Basset Hound - The Facts Every Owner Of This Dog Breed Should Know
The
Basset Hound originated
in sixth century France
and is thought to
be descended from
the St. Hubert
Hounds. The Basset Hound (bas means 'low-set'
in French) proved
useful to
hunters, with its slow
movement and long ears to stir up
scent, they could drive
prey out from dense covering
and into open
fields. The Basset Hound
has stamina to keep up with hunters
and to
track and prey for long
periods of time. Basset
Hounds are
still used for
hunting in some areas
of the world. The Basset Hound is
described as gentle, sociable
and stubborn.
Basset
Hounds are loyal to
their families and good with children and
other animals. They prefer to
be lap dogs and do
not make good guard dogs,
as they
will greet any stranger who
approaches them as a friend. Basset
Hounds tend to
be strong-willed and independent, making them difficult to train, but with enough consistency this can be overcome. When out for a walk with a Basset
Hound, always keep
it on a leash as
the hunting tendencies
may override any and
all training.
Though Basset Hounds have a short stature,
standing 12 to 15 inches tall, they are
not considered small dogs, and will
on average weight 50 to 65 pounds
when mature. They have short coats that are tri-colored (black, white and
tan) or red and white, and require relatively little maintenance.
Regular brushing will keep
the coat free of dirt and reduce shedding. Baths are necessary only a few times a year, as their coats tend to
repel water.
A Basset Hound's ears need regular
cleaning since their long, floppy ears do not allow air to circulate, increasing the
risk of infection and they do tend to
slobber more
than other dogs.
Basset Hounds need to be exercised frequently and often times have to be encouraged to do so as they are
prone to taking
naps in the sun. The Basset Hound is prone to some genetic disorders. Von Willebrand's disease is a platelet
disorder that results in mild to
moderate bleeding and a longer than average bleeding time. Through breeding, the incident of this condition has
been reduced in the breed.
Basset Hounds are also prone to glaucoma, gastric torsion and interdigital
cysts. Some Basset Hounds are allergic to
certain grasses.
Without proper exercise, Basset Hounds are prone to obesity, which can cause
arthritis, back pains and heart trouble.
There is a website that has great
information on Basset Hounds and most other breeds of dogs. It has details that pertain to a dog breeds health, grooming,
living conditions, best
food choices and more, the website is
called: Dog
And Cat Facts, and can be found at this url:
http://www.dogandcatfacts.comBy Robert W. Benjamin
Copyright © 2006
You may publish this article in your ezine, newsletter on your web site as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and without modification except for
formatting needs or
grammar corrections.
Robert W. Benjamin has
been in the software business on the internet for over 5
years, and has been
producing low-cost software for the past 25 years. He
first released
products on the AMIGA and C64 computer
systems in the late 1970's-80's.
E-Commerce - Easy money or Hard Knocks
When my
wife and I got into the WWW.
E-commerce world, we had visions
of easy money
and an auto pilot type
of business. You know
the kind
that runs itself
and the money just rolls in. Oh yeah,
low start-up
cost, little time,
and low
commitment. Just
read the commercials
and Internet ads.
The Internet
can be
your friend
or it can bite
you like
a scared dog. Try researching, starting an Internet business. You will
find every easy money method
in the world. Here
is a list of things
to consider and
these things are just
the surface.
This is not meant
to scare
you but to inform
you of the reality, before you fall into the money pit. Just remember you
have to give before you receive and sometimes we learn from the pain.
Websites necessities or basics:
Host/Server
to
store all your files and images. E-mail and other perks. $8 to $12 month
Purchase your
domain www.mysite.com $8 to $???
Merchant/Credit Card service Credit Card processing. This is a low price. $25Month, $15 service charge, and 30 cents per transaction and 2.5% of sales. (OUCH!)
Paypal You can use Paypal for your payment option. Its free. I dont use it. Nothing is free.
