Merry Christmas everyone... also to our pets.

19/12/2014

Let's Make This A Safe Christmas For Your Pet

Author: Paul Ryan

Festivals and holidays can be a little hazardous to the pet. The pet owner needs to take special precautions to avoid these hazards. Christmas festival and rather all festivals are full of fun, food and enjoyment but especially during Christmas, the pet should be kept away from the hazards due to the Christmas tree, the decorations, ornaments and gifts.

Make This Christmas Safe For Your Pet

If Going Out For Holiday:

If you are going out for a holiday for some days, then take your pet with you or leave them to your neighbor's or relatives' house. Never keep the pet alone in the house. If taking with you, then special care should be taken, to feed them with proper food and water. The outside foods, water may be dangerous and can make them ill.

Christmas Tree:

Christmas tree decoration is the key for Christmas festival, but these trees and plants can be mildly toxic to the pet. So the best way is to keep an artificial tree or smaller tree away from the reach of the pet. The pine needles falling off the tree can be dangerous for the pet if ingested.

Decorations And Ornaments:

The decorations and ornaments used for decorating the Christmas tree should be chosen that are not hazardous. The glass or delicate ornaments are easily breakable and can cause injury to the pet if ingested. Instead plastic, fabric or wooden ornaments should be chosen. The lighting cords used can also be dangerous and should be kept away from the reach of the pets.

Christmas Foods:

The special food served at Christmas can also be harmful to the pet and needs to be avoided. The desserts full of fat, chocolates, alcohol, grapes, onions and garlic are all the foods that need to be avoided as they may make them seriously ill.

Noise And Disruption:

Festivals means house full of guests, friends, and relatives. This can be fun for us but pet become very upset seeing lots of people and noise. The fireworks on the New Year also make them very upset and scared. So, make sure you provide a safe and quiet place for them with familiar things around.

Water In the Tree Holder:

The pine needles falling off the tree is dangerous if it is ingested by the pet. To avoid this, one should keep the tree well watered. It can happen that the pet might drink the water from the tree holder so keep it covered as it can contain the preservatives, pine resin and other chemicals that also harm the pet.

Enjoy your Christmas this time with your pet and some safety guards to be followed.

To prevent the pet from the flea infestation during Christmas, one can go for the commercial products such as Fiprofort Plus For Fleas and Ticks Control.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/lets-make-this-a-safe-christmas-for-your-pet-7159251.html

About the Author

Writing on pet related topics gives me great pleasure. I enjoy my day while writing on pet care, pet health, pet medicines and more. So, here I am associated writer for GenericFrontlinePlus.com which is into the business of pet care products.

My three children - how birth order shapes personality

26/11/2013

It is widely theorised that birth order makes a difference to a child’s personality. That could be true (or not) but I do find the various theories interesting.

Shakespeare is my oldest. Champagne the middle child, with Adari the youngest.

How should I describe Shakespeare? He was quite a handful at first…. And boy, did, he invite some autocratic parenting skills! I wanted him to be the perfect little child and struggled to accommodate him in my nicely pre-existing "planned" daily life. "Upsetting the apple-cart" is using an Euphemism...

Of course he got into lots of trouble at young age, even got seriously lost due to his exploring habits (Thankfully we found him before he ended up in deep trouble. Actually, he reminds me of myself when I was young! My poor parents...)

Since then, the quiet, loyal child. Sometimes I forget about him. He seldom makes demands. Always willing to melt into the background and accepting, giving, forgiving. Yet a leader as well. He is a loyal one, the one who would also protect me to the death. The one I depend upon. I seldom worry about him. It’s as if I also depend on him being OK, always.

Champagne again, is typical to her name. The bubbly, active little terror. The one who seeks trouble and regularly, also finds it. Shake a bottle of warm (or cold) bubbly and then try to open it… you will get “Champagne”! She is the demanding one always looking for attention. The jealous, sibling rivalry one. She makes it easy and fun to pay attention to her as she purposely asks and demands it. Which of course then, moves Shakespeare to the background as he by now has learned to wait, not to make demands, but simply to be there for whatever little crumbs of affection fall off the table. He goes his quite little way.

