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Training your dog can be time consuming and frustrating at
times, but it’s well worth it. Here are several tips that should
help things go much smoother and faster… plus reduce the
frustration both you and your dog feel!

Conduct “play training” where by the training tasks are made
into fun games and your dog’s play drive is used as motivation.
There are a lot of really good books available on this type of
training.

Intelligent dogs can also be stubborn, so you may have to outwit
them! While training your dog, you have to make him want to do
what you want him to. You can’t make him do stuff unless it is
fun. Otherwise you are wasting both your time and his.

Try to make your dog’s training so fun that it becomes his or
her favorite activity. This will make learning much easier and
more enjoyable.

Most dogs love to play! You can make your dog the happiest just
by spending some time with them, giving your undivided attention
each day. Without this, your dog will feel ignored, bored, or
think they’re in trouble. When this happens they’re more likely
to chew, tear things up, and not listen to you.

Here are some tried and true tactics you can use to make your
dogs listen to you more:

When playing with your puppy, play at his level. If play is
encouraged at ground level, this builds your role as the
dominant, or “top dog”, when you are standing and training your
puppy. If the puppy is allowed to jump up and initiate play,
then this can lead to unwanted jumping up as your dog gets older.

>From the very beginning, make sure your dogs know you are the
master. This is usually accomplished with simple tasks such as
teaching the dog to raise it’s paw for a handshake; kissing your
hand; or rolling over on command to show submission.

There is no need for extreme measures to prove you are the boss.
Obedience training should be both fun and rewarding for you and
your dog.

Make sure your dog always eats after you do. This is one of the
easiest ways to show your dog who is the boss. This is
especially important if you share your food with your dog,
because if you let them eat while you are, they could develop
the habit of taking food right off your - or someone else’s -
plate. You may need to train your family to follow this rule
too… and that could be harder than training the dog
Very active young dogs have short attention span, and some
breeds are worse than others. So it’s best to have several short
5-10 minute training lessons instead of one long one.

Start the training at quiet places familiar to your dog, and be
sure there are very few things and people around to distract
him. Gradually move the training to places with more and more
distractions so he will learn to obey your commands despite
those distractions.

Speak to your dog strongly but not in an angry voice. Be kind
but be firm while training and never give in to what they want.
It seems cruel but in the long run you will have a much better
relationship with you dog.

Celebrate after every training session for a good job done. Have
a big play by running and throwing his favorite toys. If you
give them a lot of playtime with yourself they’ll listen to you
more.

Don’t confuse your dog by trying to use different words for one
command. One word commands work best, and they should always be
consistent. For example, when your dog gets on the lounge with
you, say “sit” and he should sit. Then if you want him to lay
down, say “lay” and he should do so. Also note how well your dog
seems to understand your command words. Some dogs may not be
able to distinquish between two words that sound the same. For
instance: “lay” and “stay” sound very similar. With one of my
own dogs, I’ve had to use the word “sleep” in place of lay, in
order for him to understand me fully.

To keep your dog from charging the front door each time it
opens, try putting up a door or gate that he can’t see through
or hop over. Have him wait until people enter and come up the
stairs. Then give him a treat for waiting.

In closing: no matter how well trained you think your dog is, he
usually has an attention span of seconds. So be careful not to
let him run away, because some dogs will simply keep going and
going as they find new things to chase.

Always keep your dog leashed securely when they’re outdoors,
unless you have a secure fence. Beware though: Some dogs can
actually jump fences, even when you think they’re high enough,
and some even climb trees too. And most dogs run much faster
than any human can so if your dog gets loose, it could be quite
dangerous for him.

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These are the largest antique Oriental rug dealers, importers, providers, online galleries and companies available in the United States.

Krikor Markarian antique rug and carpet gallery (markarianantiquerugs.com): Located in New York City, Krikor Markarian specializes in collectible antique tribal rugs and other woven artefacts from the main Near Eastern and Asian weaving areas. It features 19th century Caucasian rugs, 19th century Persian tribal and village rugs, antique Central Asian weavings and antique Anatolian rugs.

Nalbandian Inc. (www.nalbandian.com/antiques/antiques.htm): is a floor covering company that includes antique Oriental rugs, tapestries and textiles in its collection since 1826. The business started in Ceasaria, (kaisery) Turkey, extending to Erevan, Tehran, Beirut, Paris, Monte Carlo, Aix En Provence, Marseille, Zurich, Boston and Los Angeles. Services also include Restoration and Conservation.

Oriental Rug Mart (demanesrug.com): An Oriental rug company which has been buying, selling, cleaning and repairing Oriental rugs in central Illinois since 1919, in the name of James Demanes & Sons. Their rug emporium is located in the Demanes Galleries building in Peoria, Illinois. Services include Hand wash, repair, restoration, and appraisal.

