It's that time of year again. The time when many are looking for that "Perfect" gift of love. For many that perfect gift will be cute, cuddly, and have four paws. Our phone rings off the hook the two weeks leading up to Christmas. Everyone wants that cute puppy delivered either right before the holiday or like Santa, our vans should come sliding into the house like a sleigh, and magically this puppy or kitten arrives for everyone to enjoy.
The first few days are lots of fun, this little ball of fur running after the kids, jumping and romping through the living room or romping in the snow, just like a Norman Rockwell scene. Such a wonderful vision to catch on camera for future memories.
Then the lights come down, the decorations get packed and real life marches on. The cute gift now needs potty trained, shots, and basic manners training. Translation it will take someones time, money and space for the pet as it grows.
Times have changed. Neighborhoods are crowded, laws are strict. Pets cannot just run free to frolic at will. Unless the pet is being raised on a large farm, most dogs require walking on a leash. It you live in an area where you have to walk your dog on a leash, don't forget the poop bag. Laws require to scoop the poop. Not doing so can cost you fines.
Every puppy shipped should have their first puppy shots. The second round of shots cost about $50 to $100 depending on where you live, right around February. This is usually at a time when many families are paying off the previous holiday bills, paying huge heating bills, when money is the most tight time of year.
There is the ever fact that puppies grow. Depending on the breed some puppies grow to be quite large. These dogs become mini giants, that are still puppies in their head. When the puppy was little, eight weeks, they did fit on your lap, could jump up and down on little kids, taking a walk got them lots of attention and hugs from family and friends. Without the time taken to teach a puppy proper manners, what was once cute puppy becomes a complete nightmare. That mini horse no longer fits on your lap, but always tries, knocks the kids down, sometimes causing injuries. Neighbors and friends run for cover when the uncontrollable tornado comes lumbering into view.
Two months ago I delivered four cats to a home in Florida. While there I was asked if anyone possibly wanted a dog. I jokingly said we had been talking about getting another dog. We had not had a dog for over four years. Rosie left a major hole in our family. It just didn't seem right getting another dog. Took us three weeks to decide if we were going to take the plunge again.
Well my present this year was to adopt a full grown pit/lab mix, full of energy, bad manners and even worse habits. The last month has been an adjustment for me. Getting my backside out of bed early to walk her in the morning. Something I really don't like to do when I'm not on the road. I've had to reteach myself to set aside time everyday for training and playing. More than that I've had to learn something completely new myself. I've always trained a dog the same way I was raised. Do it because I told you to. Kiki is a strong dog, as well as a strong willed dog I quickly learned it would be a battle of wills. We took Kiki to the vet, as I slid down the hallway at the end of the leash trying to hold her back it became clear her will had much more strength behind her. I would need to find a new way to teach her I was the boss.
Some call it bribery others call it positive reinforcement. Its about using small treats and praise when Kiki does the correct thing. This concept works and I like it.
There are new ideas for raising happy health pet with some great books for training strong, dominate dogs. The key is to teach them they can be strong but as the human I am the dominate one. Not teaching a dog proper behavior creates a destructive, dangerous dog.
Give your new pet the gift of love, give them their shots and proper training. You will have a lifelong loyal loving companion.
https://www.preciouspetstransport.com
Where Traveling is "All About Your Pets".
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Controlled Chaos!!!!
Having spent the bulk of my adult life working in the moving industry, whether it was moving people and now moving pets, I learned long ago the only term that can best describe the moving industry as a whole is "Controlled Chaos!"
I had forgotten the utter stress and hardship moving is for families. It's always been said moving is one of the top five major stress factors in life people will experience. Watching this family yesterday was a true reminder.
I'm positive that moving is an endeavour designed for those with lots, I do mean LOTS of energy.
Dan and his daughter picked up six cats last week in California and drove them across the country, with other east bound pets, while the family was getting their house packed and ready to move. The cats arrived on the east coast Friday afternoon here with us, where we would board them till Tuesday morning.
Monday night, long after we had gone to bed we received a email from the family that they had finally landed here on the east coast but were on west coast time. One baby and a toddler in tow, getting settled into the motel at what was roughly midnight. Ugh!! I remember my kids at midnight, let alone trying to get them out of an airport and into a strange city, not a happy thought.
Come morning we had it easy. All we had to do was sort the cats out, load them into the van and drop them to their new home. All six cats were singing, OK, that's what we call it. I'm sure that is not what the cats would call it. Having spent five days in a moving vehicle coming across the country they were not thrilled to find wheels under their paws and worse yet they were moving again.
Knowing the family was still running on west coast time, a three hour difference, and they had two little children, Jill and I knew we would need to wait, along with the cable guy, for the family to arrive. We just sat and watched the neighbors watching us.
When the family arrived it was truly impressive with how packed and stacked the car was. Even more impressive when mom managed to extract herself. A toddler, an infant, and two stressed parents, and what was sure was going to be a day of steady stream of people rolling in and out in the effort to get a new home up and live able. I am always impressed when I meet someone who can still find their smile through all of this.