Adari? Well, she is the one who needs constant protection (constant rivalry between her and Champagne for attention as well). The youngest. She does not have a lot in common with her older siblings. At times I feel quite exasperated by her demands. Of course, with her it also became a rather permissive parental approach. She mostly gets what she wants! Mostly the household centres around her and her needs. She is also the one I worry about most, should I die.

Psychologists believe the secret to sibling personality differences lies not only in birth order but also how parents treat their children because of it. It's rather the roles siblings adopt, and parental reinforcement of these roles (whether they realise it or not) that lead to the eventual personality differences.

First-borns are not necessarily the successful children. They are also prone to higher stress and anxiety levels, as they perceive parents expect more from them (especially more independence or success) and sometimes parental expectations can run too high. The African culture is a good example of how the oldest is expected to take the leadership role (and also what happens if not being able to fulfil this role, or being usurped by siblings).

Once a role is filled by the firstborn, the later-borns normally (instinctively) seek a role that's totally the opposite.

Middle children especially are difficult to describe, since their personalities emerge in response to how they perceive the older sibling/s.

Parents tends to be less stressed, more comfortable and experienced and more conscientious towards the younger/youngest children. The babies in the household. Great benefits to the youngest child! But unfortunately, this also leads to spoiling them. As a result, last-borns get away with sometimes murder. They shoulder less responsibility, and when they are babied (of course, none of us ever would do that, would we…) they can become spoiled and manipulative. They tend to have a hard time when things don't always go their way - to the point of helplessness. Parents therefore almost never stop parenting them.

Back to Shakespeare, Champagne and Adari. Of course, as a parent I can’t see any resemblance in my children with above theoretical birth order personality types. Maybe I am just being a parent, preferably and typically blind when it comes to my own children.

And then –

Shakespeare is an Africanis, Champagne a Labrador, and Adari a Duck (got you there, didn’t I!) So if my animal children tend to have any birth order traits similar to humans, it might say something about how birth order is also shaped by parental influence!

If you are interested in the basic birth order personality types, take a look amongst others at The Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are (Kevin Leman, PhD,) It might or might not be true for you.

Unique bonds: Human- Animal Relationships (Duck loves Mum best Part 11)

25/5/2013

Much has been written about the relationship between animals and humans. I have during the last 4 months, read with mounting interest the various psychological studies attempting to explain animal-human-nonhuman relationships, theoretical hypothesis of why the human-pet bond is one-sided [or not], plenty research on what we as humans receive from animals - from eggs to exotic dishes, enough to make me a vegetarian!

Kidd & Kidd (1987) states "The best that can be said is that sometimes, under some circumstances, and in some ways, human-animal relationships are analogous to animal-animal, or to human-human, or to human-object relationships". Finally, they conclude that although all the theories explain some of the human-animal bond, none of them adequately explain the bond because they all are incomplete.

I have to agree. Self-psychology, however, came up with the interesting concept of self-object. In self-psychology, two of the main concepts are "self" and "selfobject." To maintain a healthy sense of self, people need certain responses from the environment that will maintain and promote this sense of self. Animals for example, can be called selfobject functions. Research has shown that companion animals can have a calming effect on people, reduce heart-rate and so forth; and also, provide the unconditional love which is
becoming increasingly more elusive in our rat-race living. Companion animals may actually be able to provide consistent and trustworthy selfobjects in a way that humans or other things cannot.

To be defined as a selfobject, the animal or experience must "evoke, maintain and give cohesion to the self". In particular, it is the individual's inner experience of some aspect of the selfobject that is felt to maintain, bring out, or hold together the sense of self for example the supportive function the animal provides to the human is the selfobject function. The reliance or dependency on a selfobject can be quite intense and crucial to a person's sense of wellbeing…when separated the person experiences emptiness, depression, or
disintegration until re-united or an alternate selfobject is found.

Given the internal turmoil that is so often experienced when losing an important animal as a selfobject, it is easy to understand why people spend thousands on veterinary bills (or on Pet Medical Funds such as in my case) trying to keep their animal companions healthy and alive. In such a case, the person may be
(consciously or unconsciously) striving desperately to maintain the core of the whole personality by keeping the companion animal alive.

