Offering Choices – A Good Marketing Practice

Ever notice how easy it is for someone to say “No?” Make it easier for them to say “Yes” by offering choices in your marketing.

If you’re a Realtor, rather than asking a listing prospect if they’re ready to list today, ask them if they’d like to list for 3 months, or for 6 months. If you’re trying to get an appointment with buyer prospects, ask them if they’d like to view homes on Friday or Saturday. Or ask them if they’d like to schedule time to see 3 homes or 5.

If you’re selling shoes ask if they’d like them in brown or black. If you sell furniture, ask them if they’d like the couch, or would prefer the whole set, with chair and ottoman to match.

That’s called an “assumptive close” because you go forward assuming that your prospect is going to say yes rather than fearing that they’ll say no.

It serves two purposes – the first being a change in your own attitude and the vibrations you give off. Your fear of a “no” could actually cause it to happen! We all give off vibrations all the time, and the one you want to give off is confidence. Confidence in yourself, and confidence that the product or service you offer is a good thing for your prospect.

The second reason is that as humans we all want to feel in control of our lives. We don’t want to be forced into a corner and we intensely dislike the “Now or never” ultimatum. I know, a whole lot of marketers use it, and some customers fall for it – out of fear.

But as a smart marketer, you’re in the business of creating lasting relationships with your clients – not one time orders based on fear of loss. You’ll gain their respect and their confidence when you offer them choices – even if that choice is waiting until next week to order.

If you’ve done the right things to collect your prospect’s names, you’ll be reminding them again in a few days. You can even tell them so, if you like.

You can use the same psychology in your on-line marketing and postal mailings.

Rather than offering a yes or no choice, offer 2 or 3 ways to take advantage of what you have to offer. Depending upon your product, it could be colors, styles, sizes, length of service, amount of service, or combinations of products and services.

For instance, if you have information products, why not offer individual e-books or bundles of 2 or more? Explain the difference between your books so your prospect has a clear understanding of which is best for his immediate needs – or why he needs them all.

If you’re selling a newsletter, offer choices in the length of the subscription. Of course offer discounts for longer terms, but let that be their choice, not your demand.

Whatever you’re selling – be it your services or your products, find some way to offer your buyers at least three choices – “no”, “yes this,” or “yes that.” And don’t mention the first one. They already know they can say no.

One caution – don’t overdo it. Remember that your goal is to make it easy for your prospects to say “yes” to something. When you offer too many choices you make it harder, so they’ll fall back on “no.”

A recent test showed that grocery store shoppers who were offered samples of a new jelly/jam brand chose a flavor and purchased when there were 4 or 5 choices. When they increased the number of choices to 15 or 20, they didn’t buy at all. Making the decision was simply too hard, so they walked away.

So, balance is once again the answer. Avoid only one choice, avoid too many choices. Always make it easy for your customers to say yes, based on a few good choices.

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in making people feel good about buying products or services – or donating to worthy causes.

She has extensive experience in writing search engine optimized web copy, direct sales letters, postcards, space ad copy, press releases, and more. She is also available for marketing plan creation and editing services.

You can visit her at http://www.marte-cliff.com While you’re there, sign up for her marketing ezine. When you do, you’ll also get access to reports that will help you get better results from your own writing.

Tips on Avoiding Fraud

Fraud is an ever increasing problem in our society today we can all take steps to ensure that we do not become victims of fraud. Millions of pounds a year are lost to criminals from fraudulent operations. It is essential that we take steps to protect our private information and prevent identity theft. Make sure when you throw old bank statements out into the rubbish that you have shredded the statements so that nobody is able to read the details. The cost of a shredder is nothing compared to the cost you may suffer should you become a victim of fraud or identity theft.

When you’re using your card at a cash machine please make sure nobody is able to see you entering your PIN. You must also make sure to check if there is anything suspicious or unusual about the cash machine you are using. Fraudsters have been known to attach devices to cash machines that will read the data on your card and enable them to clone it. Please also make sure that when you are giving your card to a waiter in a restaurant that we do not take the card out of your sight. They have been known to steal the contents of your card and hand the card back to you as if nothing has happened. You will then log into your bank account and discover that many large amounts of money and been extracted from your account without your knowledge.