Of course we were the first of the lot, delivering six stressed, nervous cats. This turned out to be a simple and easy act. It's a matter of finding a quite enclosed space, where cats can sniff and wander around while they get to know their new surroundings. Always check to find escape holes cats may try to squeeze out. Give cats a litter tray and food, ninety nine percent are happy as long as they can feel safe and secure. The day furniture arrives, bundle them into a quiet room while the movers do their thing. Once cats smell the furniture and things from home their will be happy as a lark and know their are home.
Controlled Chaos, is about getting an entire home and life from one location to another over a short period of time. the larger the home, the more effort and time it takes. When I worked with people moving I use to tell people, set a timeline. Work within that time line. So much to be done on upon leaving, the rest to be secured on the delivery end. Those that insist on working with a rigid schedule are usually anxious, angry, and upset throughout the entire process. Know that moving is done in stages can make it easier. The futher the move needs to be the longer it will take to complete the process. Set a beginning date, where things will start to be performed, and have a rough idea of when you figure to be settled into your new home. Get quotes for moving your furniture, moving your pets, moving your vehicles. Set your move dates, this includes sorting, packing, getting your pets to your new home and of course the move itself.
On the delivery end, a timeline of when everyone is to be arriving with your car, pets, furniture, as well as service companies.
An important fact to know is most companies work within a window of time. This helps companies to accommodate your move as well as the other clients they are trying to work with at the same time. Remember unless your paying the really big bucks for a private ride the companies have others to fit in also. The window of time also gives you structure to accomplish various parts of your move. As long as everyone does what they contracted to do, all usually goes well. Its just a matter of moving from one task to another until all task are completed.
Pets can feel your stress. So when you stress about your move, your pets will stress right along with you. They just don't know why they feel the way they do. Know the process and how best to make it work should help ease some of that stress.
https://www.preciouspetstransport.com
I had forgotten the utter stress and hardship moving is for families. It's always been said moving is one of the top five major stress factors in life people will experience. Watching this family yesterday was a true reminder.
I'm positive that moving is an endeavour designed for those with lots, I do mean LOTS of energy.
Dan and his daughter picked up six cats last week in California and drove them across the country, with other east bound pets, while the family was getting their house packed and ready to move. The cats arrived on the east coast Friday afternoon here with us, where we would board them till Tuesday morning.
Monday night, long after we had gone to bed we received a email from the family that they had finally landed here on the east coast but were on west coast time. One baby and a toddler in tow, getting settled into the motel at what was roughly midnight. Ugh!! I remember my kids at midnight, let alone trying to get them out of an airport and into a strange city, not a happy thought.
Come morning we had it easy. All we had to do was sort the cats out, load them into the van and drop them to their new home. All six cats were singing, OK, that's what we call it. I'm sure that is not what the cats would call it. Having spent five days in a moving vehicle coming across the country they were not thrilled to find wheels under their paws and worse yet they were moving again.
Knowing the family was still running on west coast time, a three hour difference, and they had two little children, Jill and I knew we would need to wait, along with the cable guy, for the family to arrive. We just sat and watched the neighbors watching us.
When the family arrived it was truly impressive with how packed and stacked the car was. Even more impressive when mom managed to extract herself. A toddler, an infant, and two stressed parents, and what was sure was going to be a day of steady stream of people rolling in and out in the effort to get a new home up and live able. I am always impressed when I meet someone who can still find their smile through all of this.
Of course we were the first of the lot, delivering six stressed, nervous cats. This turned out to be a simple and easy act. It's a matter of finding a quite enclosed space, where cats can sniff and wander around while they get to know their new surroundings. Always check to find escape holes cats may try to squeeze out. Give cats a litter tray and food, ninety nine percent are happy as long as they can feel safe and secure. The day furniture arrives, bundle them into a quiet room while the movers do their thing. Once cats smell the furniture and things from home their will be happy as a lark and know their are home.
Controlled Chaos, is about getting an entire home and life from one location to another over a short period of time. the larger the home, the more effort and time it takes. When I worked with people moving I use to tell people, set a timeline. Work within that time line. So much to be done on upon leaving, the rest to be secured on the delivery end. Those that insist on working with a rigid schedule are usually anxious, angry, and upset throughout the entire process. Know that moving is done in stages can make it easier. The futher the move needs to be the longer it will take to complete the process. Set a beginning date, where things will start to be performed, and have a rough idea of when you figure to be settled into your new home. Get quotes for moving your furniture, moving your pets, moving your vehicles. Set your move dates, this includes sorting, packing, getting your pets to your new home and of course the move itself.
On the delivery end, a timeline of when everyone is to be arriving with your car, pets, furniture, as well as service companies.
An important fact to know is most companies work within a window of time. This helps companies to accommodate your move as well as the other clients they are trying to work with at the same time. Remember unless your paying the really big bucks for a private ride the companies have others to fit in also. The window of time also gives you structure to accomplish various parts of your move. As long as everyone does what they contracted to do, all usually goes well. Its just a matter of moving from one task to another until all task are completed.
