In an evaluation of 84 cases of dog bites in kids over an eight-year period, the authors found that most injuries were caused by family pets (27%), with a high frequency of injuries occurring during the summer months. While the reason for this is unknown, the authors advocate it might be because of kids spending time outdoors playing with dogs in the warmer temperatures, or due to a general increase in the irritability of dogs during the warmer months.

The most common sites of bites to the head and neck were the cheeks (34%), lips (21%), and nose and ears (both 8%). Sixty-four percent suffered wounds in more than one location, with the average wound size 7.15 cm. Pit bulls were the breed most commonly cited as the cause for the attack.

The authors believe that by implementing more accurate and timely reporting of dog bites to local health authorities, medical professionals can be educated on how to refer trends and develop prevention strategies. The authors advocate a system for uniform data collection to include the circumstances of the dog bite (signs of provocation, adequacy of child supervision, breed of dog, sex of animal, spay/neuter status, history of prior aggression of the dog, dog restraint, time of event, patients previous histories of dog bites, length of dog ownership, location where dog bite injury occurred, disposition of dog afterwards, and vaccination profile rabies/tetanus). Furthermore, families should be prefabricated aware of the increased likelihood of dog bite injuries during the summer months.

It is estimated that 1 percent of all emergency room visits can be attributed to dog bite injuries, including 44,000 annual cases of facial injuries in the United Says alone. Adapted from materials provided by American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery

Trent Consultants Dog Care and Training is all about helping pet owners enhance their relationships with their pets. Our professional pet-care services includes boarding, grooming, training, now acquirable in Korea. When you’re at work, your dog can be playing and getting the attention he needs at Trent Consultants. Dogs that come for day care have opportunities to play throughout the day in one of our three fenced outdoor play areas with our doggie playgroups. You can visit us at www.trentconsultant.com. Email us info@trentconsultant.com.

“We know how to motivate kids so that they are much less likely to cheat. The only problem is that what we know about reducing cheating often isn’t place into practice in schools,” Anderman said.

Anderman discussed the latest research on cheating in schools and how to eliminate it during his presidential address August 8 at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Toronto.

Anderman is ending his term as president of APA’s Division of Educational Psychology.

There’s no doubt that cheating among students is widespread and has been growing. In some studies, up to 80 percent of high-achieving high school students and 75 percent of college students admit to cheating, a percentage that has been rising the past 50 years.

In one study, Anderman and his colleagues found that 21 percent of students who state that cheating is “unacceptable” still engage in cheating behaviors.

“What we know for sure is that students cheat a lot,” Anderman said. “Parents don’t think their kids will do it, but many do. I’ve seen that in my research, and also in the time I spent as a teacher.”

Studies have shown that boys cheat more than girls. Students with high-driving “Type-A” personalities are more likely to cheat. And there is tiny relationship between cheating and moral development, research shows.

New research by Anderman and his colleagues finds that students with impulsive tendencies are more likely cheat.

In two studies from 2004, Anderman and his colleagues found that cheating also tends to increase when students make the transition from elementary school to middle school, and then again from middle school to high school.

That’s not surprising, he said.

“During those transitions, instructors start changing how they speak to students. While early in school, instructors accentuate how learning is fun, as students get older instructors start saying things like ‘Now it’s serious. Your grades matter.’ That’s directly related to cheating,” Anderman said.

Anderman stated how instructors present the goals of learning in class is the key to reducing cheating. But this is the knowledge that is rarely place into practice in classrooms.

Research has consistently shown that cheating is more likely to occur in classrooms that focus on performance – getting the ideal doable grades, doing the ideal on tests.

Cheating is less likely to occur when the goal for students is “personal mastery” of the material – in other words, learning and understanding what is being taught.

Federal mandates under “No Child Left Behind,” with its emphasis on test scores, send exactly the wrong message to students and instructors and actually encourage cheating, Anderman said.

“These standard tests aren’t going to go away, but we don’t have to speak about them in the classroom as the eventual outcome and goal,” he said.

