There are few things more exciting than welcoming a new puppy into your home. When your family gains a fur-baby, there are a lot of things to keep in mind-particularly if you have small kids at home. Training your puppy properly is so important, but it’s also imperative to teach kids how to treat their new family member as well. Check out these 7 training tips and how to keep your kids safe with their new puppy.

1. Choose your pup’s name and stick to it.

Choose a name right away, so that you can immediately start using it when calling your new puppy. The younger they are when they begin hearing and recognizing their name, the quicker it will be to train them properly. It’s all about repetition and consistency when it comes to training!

2. Stay calm and assertive while training.

While training, your energy is a very important aspect. Remain calm, yet firm when teaching your puppy new things. Even when you realize that your dog eats poop and you have to search up “my dog eat cat poop” on Google, stay calm and train assertively.

3. Set up a private den in a quiet room.

Create a safe and quiet space for your puppy-this can be in a separate room or simply just a crate. This is particularly helpful if you already have other pets in your home. Short periods of time left alone can be incredibly beneficial for new puppies. Be sure to reward your pup if they remain quiet and relaxed.

4. Make good behavior a big deal.

Positive reinforcement is so important when it comes to training new puppies. When it comes to energy level, Beagle dog or similar breeds would require proper training to help them understand how they are supposed to behave. Have plenty of treats and toys ready and shower your puppy with praise when they get things right.

5. Turn your back to jumping up.

When puppies get excited, they love nothing more than jumping up on whoever they’re saying hello to. Instead of reprimanding, simply ignore this behavior by turning the other way. When you fail to get them attention when they’re trying to get attention, the behavior will eventually subside. Be sure not to pat or praise your pup while they’re in a jumping position.

6. Discourage your pup from biting or nipping.

A great trick for dealing with biting or nipping is to pretend you’re in immense amounts of pain. You can also slide in a chew toy to replace your hand or pant leg.

7. Always end on a positive note.

Whenever you’re training your pup, it’s a great idea to end on a positive note. Lots of praise, love, playing, and a treat will get your new puppy excited and ready to go for their next training session.

How to Be Sure Your Kids are Being Safe

First and foremost, it’s crucial to teach your kids how to treat their new puppy. They won’t innately know what acceptable behavior is, so it’s important to explain it to them. Pulling on your pup’s tail or hair or jumping on the dog and riding it are not only harmful to your new puppy, but it could also cause your pet to lash out. Teaching children how to respect and be kind to animals will go a long way.

Giving your new puppy plenty of exercise is a great way to keep hyperactivity at bay. This means they’re likely to engage in less rough housing with your kids. Keeping your new puppy on a leash, especially if you’re outdoors, is a good way to keep control of any situation. Dog bites are one of the most commonly seen causes of personal injury cases. Be sure to take all necessary precautions with your new pup in order to help keep them and others safe.

The new norm? Sitting at the kitchen table, trying to do my “job” while homeschooling my two daughters. Oh, you have a literature zoom at 2:30? My mind runs through today’s to do list… which report can I finish in that 30-minute window. Your worksheet is taking a while? Maybe I can draft a media release now so I won’t be up as late tonight. Kids can work on kindergarten worksheets to improve their skills at a very young age.

Every minute is painstakingly filled to maximize productivity and it’s somehow become our normal. What’s more? Even though much of our time together is spent homeschooling, I want it to be fun; something they look back on fondly, which means I have to preserve my sanity in these beautiful daily tasks.

And when the time comes to switching over to focusing on work, I have a find a way to do so without mom guilt because I need to provide for my family. What I’m discovering is that there are a lot of fun, free resources out there that engage and educate my kiddos, when I need to switch over to work.

Our new favorite activity is Gettysburg: A Nation Divided, a free mixed reality app that recreates this historic battle in our kitchen, backyard and weirdly enough… the bathroom. Basically, wherever your mobile device can go, the battle can go. The experience is immersive, not something the girls watch, rather something that unfolds around them with 360-degree views of the battlefield. Their favorite part is the artifact scavenger hunt which allows them a chance to earn Civil War era coins and a deeper understanding in the process. They move our phone around to put Lincoln’s hat on one another’s heads and laugh hysterically when they fit the cannon next to the toilet. It really doesn’t get more immersive than that.

