Dog Beds - Ultimate Comfort For Your Pet Have you ever thought of purchasing a quality bed for your dog? Dogs also enjoy the comfort of a quality bed, just like we do. A dog bed provides warmth, support and a sense of security to your dog. Providing a bed for your dog certainly means more to them than we would think.

When shopping for other items for your dog such as a leash, food, collar or a bowl, a quality dog bed must be at the top of your list. Providing a comfortable bed for your dog is far more important than cost.

Some of the advantages of providing a quality bed for your dog include:

Insulation: A quality bed protects your dog from both the heat of the summer, and the cold of the winter.

Personal Space: A dog bed will give your dog his or her own personal space. Your dog can do whatever it would like to do there. This space will provide your dog with an additional sense of security.

Cushion: Older dogs and dogs with bone or joint problems need to have a bed with a mattress. Special cushion beds are designed for these dogs.

Shed and Dander Control: A dog bed will make it easy for you to clean the shedding and dander of your dog, as most of it will get accumulated in one place. Almost all dog beds are reversible, which gives your dog an extra surface to lie on. It is very easy to clean these beds, you just need to wipe the dirt off with a wet cloth or hose it down outside.

Elements Protection: If your dog spends most of its time outside, it is better to provide your dog with the bed that can be used inside and outside of your home. This bed is strong and water resistant, and also easy to keep clean.

Selecting the Appropriate Dog Bed

Like humans, dogs also sleep in different positions. Measure your dog before purchasing a dog bed, and add five inches to it, so that your dog can rest in his or her favorite lying position. If it is not possible for you to measure your dog while it is lying down, then you can measure from the base of the neck to the base of the tail. Then add five inches to this measurement.

Before purchasing a dog bed, think which one will suit your dog the best, while keeping in mind that it is going to be his or her favorite resting place. Low quality dog beds are easily torn and are not durable. A good quality dog bed is not only durable, but it will also protect your dog from diseases, as you will be able to keep it clean easier.

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  Taking Care of Your Shih Tzu's Teeth and Gums Clean teeth and gums are very important to the overall health of your Shih Tzu. Here is some information on the most common dental problems in dogs and ways of treating them.

Common dental problems

- Periodontitis

It is very common among Shih Tzu and all dogs to have gum disease. At the age of two or three, many dogs have either periodontitis or gingivitis.

The most common dental problem for canines is periodontitis, also known as periodontal disease. The disease is caused by various factors: plaque, food debris, cell mucus, and a mixture of bacteria. This results in a film characterized by milky-white on the dog's teeth as well as the gums. When this film gets combined with saliva, the plaque it causes becomes tartar, and very hard to remove.

- Gingivitis

Gingivitis, also known as gum disease, happens when gum tissue suffers from an inflammation. Without treatment, it can lead to periodontitis, teeth loosening, bone loss, and ultimately, loss of teeth.

- Tooth fractures

Tooth fractures occur when Shih Tzu or any dog chew hard substances, such as hard rocks and cow hooves. The fractures result to infection inside the broken tooth, which is known as the endodontic disease.

How to prevent dental problems

Your Shih Tzu can fight off these dental problems by removing the plaque before it actually develops as tartar. How to do it? The most effective way is by brushing the teeth of your Shih Tzu in a mechanical fashion. The brushing would reduce much of the bacteria presence in the mouth, not to mention making your Shih Tzus breath smell sweeter. Make it a habit of brushing your Shih Tzus teeth on a daily basis.

Toothpaste: There are toothpaste products made especially for dogs. Brush your Shih Tzus teeth using dog toothpaste. Human toothpaste is specifically designed for humans to spit the paste washings out. Dogs cannot do that, so pick dog toothpaste that is safe enough for your Shih Tzu to swallow.

Toothbrush: Using a toothbrush in its teeth will take some time for the Shih Tzu to get used to. Let your dog be acquainted and get used to this is by putting some garlic salt, mix the salt with water, and dip the solution in an old toothbrush. Hold the old brush, and let your Shih Tzu taste and chew it. Your Shih Tzu will start to realize that chewing a toothbrush is and tastes good. Make it a habit a few times, until he feels comfortable brushing with it.