Self-psychology as a theory lends understanding to why people may place such a high value on their relationships with companion animals. People may be relying on the animal to mirror the love and joy in their world. In some cases, it becomes their only love and joy.

What Self-psychology, nor other theories really explain, is the bond between humans and wild animals (Kevin Richardson, the South African Lion Whisperer, might have something to add here: http://www.lionwhisperer.co.za).

Sometimes there simply forms a bond that is unexplainable. Unique to the individuals, and to the animals. The researcher Conrad Lorenzo attempted to explain Imprinting but still it does not explain to me personally why some humans tend to form bonds with animals (where there is no imprinting) that should in fact, be roaming wild and free. Animals such as Adari.

I have written before on Adari, the duck ("Duck loves mum best – can ducks re-imprint?" http://www.goodpsychology.net/1/archives/03-2013/1.html). I have pondered her connection to me in terms of possible secondary imprinting. What I have not considered, is the mutual bonding.

Adari is now about 4 months. She has learnt to fly. During the last 4 weeks I have moved my office outside (laptop, books, and so on) so I can keep an eye on her while working (In order to rehabilitate her successfully, she also needs to get to know her environment). And how we both love being together! Wednesday afternoon late she suddenly took off and did not come back as usual. I couldn't find her, even when stumbling through the dark and fighting through elephant dung and thorny trees with only a torch as companion until late night. I didn't care about the lions…. For that matter I was in such a mood I think any lion would have sidestepped me very carefully. The next morning found me crawling grit trying to track her (yes, really) and examining all types of aviary dung.

By Thursday mid-day, I was in total shock. Barely a month before, I have lost my father. I really did not see my way forward losing her as well. All I could think of was Adari dead, not being able to survive a night in the winter cold, believing her mother forsake her, I was not there to protect her. During the night each jackal or hyena call brought chills to my bones. I barely slept. Besides, my stingy and swollen eyes hurt too much. While the intention was always there to rehab her, it was way too soon for a 4-month juvenile who still thought it safe to curl up and sleep under the open skies during the day and at night, favoured crawling under the covers cuddling to her "mother's" tummy.

Friday morning 0615 she arrived. From far. Sneezing constantly and bone (wing?) -tired. She spent the whole day sleeping, and for me it was more than enough simply lying next to her, watching her.

The road forward? I don't know yet. This morning Adari unexpectedly jumped into the bath tub with me, splashing and playing (fortunately no pictures!) I have placed her in her original duck house outside, Monday the wings will be trimmed. .. not permanently, but until spring or summer and she is fully grown and can join her peers.

Psychologists may say what they will. Self-Psychology will probably have a ball analysing my need for Adari. For myself, animals functioning as mirroring selfobjects bring out my capacity to love and nurture. When any of them are sick, or threatened, I feel as if a part of myself is lost or has died. What I think I receive most from my animals is their unconditional love. And that I need, as I also have plenty unconditional love to return.

I still have no answers for the unique bond, though I believe I get more from her than she from me.

In the meantime, before you criticise or laugh at someone losing a beloved pet, think again. Understanding the selfobject functions the animal has been providing should make you more empathic toward those who mourn. They so often experience the animal as an integral part of themselves, more so than their
human partners. Losing these perceived aspects of oneself is so much more traumatic than simply losing the animal. Sometimes a companion animal may also be a person's strongest – or only- link to life
itself.

References

Kidd, A. H., & Kidd, R. M. (1987). Seeking a theory of the human/companion animal bond. Anthrozoös, 1 (3), 140-157.
Lagoni, L., Butler, C., & Hetts, S. (1994). The human-animal bond and grief. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders& Co.
Wolf, E. S. (1988). Treating the self: Elements of clinical self psychology. New York: The Guilford Press.

Duck loves Mum best - Can ducks re-imprint?

20/3/2013

Plenty people who raise/d ducks or geese are familiar with Lorenzo’s theory on Imprinting - the social attachment to a particular object. Basically, if you are the first moving object seen after hatching, they will imprint upon you as “mother” and follow you around devotedly during development.