Rent a ready-made store - Now you can go with a company who will host your site and
provide a storefront for
you. They will even give you products to sell. These are usually
database type and
provide no SEO. In other words, the
only people who purchase from your site are your friends and family. No one can find your site
in the Internet desert. You're on page 200 (if lucky). They run from $40 to $200 month.
Find a wholesaler? No
problem, everyone is a wholesaler. What
do you want to sell? Leather, Home Dcor, Knives and Swords, Collectibles or maybe Kitchen cookware?
Where are the real
wholesalers? The ones
they buy from. There are many scams and scam tools for sale
out there. Now try
ordering from them. Late? Back Ordered?
Packing? Drop ship costs?
Shipping & Handling Costs? Drop ship or Inventory? Taxes???
Build your site - There are many templates out there that look
good but if you dont know how to program
HTML forget it. You will probably buy a book or software that shows us dummies that we can create HTML websites without having to know HTML. On the outside it looks good, but on the inside they stink. How are you going to find the time and keep up with the latest in
this "part time business"? Search
Engine robots don't like
bad programming among other things.
Gather
Information - Now that you have a wholesaler, download all the prices and images. Create your
spreadsheets to upload all the product information (change them to CSV or some delimited format. Or you
may have to do
this one at a time Ahhh!
Fix the images -
Adjust the resolution, size, etc. to fit your WebPages. Get the right software to do thisIt will save you days of work and cost. I hope you get
this done before the prices change or the item is discontinued. Remember that if you have more than one wholesaler, you have more than one tax and drop ship charge. You
also have different information and images. They
could be in other formats.
My wife and I thought an Internet Shopping
Mall would be so cool. We could have different stores, oh
boyThats where the name MallAboutTown.com came from. Oh yeah. Now you have to have a logo and a theme and all the right colors and, and, and.
It's kinda like building a house.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - You
should have been thinking
about this from the start. Buy links, buy PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, buy
search engine
submissions, buy content, submit articles and link to directories and other Websites,
read, read, read and determine who is
telling the truth.
After all the smoke clears, you will be in the hole a few
bucks. When that
first sale comes in you will feel like that golfer getting a hole in
one. Then you're
back at it, harder than ever. Its an addiction. I guess it could be
described as the spouse that
wont leave an abused relationship. Like any business, Internet business is not for the short-term commitment. There is so much I had to leave out because many things
depend on what direction you take on this journey. Good Luck, remember if its too good to be true..
Our
advice is to personally talk to someone that is successfully operating E-commerce site, (not on E-bay) and get the facts. This is what made E-bay so popular. But even E-bay can be tough.
Good Luck,
Marc and Kemella Allyn
Marc and Kem own
http://www.mallabouttown.com and bring their personal
experience for your use. Thank You for supporting our ministry
http://www.allaboutthecross.com
Tips For Traveling With Your Dog
Taking
your dog with you when
you travel, whether you go
by land,
air or sea,
can present real problems.
I know
- I do 100k miles
a year,
and most of
them I
get to take Beck with me. It's
worth the extra
hassle, no question. But what tips can I offer you?
Air travel with your dog
It takes most dogs
a long time to
get used to traveling by plane. It took Beck
about 6
flights before he stopped getting stressed about it. The big thing is to
make sure your
dog knows that
it's just a temporary thing - to a woofer, a flight can seem to last forever! Each
airline has their own set of
rules - you need to check these before
the flight. No
good turning up
and finding you
are denied access to
the plane
because you didn't bone up
on the regs!
Number one tip is - get a vet to
sign a health certificate
for your dog certifying that he
has no diseases. Also
make sure
the dog is up to scratch
on his anti-flea
programme, and
bring documentary evidence with you if you can. No airline wants a flea infested plane! Check his dog tags. Make sure YOUR contact details
are there and easy to read.
If you do get separated,
this ensures
you'll be re-united fast. For the same
reason, you carry a photo of your dog
in your wallet.
Number
2 tip - no food
for Fido for 6 hours before the flight, and no water for 2 hours
before. We
wouldn't want
any nasty 'accidents' now, would
we???!!! Also put a note on his
crate saying what his eating and drinking
needs are - if the flight gets delayed, the ground staff will
have a duty to
live up to these.