Pasargad (pasargadcarpets.com): Pasargad is an importer of hand-woven oriental rugs, featuring an extensive line of hand-woven Chinese, Persian-design, and Indian masterpieces in vegetable-dyed wool. It is a family owned business established in 1904, well-known for its in-house restoration and cleaning facilities, with showrooms in New York and Washington D.C.

Antiqueorientalrugs.com: is an online shopping gallery of an Oriental rug business started by Robert T. Mosby since 1969, who deals strictly in handmade, antique oriental rugs and not in mass produced program rugs. The website has a link to Ebay, where a selection of antique rugs is showcased, changing on a weekly basis. The business is located in Sarasota, Florida.

Abraham Moheban & Son Inc. (moheban.com): The Company offers trade, designers and retail clients a choice of antique Persian, Indian, Turkish and European rugs and carpets. Located in New York City, it has an extensive collection of 18th to early 20th century pieces. Services include hand washing, conservation, restoration and insurance valuation.

A.E. Runge Oriental Rugs (rungerugs.com): Located in Yarmouth, Maine, Runge Rugs was started in the 1880s by Edward Runge. Its large inventory of handmade Orientals has been purchased almost entirely from estates and private individuals in New England and Europe dated between date between 1900 and the 1930s. All the products in the store is claimed to be authentic oriental rugs.

Antique Rug Gallery, Inc. (antiqueruggallery.com): This is an online gallery only, which operates in Massachusetts. The Antique Rug Gallery Inc. offers exclusively antique oriental carpets and tribal rugs, and accepts dealers as well as retail customers at wholesale prices. Services include written appraisals, wash and repair.

Antique Textile Gallery (frankames.com): The Company, buyer and seller of antique oriental carpets, Turkmen trappings, tribal rugs, decorative textiles and Kashmir shawls, was founded in Paris 25 years ago and moved to Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 1986. The gallery is also a consultant and appraiser of antique, ancient and decorative textiles. Business is conducted by appointment only.

Persian Rugs can enhance your home. Discover the joys of owning an Oriental Persian rug!

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Self Defense Education - There are three sure-fire ways to teach
your child to be truly ‘Kid Safe’.

A child needs to know there are two types of self defense.
Physical, which gives them the tools needed to keep them safe.
And mental self defense, which empowers them with the awareness
and common sense to keep them safe. This is an exerpt from a
seminar I did to educate parents and children on helping them
with the mental self defense to make them “Kid Safe” kids.

Levels of Safety By teaching our children there are different
levels of safety and those levels depend on the situation they
are in and the decisions they make in those situations, we can
better train them to use their instincts, intuition, and even
fear as safety tools. This is an easy way to explain to our
children how to trust these instincts.

“Every time we travel through a busy intersection, there are
traffic lights there to tell us if it is safe to pass through.
If the light is green, that tells us it is safe to pass, if the
light is yellow that means we must use caution and to be careful
and to prepare to stop. If the light turns red, that means
danger and do not proceed or you may become hurt in an accident.

We can use these same lights, instead of traffic lights, as
safety lights, to know when we are safe, to use caution, or to
let us know we are in personal danger. If our safety light is
green….. This means we are safe and everything is normal.

If our safety light turns yellow…..This means that our
intuition, instincts, or our gut feeling is telling us something
is wrong!

If your safety light turns red…..This means we are in immediate
danger and have to act fast.

We have to train ourselves to recognize different situations we
are in and be aware when that situation makes our safety light
change from green to yellow or to red.

When our safety light turns yellow this is the time to slow down
listen to our little voice inside of us called intuition, think
about the situation we are in, and what is the best course of
action to take to keep us safe and return us to a green light.
For example,

We are swimming and we notice that the water is really deep and
we are becoming tired…we should return to the shallow water
and take a break, which would return us to our green light. But
if we continue to swim in the deep water, we may become tired
and find our self in a dangerous, red light situation.

Our head is beginning to hurt and mom is a sleep… instead of
waking and asking her for some medicine, we look in the medicine
cabinet and find what appears to be the aspirin she normally
gives us… and we take it. This is defiantly a red light
situation, because you could be taking the wrong medicine and
become very sick. But if you had just woke mom up and told her
you had a headache, you would have stayed safely in the green
light.

Someone knocks on the door of your house. Anytime this happens,
as a child you need to understand that this is a yellow safety
light and you need to proceed with caution. First you never open
the door unless you and your parents personally know the person.
Like a friend of the family or a neighbor. If you do not know
the person, which means have you never seen your parents speak
to this person, you never open the door. Even if they say they
are a policeman, fireman, or repairman. The decision that you
should make to put yourself in the green light, would be to go
find your parents and let them open the door. If you open the
door, you could be putting yourself in a red light dangerous
situation. If your parents are not home you should never, never,
open the door for anyone. This is always a safety red light.