Please also be very wary of any unsolicited e-mails arriving in your inbox asking you to give money to participate in a scheme with guaranteed rewards. Remember that if something is too good to be true it probably is. Please also be aware that your bank will not send you an e-mail asking you for your online banking details. Fraudsters have been known to write e-mails pretending to be from banks asking you for your details to, for example, validate your account. You should ignore these e-mails and do not write anything back to them. These are organized criminals and you should not ever engage with them.

Keeping up to date with the latest Tips on Avoiding Fraud is easy with Financial Affairs the web’s forefront authority on money and finance.

How to Avoid a Costly Mistake When Choosing a Lawn Maintenance Company

Your home is one of the biggest investments you will ever have and the lawn is part of that investment, you need to take care of it as well as you care for the structure. When you choose a lawn care company, make sure to choose wisely or you may end up with a brown yard and a colony of bugs living near the patio. You need a professional lawn care service and the only way to get one is to ask questions, get references and ask around to your friends and neighbors about their lawns and whom they trust.

You need to know what lawn services you need or want from a lawn care company. Do you want them to mow and trim or do you want them to trim the hedges every so often as well? What about seasonal pest control and fertilizing and aeration and thatching? These are all things you must ask yourself if your lawn will need and when.

What are the lawn care company’s prices? Comparing prices is a big part of making the decision for which company to choose for your lawn care needs. If you are expecting the most thorough, professional service in town-don’t hire the cheapest company available. No one ever bought a new Mercedes for the cost of a Ford.

Also, no reputable company is going to give you an estimate over the phone. They are going to come out and walk around your property to give you a fair price for the work that needs to be done. Ask for prices for seasonal work as well, if there is a discount for signing up to work with them for an entire year verses one or two seasons, such as spring and summer.

A reputable company will offer you before and after photographs of their work. This is one of the best sources of proof you can have. In addition, ask if they have written or published any articles, special reports or books. A published author carries more creditability than a no-name company leaving flyers on the door

The company you choose should also be licensed and insured and don’t be shy about asking for proof. If something happens while they are working on your property, you want to make sure they are responsible for whatever it is that happens.

A few other questions to ask would be about chemical treatments, do they use safe chemical treatments? Are they licensed to spray your yard? Do they give you advanced notice of chemical treatments so you can prepare by keeping pets and children inside. If they use chemical treatments, do they post small yard signs warning people to stay off the grass for a period of time so the chemical can do its job?

You will have to agree on what maintenance you will be doing and what they will be doing, such as sweeping or blowing the sidewalks or the mowing or trimming near the landscaping. Have a written estimate prepared with every detail spelled out so there are no miscommunications.

Steve Habib is a well-known lawn care expert and the author of 5 Costly Mistakes Homeowners Make When Choosing a Landscape Maintenance company…And How To avoid them. Head on over to: http://www.stpetersburglawnlandscape.com for your FREE copy.

Adopting From A Dog Breeder

Evaluating and choosing a good dog breeder may take many visits to various breeders for the right match. Be patient. Dog breeders show their canines, so a good place to meet them is at a local dog show.

You will find good dog breeders and not-so-good ones.

A dog breeder raises, sells and often shows dogs of a specific breed, or maybe a few breeds. Top breeders raise dogs with good genetic lines, temperament test every puppy, and test each parent to help ensure against congenital defects.

The knowledge and skill of a good dog breeder has tremendous bearing on how the puppy turns out.

Unknowledgeable and amateur breeders are the source of most health and temperament problems affecting purebred dogs. Good breeders breed only when they have a list of buyers to adopt the dogs. Beware of breeders who create puppies and then worry about how to dispense them.

Genetic defects.

A dog breeder who tests prospective parents for specific disorders before breeding has the breed’s best interests at heart.

• Sire and dam should have a hip clearance from OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) or PennHip (University of Pennsylvania Hip Improvement Program) with documenting certificates.
• Sire and dam should have current eye clearances from CERF (Canine Eye Registration Foundation). This must be re-done every year and should be certified.
• A good dog breeder will screen for hypothyroidism, Von Willebrand’s disease (disorder affecting ability to clot), epilepsy, and cardiac conditions.

When a dog breeder says they are breeding for temperament, you are on the right path in choosing a good breeder. When evaluating a breeder, this attribute trumps all others. A temperament test is a series of handling exercises performed at 7 weeks or older, to help assess the personality and eventual adult demeanor.

A good breeder will be eager to answer your questions fully.

You want as much information from the dog breeder as possible, to evaluate the breeder and the dogs.

