Dog Obedience Short Course

DANBURY – The Fairfield County 4-H program will conduct a five-week Dog Obedience Short Course starting Saturday, February 5, at Wags Doggie Day Camp & Boarding, LLC, in Danbury.

Abby Hill of Exceptional Pet, LLC, will conduct the program and classes will include basic obedience; proper interactions with humans and strange dogs; coping with behavior problems; teaching your dog tricks; and basic dog care.

Any youth ages 9 to 15 is eligible to participate. Enrollment is limited and registration is required. Call 203-207-8440 for further information and registration materials.

Course In Equine Husbandry

WATERBURY – For credit courses in Equine Husbandry are being offered at Post University in Waterbury.

The courses can be taken in any order and are open to anyone interested – no pre-requisites are required. They will run for eight weeks (three hours a night, one night per week in the evening) and can earn CEU credits or be for personal enrichment.

The third unit in the program – Equine Anatomy – wil  start on Tuesday, February 15 for eight weeks until April 19. The classes run from 6:30 - 9:20 pm on the Waterbury Campus in the Drubner Center.

It can be fairly easy to find someone to teach you riding, but much harder to acquire the knowledge to keep a horse in top condition. This series of courses will address this need as they cover the necessary information horse owners require to take care of horses efficiently.

Equine Anatomy will cover the basic structure and function of the horse from the skeleton to the skin, the major organs including the heart and lungs, the digestive and muscular systems and other important functions that keep the horse healthy.

Other courses will be offered in Stable Management II, Equine Health, and Horse Ownership during 2005.

To earn CEU credits the cost is $500. To audit the course, the cost is $350. To register, or for more information, call the Equine Department at Post University at (203) 596-4631 or e-mail CBaker@post.edu.

Humans And Equines Can Share Diseases

CALIFORNIA – The University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine reports that some of the 5,000 genetically inherited diseases and abnormalities that occur in humans can also occur in animals.

Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis disease (HYPP) is a muscular disease that affects both humans and horses and is caused by a hereditary genetic defect that disrupts the sodium ion channels and results in hyperkalemia, an accessive amount of potassium in the blood that causes the muscles to contract more readily than normal.

Glycogen branching enzyme disease (GBED), which can result in a number of afflicitions from mild adult-onset muscle weakness to neonatal death and liver failure, is another shared disorder.

Discoveries like this are an end result to the massive amount of work and research being done in the Human Genome Project, an effort to obtain a highly-accurate sequence of the human genome. In that regard, The Horse Report out of UC-Davis insists it is to every owner’s benefit to become more informed about genetic defects in horses and to take the necessary steps to selectively avoid production of affected foals.

Visit www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ceh on the web.

Bandaging/Laminitis Classes In Middletown

MIDDLETOWN – Animal Science Adult Education classes in Bandaging and Laminitis are being sponsored by the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension System.

Amanda Thomson, Animal Science instructor at Middletown High School, will present different approaches to bandaging legs (with participants practicing on a life-size, model horse) on Monday, January 31. And Jonathan Jeffery, DVM of Equine Podiatry Services of Connecticut, will discuss the latest options available for treating laminitis in horses on Monday, February 7.

Both classes meet from 7 to 9 pm at the Vo-Ag Center on Hunting Hill Avenue in Middletown.

‘For The Horse’ Two-Day Workshop

OLD LYME – High Hopes Therapeutic Riding, Inc., will present a two-day workshop entitled “For The Horse” on Saturday and Sunday, April 23 and 24, at High Hopes in Old Lyme.

Topics will be presented by veterinarians, farriers, and other specialists and will include Natural Horsemanship-Monty Roberts Method; Horse Behavior-Parelli Method; driving; vaulting; chiropractic and acupuncture; reproduction; hoof care; saddle fitting; animal communication; massage and trigger point myotherapy; and desensitizing the horse.

Call Kristin Pernal at High Hopes at 1-860-434-1974, ext. 18 for further information.