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January 3rd, 2009 by Joel Silverman

Assuming that your little guy is familiar with the Sit command, he is now ready to move forward to the Lie Down command. This Intermediate Training behavior is simple to implement for most dogs and should be easily integrated into his routine.

The Lie Down command is simply a step away from the Sit command. With your dog in the sitting position, take a treat and move it a bit closer to the ground prior to giving it to him. Continue this process, each time moving the treat closer to the ground before allowing him to take it. As you move the treat farther away from him, he must lie down in order to reach the treat. Now is the time to speak the words, “Lie Down.” He may try to get up in order to retrieve his goody but he must remain in the Sit position. Be patient, this may take several tries before he thoroughly understands.

Leash pulling, lunging at other pets or people are examples of ugly behavior. You don’t want this for your little guy. Teach him to stay next to you by walking him in a small area in one direction, keeping the leash slack. Change directions occasionally and eventually he will understand where you are going and that being by your side is a good thing. But, you know by now, that dogs love to sniff and explore. So, give him a little grace from time to time to enjoy his world.

The Sit Up command can be a lot of fun to implement. Your dog must be very familiar with the Sit behavior as you take a piece of food or treat and hold it over his head. He must be able to reach it at this point. Continue this movement, holding the treat higher each time, until he is forced to reach for the food but can still remain seated.

Begin to raise the treat even higher at this point. Unless he raises his front paws from the ground, he won’t be able to reach the treat. And when he does this, now is the time to use the verbal cue, “Sit Up.” Once he understands the behavior you are looking for, you can fade out the treat and use only your hand, giving him his cue of “Sit Up.”

Teaching you little pal Intermediate Behaviors is going to be a very rewarding experience, both for you and your dog. Remember, patience is the key and loving and accepting your pet will cause him to want to please you. Enjoy the time you have together.

January 2nd, 2009 by john savage

When you get your Maine Coon kitten, the breeder will often have you sign an agreement that you will keep the cat strictly indoors. Over time, we have learned that indoor cats live longer, healthier lives.

As with everything in life, this thinking is not universal, and many people believe that by keeping your cat indoors you are depriving it of that sense of freedom. This of course is partly true but happily there is a way around it. You simply need to think outside the box and work out ways of bringing the outdoors, Indoors.

Now to start with hopefully you’ve got a window ledge inside your house and if you have then this is a great place for your cat to sit and watch the world go by, and this helps them to feel that they are actually almost outside. But if this is not good enough for you then let’s look at the second possibility.

The second possibility is that you might have a screened porch or a porch that you can put a screen around. This will enable your maine coon to have a good view of the world and to enjoy the fresh air. Just make sure that there is no way he can jump over the screen and get out. Perhaps you could provide a pet door back into the house for him.

Many people like to use a harness and leash and take their cats for a walk on the grass. Being outside will not harm your cat unless they are unattended and unrestrained. Buy a good harness and leash and then train your cat, and yourself, to use it correctly.

Of course at first your cat may not be all that keen on using a harness and leash but persist with it and very soon he will associate the harness and lease with having a good time outdoors. And when you go out just remember that your cat may not necessarily want to walk. He may want to just stand or sit around and enjoy the grass or even roll around.

The last thing that we want is your maine coon to feel bored by being indoors. We all know that cats big and small have a natural instinct to go hunting so make sure he has the opportunity to do so. Pop along to your local pet store and see if there are any toys that you can buy which will enable him to use his natural abilities to the full.

In conclusion it is hardly necessary to say that you must ensure they have all the nutrition and the exercise indoors that the ordinary cat would receive ourdoors. A visit to your local pet store should prove helpful in this area as they can probably advise you on what food is just right for an indoor cat. And on the subject of exercise well how about building them some sort of treehouse or exercise ladder which they can use under supervision?

Keeping your Maine Coon indoors is not cruel. Ideally, your Maine Coon was born indoors, and doesnt know anything different. As long as you can bring a little bit of the outdoors indoors, he will be exceedingly happy, and still enjoy all of the indoor cat benefits.

January 2nd, 2009 by Scott Evans

Holistic cat food is the absence of unnatural ingredients in the food. Unnatural ingredients are not good for your cat so he will definitely benefit from better food.

One of the reasons cats live such a short time is because most cat food produces don’t make nutritious food.

A normal cat only lives to about the age of nine but the natural life span for cats is around twenty eight years. One of the contributing factors for how long a cat lives is the nutrition of the food he eats. The majority of the commercial food is no better for your cat then feeding him Twinkies.

You better believe that if you ate nothing but Twinkies for the next ten years you would not be doing much better then most of the cats.

When you have food that is free of everything that is not found naturally then you have holistic food. The problem with cat food being holistic is that you never know what is actually in it. The cat food company’s only have to claim the ingredients that are put into the food after it reaches their plant.

That means that if the meat (I’m using that term loosely) was brought to the plant with preservatives in it that they could still claim that it is preservative free. By law this is okay for them to do.

Another thing to consider is the quality of meat that is put into cat food. Basically, if it can’t be sold for human consumption (i.e. it is bad for us) then they put it into your cats food. This could be a range from anything like road kill to euthanized animals from the pound.

When an animal is euthanized at the pound they use poison. Unfortunately for your cat the poison does not cook out when they process the meat. You might unknowingly be poisoning your cat when you feed him.

But what are your options?

One of the things you could do is to start making your cat homemade cat food. While this might sound like a time consuming option it really isn’t. When your cat starts getting the proper nutrition he will eat less food so you will only need to feed your cat once a day.