“This produces anxiety and stress in both instructors and students, and that’s what leads to cheating.”

Ironically, students might actually do superior if the focus in classrooms was on individualized mastery and not on the tests. Students will learn better, remember the material longer, cheat less, and still do just as well, if not better, when they do standard testing, according to Anderman.

Schools should work to help instructors change the goals in classrooms from test-taking to mastering the materials, and help them communicate effectively to their students.

“It doesn’t help when instructors always speak about ‘the test’ and reminding students that something ‘will be on the test.’ The goal should be learning, and not test-taking,” Anderman said.

“You can change the goal structure in classrooms. If you change that, you will likely reduce cheating.” Adapted from materials provided by Ohio Say University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Trent Consultants Psychology Clinic. Dedicated to the study, diagnosis, and treatment of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. Trent Consultants has a variety of programs for parents who want to give their kids a headstart in life. Trent Consultants website www.trentconsultants.org Email: childcare@trentconsultants.org

They also stated that boys in particular could be affected if their dad had depression or was an alcoholic.

Te peak age for men to be affected by psychiatric disorders is the same as the peak age for becoming a dad – between 18 and 35.

Paternal depression during the postnatal period, measured at eight weeks after birth, has been linked to increasing the chance of the child
subsequently developing behavioural and emotional problems from 10 percent to 20 percent.

During the study, researchers found that teenage offspring of depressed fathers also have an increased risk of various psychological problems, including depression and suicidal behaviour.

Researchers stated that around 2 percent of men are affected by generalised anxiety disorder, and kids whose parents have anxiety disorders have a two-fold increased risk of developing such disorders themselves,

Paternal alcoholism is also linked to an increased risk of mood disorders, depressive symptoms, poor performance at school, low self-esteem and problems forming relationships.

The research team, led by psychiatrist Professor Paul Ramchandani, stated more studies were needed on how fathers” psychiatric disorders affect their children’s development.

“Men’s roles in bringing up kids have changed significantly over the last century, with many fathers now taking on an active ”nurturing role” so it’s important that there is more research into the relationship between fathers” mental health problems and how these might affect their children,” the BBC quoted Emily Wooster, policy and campaign manager for the mental health charity Mind, as saying.

Trent Consultants Psychology Clinic. Dedicated to the study, diagnosis, and treatment of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. Trent Consultants has a variety of programs for parents who want to give their kids a headstart in life. Trent Consultants website www.trentconsultants.org Email: childcare@trentconsultants.org

Dr. Jitender Sareen and his colleagues in the department of psychiatry studied the association between anxiety disorders and physical conditions in 4,181 adults who were part of the German Health Survey (GHS) conducted between 1997 and 1999. The survey assessed whether participants had any physical illnesses through a questionnaire asking about 44 particular conditions, a medical interview conducted by a primary care physician, blood pressure measurements and blood and urine samples. Psychiatric interviews were conducted by a psychologist or physician, who used criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) to detect anxiety disorders. A calibre of life survey—which measured factors such as physical functioning, pain and general health—was also administered, and to determine disability levels participants reported how many days of the past 30 they were unable to perform their usual regular activities.

Among the 1,913 men and 2,268 women in the study, 429 (8.4 per cent) had an anxiety disorder within the past month and 2,610 (60.8 per cent) had a physical condition within the past month. Having an anxiety disorder was associated with having any type of physical condition, and specifically with respiratory diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, arthritis, allergies, thyroid diseases and migraine headaches. Most individuals with both an anxiety disorder and physical illness developed the anxiety disorder first, and tended to have a poorer calibre of life than those with anxiety disorders or physical conditions alone. Those who had both types of disorders also were more likely to have one or more days of disability than those with physical illnesses alone.

“The mechanisms of association between anxiety disorders and physical conditions remain unknown, even though several possibilities should be considered,” Sareen notes. For example, the presence of an illness might cause worry and anxiety that eventually becomes serious enough to remember as an anxiety disorder, the presence of an anxiety disorders could trigger biological processes that contribute to illness or a third condition, such as a substance abuse disorder, could be linked to both.

