Exercising Your Pets

Whether it's a dog, cat, turtle or bird, this guide to exercising your favourite companion has got you covered

YOU know it's good for you. You know that exercise can give you energy, help you maintain a healthy weight, keep your muscles and joints flexible, help you live longer, and above all, make you feel better. For all the same reasons, your pets need to get up and get moving. Not only can exercise extend your furry friends' lives; it may also expend some of their nervous energy and make them a little less likely to chew on the living room drapes.

The thing is, nobody's filled pets in on all of these benefits of pet exercise. Without someone to lead the way, they're not going to run laps or do leg lifts in their spare time. So as a wonderful pet parent, part of your job is ensuring your animal family members get safe, enjoyable exercise on a regular basis―whether they're cats, dogs, turtles, or ferrets! All pets need some physical activity to live a happy, healthy life.

Read more on how to exercise your pets.

10 Tips for Preventing Pet Behaviour Problems

Source: www.healthypets.com

Make your pet so well-behaved, people will think it went to a Swiss finishing school!

1. Set rules immediately and be consistent.

2. Avoid situations that promote inappropriate behavior.

3. Observe the pet and provide what it needs (food, care, attention and entertainment).

4. Supervise the new pet diligently through undivided individual attention and training, and restrict the pet's access to a limited area of the house until training is completed.

5. Set them up to succeed! Encourage good behavior with praise and attention.

6. Correct bad behaviors by providing positive alternatives (a toy for a slipper, scratching post for the sofa).

7. Never physically punish or force compliance to commands. This may lead to fear biting or aggression.

8. Don't play rough or encourage aggression or play biting.

9. Expose pets to lots of people, animals, and environments where you want them to live.

10. See your veterinarian if serious or unresolved behavior problems exist.

Read more pet stories and pet tips on 88DB Lifestyle.

Bashful First Fire of Dawn

An unexpectedly shy and sensible demeanour – could this really be Dawn Kwan, the 11-year-old art prodigy whose paintings have been selling for thousands since she was five?

By Huang Nickmatul / Home Concepts
Photography courtesy of Jonathan Sim Location
Thanks to Praser Place

IN THIS WORLD OF HYPERBOLE, a writer hesitates to use superlatives. Nowadays, saying something is the best, ingenious, fabulous, fantastic and so on seems to automatically heighten people’s scepticism. Yet “prodigy” is the first word that comes to mind when one wants to speak of Dawn Kwan.

Looking at Dawn’s paintings, you get a sense of passion and a huge joy for life in the large brushstrokes and bright colours, but there is also a sense of control in the sophisticated choices and the obvious restraint evident in the strokes that form the shapes and, most importantly, the textures that are fast becoming one of her trademarks.

Yet upon meeting her, there is nary a hint of the fine painter that Dawn is becoming. Instead of the laughing, animated girl one might expect, Dawn is surprisingly reserved. Dressed in black leggings and a loose white tunic, she hovers in the background behind her mother, Swee Lin.

Under Swee Lin’s encouragement, Dawn begins the interview shyly, speaking in monosyllables before gradually opening up, though never quite making it to the pages and pages of chatter that an obviously mistaken writer expected while glancing through the prolific number of paintings by the young artist.

Yet there is something restful and charming in her hesitant smile and quicksilver laugh, gone in a flash; something touching about the way the unassuming and polite young girl shoots occasional fleeting glances at her mother who has retreated a short distance away to give her a measure of space and independence.

Read more about Dawn Kwan Ning Yu, art prodigy.