Dog farting and a few solutions

For us dog lovers, there's no better testament to our love than dog farts. Dog's don't excuse themselves, nor are they conscious of our dislike for their smells, they just fart and can often throw "silent but deadly" ones. Ever had your dog fart while you where already tucked in bed and decided to stay there instead of leaving the room? That's got to be true love!

Dr. Hamilton from Wag Reflex posted a few solutions to dog farting:

• Avoid treats such as fruit, legumes or dairy.
• Take your dog to a 30 min walk so she can poop (and stop farting with that)
• If you have a flat faced dog, they tend to fart more, but seems that the only solution to that is surgery (woa!).

I think I'll go for the Dogone Fart Neutralizing Thong. It's just $19.99, though I can't find how long you have to use it before you need another one.

Seven positive habits that dogs develop in you

Our wonderful dogs, Valentina and Camila, have brought me pleasure, benefits, and some very positive habits. I live a better life thanks to them, and these are just a few ways in which they've helped me:

1. Walking
My dogs gave me my morning power walk, 30 mins every morning. In the weekends, we go walking for and hour or more. Though I do it for them, I enjoy this time, and I feel better throughout my day with this walk. It would be hard for me to exercise every morning if I didn't have anything that committed me to it, my dogs give me that commitment.

2. Reduced stress
There's just nothing like walking in the door and seeing your little friend greet you, with true joy. No matter how bad my day could have been, it makes me smile.

3. Primal communication
Dogs communicate, through body language and cues. As a dog owner, you learn to communicate with them, without needing English. This is the way all beings interact. Now that I am having a daughter, I know how to communicate with her before she learnsa spoken language: with body language, prizing the right behaviors, and finding ways to redirect unwanted ones.

4. Balanced life
I used to be too focused on my job, many people are. When you don't have kids, you might even feel it's all you have. Dogs teach you to enjoy the present, like a walk in the park.

5. Socializing
We've made so many friends through our dogs, and some very good ones. If you ever find yourself needing to meet people, try taking a foster dog for a few weeks and taking her to dog parks. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

6. Calm assertive energy
Developing a calm-assertive state has helped me so much at my job. There are many Zen methods to develop this if you do not have a dog, I had even tried some of those, but let me tell you, nothing will force you to develop it better than a dog. Since this is the energy dogs respond to, much more than to words, you learn to create this calm assertiveness in you through love for your dog and knowing that you need to become a pack leader.

7. A better relationship as a couple
If pets are brought in the wrong way, they could negatively affect your love life, but for me and my wife, and for many others that I've talked to, dogs made us a better couple. They are perfect company for a couple, and create a better balance than just two people in a house. Above all, a dog gives you a shared sense of commitment, a feeling that "we're in this together", which fosters love and affection. (Note: do not get a dog to fix a relationship though, dogs suffer a lot when their packs split)


Dogs are awesome. What other great habits have your dogs given you?

Walking with my beagle Camila on Seattle's Freemont Bridge

How to simplify your social media routine

Leo Babauta, the creator of the blog Zen Habits, has written a piece in Mashable on how to simplify your social media routine. It's an insightful read. I believe most people find themselves in social media overload from time to time, and his post might come in handy. In my case, this is particularly true with twitter (though it is adictive :)). Leo's advise is,

1. Use simple tools to make the most of social media.
2. Focus on sending on high impact messages.
3. let go of the need to read everything.
4. Simplify and only use some social media.
5. Form close relationships with people who give you the most value, not everyone.
6. Manage your time wisely.


I particularly like #4, since most of the time I feel I need use every form of social media, instead of just staying with a few I like. At the moment, the ones I use the most are facebook and twitter, in that order. We'll see how that progresses over time.

Two delicious things combined might not always be tasty

I can't believe they have this, but wait, they do! Bacon flavored chocolate. No, hold on, it's Gourmet bacon flavored chocolate! Personally, I just don't feel at all like having one, but if anyone has tried it, please let me know, I would love to know how it tasted.

The autofocus system - productivity tool for anyone

I have been a big fan of all personal productivity tools for a few years (also called productivity pr0n) and have consistently been trying different ones. Getting Things Done, Do It Tomorrow, and many sorts of different to-do lists as well as some personal variations that i created to get the systems to fit my schedule. All in all, it wasn't easy for me to get them to work and most left me with this sense of a growing to-do list that would never stop.

Do it tomorrow sounded great and simple, you write down everything you wanted to do the night before, and then you go and do it. At the moment, however, the company I worked in ran a culture full of meetings and stop-bys, which always made it hard to find time to do the things i had set myself to do, since you never know if someone would stop by and ask you to do something totally different.

