Your relationship with your dog should follow that order of priority. Do not give love without giving the excercise and discipline first.

10 TIPS TO TRAIN A DOG

1. CRATE TRAINING - let you puppy sleep in a closed crate - this is the best way to do potty training
2. Teach your dog basic commands (sit, stay, come, LEAVE IT - that means NO).  Show them how it is done, and use lots and lots and lots of repetition and positive reinforcement (give snacks to a dog when they do something right)
3. Socialization rule - regularly let your dog interact with other dogs
4. Do not allow your dog on chairs, couches, bed, etc (to establish their rank)
5. 5 minute rule: when you come home ignore dog for 5 minutes (establishes that you are the alpha dog)
6. Take dog on 2 walks per day, give playtime, plenty of exercise (our dog loves to play tug-of-war with a rope)
7. SCOLDING RULE - only scold a dog if you catch them in the act of doing something bad, but never later (because they forgot it already and won't understand why you are mad)
8. Never hit your dog! If a dog misbehaves (a) scream at them LOUDLY (they don't like that) and (b) grab their fur with both hands on either side of the neck and shake them while screaming
9. Time out rule - if a dog is caught being bad put them in their crate or lock them out and DO NOT ENGAGE THEM for at least 10 minutes - then go back and be nice again
10. Let your dog sleep near where you sleep - inside NOT outside - but not on your bed

Remember, your dog needs:
EXERCISE
DISCIPLINE
LOVE

We trained our dog by ourselves with lots of good advice from a book called "How to be your Dog's Best Friend by the Monks of New Skete"

Raising your dog with the Monks of the New Skete

Marin County resident Art Clokey passed away Jan. 8, 2010, at the age of 88.

Art was famous as the creator of the little green claymation icon named Gumby, and his horse Pokey. Gumbys is a classic TV series from 1960s that is still popular today.

The original TV episodes from the '50s and '60s have been digitally remastered by Joe Clokey, son of Gumby creator Art Clokey.

After the series ended Clokey fell on hard times. But in the 80's a "Saturday Night Live" skit brought Gumby back. Eddie Murphy was dressed in a Gumby costume but he was a crude and angry cigar smoking version of Gumby. This became a recurring character on the TV show.

So Gumby made a comeback and "Gumby the Movie" came out and did pretty well. Today Gumby is still popular around the world.  The successful 1980s New Adventures TV series was filmed in Marin County

During his later years Art was an active environmentalist. Green was definitely his favorite color. In lieu of flowers, Art's family wanted contributions made in Gumby's name to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Clokey was a member of the NRDC for many years.

Today, Gumby has over 140,000 Facebook fans and the fanbase steadily growing each year. Ever since I was a kid I always loved Gumby and I hope you and your kids will too!

David Schene, friend and animator said about Art, "The fact is that most people don't know his name, but everybody knows Gumby. To have your life work touch so many people around the world is an amazing thing."

Art himself once said in an interview that "Gumby represents all of humanity's best self, its Divine Self. I think that's what people love so much about him. In a strange way, Gumby is love."

Clokey's Premavision Studios,
http://www.premavision.com/
http://www.marinij.com/tablehome/ci_14155068
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-art-clokey9-2010jan09,0,3938052.story?track=rss
http://www.pacificsun.com/story.php?story_id=3696

CCA allows MEA, which is a Marin County JPA, to compete with PG&E through MCE.

Everyone got that, right? No??

OK OK, once again - in English:

CCA
COMMUNITY CHOICE AGGREGATION (CCA) is a California law (AB 117) that gives cities and counties the authority to procure electricity on behalf of customers.

Then after milking Californians for billions and hiding the money with their parent company, they declared bankruptcy. Did I mention that taxpayers bailed them out? PG&E excels at greenwashing.

Note: PG&E will still transmit electricity, still read meters and issue bills to everyone.

MCE
MARIN CLEAN ENERGY is a program administered by the MARIN ENERGY AUTHORITY (MEA). MCE allows electric consumers to choose non-polluting renewable energy, lower Marin's greenhouse gas emissions, reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels, foster development of local green power generation and clean technologies, and protect our homes and businesses from uncertain fuel prices.

So if I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which sits on the Pacific Ocean, then why am I greeting you from Gold Country? Because I found abandoned gold mines in my neighborhood!

Last summer I learned about these abandoned gold mines in my neighborhood while doing research on my neighborhood, which is called Santa Venetia. Santa Venetia is a nice little quiet neighborhood in North San Rafael which is the capital of Marin County, CA.

I posted these brief infos about the abandoned mines on our local watershed council website.

Then I went looking for the mines. Over several days I studied the available information and the local terrain. Every evening after work I would go hiking in the hills looking for the mines. It took me 3 days and just before sunset I found one!

That's right, I found a gold mine in my neighborhood! Was there any gold you ask? Lets just say these mines were abandoned for a good reason.

The mines are located in the foothills of San Pedro ridge on a trail that starts just behind the local 7-11 convenience store.

One mine is quite easy to spot and you can even venture into it when it is not waterlogged. The entrance is not very big, you have to slide down into the mine. Spooky!

On the following day I took a neighbor to see my discovery, and together we spotted the second mine.

Now does anybody want to bring some shovels and a pick and go check this out? C'mon, don't let Indiana Jones have all the fun!

P.S. Did you know there is a REAL ghost town nearby? I swear! But that's another story for another blog entry. Out here in the Wild West you never know what you will find...