I was surprised to find images of Robert E. Lee riding his horse next to our car and apparently General Picket was in the kitchen with me while I was cooking dinner. Ultimately, my kids were having fun and learning while I was working, cooking and even just sitting.

Thank goodness for technology which is allowing many of us to work from home and our children to learn at home. In an effort to make this app available to as many people as possible, developers QuantumERA have waived their initially planned download fee of $12.99 so that more children will be able to learn from home using mixed reality.

Note: The BETA version of Gettysburg: A Nation Divided optimized for Apple iPads, is available in the app store. Mobile optimization for other Android devices will be coming soon. Free downloads are available for a limited time. The app has been carefully designed for children ages nine and up.  

Image Credit Pixabay.com License CC0

We all take our senses for granted; however, over time, these can deteriorate. 

Losing your hearing can be tough. You’ll miss out on things that people are saying, and it can cause you to become more withdrawn and to avoid certain social situations. 

Hearing loss can impact your enjoyment of your favourite music, and it can affect your overall enjoyment of life. 

Taking care of your hearing health is important, and you should be aware of the signs of hearing loss, and what you can do to avoid them. 

Here’s how you can take better care of your hearing health. 

Turn Down The Volume

If you’re someone who enjoys their music turned up to eleven, unfortunately, by doing this you’re putting your hearing at great risk of getting damaged. 

The hearing loss sustained through damage to the inner ear from loud music is not reversible. While you may be able to wear a hearing aid to help you to be able to hear, it is not curable. 

So, turn down the volume whenever you’re listening to music. 

If you’re using headphones, consider getting noise-cancelling headphones that block out external sounds. You can also check out the list of 12 best home subwoofers which can add to the overall look of your home. Also, many modern devices that play music will have warning signs that come up when you’re listening through headphones. Take heed of these warnings and don’t exceed the recommended volume levels. 

Use Earplugs In Loud Environments

If you need to spend any length of time in a noisy environment, use suitable ear protection. This may mean wearing earplugs if you are attending a concert. You’ll still hear the band play, but you’ll not damage your hearing as you do so. 

If you work in a factory or on a construction site, your employer should provide you with ear protectors. Wear these as directed around any noisy machinery. If these have not been provided, talk with your employers and request them. If they fail to do this, speak with your employment union.

Get A Hearing Test 

If you’re concerned that you’re not quite hearing what other people are saying as well as you should be, or that you have to turn the volume up quite loud on the TV, then it is important that you book yourself in for a hearing test. 

A hearing specialist will be able to identify the extent of your hearing loss and suggest ways to address this. It may be suggested that you need medical help to remove wax or to fight an infection, or it may be suggested that you get a hearing aid. Whatever the suggestion, you’ll be able to enjoy a better quality of hearing once more. 

Keep Your Ears Clean And Dry 

Infections can cause you to develop hearing problems. It is possible to have a build-up of earwax which can impact your ability to ear. 

You can avoid the types of blockages caused by infections by keeping your ears clean and dry.

If you’ve just been swimming or had a bath or shower, tilt your head to each side to allow any trapped water to drain out of your ears. Then, gently pat your ears down with a dry towel. 

If you’re a swimmer, you’ll be prone to getting an infection that is commonly called ‘swimmer’s ear’, to avoid this happening, wear swimmers earplugs to stop the water flowing into your ear canal. 

If you have an earache or cold and flu symptoms, get the help your doctor to treat these. This will stop any underlying lingering infections from affecting your hearing in the longer term. 

If you have a blockage of earwax, your doctor may be able to help to drain this, allowing you to hear fully once more. 

Don’t Put Anything Inside Your Ears

If you are someone that cleans earwax out of your ear canals using a cotton bud, your fingertips, or any other small object, then you are risking damaging your ears even more. 

It is perfectly normal to have some ear wax inside your ears; in fact, it’s actually quite healthy. Your ears are designed to clean themselves. The wax is there to stop dust from getting into the ear canal. 

