Month: December 2021

If a Dog Climbs on the Sofa and No One Hears It, Does He Own It?

Who owns your couch? Think carefully…

Did you answer:

A) Raymour and Flanigan (for 8 more months).

B) I do.

C) My dog does, of course. She picked it out, paid for it, and even carried it into the house.

OK, a bit of prognostication: I am going to guess you answered B. Not bad, eh? Now for a shocking view into the canine mind – your dog would pick C. “Impossible,” you say, “what with her limited range of color perception due to the central retina of a dog being composed of mostly rod cell instead of cone cells, she couldn’t have possibly picked furniture to match so well with our d?�cor!” Very observant, I say, well played.

Claiming

If you allow your dog on the furniture, chances are she has taken “ownership” of it. In her mind it’s simple – she wanted to get on the couch, she got on the couch, the couch must be hers. Dogs notoriously “claim” things, usually through seemingly subtle actions. “I want the ball, I’m grabbing the ball, the ball is mine.” Or “I want the human, I am leaning against the human, the human seems to be ok with it, it must be mine.” Often these claiming behaviors go unnoticed by us advanced life forms because we write them off as the dog just being a dog. But these feelings of entitlement are very strong and important to your dog and can cause problems well beyond a simple snooze on the sofa.

Behavior to look for:

You can combat the claiming ritual with some behavior modifications (for you, not your dog).

Leaning: If your dog leans against you and you pet her, in her mind she could be thinking “I wanted attention, he gave it to me. I must be calling the shots”. Instead, she should approach you to indicate that she wants affection but not lean against you or jump on you in order to “take” it.

Greeting: When you have a guest visit, you should greet them at the door first. If your dog is in front of you, she may think that she is the head of the household.

Furniture: Your dog should be invited onto the couch or bed. If you’ve allowed her to jump on the furniture whenever she wanted in the past, she has probably taken some ownership of it. It should be up to you to ask her onto your furniture.

Eating: In a pack dynamic (such as with non-domesticated dogs), followers usually don’t beg for food from the pack leader. The alpha dog will typically eat uninterrupted. Your dog should remain a few feet from the table while you’re eating. If she is at your side or under the table, she may feel that she’s higher up the food chain.

To you, your dog is another member of your family. To her, your family is a pack. …

The basic goal behind buying any insurance is to make you financially whole following a loss. You agree to pay a small certain fee to an insurance company today in exchange for a guarantee from the company that it will bear the burden of a large but uncertain loss in the future. Following that reasoning, property insurance protects you against damage to—or loss of—expensive personal property, such as a dwelling or a car. Forms of property insurance include auto insurance, homeowner’s insurance, renter’s insurance, and flood insurance.

Pretty much anyone who owns expensive property. Indeed, you are forced in many cases either by law or a mortgage contract to carry property insurance.

Without cover, you risk having to pay for replacements or repairs if something happens to your home or belongings. For example, if they’re damaged in a fire or a flood or if your things are stolen.

Here, we look at the importance of having home insurance and things to consider.

6 Reasons Why Home Insurance Is Important Before You Start Home Improvement

Although home improvement can go a long way to spruce up your home and get it ready for sale, you want to make sure you insure your house first before starting. Home insurance is an investment that you take on to protect your home and family comforts. So, it’s better to put your home improvement priorities aside for now. Here are some reasons why homeowners need insurance home improvement.

·         Financial Protection

If your home was damaged or your possessions stolen, how would you meet the costs of repairs or replacements?

With household insurance in place, if anything happens to your property or possessions that are covered by your policy, you’ll be protected financially.

·         Getting A Mortgage

Buildings insurance is often a requirement when you take out a mortgage. Your property is the mortgage lender’s security on the loan so, understandably, the lender will want to protect their financial interest by making sure the property is insured against damage. This may be due to fire, storms or subsidence.

Your mortgage provider will usually offer to sell you buildings insurance, but you can shop around for it.

·         Alternative Accommodation

Let’s hope it will never happen, but what if a fire ripped through your property? Or a flood caused widespread water damage? Where would you live if your house was uninhabitable?

Most home insurance policies will provide you and your family, including your domestic pets, with somewhere to stay if it’s unsafe to stay in your home.

·         Cover Against Accidents

It’s easy to spill wine on a new carpet or bang a nail through a pipe by mistake. If your home insurance policy includes accidental damage cover, it could pay out for replacements or to repair the damage. You can usually add on accidental damage cover if it isn’t included.

·         New For Old

Most possessions will probably be worth less now than when you bought them – your five-year-old laptop, for example. But if …

It is pretty easy to set goals about attaining personal fitness. It is not quite as easy to achieve reaching those goals that you have set without the right education. The following information is packed with helpful advice and information about methods to help you reach the goals that you have set.

If you dread the very idea of performing multiple sets of chin ups, try looking at it this way: rather than focusing on the effort needed to pull your entire body weight up, think about the effort needed just to pull your elbows down. Surprisingly, this makes the entire workout seem somewhat easier.

Looking to increase muscle mass? Use simple math: multiply the total weight of your current sets by the amount of times you lift each set. Your goal is to increase that total number as much as possible. This can be achieved by adding more weight, increasing the number of repetitions, or by adding on additional sets.

After you workout, you should never take a pill immediately following. Researchers have discovered that taking pills like ibuprofen and acetaminophen weren’t any more effective than a placebo in decreasing muscle soreness after a workout. In fact, these pills can actually lower the rate of your muscle growth if you take them following a workout.

You can make your legs much stronger by performing your standard leg crunches in reverse. This causes whichever leg you have in the front to get a great full muscle workout. These crunches are almost exactly like the standard leg crunches, except you are not stepping forward, you are stepping backward.

Some people think that a weight belt will help them with their workout. While a weight belt helps keep your back and abdominals in line, if you continue to workout with the belt, you will actually weaken these areas. These areas will lose some of the workout that you deliver, so you should try to avoid the belt.

A great way to build up the muscles in your legs is to perform squats. Squats can be an essential part of any work out, but they have to be performed correctly. If they are not performed correctly, you might end up injuring yourself and not getting the best workout.

Tracking statistics can be a great motivational force in any fitness regimen. Statistics should be tied as closely as possible to goals for maximum impact. For weight-loss goals, weight or BMI can be tracked. Workout length, works for endurance goals and max weight, is good for muscle strength goals. Motivational stats should be easy to measure and keep track of.

If you are looking to run faster, try lifting more weights. Studies have shown that experienced runners who also lift weights were able to increase their 5k times by up to 30 seconds. It is important to know that this tip should only be used for professional or experienced runners.

Now that you have the information that you were looking for, you are more likely …