• Ask for a certificate of vaccination stating what vaccines the puppy received, when and by whom. If the puppy was de-wormed, what drug was used and when? If not, was a fecal exam done?
• If the dam is bred too often it may indicate that profit is the primary motive for breeding. The rule of thumb is 5 generations should separate one relative from another.
• Does the breeder provide a 3-5 generation pedigree, a contract to sign, copies of all clearances, and a guarantee? Will the breeder take the dog back at any time, for any reason, if you cannot keep it? This is a test question to know if the breeder is responsible and cares about his dogs or just in it for the profit. Most will offer “health guarantees” for 2 years. A good guarantee states that if your puppy is ill with a genetic illness (e.g. hip or elbow dysplasia, cataracts), the breeder will refund your money or provide another puppy from the next litter, and you keep your puppy as well if you want.
• The breeder should provide information about feeding, training, housebreaking, grooming, and exercise.
• A responsible breeder insists the puppy has limited registration and a mandatory spay/neuter contract.

Allow time to interact with the puppy away from distractions. 10-15 minutes should be allotted to each member of the family.

Things to observe in choosing a good dog breeder:

• Inspect the coat, eyes, ears, dewclaws, tail. No discharge from the eyes or nose? No loose stools? No foul-smelling ears? Coats full and clean without any bald spots? Skin free of red splotches?
• No fleas? No coughing, sneezing, wheezing? Plenty of energy when awake?
• The litter should appear healthy and well-fed. Consider the cleanliness of surroundings – look around for feces not removed.
• Puppies should be raised in a home – not a barn or backyard. Puppies need exposure to gentle handling, human contact, a variety of noises and experiences. They should not be removed from the dam or litter mates before 7 weeks, which could create a variety of behavioral problems.
• Can you meet the sire and dam? How do they behave? Will the breeder provide references of previous buyers?

A good dog breeder will ASK questions, wanting to know your family’s lifestyle, to ensure the dog adoption is compatible and the prospective guardians are committed to the match.

We have existed as a company since 1985, but it was a love of dogs, the dogs that have been a part of our life, and the passing of one dog in particular, Rusty, that inspired the creation of http://www.callofthedog.com and http://www.callofthedogshop.com — created to provide the things your dogs and pets need. Visit us for great information and quality dog supplies! Be sure to see our About Us page as well.

The two sites are dedicated to the dogs we have loved so deeply, and who have given us so much love in return. Purebreds and mixed breeds, but mostly rescues in need of a home. We educated them, but each one has had something to teach us in exchange.

Baby Doll Lingerie – Hints & Tips

Baby doll lingerie is one type of sexy lingerie that flatters almost every figure, from the full-bodied woman to the petite. Baby doll lingerie is also a classic style, dating back to the fifties. Baby doll lingerie has been in fashion for over 50 years, and that says a lot about its appeal to women of all ages, shapes and sizes. The popularity is due, in part, to the fact that baby doll screams young, innocent, and cute. What woman can argue with that?

Baby dolls are basically short, sleeveless negligees with shaped cups and loose fitting skirts (usually hitting mid-thigh or a little higher), but there are many types and styles available. The options include sheer baby doll lingerie, exotic print babydolls, and lace babydoll lingerie. Some favorite fabrics for baby doll lingerie are silk, nylon and chiffon. These are often trimmed with ruffles, lace, fur, bows or ribbons—and sometimes even several of these at once for an extremely sexy or risqué babydoll twist.

And sexy is what babydolls are all about, especially ones that come with matching panties, often thongs or g-strings. A sweet, sexy style like that is sure to make babydolls a big hit with the man in your life.

Lingerie Online

When shopping for baby doll lingerie, browse online from the privacy of your home. This is far different from when women of the 50s had to go into department stores to purchase risqué lingerie and felt as if the sales clerk was looking on with distaste. There is no more embarrassment, and online shopping has made it easier than ever to buy any type of sexy lingerie without a woman feeling she has a scarlet letter attached to her blouse!

Shopping Tips for Necklines

Some tips for purchasing baby doll lingerie include looking for a neckline complimentary to your bust line. Many babydoll lingerie pieces have V-necklines with built-in push-up cups. This type of neckline is great for anyone with a small bust or one that needs some lift to look its best. Scoop neck lines that are curved are good for full-busted women. If you’re petite, stay away from too many ruffles around the neckline of your baby doll lingerie because ruffles tend to overpower your face—and bust.