Sareen explains: “These findings extend previous work in clinical and community samples that noted an association between anxiety disorders and physical illnesses but also demonstrate the one-of-a-kind association of this comorbidity with poor calibre of life and disability. Even though there have been increased efforts to recognize and treat depression in the medically ill, our findings underscore the need to create similar programs to recognize and treat anxiety disorders in the medically ill.”

This research was supported by a Manitoba Health Research Council Award, by a U.S. National Institutes of Health allow and a Canada Research Chair award.

For more information, please contact: Dr. Jitender Sareen, psychiatry, 204-787-7078.

For more information, contact: Chris Rutkowski, Media Relations Coordinator, Public Affairs
rutkows@ms.umanitoba.ca, Phone: (204) 474-9514, Fax: (204) 474-7631

 Trent Consultants Psychology Clinic. Dedicated to the study, diagnosis, and treatment of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. Trent Consultants has a variety of programs for parents who want to give their kids a headstart in life. Trent Consultants website www.trentconsultants.org Email: childcare@trentconsultants.org

Trent Consultants News: The puppy was born in April to its surrogate mom, a Labrador retriever. His name: Snuppy, short for Seoul National University puppy.

The team of scientists there that cloned the dog, led by Hwang Woo Suk, is the same one that first cloned human embryonic stem cells last year. Their accomplishment is reported in the journal Nature.

Researchers have cloned other animals, but dog cloning has posed a particular challenge. And the difficulties have alarmed some animal suggests and researchers.

The team created 1,095 embryos cloned from ear-skin cells of the hound and transferred them over two years into 123 female dogs. Only three pregnancies resulted: One ended in miscarriage, one puppy died after 22 days of pneumonia, and the last produced Snuppy.

Because dogs, unlike other mammals, ovulate immature eggs, the team had to remove eggs surgically from anesthetized dogs in heat. Only mature eggs are amenable to cloning, in which a skin cell is inserted into a hollowed-out egg, and the resulting combination is jolted with electricity to start dividing like a normal embryo.

The “primary goal is to advance medical, including veterinary medical, understanding of disease causes and to accelerate stem cell research to the clinic,” report co-author Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh says.

Dog cloning has been controversial because it has long been the goal of some who want to replace beloved pets that way. Genetic Savings & Clone, a California firm that sells cloned cats for $32,000, heralded the advance in a statement. “We anticipate to wage cloning services to the owners of exceptional dogs around the world.”

Company officials stated they anticipate to commercially clone a dog within a year using eggs collected from spaying procedures at veterinary clinics.

But biologist Martin Stephens of the U.S. Humane Society says, “We do have grave concerns.” He notes that millions of dogs await adoption in the nation’s animal shelters.

“Neither (the) results, nor we, support pet cloning,” Schatten says.

The American Anti-Vivisection Society, an animal rights group, released a statement calling for the regulation of pet cloning, saying, “The sole surviving puppy faces an uncertain future, as other cloned animals have been plagued by health complications resulting in their premature deaths.”

The cloner of Dolly the sheep renewed a demand for a worldwide ban on human reproductive cloning.

“Successful cloning of an increasing number of species confirms the general impression that it would be doable to clone any mammalian species, including humans,” stated Ian Wilmut to The Associated Press. The reproductive biologist at the University of Edinburgh produced Dolly almost a decade ago.

Dolly died prematurely in 2003 after developing cancer and arthritis.

The dog cloning team tried to distance its work from commercial cloning. “This is to advance stem cell science and medicine, not to make dogs by this unnatural method,” Schatten stated to the AP.

Other scientists praised the South Korean team. “I think it’s incredible, just a statement of perseverance on their part, states Mark Westhusin of Texas A&M University

Like Dolly and other predecessors, Snuppy was created using a method called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT.

Scientists transfer genetic material from the nucleus of a donor adult cell to an egg whose nucleus — with its genetic material — has been removed. The reconstructed egg holding the DNA from the donor cell is treated with chemicals or electric current to stimulate cell division.