A person at school that is known to be a bully is standing at
the end of the play ground. Knowing this your safety light
immediately turns yellow. If you avoid that end of the
playground your light will return to green, if you go to that
end of the playground you may find your self in a safety red
light.

By being aware of our surroundings and making smart decisions
when we are in our yellow caution light, we can get back to our
green safe light and avoid the red danger light.

Remember, it is OK to be afraid when our safety light turns
yellow. Fear is what helps our intuition and instincts work. We
should always trust our instincts and listen to our little voice
inside. Remember, our little voice is always right.”

Parents, by arming our children with mental safety so they can
make quick, safe decisions, it gives them the confidence and
focus to handle any type of situation and safeguard them for the
future.

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Zen mind is the “Natural” state of our beings: No self, no identity, no memes, no beliefs.

Any idea of “what is” takes us away from what is - to be in the moment, all ideas need to be gone. There’s not even an “I” to have the ideas.

The natural being acts as an outcome of the movement of the universe, in the same way that an artist’s brush is moved by its “universe”.

All “teachings”, “spiritual” paths or “sacred” practices actually take us away from the moment, because it needs an “I” to do them, with an agenda of some kind, something to gain. All of which removes us from the eternal identity-free moment.

The only way that “what is” can be experienced is to lose all traces of self, in which case the “what is” can’t be experienced because there is no one there to experience it.

Any description of the state of the natural mind is false - it cannot be described and anyone who says they can is deluding themselves and/or you - to be described, there still has to be an identity there to describe it and if there is, that state can’t be real.

There is not even an “ultimate” state to gain, because the very idea that there is, takes us away from it.

All there is, is the operation of the universe in its all-ness. There’s no such thing as “enlightened” or “unenlightened”. These are just ideas of what is.

Even “bliss” or “transcendence” is a state of mind that needs an “I” to experience those feelings.

Thoughts are the glue of our belief structures. “I” is the creation of thoughts and beliefs.

What’s operating when we think we are functioning human beings is the operating system of the species brain, running sophisticated meme/belief structures that are the content of our identities/sense of self.

The only act consciousness can “do” is to let go of “self” awareness. Consciousness, to be fully there, needs to have no “I” attached to it - and then, who is there to be conscious?

The natural state is where everything is meaningful and meaningless - everything is part of the whole and no link in the chain can be more essential than another.

Action and thought, from this place, is an instantaneous, pure response to the call of the moment. It is the moment, the universe acting, not the person.

True peace is an absence of agitation, an absence of self-generated internal activity. So peace cannot be “done”, or created - it’s an absence of doing. This allows unadulterated “what is-ness” to be. All action out of this state is completely harmonious (even if there was anyone “there” to experience the harmony - there isn’t) and non-conflicting. There is nothing there to conflict with anything else.

A natural being feels the world cleanly, whereas an “I”, full of beliefs and ideas of self, overlays those unadulterated feelings with external content, imbuing them with emotional “charge”. This charge is reactive to the world around it, continually creating conflict as it attempts to dissipate.

(Modern research shows that there is a gap of approximately half a second between the body/mind’s initiation of a physical action and our conscious intention to do so. This suggests that the body/mind acts according to its belief instructions, not any conscious intention. The “I” is just along for the ride - late - while pretending to be in charge.)

What comes out of the moment relates only to that moment. It’s already past and non-existent as it is experienced. To hold to anything experienced or said in that moment, is to live in the dead past.

If you can’t touch it, show it, taste it, does it have any reality? That’s not to say it isn’t real, but it may not be real. It could be a construct of ideas.

Whatever is actual or real can only be there when all ideas, all thoughts, all belief, all traces of identity are gone - when there is no “I” left to take us out of the moment. If the eternal now moment is all there is, this is the only way to be in it.

Thought is only necessary, only of any use, when it is called for by the moment, for a particular task. To keep thinking beyond the particular call of the moment is the same as keeping your arm above your head all the time, or holding your stomach muscles tensed all the time.

If you took every real momentary experience of the natural being - the smell of a flower, a sunset, the death of a friend, a humorous situation, the movement of smoke on the wind - all of these in every moment, but with no self, no “I” there to even be aware of these things, this is the state of natural mind.

Years of research into consciousness, zero-point physics theory, emergence theory, memes and many other new understandings coming out of mathematics and physics.
Ongoing work as relationship therapist is bringing deep revelations about the nature of our psyches.
Author/illustrator children’s books (e.g. I Wish My Dad Was A Pirate). Music CD (The Nothing Booth).