Color My World

Consider the color and pattern when shopping for baby doll lingerie. Red may scream sexy, but not if it’s the one color that makes you look as if you’ve had the flu or your skin already has pinkish tones. Choose colors that are flattering to your skin tone and hair color, just as you would for any type of clothing. Be wary of exotic patterns that can overpower and put too much tart into the innocent but sexy look you’re aiming for.

Soft and Soothing

Finally, think about the fabrics. This may sound negligible, but soft and comfortable fabric is important if you’re planning to wear your baby doll lingerie often, and easy care is important too. Fabrics like silk may not be your best choice. That’s okay, because nylon makes a great substitute and is much more washer-friendly. After all, baby doll lingerie should bring extra fun into your life, not extra work!

Amanda Cotterill has been involved in the erotic lingerie uk market for many years. This article outlines the benefits of women wearing baby doll lingerie as if that needed much explaining!

A Few Helpful Suggestions on Getting Inbound Links the Honest Way

Website publishers and bloggers are always searching for unique ways to get inbound links to their sites and blogs. Why do they do this? In hopes of getting ranked higher in organic search engine listings in Google, Lycos, Dogpile, Cuil, YaHoO!, Microsoft by Msn and many more search engines. The goal of getting more website traffic is to rank higher , by getting as many inbound links as you can possible, even without paying one dime for it.

So one wonders how to do it. Simple! You can set up your site or blog to automatically tweet, as soon as you publish new website content or a blog post. If you have a Twitter plug in and know what you’re doing, cross posting your content as a Tweet to Twitter is absolutely free and will assist in giving you more inbound links, which the search engine will silently acknowledge. Twitter is a micro blogging social network site that also has the ability to help webmasters of all kinds increase sales and organic search engine traffic, by using Twitter as a means of syndicating your content, in efforts of communication your message to others who have a relevant interest in what you’re publishing on.

Making unique video is a sure shot way to get free inbound links too. So you’ve created a nice homemade or low budget video and ready to upload to YouTube. Okay dokay. Now, all you need to do is a little relevant keyword search , using Google AdWords external keyword tool, select the most searched words that fir your video content, fill in a video description for the video you are about to upload to YouTube, and include a link back to your URL address. After the video is uploaded to You Tube with your video decription clearly written and a link back to your site of choice or blog, people will not only come by and view your video, but other online publishers with automated programs will automatically pick up your video, description and your link and use it on their site, thus giving you reciprocal inbound links, triple than what you thought you would potentially get from the beginning. How neat is that!

So you read just a few helpful hints here. There are more, but I can’t release all the inside skinny as of yet. In knowing more, stay tuned for the sequel!

Read more now about inbound links at

http://www.ShawnDrewry.com/?p=3127

Software to Boost Link Popularity

For most affiliate marketers, link popularity is a vital component to their success. They give special efforts to make links popular through efficient link management. Well-founded links can make one’s web site more popular. With the many related web sites pointing back to your site, more people will be lead to your page and thus, increasing the probability of turning this traffic into sales. If you do link building campaigns, you will be able to create a stronger presence online and eventually result to better search engine rankings. However, for web pages that do links campaign poorly, you can expect that your site will most probably be positioned at the last pages of search engines.

Having high quality backlinks is much coveted by most online marketers who are intensively doing their internet marketing campaigns. This would surely increase link popularity for your business. Every affiliate has their own style of making their way towards link popularity. Some webmasters create hundreds of links thru link farms while others settle to manual submission of links and manual links exchanges. However, according to some experts, sending out too many links can have its drawbacks. It is more advisable that you have a consistent campaign in building links. It must not increase abruptly instead it must be under control.

Those who are doing links management manually would say that they can get better results since their service is more personalized. To increase the pace of your popularity, you may do a fast link building campaign by using special tools. Doing things manually may be tedious and time-consuming. But don’t fret; there are softwares that can liberate you from these tasking jobs. There are tools in the market that can help you to further enhance the popularity of your links. You may opt to have a cheap link builder but don’t overlook its features. It must be able to qualify to your requirements.

Do not sacrifice quality service to cheap prices. It may not do any good for your business. Do your link management in a gradual manner so as not to alarm search engines with the sudden increase of links. Search engines might even black list you. It is better to be consistent at what you do. Allow your links to increase congruent to your site’s increase in link popularity. Link building is just a part of the whole internet marketing process. You cannot savor success overnight so no matter what tool you use, there is no guarantee of an overnight success.