Once the cloned embryo reaches a suitable stage, it is transferred to the uterus of a surrogate where it continues to develop until birth.

Dog eggs are problematic because they are released from the ovary early than in other mammals. This time, the researchers waited and collected more mature unfertilized eggs from the donors’ fallopian tubes.

Snuppy was delivered by Caesarean section from his surrogate mother, a yellow Labrador retriever.

Schatten stated the Afghan hound’s genetic profile is relatively pure and simple to distinguish compared to dogs with more muddled backgrounds. But dog experts stated the researchers’ choice of breed choice was disquieting.

“The Afghan hound is not a particularly intelligent dog, but it is beautiful,” stated psychologist Stanley Coren to the AP. Coren is the author of the best-selling manual “The Intelligence of Dogs.” He ranked the Afghan hound last among 119 breeds in temperament and trainability.

“Many people who opt for the cloning technique are more interested in fashionable looks,” he stated to the AP. “Whenever we breed dogs for looks and ignore behavior, we have suffered.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trent Consultants Dog Care and Training is all about helping pet owners enhance their relationships with their pets. Our professional pet-care services includes boarding, grooming, training, now acquirable in Korea. When you’re at work, your dog can be playing and getting the attention he needs at Trent Consultants. Dogs that come for day care have opportunities to play throughout the day in one of our three fenced outdoor play areas with our doggie playgroups. You can visit us at www.trentconsultant.com. Email us info@trentconsultant.com.

Trent Consultants News: But pet owners — who have to shell out $100,000 or more to clone a pet dog — will still have to pay tens of thousands of dollars if they want to clone their beloved dogs and should be prepared for long waits because most commercial canine cloning is for working animals including sniffer dogs at airports.

RNL Bio stated it has developed a new method to clone dogs using stem cells derived from fat tissue that greatly increases the likelihood of success.

It added the new technology can also help in studying treatments of genetic disorders in canines that have similarities to human illnesses including diabetes.

“If we fully develop this technology, dog cloning will be much easier than now. We can reduce the cost for cloning,” stated Ra Jeongchan, the chief executive of Seoul-based RNL Bio.

Ra, which is applying for a patent, stated two cloned beagle puppies were born in the past week using this method which could reduce the cost of cloning a pet dog to about $50,000 within three years.

Canines are considered one of the more difficult mammals to clone because of their reproductive cycle that includes difficult-to-predict ovulations.

Scores of dogs have been cloned using so-called somatic cell nuclear transfer, a technique for hollowing out the nucleus of a donor egg and injecting it with the donor’s genetic material, which is typically skin tissue taken from the ear.

Ra stated stem cells from fat tissue are far easier to reprogram and there is about a 20 percent chance a manipulated cell will result in a clone, an improvement over the previous method where the success rate was in the single digits.

South Korea’s Customs Service stated it paid about 60 million won ($43,840) to clone sniffer dogs with RNL, which is affiliated with Seoul National University (SNU) and cloned the dogs at a reduced cost for the government.

The SNU work was once led by disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who is now standing trial on charges of fraud and embezzlement. Hwang now has his own work called Sooam Biotech Research Foundation that also clones dogs commercially. (Additional reporting by Shin Ae-lin; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

Trent Consultants Dog Care and Training is all about helping pet owners enhance their relationships with their pets. Our professional pet-care services includes boarding, grooming, training, now acquirable in Korea. When you’re at work, your dog can be playing and getting the attention he needs at Trent Consultants. Dogs that come for day care have opportunities to play throughout the day in one of our three fenced outdoor play areas with our doggie playgroups. You can visit us at www.trentconsultant.com. Email us info@trentconsultant.com.

“Evidence recommends that animal-assisted therapy (AAT) can have a positive effect on a patient’s psychosocial, emotional and physical well being,” stated Julia Havey, RN, study presenter and senior systems analyst, Department of Medical Center Information Systems, Loyola University Health System (LUHS). “These data further support these benefits and build the case for expanding the use of pet therapy in recovery.”

