Got A Puppy Or Rescued A Dog Last Year?

Puppies are cute! Last year many people decided to buy or rescue a dog from a shelter and keep them for pets. Most shelters were successful in finding adopting families! 

Whether you adopted a puppy or an adult dog, make sure that you train them, so there are no issues in the future. The most IMPORTANT thing you need to teach your pup is to let you know when they need to go outside to relieve themselves! I've had several dogs in my life and it doesn't matter if they are already adults, you still can train them! This is especially important if you live in a building!

First thing you need to do, is to buy a door bell. One of those that you can tie to a door knob, like some small stores use... Tie the bell to a sturdy string and hang it low enough for them to reach it with their paw! Then, all you have to do, is walk the puppy to the door and lift one of their front paws to ring the bell for going outside. Do this every time your puppy needs to go outside. After a few days, your pup will automatically do it and surprise you! In fact, sometimes they will hit it so hard to train you and boss you around... It's good to teach them a way of letting you know, when they need to go!

Is There a Safe Place to Sit on a Train?

BY RICH MCHUGH, MONICA ALBA AND TRACY CONNOR
NBC NEWS

At least two of the passengers killed in last week's Amtrak crash in Philadelphia were sitting in the first two cars — and some experts believe that's the worst place to be in the event of an accident.


Although riders have been killed in all sections of trains involved in collisions or derailments, rail safety lawyer Larry Mann always tells his wife to head for the middle.

"The safest spot in a train, during an accident, is the center of the train," said Mann, who was the principal author of the Federal Railway Safety Act in 1970.

"Because if there is a front-end collision or a rear-end collision, the damages will be greater at those locations. The middle of the train is by far the safest for persons."

The National Transportation Safety Board does not release comprehensive data on where victims were sitting during fatal train accidents, though some details are available in individual investigative reports.

But Mann says that of the track tragedies he has personally analyzed, "persons involved in passenger train accidents usually survive if they were in the middle of the train."

That was the case in 2008 when a Metrolink commuter train collided with a freight train in Chatsworth, California, killing 25 people — 22 of them in the first car, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's report cited in an NTSB report.

All five fatalities on a Metro-North commuter train that hit an SUV in Valhalla, New York, three months ago were in the first car. And the four people killed in a high-speed Metro-North derailment in the Bronx in 2013 had also been sitting in the front end, officials said at the time.

But the unique circumstances of train accidents make it impossible to predict which cars will bear the brunt of a crash. Four people were killed in a 2000 crash in Hatfield, England, when a rail broke as the train sped over it; all of the dead were in the seventh of nine passenger cars. The four people killed in a 2002 Amtrak derailment in Crescent City, Florida, were in the middle of the train.

NTSB Says It Sees Something Suspicious on Train 188's WindshieldNIGHTLY NEWS

 And yet Andrew Maloney, a lawyer who has represented victims of rail crashes, said he does not sit in the first car.

Within the cars, he said, those who are killed or injured could be sitting anywhere.

"People by windows have been ejected in roll overs. People not by windows have been tossed around like rag dolls and killed or seriously injured as well," Maloney said.

Abe Zumwalt of the National Association of Railroad Passengers said his group has not looked into the issue of which seats are safest, saying it's too variable.

"You want to think about protecting every seat," he said. "And the way to do that is to invest in infrastructure."

Use Self Defense Products if You Take Public Transportation

If you are one of those people who depends on public transportation to go to work or school, you know how scary it can be sometimes. I used to take the fast transit system in Atlanta, GA and knew way back in 1988 that I needed some sort of weapon, I could rely on, for my personal protection. Arriving at my neighborhood station was not really an issue. My dilemma was leaving the station and walking to my car in the dark on winter nights. It was usually parked 2 blocks away from the train station. It didn't take long for me to decide to purchase my first stun gun! I felt like a big weight had been lifted from my shoulders. It was the first night I walked to my car with a weapon I could rely on. All the fear just rolled off my shoulders and I was able to actually enjoy the fresh air while walking to my car!

Personal security is vital to have whether you take the train or a bus to work. During the night hours, it is even more important. You can carry a stun gun or something as simple as a pepper spray. Citizens can actually even carry citizen tasers now! Whether you are a woman or a man, thieves or criminals will take advantage of the visual disadvantage and assault or steal from you at night. That doesn't mean that you couldn't also be taken advantage of in broad daylight!

Now more than ever, it is very easy to purchase stun guns, pepper sprays, tasers or personal alarms. Thanks to the Internet, there are many websites that offer all kinds of non lethal, self defense products. There are many types of pepper spray, in all shapes and sizes. Pepper spray now, even comes in powder form or disguised as other objects, such as pens or pagers! There are a lot of stun guns to choose from too. They come in different voltages and shapes as well as disguised. Tasers come in different shapes and colors as well.

Don't put off your personal safety. Most non lethal, self defense products, are very reasonably priced and worth spending the money on. Especially when your life could depend on it!