and its history since its founding in 1995? 12 years had passed by and many achievements would be of great interest to animal lovers.

Overall, I sensed that there was great fun from the noisy secondary school students. Both the dogs and the students including 3 adult teacher assistants enjoyed the fundraising.

I wanted to buy an XL Nanas T-shirt for myself.



"Sorry, the T-shirts are cut and trimmed in size for girls only," Lynda laughed at me. "This is a girls' school you know?" Lynda presumed I needed to fix my eye sight. Or she deemed me an alien from another planet?

I guessed there were no big-sized girls requiring XL and no provision for men's T-shirt in this fundraising but it is always good to BE PREPARED (Scout's motto) when we want to maximise earnings for the fundraising for animals in need of help.

Anyway the student volunteers were persistent. I bought the black L-sized NANAS lady's T-shirt. I now need to tranform to become feminine.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

6. Top 10 insurance claims for dogs

Source: Market Trends Nov 2005. www.packagedfacts.com


1. Ear infections
2. Skin allergies
3. Stomach upsets
4. Benigh tumours
5. Bladder infection
6. Skin infections
7. Sprains
8. Eye infections.
9. Colitis.
10. Skin lacerations.

Pet Care, Pet Food, Pet Grooming, Pet Insurance, Pet Supplements

5. Book Proposals and Magazine Queries

BOOK PROPOSALS

1. Submit a topic. A paragraph about WHY today's puppy owners would LOVE to buy a book on this topic.
2. A list of 5-6 chapters included in your book.
3. 3-4 visuals (accents, sketches, drawings, photos) to illustrate the topic you suggest.
4. A paragraph or 2 why YOU are the perfect person to write about this topic. Experience in writing, teaching, project management, public speaking.

MAGAZINE QUERIES

1. Submit a topic. A paragraph about WHY today's puppy owners would LOVE to read an article on this topic. Why your approach is brand new and merits an article in BKTP.
2. List 3-5 points you would like to make in this article.
3. 3-4 visuals (accents, sketches, drawings, photos) to illustrate the topic you suggest.
4. A paragraph or 2 why YOU are the perfect person to write about this topic.

TOILET-TRAINING YOUR SINGAPORE BOUGHT PUPPY
1. Instruction manuals. First-timers, time-pressed couples, domestic workers, children's share of work, aged parents. Smelly, stressful and animal cruelty. Rehoming.

2. 6 Chapters:
2.1 Personality, age of the puppy and lifestyle of the owner.
2.2 Positive reinforcement training v. negative and no training.
2.3 How to paper-train? Outdoor training.
2.4 Gastro-colic reflex and distractions
2.5 Accidents. Cleanliness, signs of elimination and smell of urine.
2.6 Singapore Case studies - Stool eating, regressed, NP shredding, barking after bedtime.

3. Visuals
Equipment used.
3.1 Playpen + NP
3.2 Playpen + pee pan
3.3 Crate
3.4 Crate + pee pan
3.5 Tether
3.6 Playpen + grating + pee pan
3.7 Room + baby gate
3.8 Crate training
3.9 Grating + pee pan
3.10 Pee Pan
4. 500 case studies.