Trent Consultants News: Animal lover Havey, and colleague Frances Vlasses, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, began raising puppies to become assistance dogs more than a decade ago through a program called Canine Companions for Independence (CCI). The non-profit organization provides highly trained assistance dogs to people with physical and developmental disabilities free of charge.

“As nurses, we are committed to improving the calibre of life for others,” stated Vlasses, associate professor & chair of Health Systems Management and Policy, Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. “This service experience has provided us with a one-of-a-kind way to combine our love for animals with care for people with special needs.

In addition to the financial obligations that go along with raising a puppy, Havey and Vlasses take the dogs to class and instruct them home and public etiquette until they are old enough to enter a formal training program.

“You might see our four-legged friends around Loyola’s campus from time to time,” stated Havey, RN, senior systems analyst, Department of Medical Center Information Systems, LUHS. “Part of our responsibility as volunteers is to acclimate these dogs to people. The Loyola community has so graciously supported this training and the use of service dogs on campus.”

When the dogs are approximately 15 months of age, Havey and Vlasses return them to CCI’s regional training center for six to nine months where they are trained to be one of four types of assistance dogs.

Service dogs are trained to assist with physical tasks and wage social support to their partners. These dogs learn 40 commands to enhance the independence of people with ailments ranging from spinal cord injuries to multiple sclerosis.

Facility dogs are trained to work with a professional in a visitation, education or health-care setting. They can perform more than 40 commands designed to motivate, rehabilitate or soothe clients with special needs.

Skilled companion dogs are trained to work with an adult or child with a disability under the guidance of a facilitator. Disabilities served include cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, autism and Down’s syndrome. A skilled companion also can serve as a social bridge to people who are not used to relating to a mortal with disabilities.

Hearing dogs are trained to recognize and signal partners to various sounds, such as a doorbell, alarm clock or smoke alarm. The average service life of apiece dog is eight years. After that time, the dog retires to live out its golden years as a pet.

Havey and Vlasses believe that animal-assisted therapy will finally become a standard of care for healing. The pair will continue to suggest for this therapeutic option through public talking engagements and philanthropic work. Adapted from materials provided by Loyola University Health System.

Trent Consultants Dog Care and Training is all about helping pet owners enhance their relationships with their pets. Our professional pet-care services includes boarding, grooming, training, now acquirable in Korea. When you’re at work, your dog can be playing and getting the attention he needs at Trent Consultants. Dogs that come for day care have opportunities to play throughout the day in one of our three fenced outdoor play areas with our doggie playgroups. You can visit us at www.trentconsultant.com. Email us info@trentconsultant.com.

Many times they will advertise bull dog or yorkshire puppies for understanding or free to good homes. They will request small amounts of money and keep asking for money for you to retrieve your “pet.”

There is no pet.

Trent Consultants News: Please do not start for this scam. You can read more about these scams by Googling “puppy scams.”

“I nearly fell victim to their scam to adopt a yorkie puppy. Please be careful of them they will do anything to get money from you. After speaking to a man on the phone who stated he was based in Africa but he would transport the puppy from Washington to New york (where I live) i just needed to western union him some money. Please don’t give them anything!!!!” from an Anonymous response from blog.dogtime.com.

“I recently nearly fell for the same scam! I was surfing the world wide web the other day and came crossways this woman saying she had a female 12 wk old english bull dog puppy for that shes giving away for free! On the site it stated her location is where I live so i didnt think anything suspicious by it. So, i email her and ask why she is giving her away free. She states that they had to move to East Bay Limbe, Cameroon, Africa, and that she and her husband are botanists there. She stated shes anticipating her first child, and the weather in cameroon is not well for english bull dogs. She gave this whole background of why she likes english bull dogs saying her grandfather was a dog lover and gave her her first dog who was the puppies mom who just happend to die a few months ago. She stated the puppy came with all the papers, vaccinations, and was champion blood line. She then states that she needed us to pay for the shipping here and they would ship the puppy, and at the airfield when we pick up the puppy, titled kelly, we would have to pay another fee. This was all a scam. Its rediculous how they have theyre whole story down and try to scam people out of their money. The more questions you ask them the more you will notice that its not for real. They always would answer with a statement that they had already, as if prerehearsed. They used globalpetrelocation.com. Its alll a scam! Please do not start for their crap. Its ridiculous.” from an Anonymous response from blog.dogtime.com.

