Dogs ‘N Action - DNA

07/01/2025

🐾 Free Microchips at Midland Animal Services! 🐾
📍 1200 N. Fairgrounds Rd, Midland, TX
📞 432-685-7420

Protect your pet and increase their chances of getting home safely—get them microchipped for free!

🕐 Hours for Microchipping:
✅ Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
— Stop by and check in at the front desk.

✅ Wednesday:
— Microchipping is available, but the shelter is closed to the public.
— Please call 432-685-7420 when you arrive to let staff know you’re there for microchipping.

No appointment needed—just drop in!

07/01/2025

It’s a scary time of year. These are some great tips for noise phobic dogs.

06/30/2025

As the 4th of July approaches, Heres an idea, take some tape and write your name and phone number on there and put it around your pets collar. Every year so many dogs and cats are scared away from their homes by fireworks. This might be a good way to help locate them. Along with writing the number always remember to keep an identification tag on the collar as well!

06/24/2025

❤️❤️❤️

06/04/2025

Beautifully said!!

Sometimes we need to do what’s necessary to keep our dogs healthy or safe. But handling, training, connection to the lead should be done without exerting the power we have over an animal when we have the choice.

Just because something is smaller, weaker or thinks differently to us, doesn’t mean we should use that to our advantage. Because the more gentleness you can practice, the greatest power you really have.

05/31/2025

Here’s the thing... no matter which side of the coin, all trainers use tools. Prong collars & shock collars are tools. Chicken/cheese/treats are tools. Both tools, on the surface, can get the behavior you want. One by suppressing an unwanted behavior and one by teaching a wanted behavior. One is rewarding and one is punishing for the same behavior. If you were the learner, which would you prefer?

05/29/2025

Great information

05/27/2025

Dogs are similar to toddlers. It’s work and it’s a sacrifice that pays huge dividends, but you have to meet their needs, have patience and meet their love equally and unconditionally.

If you are going to have a dog, you are going to have to make sacrifices. You cannot expect to have an animal that was designed to live primarily outside and bring it into your house and not have to make changes or adjustments. A dog is not an ornament, a commodity or a display. A dog is an animal. You are sharing your life with another species. This is life with a dog.

Your yard will not be pristine. The grass will get burned from their p*e. Holes will be dug, bushes shredded, mud will come in the house. You cannot ask them to not p*e in your house and then also try to control even their outside bathroom. Please see how unfair this is. This is life with a dog.

You house will need management. Your counters will need to be clear. Shoes will need to be put away. Laundry room blocked. Kids toys picked up. Some things will get destroyed anyway. This is life with a dog.

They will bark at noises. They will protect their territory. Sometimes fiercely. They will not welcome strange people into the home easily even if you “know them” because this is in their genetic DNA. They don’t understand family gatherings and they don’t always see things the way we do. They won’t love playing with every dog they meet. This is life with a dog.

They will need enrichment and work and productivity. They will need training that is kind and fair and consistent and then maintenance to maintain that training. They will need guidance and coaching and lots of reinforcement to help them perform unnatural behaviors against their natural phenotypes. This is life with a dog.

They will mature and change and modify in their likes, behaviors and preferences as they age. Their behaviors aren’t guaranteed. They are not robots and they can be mercurial as they grow into their own personalities. They are allowed to change their mind and shift naturally just as we do. They need to be seen for what and who they are, not what and who YOU want. This is life with a dog.

Life with a dog is not a human right. It is a privilege and a responsibility and an education. They are animals and should be treated and expected to behave as such. That doesn’t make them any less loved or family members and it doesn’t make them any less deserving of respect, in fact it makes them more so.

Enjoy your life with a dog, and help them enjoy life with a human.

- Helen St. Pierre

05/16/2025

Even though I’m retired, I will not promote anyone who uses these tools.