"Welcome to the Full Circle Project, the all-new Customer Driven Charitable Giving project by Waste Industries!
Before we get into the details on how this campaign works, we want to take a brief moment to say how thankful we are for your participation. This project is designed to more appropriately direct how Waste Industries handles its annual charitable giving.
We take special pride in helping out the communities we service, a commitment that extends from the services we provide to the many charities we give back to each and every year. Now, however, we are doing things with a bit of a twist.
From now on, you get to decide how we donate our charitable funds. It won’t cost you a penny extra to participate, as this service is funded 100% by Waste Industries. The twist is that we don’t get to decide how the money is spent anymore, you do!
We have broken down our charitable giving into five categories. Those categories include:
Animal Rescue – Includes charities such as the Humane Society"
Other worthy causes were listed here as well. It goes on to read:
"Once you select a category, your iCAN account will be updated with a badge displaying your decision to push Waste Industries donations to the charities within your category. Within 2-4 weeks, you’ll receive an envelope from Waste Industries containing further information on your category and a sticker/decal to attach to your Waste Industries container, showing your neighbors that you have helped direct funds that benefit the charity of your choosing. The more people that donate to your category, the more funds your category could potentially receive."
So, if you are a waste industries customer, please consider making the choice of Animal Rescue like the Lovely and Awesome Shane and I did! Waste Industries customers should be getting an email like this soon.
Till Next Time
-William-
The Lovely Shane and I have a backyard that is enclosed with a 4 foot high chain link fence here at the Dog Trainer Shack. This is certainly not in any way an adequate containment system for an unsupervised Beagle. However, it is adequate for supervised romps. Copper just loves to track and chase chipmunks, squirrels feral cats, grizzly bears and whatever other interesting critters make their way inside the fence. Well perhaps I exaggerated the grizzly bear thing :).
I went into the house for just a couple of minutes the other day and one of our pack (not sure which member, I am not convinced that it was not a group effort) was on the trail of something and began digging under the fence. I have temporarily filled the hole with brick and concrete block until I can make a more permanent repair. Under is not the only way a Beagle will try to escape either. I once had a very smart guy named Boomer. When he was about 4 years old, he once climbed over a 6 foot chain link fence! He looked a lot like the guy in the picture here scaling the privacy fence. If you need to leave your dog unattended outside for short periods of time (please do not do this for extended periods) there are some options. You can build or buy a kennel type chain link enclosure. some of these have tops that will keep out rain and sun.
Okay, now I am going to mention something that is a little controversial. The devices that utilize shock collars to make a so called "underground" or" invisible fence". What I am about to write is my opinion as an electronic engineer and a dog trainer. To call these devices "fences" fosters a false sense of safety and security and, in my opinion, borders on fraudulent. These devices sometimes use a buried wire and sometimes use RF (Radio Frequency) transmissions. When the dog gets near the "border" he receives what is sometimes called a static correction. I have studied electronics for many years. It was a career for me. I am now an FCC Licensed Amateur Radio Operator and it is also a hobby of mine. Please, let us not sugar coat this matter. I have never, other than from the manufacturers and advocates of these devices, heard the correction that they provide called "static". I suppose in the academic electrical sense this is technically accurate. But, my friends and readers, in a strictly scientific, electrical sense, lightning is static. Static does not, in any way, co-notate safety. What the collars that come with these devices do is administer a high voltage, low current electrical shock to the dog in the guise of "correction". To some extent it is effective. It does get the little guy or girls attention. However, do they really understand why they are being "corrected" ? I am not convinced that they understand.
During my time working at Petco, I saw many of these shock collar devices sold. Some of them for bark control, some of them for containment, and some with the remotes were sold for "training" purposes. They were almost never sold to be used as a last resort in a difficult case. Many times people bought them expecting them to be a magic bullet for behavioral issues. Many times, at the store where I worked in Peachtree City, GA they were bought to be used as "fences" so that the people in deed restricted communities did not have to put up an "unsightly" real fence. I always explained how these devices really worked to customers. But in many cases they bought them as "quick fixes" because of the way these things are miss-marketed. These things are promoted by Petco as "training aides" look at their website there is really no explanation of exactly how these devices work and the inherent dangers of them. I guess there is a great deal of profit to be made here. I suppose that is the real focus at the place "where the pets go".
But Lindas already nervous, and the baby hasnt even been born yet. According to Kathy, Linda is scared of the new baby things in the house, especially the stroller and the swing. So this is where the training needs to start. Ill tackle part one - fear of the stroller and swing - in this post, and part two - introducing Linda to the baby - in a later post.
The first time Kathy moves Linda towards the swing the swing should be turned off, not moving at all. Once Linda masters the exercise with the swing off, start over with the swing turned on low - bring Linda into the room and click and treat the instant she looks at the swing. Continue progressing until there are no issues with the swing. Then its time to move onto the stroller.
The good news is that the dog training is going well. The bad news is that the video Im trying to take of said dog training is not cooperating. Youd think with multiple digital cameras (all with video recording capability and one with HD video), a phone (also with HD video, of course) and an actual video camera, something in my house would be able to capture the wondrous moments of my little board & train, Brody, learning to target. But the problem, Im finding, is that these video-recording devices want to be smarter than me. Maybe they are. At any rate, I am now waiting for my sons camera battery to charge (no, I dont want to hear about how I am using my five-year-olds camera to make a professional training video for my company). Once that has completed I should be good to go and can resume working on Brodys target training.
On leash reactivity is a frustrating problem for many owners. Their dog, who might be fine when meeting other dogs in a different situation, will turn into a little furry lunatic when faced with the scary prospect of seeing something that might hurt them (strange dog) when they are trapped, unable to escape (leash). 
It has been my experience over the years that my little buddies who were afraid of thunderstorms were also afraid of fireworks and gunfire. So, some of the same techniques may be effective. I make this point because with many dogs that have moderate anxiety, the Thundershirt product is very effective. It does not work with every dog but I had many customers when I worked at Petco who said the product made a huge difference in anxiety level. There are also pheromone based sprays that seem to be effective with some dogs that have moderate anxiety. As in the case of the Thundershirt, this does not seem to work with every dog.
I think our newest pack member, little Cody, may have some issues with fireworks this year. I have noticed that he is anxious during thunder storms. He is not relaxed like in this picture. On the contrary, he follows me everywhere and loves to lean on me an sit as close to me as possible. I will let you know how he does with the fireworks (if we have any in my law-abiding neighborhood).
do some bathroom remodeling here at the Dog Trainer Shack. There is one other special activity in which I am going to participate: There is a radio contest this weekend called 13 Colonies. Amateur Radio Operators running special stations in all 13 original colonies are making contacts. If you contact all 13