You can read blogs.dogtime.com/pet-relocation-blog/2009/02/scam-alert-global-pet-relocators for other posts.

Trent Consultants Dog Care and Training is all about helping pet owners enhance their relationships with their pets. Our professional pet-care services includes boarding, grooming, training, now acquirable in Korea. When you’re at work, your dog can be playing and getting the attention he needs at Trent Consultants. Dogs that come for day care have opportunities to play throughout the day in one of our three fenced outdoor play areas with our doggie playgroups. You can visit us at www.trentconsultant.com. Email us info@trentconsultant.com.

When starting a business, your ideal option is a franchise as it is a proven business model. The success rate in franchises is much higher than a start-up business. Your franchise concept comes with a ready- prefabricated business plan, market research, customer segmentation, marketing tools, operations and even financial support.

A franchise consultant such as MatchPoint is a good source of information to help you work through all the questions you might have about buying a franchise and/or a franchise for sale. The consultant provides expert advice in your entire franchise selection process. Their service is at no cost to you and they help you save time and money as they have the expert knowledge and experience in the franchising field. They will introduce you to the ideal franchise opportunities base on your interest, investment level, entrepreneurial background and financial goals.

Buying a franchise eliminates all the hard work of finding a location, negotiating a lease, hiring reliable contractors and doing all this on time and within budget. When you purchase a franchise you are buying a complete turnkey business. The franchise comes with the complete package and all the necessary support from the franchisor to ensure your profitability. The franchisor’s success is your success and they are there to help you each step of the way.

Therefore, when deciding which business path to take, ask yourself the following important questions: What attracts you to owning your business? What makes you think you would be a good franchise owner? Have you ever owned a business of your own? What was it? What did you like the most about it? Least? If you had a choice, would you like a business model driven by marketing, or driven by direct sales? What do you see your role in the business ? Operations? Sales? Marketing? Administration? Customer Service? Why? Where do you want your business to be located? When do you want it to open? What are your three greatest strengths and weaknesses? How much capital do you have to begin a business? What assets can you leverage? When do you need to begin taking a salary from your business? Will you have partners? Investors? Do you want to build multiple units? Master licenses? Will you be involved on a full-time or part-time basis?

In addition to the guidance and advice of a franchise consultant such as MatchPoint, these questions will help you create a individualized checklist about your desired franchise business. MatchPoint operates the largest physical office of Franchise Consultants in the industry, where Franchise Consultants receive regular briefings from leading Franchisors around the world. Well informed Franchise Consultants are uniquely positioned to offer the ideal advice and value to individual franchise buyers. Are you ready to purchase your franchise opportunity? Make your franchise dream come true This day with all of MatchPoint’s services acquirable to you.

While the toy was out of view, work assistants told the infants that the toy had become soaking wet after someone mistakenly spilled a bucket of water.

The researchers wanted to determine whether the infants would incorporate the information told to them into their mental representation.

It could be done by testing whether the kids would reach for the newly wet stuffed toy or a dry version same to what they had been previously presented, upon being asked to retrieve the animal from the next room.

Trent Consultants News: The researchers found that the 22-month-olds, but not the 19-month-olds, were healthy to refer the toy based solely on the property that they were told about but had never seen. The finding indicates that before the end of their second year, infants had become capable of updating their knowledge using what other people told them.”This nascent capability constitutes a significant cognitive advance, enabling kids to vastly expand their knowledge by learning about the world through verbal interaction,” states Ganea. The study has been published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Trent Consultants News: Trent Consultants Psychology Clinic. Dedicated to the study, diagnosis, and treatment of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. Trent Consultants has a variety of programs for parents who want to give their kids a headstart in life. Trent Consultants website www.trentconsultants.org Email: childcare@trentconsultants.org