Such filial imprinting (forming of attachments and developing an own identity) occurs at a particular time (termed the sensitive period). For example in ducks and geese, this period is supposedly 24-48 hours after hatching when the 'following response' is learnt. This allows rapid learning from an experienced adult as well as allows the infant to distinguish his/her parents from others of his/her own species who could attack it. Today, Lorenz’s theory of imprinting is still in use as well as constantly expanded on by researchers. Amongst others they’ve found that the imprinting window may not be as narrow as once thought….

Now comes the part I find interesting!

I’ve raised many birds in my life – some from hatching, others older. I had imprinting with finches, for example. Einstein for one, would fly every morning and come back at sunset only, to fall asleep on my shoulder. (Fortunately, she sexually imprinted on her own species!)

Raising ducks are new to me: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday; simply arrived at my doorstep one day out of the blue. According to pictures I’ve seen on the web, I believe they were about 3-5 days old. Until we could build them a safe holding place, they had to live in the bath tub during the day, and sleep in my bedroom at night.

Once their “home” was built, one by one they started dying. When it boiled down to one last little soldier standing, there was no other way out but to “rig” my bedroom as permanent playpen for her.

Now according to Lorenzo’s theory, increased levels of stress at the time of the original imprinting e.g. being threatened by a predator and dangerous environment, causes the learning to be more robust that normal (possibly because this enhances survival). And I have to wonder, whether the dying of 6 siblings within in one week could be considered sufficiently stressful in order for any duck to then imprint on a human … even if there was original imprinting with the mother.

I therefore repeat the question, can ducks re-imprint?

I took to sleeping on the floor in order for Adari (of course, we had to rename her) to reach me quickly or cuddle up to me. She would cuddle against my neck or stomach. Imprinting was the last thing on my mind, all I knew was that this little one, would survive. I took to carrying her everywhere I go. (We also figured out she prefers CSI and Vampire Diaries to action movies). We threw out deodorants, insecticides, washed the floors with water only, I threw out perfumes, and Hubby, well, the poor man had to put on after shave outside the house on the way to work.

Day 4 after moving inside my bedroom permanently, Adari started following me around the house. She becomes very upset when I close the door on her, or leave the room without her. When I return after an absence, she would welcome me back with flapping wings (even if they are barely larger than a lip-ice) and pecking my face all over. She would even “shoo” away the dogs, when they attempt attention from me.

So yes, I wonder if there is something such as secondary imprinting. An imprinting that occurs “afterwards”, triggered by stress or danger, in order to survive? The re-imprinting, I mentioned? Adari was about 3+ weeks when her siblings died and when she started following me around.

Or is it simply that the imprinting period are much longer than researchers believe? New research indicates that the timing and window of imprinting can, within limits, be adapted to circumstances. Of course, it is a possibility that neither Adari nor her siblings ever saw their parents after hatching. I’ve not seen any adult ducks in the vicinity at all. Some people told me, it's possible that the parents early on saw something wrong with their "kids" and therefor dumped them on my doorstep (do Ducks do that?) while others again, believe the mother must have been killed. (Or, my Labrador might have disturbed the safe hiding place and chased them into my arms ...).

Up to writing of this post, Adari still shies away from other humans and all other animals. And I think, she is now about 7 weeks old. I am the only one she follows and allows to cuddle and kiss her. Duck really loves Mum best! Now while all this might sound like fun, this could be seriously negative. Birds, ducks, any animal - that imprint on humans prefer their company to their own species. They are unlikely to socialise with their own kind or return to the wild. I really hope I find answers before, similar to Lorenzo’s ducks, Adari one day starts courting me!

Any Imprinting specialists out there who wish to advise?
Readers are invited to comment, or share similar stories.

References:
http://animalbehaviour.net/Imprinting.html
http://www.biog1105-1106.org/demos/106/unit09/3.otherimprinting.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/flight-school/the-man-who-walked-with-geese/2656/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/my-life-as-a-turkey/whos-your-mama-the-science-of-imprinting/7367/
http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Imprinting
http://www.thegoosesmother.com/id6.html

Author

Ilze Neethling

- See more at: http://guinareswrites.weebly.com/3/post/2012/02/how-to-add-or-install-sharethis-button-on-your-weebly-blog.html#sthash.n5k30dnE.dpuf

Ask the Therapistgreat free widgetsWidgetboxMore info