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Choosing a Dog to Fit Your Lifestyle and Personality

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You’ve seen an adorable puppy at just that right time, and you really want to get one. Before deciding to adopt a dog, consider your lifestyle and whether it is suitable for owning a dog, and if so, what type of dog would be a good fit for you.

Owning and caring for a canine companion is a long-term commitment, and should be looked at carefully before making the decision to adopt one. There are many aspects of your lifestyle that can tell you whether it’s a good decision for you to get a dog right now, what type of dog would be a good fit for you, and whether you and your lifestyle would be a good fit for a dog. Your personality can make a big difference, as well, in which type of dog you should either lean toward, or steer away from. Regardless of size or breed, all dogs need love and affection, and daily interaction, from their humans. I think this is absolutely critical to consider.

Look at Your Current Lifestyle. Do you live in a house with a yard, or have a small apartment? A large or active breed of dog needs more room, thus if you live in an apartment, a small dog would be a better choice. Also, consider if you have the time and are willing to exercise your dog each day if it does not have a yard to run in. Are you a walker or jogger or have an active family with children? In these cases a canine companion might be a great fit. Do you live alone, or is someone home a number of hours in the day? If no one is home very often, a dog is not the best pet for you. They need companionship and exercise daily. However, if you are gone most of the day, but are willing to exercise your dog on a daily basis, and can spend at least a few hours of the day with it, a dog might be a good fit. In this situation, consider getting two dogs as companions for each other for when you are away from home.

Consider Your Personality. It can make a big difference in which type of dog you should either lean toward, or steer away from. If your favorite pastime is reading a good book, get a dog that likes to curl up next to you on the couch. On the other hand, if you like outdoor activities such as jogging or hiking, you may want to consider a larger, active dog with a higher energy level. There are many different breeds to fit whatever is your style. Are you a “neat nick” and need everything in its place? Will dog hair on the furniture, dog toys on the floor, and the occasional mess in the house bother you? Consider these things when making your decision. If you answer yes to these questions, there are non-shedding, smaller breeds that might be a good choice for adoption.

Think About Future Lifestyle Considerations. As a dog lives about 10-15 years, you must keep this in mind when deciding to get a dog. Ten or fifteen years are a long time in which lifestyle changes might occur. These might include changes to your household, such as a new baby or a grandparent moving in, changing jobs or moving. Because of dog’s unique relationship with humans, when we adopt a dog, it becomes a member of our family as a companion. They rely on us, love and protect us, and give us companionship and devotion. They are literally family members, not conveniences. Whatever happens in those 10-15 years, you have a dog to consider.

When choosing to get a dog, definitely consider your lifestyle and personality before you make that decision. This will help you decide whether owning a dog is right for you, and what type of dog would be a good match for you. Adopting a dog is a life-changing decision. It can be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling of your life. Make it the right one for you.

Bird Photography Tips

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A few people have emailed me asking for some bird photography tips and tricks of the trade. After some thought on the subject, I have come up with the following 10 tips for photographing birds.Practice with the Locals. The best way to become familiar with photographing birds in your own backyard. What birds can you photograph at home? Do you have a birdfeeder or birdbath set up in your yard to draw birds in? Use these local birds to see behaviors such as how close you can get before they spook, and whether they eat at the feeder or take the food to somewhere nearby to enjoy it. Start by photographing birds in your yard to get used to their movements and feeding habits.Timing is everything. Most species of birds eat in the morning or late afternoon. Get to know the habits of the bird that you are photographing and where it returns every day to feed.Walk softly. Learn how to approach birds quietly and with very little movement. This goes for all wildlife photography.Be respectful of nature. When photographing a bird, or photographing any wildlife, never corner the animal. Be mindful that the bird has a way of escape if it gets scared. This helps to ensure that the bird does not begin to fear all humans because of one disrespectful one.Be wary of the weather. If the weather is threatening, the birds will tuck themselves where they will be safe from the weather. It may be best to just try another day.Know what you want. Study bird photographs. Most bird photographs were the result of countless hours of waiting, and perhaps returning for several days to the same location that the bird frequents. If the image that you seek is of an Osprey catching a fish, the odds are very small that you will just happen upon that opportunity and get it, especially with the perfect light and background.Do not chase. It sometimes is hard to finally see the bird that you want to photograph and not chase it around wildly. Be conscious of your movements and the signals that you giving to the animal. If you act frantic, don’t you think that the bird will too?Behaviors make the best bird photographs. Photograph birds doing natural movements such as pruning, bathing, or feeding make for much more interesting photographs than a bird sitting on a wall.Prepare in advance. When you know where you are going, and when the bird will be there, it is easy to get a chair and tripod set up so that you are ready to photograph the bird when it arrives. Do your homework.Be patient! I always have to reiterate this with new wildlife photographers. The bird is not going to arrive and ask for its photo to be taken! It is a blessing when the opportunity for a great photograph happens. Appreciate it!