Finger brush: You could also use a finger brush instead of a toothbrush. A finger brush is a good alternative, although nothing could replace the good toothbrush. The finger brush just fits onto one's fingertip and can let you brush the Shih Tzus teeth without the dog knowing it. Well, at least almost. The disadvantage of getting a finger brush to clean your Shih Tzus teeth is that its bristles are quite large for the brush to go under the gum lines margin as effectively compared with regular toothbrush.

Professional cleaning: If you don't want to do the cleaning by yourself, you could take your Shih Tzu to a veterinarian and have his teeth professionally cleaned. A good veterinarian will take additional measures in ensuring your Shih Tzus clean teeth by anesthetizing your Shih Tzu, scraping the buildup of plaque from all over the gum line areas, and polishing the teeth for a sparkling finish.

Home checkup: Try to make it a regular habit of checking the teeth of your Shih Tzu for any cracked or broken teeth. If you see some problematic teeth, check promptly with the veterinarian.

Home safety: Of course, cleaning your Shih Tzus teeth does not mean you should disregard other areas of concern. Tough substances, such as bones, rocks, hard nylon, or cow hooves should be removed from areas where your dog could see. Buy your Shih Tzu chewing toys that are safer like rubber-made toys. You could also provide bones that are soft enough for your dog to chew.

Mouthwash: There are some products in the market that deal very well in helping to kill the bacteria in your dog's mouth and could actually help heal damaged gum tissues. Do not forget to ask your veterinarian on the best products in the market.

Dental problems do not only happen to humans. Shih Tzu and all dog breeds also have dental issues. It is up to the owners on how to help their pet dogs overcome their dental problems.

Connie Limon. I raise Shih Tzu puppies from top champion bloodlines in many different colors of blues, reds, chocolates, blacks. We have the small AKC standards, imperials and teacups at reasonable prices. We offer you educational material, dog bows and dog clothes. Visit us online at: http://www.stainglassshihtzus.com and sign up for our newsletter. We are the largest privately-owned informational Shih Tzu site on the World Wide Web.

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  How To Design A Web Page That Pays It is relatively easy to design a web page. It is much more difficult to design a web page that works, and more importantly a web page that pays off for either you or the web visitor. But if you want to create web sites or have a home based business that you can promote online, building a web page that pays is an absolute necessity.

So, how do you design a web page that pays? First off, you need to determine who will be getting the pay-off. It could be you or the web visitor, or better yet, it could be both of you. For example, an informational web page will be valuable to a reader looking for information and valuable to you if you have affiliates, links to products, or other sites you want to promote.

When building a web page or looking for a home based business, affiliate programs are worth considering because they add value to the site for the reader and can provide enough revenue for you to keep the site going. The best affiliates offer products that are in some way related to your site. In other words, if you have an informational web site relating to pet health, it wouldn't be a good idea to have affiliate links for tax software. You will be much better served with affiliates that sell pet vitamins, pet toys, or other pet related products.

If you want to create web sites or design a web page so that you can make money from affiliate programs, it is a good idea to research affiliates and the topic before you proceed. Making sure that affiliate programs exist in conjunction with the information you want to provide or the home based business you want to promote will prove to be very valuable later on as you try to get the site off the ground.

You will also want to make sure that you will be able to provide credible information to the site's visitors. For example, you will have a hard time building a web page devoted to coaching soccer if you know little about the subject. And without credibility, you stand little chance of getting site visitors to stop by once, let alone, again and again.

Credibility will also prove to be important when you look for affiliates. Often times, your site will need to be reviewed before you are allowed to participate in the affiliate program. If you design a web page that is not up to par, you will have little chance of being approved.

In short, take your time and do your homework. That is the only way to create web sites that truly pay off for you and your visitors.

Cliff Posey, owner of CRP Marketing, owns and operates http://webbusinesstoolsonline.com. Cliff Posey has also operated several other successful web businesses including Love Song Cards and Radio Career Consultants. The content in this article was developed from his experience in these businesses.

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  Kids And Energy Im not sure why, maybe because its summer, Im getting a lot of questions and stories about kids and energy. Ill put them all under that broad category but there have been several different subcategories discussed: kids and ADHD, kids and anger management, and kids and computers.

Kids and ADHD

Lets start with kids and ADHD. There seems to be a big trend here in the US of drugging our children so they can control their behavior in school. I am NOT in favor of this practice.