By pushing a cotton bud tip into your ear, you’re risking prodding and damaging sensitive parts of your inner ear,

If you need to reduce the amount of ear wax because you have a blockage, put ear wax remover into your ears and allow that to break down the wax. You will need to repeat this process over the course of a few days. 

Hearing loss is something that affects many people as they get older and, in a lot of cases, it cannot be avoided. It’s a natural part of aging, but there are treatments available so you can manage it and still live a full life. There are also some simple things that you can do to protect your ears and reduce the chances of hearing loss in the future. 

Image From Pixabay CCO License

Many people underestimate how big the impact of hearing loss can be, which is why ear health is often neglected. Most people assume that it just means not being able to hear as well, but the effects stretch much farther than that. If you experience hearing loss, it is important that you get your ears checked right away and, if necessary, you get some hearing aids. If you already use hearing aids, it is important to keep up with hearing aid maintenance so your hearing issues do not worsen prematurely. Unfortunately, people are reluctant to take these steps because they don’t realize how badly hearing loss can affect your life. Aside from the obvious impact, there are a lot of unexpected problems caused by hearing loss. You may be surprised by some of these side effects of hearing loss. 

Cognitive Decline 

As you get older, it is important to keep your brain active and reduce the chances of cognitive decline. Unfortunately, if you suffer from hearing loss, it can speed up cognitive decline in a big way. You may not realize it, but you are constantly hearing sounds, but your brain filters out a lot of the useless sound so you do not register it. It also helps you to determine the difference between sounds. However, when you experience hearing loss and these sounds are no longer there, it can confuse your brain. It knows that you should be hearing sounds, so it struggles to find them, and this causes a lot of stress on the brain. The lack of stimulus and the extra stress on the brain can lead to a higher chance of cognitive decline. Older people have a forty percent higher chance of developing issues with memory loss if they suffer from hearing loss, so it is vital that you protect your hearing. 

Mental Health Issues 

When you suffer from hearing loss, it is very difficult to engage in social situations. If you are in a loud restaurant, for example, it is hard to pick out conversation over the general background noise. This means that people with hearing loss struggle to get involved in conversations and they may feel self conscious about constantly asking people to repeat themselves. Gradually, over time, they stop attending social situations or they end up sitting quietly in the corner and not engaging with people, and this can be very isolating. Social interaction is very important for our mental health, and the feeling that they are missing out can lead to feelings of isolation and depression in a lot of people. Getting treatment for your hearing loss will allow you to engage in social situations again and help to prevent the mental health issues that are associated with hearing issues. 

Relationship Issues 

Communication in relationships is important, but hearing loss makes that very difficult. It is easy for you to mishear people and that can lead to tensions with your partner if they feel that you are not listening to them. Many couples argue about the issue of hearing loss as well because the people around you will often notice the problem before you do. When people insist that their hearing is fine and they don’t need to seek treatment, this can lead to arguments with the people around them that know that they do have a hearing issue. 

Reduced Earnings 

Hearing loss can impact your ability to work, and studies show that people with hearing loss earn less money, on average. If you mishear instructions from your boss, for example, that can lead to more mistakes, so you are far less likely to be considered for promotions. Hearing loss also creates hurdles in any job where talking on the phone is important because this is particularly difficult for the hard of hearing. The reduction in earnings due to hearing loss will add up over time, and it can make it impossible to reach your career goals as well. 

Hearing loss isn’t as simple as not being able to hear very well. It has so many side effects and it can really affect your quality of life, so if you notice a difference in your hearing, seek treatment right away. 

It’s getting harder and harder to remember a time when our day-to-day lives hadn’t been utterly transformed by the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown. When the workplace and the home were separate entities. When the act of going out for a walk didn’t involve masks, gloves and clinging steadfastly to a bottle of hand sanitizer. When we washed out hands less than 468 times a day. But the human mind has a tremendous capacity to adjust to impossible circumstances. Our mental resilience and toughness have got us through two world wars and numerous pandemics before this one. 

Image by Severyanka via Pixabay

Still, even the most indomitable will could do with a helping hand. Here are some things that we should all be doing more to safeguard our health and psychological wellbeing while under lockdown…

Cooking

When it comes to our health, nutrition is everything… well, almost everything. Still, one of the few silver linings of this dark and gloomy COVID-shaped cloud is that we’re all spending more time in the kitchen. Fast food and processed foods are harder to come by, so we’re loading up on wholefoods and enjoying more veggies and fruits. Not only is a diet that’s mostly (or entirely) plant based loaded with nutrients, it’s also extremely cost effective. 