Make sure that you build a firm business plan prior to engaging in any campaigns. Keep your mind focused to your marketing plan so that you will be lead to the right path. For a long term success on the internet, it is important that you build your business on a solid ground. Lay out your plans well so that you will not invest on tools that won’t help forward your business. By having a good business plan to guide you, you would know how to approach your prospective customers efficiently. It may be high time to review your marketing plans and see which ones are successful or not.

The author of this article Menno Spijkstra is an underground Internet Marketer who has been successful selling products online for many years. Menno is now coaching people how to make real money online through his program http://www.IMAchiever.com This course includes a detailed manual plus 5 products to sell and keep 100% of the profit.

New Alternative Music Videos?

Music videos: what an amazing medium. Though they’ve been around for decades, it’s taken a long time, as is so often the case with a relatively new medium, for music video as a art form to find its feet. As opposed to being just a visual backdrop for music to play over the top of, as the classic band on stage music videos so often are; this medium, now more than ever, can be so much more.

The problem in asking you to take music videos seriously is that, from its inception, the whole enterprise has been exactly that: a money making venture.

So, in order for me to let you continue reading, I’m going to have ask you to put aside the perception (and truth) that most record company produced modern music videos are primarily made as a device for boosting music sales.

The whole shebang kicked off in the 60’s with range of bands being video recorded for promotion purposes. The Beatles took a more artist approach to the whole thing and used the mock documentary style of their ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ film for many music videos. Okay, as I’m not altogether that interested in this era of music videos, I’ll stop there. Suffice to say the medium has been around for a good many decades.

I want to continue now from the 1990s as it’s at this point that (some artists in) the medium started moving away from from the hum drum. Directors were employed to introduce a unique style to the videos they were working on. Directors like Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham, Spike Jonze and Mark Romanek rose to prominence, and it is from this point I believe the music video discussion starts to become interesting. Though there were some earlier pieces of artistic interest, such as Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” which employed a lot of special effects, it was in the 90s that music videos took a shift towards being an artistic short film. Though it’s fair to say that there’s still a push for record companies to spend lots of money on making interesting and innovating eye candy to go with their artists music, it’s undeniable there’s a new player in town.

With the shift to internet broadcasting and low cost video editing solutions, the world of music video exploded. You’d have to be living under a rock to have missed how virtually overnight YouTube has become one of the biggest innovations in online entertainment and much of this material is produced in peoples home or in low cost studios. Just as high quality music production can now be done by just about anyone on a home computer with relatively inexpensive software, so too has the “video clip” found its own in the hands of non-professional (but often talented) home producers.

Where’s this all going? Back to where it started: music and video. Now that technology is cheaper than ever and there’s more expertise online in form of virtually any tutorial or how to webpage you can imagine, bands are doing it themselves. They’re making the music, shooting their own videos, mixing the two and distributing online through a gamut of different delivery systems. What’s so cool about this is that it’s made it easier than ever for artists to produce true audiovisual pieces. Not music that’s inspired by a movie made in 1972, or a supplementary video produced well after the song was written, but rather music videos that are genuine audiovisual pieces.

The style and vocabulary of music video has changed in recent years, as has the perception of it, and it has grown to be a true and credible multimedia art, perhaps one of the first modern forms to join mediums and become a kind of multimedium fusion; a fusion that perhaps in time, will come to be thought of in its own right, as being meaningfully indivisible.

Simon Evans
Colab
http://thecolab.net/
http://thecolab.net/visuals.php/musicvideos/

Creating Compelling Interview Stories

During a job search, several tools and strategies can be used to weave together a compelling story of your value to an employer. Resumes, interviews, and networking meetings should be rich with memorable information about you and the problems you have solved for organizations. Your story should be so good that the interviewer can’t wait to repeat it to the next person in the hiring chain. Here are some tips for making that happen.

1. Create an exciting resume that the reader just can’t put down.

Don’t just write about job tasks and don’t just list statistics. Build a story around your accomplishments that succinctly communicates the impact you had on an initiative or an organization as a whole.

2. Tell your story with pictures.

Try adding some charts or graphs to your resume to create a visual representation of your impact. For example, if you increased sales 500% over a 5 year period, create a bar graph to show the year over year growth.

3. Add your online stories as well.

LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Facebook profiles are a great way to let other people see who you are both professionally and personally. If used properly, they can help build your credibility, authenticate your passion, and show your human side. Blogging software (try WordPress or Typepad) and microblogging (I like Twitter) can be leveraged quite effectively to create an online presence and voice and establish yourself as an expert in a given area and an engaging storyteller.