Finally, though I liked the systems, I also dreaded the maintenance. Having journals, weekly reviews, will-do lists, etc. to be frank it was often much more than I wanted to. I realize that some people don't mind the extra time investment given the huge added task focus and productivity, but I did, for some reason, on Sunday nights, I just couldn't do that weekly review. Nonetheless, I always took it as part of the cost of being productive and felt I just had to learn to get into the habit of doing it.

But now i found a system that doesn't require all the maintenance and works like a charm. You only need a notebook, a pen and a highlighter. The autofocus system was created by Mark Forster (the same guy that created Do It Tomorrow), and it really creates the most simple, effective, productivity tools I have ever seen. It is very easy to use, very low maintenance, and keeps you laser sharp on your effectiveness. It really is one of those cases where "less is more".

I encourage everyone to try it. It is a great system and anyone can use without having to be a productivity addict or read a whole book about it. In some ways, it might look too simple to work, but trust me: it works, it just does.

http://www.markforster.net/autofocus-system/

Simple steps to solve a crisis

It always amazes me how hard it is to start fixing a crisis. Probably due to a crisis's unexpected nature, we simply find ourselves not knowing what to do. It often takes just too long to fix it and issues are left open and spiraling downward much further than necessary.

I have created a simple five step guide to solve most crises. Of course, all crises are different, and the person facing it will define the outcome much more than the process followed, but this template will help people jump into solutions quicker, ultimately reducing the impact and ensuring successful recovery from the crisis.

Here we go, please share your comments and feedback,

STEP ONE: First, Get rid of your anxiety.

A crisis is almost by definition overwhelming and stressful, maybe even traumatic. The human reaction to it is unplanned and our response rather impulsive. Often, we may feel threatened by possible outcomes or fear the unknown ones. All of this naturally causes anxiety to build up. Before you start, you have to face this anxiety and get rid of it, there's just not other way. This is a moment when you need to think straight and think fast, your reactions need to be quick but also highly effective. Any anxiety will cause you to react with immediate fight or flight responses and will not allow you to think as well as you could. Think of a paramedic driving an ambulance, do they have time to be anxious or scared, or do they need to make sure they are fully focused so they can get back to the hospital as safe and quickly as possible?

STEP TWO: Clearly but quickly understand the problem.

People try to fix a problem without understanding it, it's surprising but it happens, and quite often. Anxiety causes them to feel there's no time to understand the problem, and they should go straight to trying solutions. No matter how urgent the matter is, if you don't understand the problem, the solution will probably be inaccurate or extreme. If a doctor has someone with chest pains that look like a hearth attack, should he immediately go for open hearth surgery?

It is true that this step is a tricky one, though you should clearly understand the problem, you need to make sure that you spend only as much time as necessary to do so. After all, you still have a crisis to start fixing. Make sure to strike the right balance.

STEP THREE: Act, but only if you can and know how.

If you know an action that can help solve the crisis start working on it ASAP, doesn't matter how imperfect this solution could be. Do this even before asking for advice, crises don't need perfect answers, specially if they are still spiraling downward, they often need someone to step in and just do something.

On the other hand, if you don't know what to do, do not loose time trying to pull ideas out of your butt. Jump straight to #4 and ask for advice.

STEP FOUR: Ask for advice and help from everyone you can.

You're on a big problem. You need every help you can get. Talk to people, get different perspectives and advices on how to fix your issue, sometimes we even get great ideas just by talking about our issues. This doesn't mean you need to do everything you're advised to do, not at all. Rather, you should hear as much advise as you feel is necessary and then decide what to do for yourself.

STEP FIVE: Keep doing step #3 and #4 until this is not a crisis anymore

This is one of the biggest mistakes people do. They assume that because something has been done nothing further needs to be done. How much you should act further depends on the crisis, but more often than not, you should continue to do other things to get a crisis fixed even when there are specific tracks already in progress. If it is a small crisis, at least make sure to get it stabilized.

Other tips and advice

Clear your schedule now.

Before the crisis hit you, you probably had a lot of other things you where planning to do during the next few days. Cancel all of them, or least as much you can. Crises need full attention and you don't need any other distraction. If you can ask someone for a favor to cover you, do it, if you can reschedule appointments, reschedule them. Crises don't get solved unless you spend enough time solving them.

If you have routine tasks to do, cancel and reschedule them too. Picking up the kids from school and walking the dog might feel like things where you can still think about your problem while doing them, but you should try to ask someone to do them for a few days. Spending that time sitting down in a table and alone to fix your problem is very valuable.

Persistence, persistence, persistence

Quite often, it is sheer willpower that makes the difference. Do not stop working on it and putting your best effort until the crisis is over.