Number
3 tip - buy a crate big enough for your dog to
stand up
in. Only buy custom made crates
from your pet
shop. Buy one that is designed for the rigors of air transport. NEVER
try to 'get
by' with any old crate. Trust
me - your dog will thank you for the gift! Also remember that the airline you are using
may have
specific requirements for cases that go in the hold. Check the
livestock regs.
Car Travel with your Dog
Tip
1 - Just like air travel, make sure your dog has all his ID with him, and you carry a
photo. Even in the car, keep him leashed. Dogs have
been known to get excited and leap out the window.
Bad things
happen on the freeway!
Tip 2 - Always book your
hotel or motel ahead of time. If they
don't allow dogs, you will be turned away whether or not you have a booking. I learned this the hard
way with Beck -
sleeping in a car ain't fun!
Tip
3 - acclimatization. Get your dog used to trips - start out with short trips, and gradually extend them. Let him experience the aircon, and maybe
even stick his head out the window (dogs love this - make sure he's on the leash first, and that there is no
contra traffic!)
These tips have enabled Beck and I to enjoy many
great trips together, and believe me, it's nice to have some company on those
long empty miles! If you like Beck, please vote for him on the petmillions.com contest
at Vote for Beck in the petmillions contest!
Terry Hanson is in sales, but doesn't like to be separated from his pooch Beck,
who is
entered in the
http://www.petmillions.com/ pet contest.
Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of the Pack (Book review)
In
an economy that takes pride
in being
led by large companies
and strategic consulting prescribed by academia,
like the Harvard Business School, 10%
of the small businesses fail every
year and 60% close after six years.
According
to author Donna
Fenn, there are seven
reasons for this,
from the backlash of big business
to consumer lust
for luxuries. In " Alpha
Dogs: How Your Small Business Can
Become a Leader of
the Pack" the author
consults with eight small businesses situated
in different regions of the USA that have used certain strategies
to outshine
their competition and
thrive, and she passes those strategies on to
her readers. These eight businesses have flourished despite their sometime stories of
failure and they have learned to
get ahead in the highly competitive business world.
In the book, Fenn
has focused on these eight businesses:
Zane's cycles,
a bicycle shop; Dorothy Lane
Market Inc.,
three grocery
stores; Auction Systems Auctioneers & Appraisers; Amy's
Ice Creams,
12 ice cream parlors; THOR.LO Inc., manufacturer of sport-specific socks;
Dancing Deer Baking Company (Boston);
PR Consultants
Group Inc., an alliance of 34 public
relations firms; and Mike's Famous
Harley-Davidson Inc.
The majority of the
tips from these leading entrepreneurs deal with employee training, creating a workplace that appeals to the
workers, getting
new customers while retaining
existing ones, being
bold and fearless, giving good service, forming alliances, adapting to the new technologies of the times, continually re-inventing, tweaking innovations and
keeping them close to home while upgrading wisely.
In the book, there is a
section for each company that ends with ten tips from its entrepreneurs. At the last
chapter, the author summarizes the very valuable
marketing lessons from the entrepreneurs, which she names
as the alpha dog DNA.
Fenn's
writing style is direct, clear, conversational, and sprinkled with quotes by the entrepreneurs: "'When you are comfortable, you're never performing at 100% says Dave Barr.
It might be Schwartz's mantra. Mike's Roadside Rest had earned him press accolades"
The author, Donna Fenn,
has been writing as a contributing editor about entrepreneurs and small business
trends in Inc. Magazine for more than 20 years. In 2001 she
was a co-recipient of the Women's
Economic Round
Table Entrepreneurship Prize, sponsored by the Kauffman
Center for
Entrepreneurial Leadership. Her work has
appeared in The New
York Times, Newsweek, The Washington
Monthly, Working
Woman, and many other
publications. "Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can
Become a Leader of the Pack" is in
hardcover with
224 pages and ISBN: 0060758678.