4. Showcase samples of your work.

Bring examples of the types of reports, business communications, or design work you do to the interview. Consider including links to websites, photographs, videos, or project prototypes to your resume or portfolio when appropriate.

5. Answer interview questions using the Challenge-Action-Result story format.

Employers are interested in learning about your past successes because they feel that past successes are a good indicator of future success. By describing the challenges you faced, the actions you took to address those challenges, and the corresponding results for the organization, you are more likely to create interest and excitement about your candidacy.

6. Ask questions that invite the interviewer to tell their story.

In order to build a strong rapport with the hiring authority, you need to share information. Asking the interviewer to also share information helps deepen this relationship. Ask what issues the department is struggling with and what types of strategies they have tried in the past to address these issues. Asking questions shows your interest and concern for the company’s problems and also positions you as the right person to address them.

Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers, http://www.careersolvers.com , has over 12 years of experience in career management, recruiting, and executive coaching. Ms. Safani partners with both Fortune 100 companies and individuals to deliver targeted programs focusing on resume development, job search strategies, networking, interviewing, salary negotiation skills, and online identity management

Ticks On Your Dog: What to Do?

Once though of as a mere harmless but annoying pest, ticks are of growing concern for their Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme Disease-carrying ability. Learn the facts, and keep your dog tick and disease-free.

Ticks are a despicable lot of parasitic bloodsuckers. They bide their time in wooded areas, stay close to ground level and wait for an unsuspecting mammal to shuffle on by so they can descend upon him and sink those nasty little teeth in for a long meal of blood, blood and more blood. Once a tick has embedded itself into your dog, it will hang on indefinitely, taking in copious amounts of blood until it is bloated and gorged. If you find a corn kernel-like object hanging from your dog’s ear or elsewhere on his body that turns out to have legs, it’s probably a tick that’s been feasting for hours. Remove it immediately, check your dog thoroughly for more ticks, and then call your veterinarian for further direction and advice.

Check Your Dog Regularly for Ticks

If you live in or near a wooded area, perform a routine tick check on your dog. As a good dog owner who’s been looking out for your dog’s best interests and ensuring him a happy life, you should already be familiar with the “chassis inspection.” If not, now is as good a time as any to get familiar with it. Have your dog sit down in front of you and run your hands all over his body. Check his ears and the undersides of his paws. Don’t forget those out of sight areas like his belly and the place where his leg bends into his body. He won’t like these intrusions at first, but if you’re gentle and speak to him softly in that special voice reserved only for him, your dog will eventually grow to tolerate the tick inspection and may even enjoy it.

Tick Removal

If the tick is well-embedded into your dog’s flesh, use a tweezer to grip it firmly, as close to the skin as possible. You want to remove the entire tick without leaving the embedded head behind (I know- disgusting, but necessary). If you take some skin along with the tick, that’s okay- it’s more important to get the head out than than fret over a little lost skin. If you find that the head has remained imbedded and you can’t remove it, keep a close eye on the area. Your dog’s immune system will likely create a small site of infection around the head as a way to dislodge it. That’s perfectly normal; it’s just his body doing its thing to ward off disease.

Once the tick is out, save it in a jar and send it off to school with your little ones for show and tell. Just kidding about the show and tell…. but you really should hold the tick captive in a jar if you can. You’ll have it as a specimen to show your vet “just in case” your dog starts exhibiting signs of Lyme disease.

Complications of a Tick Bite

Ticks pose the threat of disease – not just mild illness, but serious, debilitating diseases such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (prevalent in the western United States), Lyme Disease (prevalent in the Northeastern US), and other less commonly known bacteria-bourne illnesses that can lead to serious complications including paralysis and death.

You can choose not practice tick prevention, thereby engaging your dog in a little “Russian Roulette” each time a tick bites… or you can do the smart thing, which is keep him tick-free and consequently, disease-free.

Tick Control

Many of the same products that afford protection against fleas also repel ticks, particularly the “spot on” applications such as Frontline®, that can be applied to the skin between your dog’s shoulder blades once a month for maximum protection. Ticks can also be controlled with the traditional flea prevention methods such as dipping, bathing, spraying and powdering.

Talk to your vet about which tick repellant is right for you, as he has access to your dog’s medical history and can offer advice based on prior health records.

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

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