Clinics

Today in class, Shirin and I noticed that one of our fellow classmates calculated the number of days until we begin clinical rotations. Apparently, I have 197 days until I am let loose to practice on animals!!!! AHHHHHHH! It is both scary and exciting. I'm so ready to be putting my knowledge to use, but at the same time, feel that I know so little!

So, I was inspired by my classmate to keep a countdown of my days left in the classroom...
please note the awesome puppy on the rainbow design I have obtained! perfect!

Miracle Harness

My dogs are 5 years old, but up until recently they have been horrible leash walkers. Mostly, b/c I didn't train them well enough, but also because they are two big, rowdy dogs! A couple months ago I picked up The Easy Walk Harness.

Although we learned about this harness in school, I was a bit apprehensive to purchase it...one, b/c they are $25 a piece times two, and two b/c I wasn't 100% sure it would actually work! The harness is designed to gently discourage your dog from pulling while walking on a leash. According to their website...

Why it works:
Traditional harnesses can actually encourage dogs to pull harder because of the “opposition reflex.” That’s the reflex that makes sled dogs do what they do. The Easy Walk Harness' unique front-chest leash attachment stops pulling by tightening slightly across your dog's chest and shoulder blades. The gentle pressure steers your dog to the side and redirecting his attention back towards you. The Easy Walk Harness never causes coughing, gagging, or choking because the chest strap rests low across the breastbone, not on the delicate tracheal area.

The first time I put the harness on, my dogs were angels on leash! This harness works MIRACLES!!! not only do they walk on leash without pulling, but they no longer lunge at other dogs while walking! I also threw one on my sister's dog, Porter...he was the worst on a leash...and now he too is an angle!

This is one product I endorse 100% and I have already started suggesting it to clients with ill-behaved canines on leash.

Charlotte or Bust!

Emily and I made a trip to Charlotte, NC this weekend to visit my cousin, Megan, and our friends Jon and Jackie!

We had dinner with Megan and her friend John on Friday night, and then ate a fabulous brunch on Saturday (thanks Uncle Johnny!)...then on our way to see Jon and Jackie (who live about 30 minutes north of Charlotte) we stopped by Emily's old stompin' grounds at UNCC.

Em's tour included her dorm, the practice fields, soccer stadium, field house, and all her old running routes! I don't think she had much of a life outside of soccer in those days!

After Em's trip down memory lane, we made our way to Jon and Jackie's. They live near Lake Norman in a nice neighborhood. We had more good eats that evening, and lots of beer!
Then Sunday brought some time in the sun, and a great Thai lunch.

Minus the sunburn that Emily picked-up, we had a really good weekend.

Summertime Shades!

Elwood sporting his summertime shades!

A Summer Garden

For the first time ever, Emily and I planted a summer garden! We started out with a couple of basil plants, 4 tomato plants, 4 squash plants, and 6 pepper plants. We are now down a few pepper and squash plants, but the tomatoes are growing strong!

Emily was a great helper in the initial stages of preparing the soil and planting, but now she merely takes pictures of the "evil" pests trying to eat our harvest!


Thankfully, the horn-worms Emily was so excited about taking pictures of were easy to remove, and didn't get too many of our tomatoes. But even before the horn-worms there were aphids, which I took care of with peppermint tea!

I love having a garden, but must say that I have found it very tough and somewhat time-consuming. I now have a TON of respect for organic farmers!

The Evil that is Walmart!

I've been reading this book that Em's sister Bib had in the house, it's called "How Walmart is Destroying America (and the World) And What You Can Do About It."
Full of behind-the-scenes insights into the business practices of Walmart, this book is a real eye-opener. I was aware of the low-wages paid, lack of healthcare for most of their employees, and I figured that a ton of their merchandise came from sweatshops, but this book reveals horrors beyond my own imagination...Discrimination against female workers, costing tax-payers billions of dollars per year, exploiting undocumented workers, destroying towns, and on and on and on...WALMART is truly EVIL!!!

This book just reaffirmed any negative feelings I had for the mega-business that is Walmart. But more importantly, it gives info on what you can do about this EVIL business...

Wake-up Walmart is a great site for more info!

So I pledge today that I, Beth Yash, will never shop at a Walmart store again!!!