After the foreword and introduction, it has ten chapters followed by
acknowledgements, sources, and an index.
If you already know how to succeed in business
or own an MBA, but especially if you don't, "Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of the Pack"
should be the
book to pick because of its valuable tips
worth several years of
serious study. The information inside this book can
give a serious boost to any enterprise.
This article has been
submitted by Joy
Cagil in affiliation with
http://www.Facsimile.Com/ which is a site for Fax Machines.
Rapid Cash Generator:How to benefit and make an online business with Rapid Cash Generator.
Finding markets
for book info products, this can be
quite stressful, time consuming
and disheartening.
The markets
are there and can be found
with knowhow. In this article I'm going
to show
you a simple
strategy you can use for
finding as many
niche markets
to sell ebooks to as you could want.
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/The above resource won't cost you
a penny to sign
up to.
Go to
the above site and start typing
in niche
markets
that interest you. If you
had an interest
in dogs
you'd type in "dogs, if you had an
interest in "sailing"
then you'd
type in "sailing." Then all you need to do
is make
a list of all
of the sub niches within the general niche market of dogs and sailing.
These are all potential niches for you to exploit.
http://www.amazon.comThe bookselling giants amazon.com are an amazing resource for finding niche markets you'd never
have thought about entering. Go to the web site and in the
search bar select "books". Then type in
a niche you'd like to create
a product around.
For example type in "gardening". Go through the results and start jotting down all of the niche markets that jump out at you.
When many
people hear this technique
they immediately think "wait
a sec
how can I compete with
Amazon?". You won't be of course you'll be catering for a different market.
As ebook publishers we can offer instant gratification as our customers get our info
products straight away as a download and do
not have to wait days for a book to arrive.
Downloadable info products are seen to have a higher perceived value. You might be able to charge fifteen dollars for a book selling it via Amazon. However if you sell a downloadable info product you can charge up to fifty dollars. Crazy but true.
http://www.dummies.com/This
is another fantastic research tool for the niche
ebook publisher. You can find a ton of niche topics across all of the "For Dummies" books.
The Dummies company has made creating niche products an art form in its own
right. Search through their titles in general niches that interest you and
jot down potential
ebook topics.
http://www.goarticles.com/Article directories are the best way to find subjects to create
ebooks around. The directory Go Articles is just
one of many in which you can go to the site, type in a niche subject in the search bar and get literally thousands and thousands of ebook
ideas. All
without cost.
The
key here when visiting these sites is to just make a huge list of potential
topics, and
then when you're done go to
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ and type in
your topics. If there are people searching for information on the subject (at least
five thousand a month) you've just found an ebook topic that could turn into a very
lucrative home based business.
I
want to quickly dispel a myth about the internet. Don't for
one second think you can just throw up a site, sit
back and become rich. Many would have you believe the internet is just one huge get
rich quick scheme. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Done properly ebook publishing can change your financial situation dramatically but you have to put some time and effort in. This is where the Rapid Cash Generator system can be of
great help.
We're not
aiming to become a
millionaire here. We want to build a network of mini sites that
each make about
1K a month. Being able to come up with an endless amount of niche product ideas is the key here, then all you need to do is create the product.
I know what you're thinking.
"All you need to do" is create a product. They're hard to create right? Well
no actually you
don't need to write a single sentence of your ebook. You can hire people to do so at
elance.com. For around five hundred to seven hundred bucks freelance writers will create the
entire book for you.
You are an internet marketer, not a writer. Have one product created, set up pay per
click campaigns, write a press
release and
blast a few articles over the net on the topic of your ebook. Then have another one created, do the same, and just rinse and repeat.
Multiple streams of autopilot
income is the secret of wealthy entrepreneurs from around the globe. Now thanks to ebooks and the internet, anyone can set up streams of income that sends money into their bank
account even whilst they sleep.
Brian Siggy is an information publisher specialising in online businesses. His Rapid Cash Generator is
now available and you can read up on how to create your own info products in one
day without
writing a single word by going to:
http://www.rapidcashgenerator.com