Related web site: www.becomereal.com. For online access to unique self growth process.

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My friend and I were having coffee the other day and he was
whining about how his game has become stale. He really believes
he’s reached a plateau where there are no more strokes to be
gained during a round of golf. He was depressed, to say the
least, but he was also wrong.

My buddy is no Sam Snead (and neither am I) but he’s a solid
player. His drives are usally reasonable in both distance and
trajectory, meaning he doesn’t hook or slice anymore than the
rest of us. His mid-game is good, he knows how to choose and use
his long irons, his close game is very good and he can get out
of a bunker when he finds himself in one. All in all, a good
solid game.

Until he gets on the green.

What I suggested to him is something I think we can all learn
from. If you four or five putt most of the greens on your
course, you’re adding a lot of strokes to your overall score. My
suggestion to my friend was that rather than try to improve the
other parts of his game, if he would simply putt one less stroke
(on those four and five putt holes) he’d shave a significant
amount of strokes off his game. If he could take one putting
stroke off each hole, he’d save 18 strokes!

Now if you’re a good putter already, this probably won’t work
for you. But if you normally get on the green in regulation and
then have to putt more than twice to get into the cup, well,
maybe you, too, could shave some strokes off your game by simply
improving your putting abilities.

There are a gazillion tips on putting–some work and some are
just goofy–but nothing will improve your putting more than
practice. My friend never spends time on the practice green and
it shows when he’s on the course. But in his case–and in a lot
of other cases, I suspect–there is really no other part of his
game that he can significantly improve. And, frankly, he doesn’t
need to spend time on his drive–he’s got that nailed. He needs
to spend time putting. That’s what’s killing his score card.

If you know–or even suspect–that your putting is poor, get off
the driving range and get on the putting green. You will be
amazed at how fast your putting can improve when you spend just
a little time each week practicing those putts. That improvement
will carry over to your next round of golf, too, and you’ll see
strokes simply fading away.

Practice those putts!

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Aerobic stepper machines are used to tone leg muscles and help to burn excess calories in the body. These machines are cheaper to be bought and fold-able, and can be used in the comforts of the home. Often, people inquire about the fact that with so many machines available in the market to burn fat and help tone muscles, which ones should they buy and also which ones are cost effective.

Therefore, naturally what is needed to be discussed here are the benefits of stepper machines. Naturally as with any tone up machines, these machines are useful to tone up the muscles of the legs. They help to burn calories.

Besides these machines are cheaper, affordable, can be used inside homes while watching television or listening to music. Since we have so many other machines like the treadmill, elliptical machines and exercise bikes - all work the abs and improve core power and getting six pack look, naturally comparison arises as to how these machines stand against the others.

A thorough physiological study has shown that stepper machines work only on the legs and hips. They do not tone up the muscles of the abs or upper body. Besides, their effect on fat burning is minimal. They only tend to increase body metabolism to only a small extent, thus minimal chances to burn down the flab.

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There are several bathtubs on the market today specially designed for handicapped bathers. Many have special features that allow those with special needs to use the tubs without assistance. Purchasing one of these handicapped bathtubs can allow your loved one to regain their independence and dignity.

One of the more popular types of tubs is the “walk-in” bathtub. This tub is usually designed to fit in about the same space as a traditional bathtub, but allows the user with mobility issues to step into the tub through a gate-like door. Allowing the user to step into the tub reduces injuries caused by climbing over the wall of a traditional tub. Additionally, the walk in bathtub is designed with a seat and handheld shower head for convenient and safe use. The user does not need to lower themselves to the floor, only onto a seat. After sealing the door with a knob or button, the bather can relax comfortably and safely and take advantage of optional features like hydrotherapy, temperature control and self-drying features.

Those with more severe mobility limitations and wheelchair users may appreciate another popular handicapped bathtub model. On these models, the doors open outward to make them even easier to use, and the “sit and pivot” style allows wheelchair users to transfer themselves to the tub with ease. Popular features can be installed, and these units also offer temperature control, optional whirlpool or hydrotherapy features and safety bars.

There are companies that will convert your existing bathtub for handicapped use as well. These conversions often involve cutting a door into an existing bathtub or reducing the outer wall and installing steps. The reviews of these conversions have been mixed, and if safety is your primary concern, a bathtub designed for handicapped use is most likely your best choice.

Providing your handicapped loved one with a bathtub designed for their use can help them live a more independent life, while ensuring their safety and dignity.

Claire Bowes is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Bath Tubs & Bathing. Claire provides more information on her site about Handicapped Bathtubs that you can research at home.

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