Walking and cycling

Just because we’re under lockdown doesn’t mean that we have to spend our every waking moment indoors. There are lots of great things we can do outdoors either alone or as a family (provided that we adhere to social distancing). Cycling is an especially enjoyable activity that is a tonic for our physical and mental health. However, it’s important to be aware of cars- one of the most common causes of cycling accidents. Some irresponsible motorists are using the current lockdown as an excuse to drive recklessly or needlessly fast.  

Talking over the phone

Being self-isolated needn’t necessarily mean being alone. Your friends are only ever a phone call away. It seems like we use our smartphones for virtually everything but making calls these days. Checking in with our friends can work wonders for our mental health and wellbeing. Furthermore, you never know how much your friends may need to hear a familiar voice. They may be feeling a little stir crazy after lockdown or even getting over the virus themselves. Making contact with them can make a huge difference in their lives. 

Reading

We have more streaming content than we can shake a remote control at. But don’t forget that too much time spent in front of a screen can be detrimental to our mental health and prevent us from getting a good night’s sleep. There’s a strong argument that we all need to be reading more books while under lockdown. 

Hugging 

Obviously, we shouldn’t be hugging anyone who doesn’t share the same roof as us. That would be the antithesis of social distancing. Still we should make sure that we spend some quality times in the arms of our kids and significant others. As well as bringing us closer together as a family, hugs bring a range of physical and psychological benefits and can even help to strengthen the immune system! 

It’s getting harder and harder to remember a time when our day-to-day lives hadn’t been utterly transformed by the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown. When the workplace and the home were separate entities. When the act of going out for a walk didn’t involve masks, gloves and clinging steadfastly to a bottle of hand sanitizer. When we washed out hands less than 468 times a day. But the human mind has a tremendous capacity to adjust to impossible circumstances. Our mental resilience and toughness have got us through two world wars and numerous pandemics before this one. 

Image by Severyanka via Pixabay

Still, even the most indomitable will could do with a helping hand. Here are some things that we should all be doing more to safeguard our health and psychological wellbeing while under lockdown…

Cooking

When it comes to our health, nutrition is everything… well, almost everything. Still, one of the few silver linings of this dark and gloomy COVID-shaped cloud is that we’re all spending more time in the kitchen. Fast food and processed foods are harder to come by, so we’re loading up on wholefoods and enjoying more veggies and fruits. Not only is a diet that’s mostly (or entirely) plant based loaded with nutrients, it’s also extremely cost effective. 

Walking and cycling

Just because we’re under lockdown doesn’t mean that we have to spend our every waking moment indoors. There are lots of great things we can do outdoors either alone or as a family (provided that we adhere to social distancing). Cycling is an especially enjoyable activity that is a tonic for our physical and mental health. However, it’s important to be aware of cars- one of the most common causes of cycling accidents. Some irresponsible motorists are using the current lockdown as an excuse to drive recklessly or needlessly fast.  

Talking over the phone

Being self-isolated needn’t necessarily mean being alone. Your friends are only ever a phone call away. It seems like we use our smartphones for virtually everything but making calls these days. Checking in with our friends can work wonders for our mental health and wellbeing. Furthermore, you never know how much your friends may need to hear a familiar voice. They may be feeling a little stir crazy after lockdown or even getting over the virus themselves. Making contact with them can make a huge difference in their lives. 

Reading

We have more streaming content than we can shake a remote control at. But don’t forget that too much time spent in front of a screen can be detrimental to our mental health and prevent us from getting a good night’s sleep. There’s a strong argument that we all need to be reading more books while under lockdown. 

Hugging 

Obviously, we shouldn’t be hugging anyone who doesn’t share the same roof as us. That would be the antithesis of social distancing. Still we should make sure that we spend some quality times in the arms of our kids and significant others. As well as bringing us closer together as a family, hugs bring a range of physical and psychological benefits and can even help to strengthen the immune system!