Market Value of Effective Management Practices

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We all know that stock markets respond in an irrational way dependent on the availability of information, and several key criteria related to the company. Innovation, consumer appetite for new products or new uses of products, and leadership changes are the typical price influences that the market experiences, outside of global economic and political stability. It is the information that is readily available. Private companies on the other hand have a different perspective. Ask a private capital company what they look for in an investment and the best ones will tell you it’s about passion and a sustainable management process.These two items together create the magic that produces innovation, consumer attraction and strong leadership in a sustainable way. Lose either and you fall victim to individual heroics that may or may not produce that for which the public markets deem worthy of paying a premium. What are management practices exactly? They are the behaviours that company managers exhibit when executing the company’s management processes. More specifically, they are behaviours that:
Illicit creativity
Align and motivate teams and individuals
Provide candid and productive feedback in all directions
Create vision and excitement, and
Produce a steady flow of change that results in consistent and dramatic performance improvement over long time horizons
Management processes include strategic planning processes, annual objectives-setting processes, performance management processes, process improvement processes, and employee and customer feedback and communication processes. A company that can consistently find innovative ideas, create an appetite in the market, and execute on the market demand on a repetitive basis shows signs of having a strong set of management processes that are practiced very effectively. Think Apple in recent years, who made a killing on iPads and iPhones in the wake of a terrible recession. A company that produces one great innovation and then struggles to find more is likely suffering from poor management practices. All new ideas or projects are relying on individual heroics, and any weakness in its execution should be a sign that there are weaknesses among the management.Think Blackberry in recent years, and their poorly received Playbook and Blackberry Torch. Which one would you rather invest in? When the market values innovation, consumer appetite and company leadership, what they are really valuing are the signs and symptoms of effective management practices. Why not go straight to the source and make sure the fundamentals are in tact before you invest in the symptoms? Over the last 6 years I have assessed the management practices of various companies in multiple different fields, from consumer goods to financial services and beyond. By addressing and improving a few key management practices, my clients have earned significant premiums on their valuations. It is possible to measure the effectiveness of a company’s management practices, and that research should weigh heavily on an analysts estimates of a company’s value.The best way to learn about a company’s management practices is to find out from their customers and employees. A fractured company, with poor feedback from customers and employees is a sign of a company with fractured management practices. Perhaps there is lack of clarity in the organization’s strategy. Maybe the employees don’t know how they fit into the big picture. Maybe there are pervasively inefficient business processes. Or perhaps there is a severe fear of giving performance feedback that is based objectively on tangible results. All of these root causes lead to limited innovation and poor understanding of customer appetite.Your Best Stock Bet- The best bet from my perspective is to put your money in on the companies that meet any of the following characteristics:
A low stock price, and new leadership that has a track record of great management practice
An IPO in which the prospectus or your own knowledge of the company shows clear indication that there are robust management processes in place, and skilled practitioners of those processes within the management ranks
An undervalued company that has strong management processes, and is investing in upgrading its management’s execution of those processes
Companies that you might want to divest of or avoid are ones that:
Have stale management processes that are not being practiced in a way that produces creativity and excitement
Use their management processes to hold the company and its employees hostage
Are bringing in leadership that have demonstrated a greater interest in personal celebrity than in sustainable management practice
Have low employee engagement and customer feedback scores
How to Influence the Management Practices of Your Company- Many organizations have management processes in place that are quite robust. Where they fall down is in how they are practiced. This is because how these processes are practiced are often left to individual interpretation, which is limited to the individual’s experience and biases. Some managers are excellent individually, and demonstrate awesome management practice. Others are learning as they go, emulating the leaders they want to be, and hoping they are being taught the right stuff. Some are even paying large premiums to get an MBA, which invariably doesn’t actually teach them the process skills of management such as gaining consensus, managing people, and making efficient multi-disciplinary decisions.The secret to organizational value is to have management practices that are consistently high across a large number of managers. Leadership has an interesting position in the equation. In a company that has and practices robust management processes effectively, leaders can be created. What the market values when they see a change in leadership is the leader’s ability to implement and execute an effective set of management processes.For those of you who are leaders, this means spending your own time learning the best practices, experimenting with them on an ongoing basis, and mastering them over time. For managers, it also means working in an organization where the leader values the investment in creating effective managers. These practices can be learned with an executive coach who has explicit experience in the development and application of management practices. No matter how you get there, the best chance you have at increasing a company’s valuation and stock price sustainably is if you take a look deep inside the guts of the company at its management processes and practices.