A Red Toy Poodle Story

Just last year, Jonathan Tan Wei-De, the owner of Cuddles Cat Cafe at SCAPE was jailed 2 weeks for causing the death of 7 cats. Jonathan Tan Wei-De ( Cuddles Cat Cafe) "Jonathan Tan Wei-De was the owner of Cuddles Cat Café at *SCAPE, which was shut in December 2014 — less than four months after it opened. TODAY reported at the time that seven of the 30 cats bought for the cafe had died before the establishment was opened in mid-September." (source) Most would've thought that Jonathan had learned his lessons - to stop making money out of these poor animals as it was clear that he had no experience nor passion for them.  Well, not for Jonathan. After his jailterm, he went to Bangkok to start the same business all over again. If I was Jonathan and i really wanted to squeeze income out of animals again, i'd better play safe and start taking good care of them right?  Uh, not for Jonny! "A Thai netizen has now claimed that Tan fled Singapore with...

Please note that this post is created to share our personal experience, if you are unable to accept honest and/or straightforward opinions then this blog may not be suitable for you. The first time I met the director (or one of the directors) was a guy named Bernard. Bernard to me was one of the most down to earth groomer I've met, the reason to meeting him was to talk about Yorkshire Terriers as I was planning to get one in future. When I first met Bernard, he was still having his late lunch and had to finish it quickly to speak to me. I learned a lot from him on that day and I am still thankful even if it is already a year later. Since the shop had won awards and Bernard had been telling me to try out his service, i decided to try them to help Amber create a new style. During slot booking with Bernard, I shared the style i was interested in through photos and told him that he could suggest anything according to his experience, he then referred me to a senior groomer ...

(Image: RSPCA) Most of you should've heard the term Teacup. Teacup puppies are becoming very popular in the recent years due to media like facebook and instagram, this is becoming concerning as many owners are buying them on impulse without first understanding about their history and background. In this post we are going to share their history, how they are created, care tips and also pros & cons. Hopefully this article can help clear up all myths and misunderstandings about Teacups as well as bring awareness to owners/potential dog owners.

Hey guys how are you doing? I hope you are still learning new stuff from the blog, it's been a tiring year as I had been juggling between working and studying at the same time, as well as making plans for our new boarding facility. As you have probably learned from the title, I was studying to become a certified trainer! If you've followed the blog, you should know that I would never e ncou rage aspiring trainers to take on certification, reason being that  1) it doesn't reflect on a person's credibility when it comes to subjects like this,  and  2) certification can also be used as a shield to defend and/or p romote a trainer's reputation even if what he/he does is unethical.  Well in this post I am going to share my journey, the ups and downs and also my view on dog training certification after experiencing it in person.  As usual, I'm not going to be sharing names as this is not a post about reviews, but my personal journey. Why I decided to take on...

Hey Guys, sorry about the lack of updates. Time really flies, it felt like it was just a couple of months ago that I had just shared about Amber. Amber will be 6 years old this year, which also mean that we have officially been training dogs for more than 5 years now! For those that are new here - We blogged about Amber when she was younger and shared how she was trained, owners that needed help stumbled onto our guides and requested for demonstration in person, and that was how we became trainers :) Amber at this point of time is reaching middle age, her personality is more or less fixed and like all dogs, she has her good and bad points. I will start with the good points first, Amber is an extrovert in nature who loves exploring and meeting people, we brought her out a lot when she was younger - daily walks plus 1-2 outings per week. She loves humans especially and would not hesitate the shower them with kisses at first meet. Amber loves to share, of course not her favorite...

Do you allow your dog sleep in your room or your bed? Is this a good thing? What are the benefits and disadvantages? In this post I am going to share my experience and views in this area based on over 15 years experience in handling and studying animals. I will try my best to list out the pros and cons, also what you can do to make better decisions for your dog when it comes to sleeping at night.  First of all, we need to understand that dogs are social animals, meaning they do well and survive better in packs. So naturally, when you bring home a dog and spend some time with it, your dog should regard itself as part of your pack, or vice versa where you become part of its pack (lol). Now when it comes to sleeping, a pack of dogs will usually sleep together either in a den or comfortable space/territory, doing so can keep each other warm at night, develop better bond and it also serve as better protection. With this information should we assume that dogs...

It's been awhile since we decided to change Amber's food, this time from Stella Chewy to Honest Kitchen. Although Amber did really well on Stella Chewy, it did not last long and after about 4 months, her poo started to became soft again, more especially when treats (including Stella chewy treats) were given.  She is reaching middle age at 6 years old and not as active as before, I mean she is really active for her character but it's obvious that she is not as energetic as before. She doesn't play catch as much and even if she does it would not last long now. Could be that her current energy has contributed to her lack of tolerance on raw and high meat content food. So after doing some research, we decided to give Amber Honest Kitchen to try out. Honest kitchen is under the dehydrated food range, their food is dehydrated first, then grounded for easy consumption. FYI the series we chose - Honest kitchen embark had about 40% meat. So I did a search online to fin...