Pets can feel your stress. So when you stress about your move, your pets will stress right along with you. They just don't know why they feel the way they do. Know the process and how best to make it work should help ease some of that stress.
https://www.preciouspetstransport.com
Thursday, December 8, 2011
The Bee Knees
The onset of the great recession sent an urgency of doing something different than packing and moving people. We had a contract with a major moving company in the Washington DC, Northern Va region. For most of the summer we choked on work. It was great if you didn't mind getting up at 4 am every morning, sitting in 2 hours of traffic, packing homes, (in many cases we were used as maids instead of professional packers), and then the two hour trip home. Just to get up and do it all over again. Lots of long hours but the pay was really good. So hard work never killed anyone.
Then the war started. We spent many months packing peoples homes, finding out they were being sent over seas, their household goods going into storage. For a short time we were so busy we couldn't stand it. But there was soon to be a downside to what we were doing. As the war in Iraq really started picking up speed, the economy in the US started taking a major downturn. The housing market crashed, compounding an already shaky economy.
One woman stated she didn't understand how all this could effect our business. Military packs were about 60% of our business, the rest made up of people moving to their own new homes. Well with most of the military in another country, and those in this country basically barred from new homes, our source of income didn't just dry up, work became like the great dust bowl.
When one is faced with a major change in life, you can choose to sit and cry, or you can dig deep inside and see what your made of. Me, I've never had the option to sit and cry about life. Most of my life required me to suck it up and get on with it. Taking stock in our options, Jill and I realized we had two major asset, a cargo van and a computer. Absolutely no money.
Driven by panic and pride the quest was on to find a new way to make a living. Between the two of us we spent days pecking around online trying to find a way to put our meager assets to work. Then we found it. All over this bid board. Very few seemed to be this area. Pets, hardly anyone was bidding on the pets. What an opportunity? How hard can it be to move pets? Now in hindsight man we're were so naive.
So we pushed ahead, we bid on a few pets to go to Florida and back up the coast. I think we took one down and brought back three little pets, two small dogs and a cat. We were driving this huge extended cargo van with three little crates in the back. OMG! did we think we were the bees knees.
That feeling was short lived. We were driving into the cities and spending three hours finding the house. GPS at that time was expensive and NOT something we owned. Fuel was screaming to new highs. The first cat we picked up, Jill came out of the house dripping in blood. But she had the crate, cat in it. I didn't know whether to be horrified or laugh as she described the scene of capturing and crating the cat.
There we were pretending to be professional, it was obvious we so were not. We did all four jobs for almost no money. I think we actually lost money our first two trips out. Two things soon became apparent we loved it, but it was going to stretch our emotions to the very limits. Awsome visions of walking cute little dogs, playing with kitty cats, and seeing the country while doing such a cool job would soon be blown right out of the water.
http://www.preciouspetstransport.com
Then the war started. We spent many months packing peoples homes, finding out they were being sent over seas, their household goods going into storage. For a short time we were so busy we couldn't stand it. But there was soon to be a downside to what we were doing. As the war in Iraq really started picking up speed, the economy in the US started taking a major downturn. The housing market crashed, compounding an already shaky economy.
One woman stated she didn't understand how all this could effect our business. Military packs were about 60% of our business, the rest made up of people moving to their own new homes. Well with most of the military in another country, and those in this country basically barred from new homes, our source of income didn't just dry up, work became like the great dust bowl.
When one is faced with a major change in life, you can choose to sit and cry, or you can dig deep inside and see what your made of. Me, I've never had the option to sit and cry about life. Most of my life required me to suck it up and get on with it. Taking stock in our options, Jill and I realized we had two major asset, a cargo van and a computer. Absolutely no money.
Driven by panic and pride the quest was on to find a new way to make a living. Between the two of us we spent days pecking around online trying to find a way to put our meager assets to work. Then we found it. All over this bid board. Very few seemed to be this area. Pets, hardly anyone was bidding on the pets. What an opportunity? How hard can it be to move pets? Now in hindsight man we're were so naive.
So we pushed ahead, we bid on a few pets to go to Florida and back up the coast. I think we took one down and brought back three little pets, two small dogs and a cat. We were driving this huge extended cargo van with three little crates in the back. OMG! did we think we were the bees knees.
That feeling was short lived. We were driving into the cities and spending three hours finding the house. GPS at that time was expensive and NOT something we owned. Fuel was screaming to new highs. The first cat we picked up, Jill came out of the house dripping in blood. But she had the crate, cat in it. I didn't know whether to be horrified or laugh as she described the scene of capturing and crating the cat.
There we were pretending to be professional, it was obvious we so were not. We did all four jobs for almost no money. I think we actually lost money our first two trips out. Two things soon became apparent we loved it, but it was going to stretch our emotions to the very limits. Awsome visions of walking cute little dogs, playing with kitty cats, and seeing the country while doing such a cool job would soon be blown right out of the water.
http://www.preciouspetstransport.com
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