Before anyone accuses me of animal cruelty and reports me to the SPCA let me explain! "Target Training" is a useful skill for you and your dog. It is invaluable in agility training and for doing ad, movie, TV, or theater work with animals.

The idea is to train your pet to recognize a target and go to it. I use yogurt container tops (both pint and quart sizes). The eHow website has a good introduction to target training.

Once you and your pet are adept at targeting, you can put it to the test. You can place the target behind a barrier or on a small platform Currently, Zen and I are working on a differentiation exercise. She sees two targets and needs to pay attention to hand signals to know which one is the focus. Zen is wonderful if not just a bit too eager at times – she specializes in the triple pirouette !

If you think for a moment that the "quick run" into the bank or store is no big deal and you can leave your pet in your car. FORGET IT. Here is a simple plastic cup that once held a smoothie …

This cup was in my truck. My truck is not black. It’s silver with light grey interior. The cup was in the cup holder. Not in the sun; in the middle of the car with no direct exposure. The truck was in my driveway and the shade much of the time.

The heat in the truck was hot enough to deform both the cup *and* the straw. The top shrank. The sides wilted. The bottom dimpled.

Obviously, Zen was not in the truck. During the summer, unless Zen and I are going somewhere for her enjoyment, Zen stays home. No reason to take chances with our pets!

PS: I didn’t say "dumb pet owners" because there are no dumb pets; only dumb owners. Any trainer will tell you, it’s the owner that needs the training more than the pet. Trust me, I’ve had a lot of training !

While some may have a Jonesing with Wacom CINTIQ and other may be eyeing an iPad, I’ve got a six year old Toshiba PORTEGE Tablet PC that runs GIMP. Here, I loaded a photo of Zen and then started to sketch over it. The results are a bit like I had crayons but it’s been an interesting first exercise.

A deer runs away. OK, so what? I’m the one who started the deer but what happened before that was pretty cool …

Zen saw the deer.

The deer saw Zen.

The deer was curious about Zen.

Zen was curious about the deer.

Zen lost interest but the deer kept watching.

The deer lost interest and Zen returned to watching.

The deer saw me.

The deer ran away.

The End.

I would have sworn I wrote this before but can’t find it. YOUR DOG OVER HEATS BEFORE YOU DO!

Since dogs can’t sweat, the have very little ability to cool off once the temp climbs. A dog’s resting body temp it 102. If you go out on a sunny day and the temp it 90, the sun will drive the surface temp above your dog’s base temp. At that point, they have little or no cooling ability at all. If it’s humid, it’s even worse.

Dogs with short noses have it worse still.

My solution is to take water with me and Zen, even on short walks. I prefer not to have Zen drink directly from my water bottle so I’ve come up with a simple way to have a mini doggie bowl with us.

Take two identicle 1-liter empty water or soda bottles. You can use 2-liter bottles for bigdogs, longer walks, and multiple dogs if you need.

Cut the bottom off one bottle so the bottom section is about 2″-3″ tall.

Simply stick the cut bottom onto the other bottle. It will fit snug and be a perfect match.

Fill the bottle with water and go. You can drink from the bottle and you can pull the extra bott off and use it as a mini bowl for the dog!