Why is there such an epidemic of ADHD diagnoses in our children? I dont want to oversimplify but I believe one reason is that our children dont have the opportunities they had in previous generations to run around and expend their energy.

In years past, kids got to play in the parks, in the streets and in their own yards. Today, that happens less and less. Parents are too afraid to allow their children to be outside unsupervised, and rightly so! There are predators out there who would do your children harm. However, kids still need to expend their energy, somehow.

So, many times the activities available to them at home are sedentary, such as playing video games, watching television, talking on their cell phones or using the home computer. None of this provides opportunity to release energy, unless your children are like my niece who paces vigorously while talking on the phone.

Then we send them to school and expect them to sit down and be quiet. In addition, many schools are reducing the amount of physical education time for our kids and Ive even seen recently that some schools forbid children to run at recess or use certain playground equipment because they fear of physical injury lawsuit. Is it any wonder our children are having difficulty?

Now I know there are parents and teachers out there who have stories of children who have been helped immensely by the addition of Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta or Dexedrine to their daily diet. If you know a child who is being helped by his or her medication, Im not saying to discontinue it but for every child who is being helped, I believe there are at least three others who are still exhibiting all the ADHD behavior the medication was designed to reduce.

There have been studies done on placebo medications that show that in double blind studies, when neither the patient nor the doctor knew whether the patient was getting the actual drug or the placebo, the ones getting the placebo actually did better. Is it possible there is a placebo effect with some children?

If your child displays what you or the teachers believe is an excessive amount of energy, do your best to create situations where that child can expend energy. I have two boys who could both have been diagnosed with ADHD as children. They were very physical. Luckily, I lived in the country during a time when parents sent their kids out the door to simply play. I also spent a lot of my spare time running them around to different athletic eventsYMCA soccer, wrestling, flag football, T-ball, basketball, you get the idea. This definitely helps.

Kids and Anger Management

I spoke with a woman over the weekend whose son is 10 years-old and she says has anger management issues. We didnt really get into his specific behaviors but it caused me to reflect on some inherent differences between males and females.

I think that from very early on, boys and girls deal with their anger differently. As a general rule, girls need to talk about it to feel better, while boys need to work it out physically.

So if you have daughters, you want to teach them verbal skills to be able to work out their frustrations but with boys, you will need to provide opportunities for them to work out their anger physicallymaybe with a punching bag, racquetball, running, or martial arts. The list of possibilities is truly endless but dont expect your boys to talk about it, at least not until theyve had the opportunity to release the anger in a safe physical manner.

Kids and Computers

This week, a mother contacted me about her child disobeying her limits with the home computer and sneaking time beyond her allowed limit.

In this situation, the mother had a need to protect and nurture her child. She wants to be able to loosely supervise her daughters time on the computer to possibly prevent her from falling prey to adults who victimize children by finding their victims on the Internet. She also wants to support her childs need for physical activity so she restricts her computer usage and encourage outside physical activities instead. Is this mother wrong? Absolutely not.

Her daughter, on the other hand, has a desire to be on the computer. All her friends are on there and want to know why she isnt. They dont have limits while this girl does. This girl is quite accomplished on the computer and can build website pages for her friends. She also has a high need for freedom and doesnt like being restricted and the computer is plain fun to her. She gets her love & belonging, power, freedom and fun needs met with the computer. Is she wrong? Absolutely not.

How does it get resolved? I think the way to resolve this issue is for the mother and daughter to sit down and talk about what each other needs and wants in the situation. If the child can convince her mother that she has the skills and knowledge necessary to protect herself from predators and she agrees to engage in other healthy activities each day, then her mother could relax her restriction on the amount of time she has on the computer.

In this case, and many others like it, the daughter wouldnt be able to meet her freedom need with the computer if there wasnt a rule to break. Sometimes we create the very behavior we are trying to stop with the rules we make. When a person has a high need for freedom, they will inevitably break the rules, particularly the ones they dont like or that dont make sense.

Parenting is one of the hardest jobs youll ever do and the stakes are incredibly high. We all do the best we can and hope for good results. Fortunately, when we have good intentions are kids generally survive in even thrive.

Kim Olver has a graduate degree in counseling and works with parents and children helping them with their communication skills ultimately leading to an improvement in their relationships. Sign up for her free teleclass Empowerment Parenting at http://www.therelationshipcenter.biz/EmpowerParenting.htm.

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