Recently a client sent me a few photos of a training school, he claimed that this was the trainer he had engaged previously and did not have good experience with him. I listened and thought that it would be good to share the story (he approved my request to share). So this trainer used negative reinforcement, he suggested flicking the dog's nose if it barked, and clamp the muzzle if barking continues. He also suggested to kick the dog if it doesn't walk, to have owner's head held high and drag the dog on the floor till it walks, he also encouraged his small dog to be on slip leash, which was compulsory to purchase. The worst part in his opinion was the lack of privacy, in which the trainer had a photographer and kept taking their photos throughout the program. For those that do not know, slip leash is a type of leash that tightens when the dog pull and create choke effect similarly to choke chains, difference is that the material is made of nylon. I am not going to go...

Thank you for the feedback that the new layout for our blog is now easier to read! I do noticed however that in some post the colors of headers/sub headers are not readable, this is due to the change of our blog background base, from dark brown to light pink now. I will do my best to have them changed to a darker and more prominent color, please give me some time as we are in the busy period :)

This is Boyboy's behavior when we accessed him yesterday, he was extremely fearful and aggressive. Background After discussion, we learned that Boyboy was so aggressive because of the ex trainer recommending choke chains to his family, who had just gotten their first dog and thought that it would benefit his growth to consult a trainer. Not soon after, Boyboy started to choke and even vomited, the trainer then said that it was perfectly normal for dogs to vomit while on the tool. Having doubts, Boyboy's owner stopped the course. But it was too late, he started getting very aggressive especially when the neck area is touched, then not long after he used the same aggression on every other things that he was afraid of, which led to paws, tail and ears. Boyboy had stayed with us for regular boarding previously and we managed to just work on his aggression towards paws. Now he is here for the full program and we will do our best to eliminate all other issues. I am not...

Today I came across an article on dog signaling, a soft debate on whether to let a dog know when they have done something wrong. For example if the dog is doing something right, the ideal way to enforce this behavior is usually by praising, affection or treats, sometimes together with a vocal command (eg. "Yes", "Good"). However if the dog is doing something wrong, would it be advisable to let it know that the particular action is wrong, by correcting together with vocal command (eg. "No", "Off")? So to explore further this author consulted a psychologist, the psychologist then used crossword as an example to explain the effects. When you fill in a crossword puzzle and succeed in completing, you naturally get a sense of fulfillment/fun, which equals reward. However if you fill in the wrong information and receive a negative signal to notify you for making a mistake, wouldn't it make the crossword puzzle less interesting? The psycholo...

Hi guys, we're back from our recent trip to Taiwan! During this trip we've managed to learn a bit about the dog culture there and would be glad to share our views (and photos) with you :) For those who have not been there, Taiwan is an extremely dog friendly country, you can see dogs almost everywhere you go even in rural areas. The moment we touched down at Taoyuan airport, we've already been spotting dogs all over the place with their owners. I started to wonder, what is it that makes them different from us, what we can do to create more awareness, to let people know that Singapore too can be a dog friendly place?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/leaked-video-from-a-dogs-purpose-set-calls-films-treatment-of-animals-into-question_us_587fbef7e4b0cf0ae881a304 http://www.npr.org/2013/11/26/247392855/report-humane-association-covered-up-animal-abuse-on-hollywood-sets Recently there was a news regarding the treatment of a dog who was cast in a movie, where it was forced by its handler to enter the artificial rapids, poor dog was struggling in fear to get out but was thrown back into the water couple of times, there was also an instant where the dog was seen drowning and filming had to be stopped. Well I'm not surprised that such things are happening in the competitive world, in a way I can totally understand why. A movie is worth millions of dollars, every scene is just as important and costly, if the handler were to refuse putting his dog into the pool then he could've been in deep trouble, using cgi in animal films like this is not cost effective, it may also flop and cost investors...

I was inspired to write this article after someone asked a question on a group recently - if it is okay for dogs to eat chicken rice, apparently he was referring to chicken rice made for human! Admittedly, I was rather pissed but still wondered if this person was really unsure if the food is suitable for dogs, I decided to reply with a very straightforward answer: "If you care about your dog, No, if you don't care, then Yes". Alright it's a bit harsh, but my point is there. He got offended and said that he wouldn't have asked if he knew. At first I felt bad and tried to understand his view, but after reading through the comments and his replies towards others that agree, I noticed that the post wasn't really a question but rather an attention seeking post to see who was doing the same thing. Understanding that it was pointless to contribute to the post further, I deleted my my replies, I could foresee that it will end up in never ending arguments if t...