I budget $70 a week for our family of 3, however, I have consistently went over budget for weeks now. I think $100 a week may be better. This however includes a lot of out paper products and non-food items. I do most of my shopping at Aldi (a discount grocery, I live in Metro Detroit) and some at Trader Joe`s. It makes it hard to eat healthy when you are trying to spend very little , so I could probably do on less money per week if we ate less fresh foods (fruits and veggies). One thing I love to do is buy 2 dozen eggs a week (sometimes more!) and use them for several meals - breakfast of course, but also egg salad sandwhiches for lunch one day and a quiche for dinner one night also. Eggs are great protein and in other countries people eat upwards of 10 eggs a day sometimes. (yes, our cholesterol is healthy and great!) I usually buy fresh fruits but usually try to stick to frozen veggies, they are cheaper and usually easier to prepare. Hope any of this helps, I am still trying to figure it all out and cut my grocery bill even more!

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We've had our american eskimo dog for a while now. we got him straight from the breeder when he was 8 weeks old. the first few weeks were good. one of my good friends breeds golden retrievers and has had experience with spitz dogs so we got him trained really good. he was potty trained within a few weeks, he only had a few accidents. we live in a spacious apartment but he rarely spends a lot of time here. i own horses so i take him out to the barn with me for nearly 5-6 hours a day (i have three horses and a lot of barn chores). when we get to the barn i let him off his leash. he literally runs and burns a ton of energy. due to the training he's had, he always knew to come back when i called his name. the breeder at first wasn't too fond of me keeping him in an apartment but it had worked for the months that we've had him. the apartment was the safe place to rest, chew on toys, play with the cat etc. well the past two months have been hell. all of a sudden he's forgotten a lot of his training. he's very obedient when we're alone at the apartment. for the most part he respects us and listens to us. but when we get company, he goes off the fritz. if its my parents, he will not stop jumping up on them. if we say "riku down!" he stops, looks at us, then continues doing it. he's obviously cementing the fact that he knew what we were asking and instead decides to do it anyways. my parents encourage him by petting him and giving him attention instead of ignoring him when he does that. if its not my parents and one of my brothers or friends, he barks and growls and acts aggressive. he wont shut up if a friend comes over. we had to put a muzzle on him because he doesn't shut up. but this is the worst, he's become an escape artist. i took him to the barn again like usual, knowing he's been a bit different lately i still figured he'd behave himself. the first thing he did was take off towards the pasture which was odd of him because he usually follows me into the barn. i figured he just wanted to run. after i worked with my first horse i noticed he hadn't come around so i went out and called him. i could see him off in the distance stop, look at me, then run away. i got frustrated and walked out to the pasture calling him again. he just kept running and barking at all the other horses. he also got kicked. i chased him for about a half hour and couldn't catch him. he didn't come when i called him or anything. i actually had to bribe him over to me on horse back in order to get him. then i didn't feel safe letting him run around again because he didn't listen, and i locked him in an empty horse stall for about 2 hours. this is a huge bummer because i got him to be my barn buddy since i spend a lot of hours out there alone with the horses. he's not a typical horse type dog but he always used to take to it like a fish to water. he loved being out there. at home, its worse. if any of us nudge the door open a little, he bolts out. he's knocked us over, rubbed the door open with his nose and has ran. he wont listen when we call anymore. we usually wind up chasing him for an hour until we get him. then at that point i dont think its right to discipline him because then he'd think that if he ever came back he'd get yelled at. he's escaped a dozen times and we've gotten complaints from the apartment. my biggest fear is that he'll get hit by a car!! i have nightmares about his escaping habit. i just dont understand why he feels the need to do it. he gets ample excersize at the barn and most people who live in regular houses dont have the space of a large equine center. further more 5-6 hours, 7 days a week is a lot of time to run. i dont know what to do. we've established many times that we're the alphas. we eat first, we leave and enter the apartment first, he doesn't get full run of the apartment either he knows a lot of it belongs to us, we initiate play always, we've done everything by the book. my dog trainer friend tried to help and began to comment on how disobedient he's gotten in the past few months. she has no idea why because she's gone to the barn with me and watched how as a 4 and 5 month old he responded as quickly as a police dog would. i dont want to have to give him up but if he keeps escaping we'll have to give him away. if i cant take him to the barn because he wont listen, and our neighbors complain about him, i dont know where he'll fit. he's high energy so he cant stay in a crate all day. any suggestions? no way am i shocking or beating my dog! i got obedience when he was younger almost purely through positive training. i know he can do it again. the only time i ever had to hit him was when he tried to aggressively bite my 3 year old nephew. and after that he hasn't done it since and i dont plan on striking him again!!

Many dogs reach a stage where they start making decisions not to obey based upon the fact that they find some other activity more interesting. Electric collars when properly used are not painful and can be a useful tool for reinforcing commands at distance, under distraction. Its a great option in situations where disobedience puts the dog in danger. Definitely more humane than getting kicked by a horse, hit by a human, or run over by a vehicle. Many models come with tone and vibration only settings. Expand your horizons and educate yourself about the tool beyond second hand knowledge from those who know nothing about them other than heresay. The heart of the issue is, dogs are simple-minded creatures with EXTREMELY short attention spans who live in the HERE and the NOW. They respond to whatever looks, smells, and sounds most interesting at any given time. At 5-10 feet away, in the quiet of your own home, that's almost always you. There's simply nothing else in the environment that they find more interesting than listening to what you want them to do. Outside at the same distance, with few distractions, it may or may not be you. Introduce distractions into the equation and you're probably not the most interesting thing out there anymore. In low-distance/low-distraction situations, it's quite possible that holding a toy or a treat will put you at the top of the list again. At extreme distances and with distractions, it probably won't matter what motivator you have in your hands. When we put ourselves in this situation and get into the habit of repeating things over and over, they become 'deaf' commands. This is a display of weakness on the handler's part. We have revealed a situation where 'COME' is not something to be obeyed on the first try, but rather when the dog happens to get around to it or when you present a large enough reward. When you suddenly encounter these situations and don't get instant obedience, you should stop, think, and keep calm. To raise your voice, repeat yourself, and let your frustration show is to confirm that you remain powerless and frustrated, and for now running from you is more fun than coming to you. If a command repeated 2-3 times gets ignored, it's more effective and less time consuming to approach gradually, casually, even playfully, with food in hand if possible, not giving any indication that we're trying to pull the dog away from the fun. Re-gain control then try to figure out how to prevent it from happening again. A competent trainer will tell you going back and re-freshing the same training under the same circumstances won't work. The dog must be CONDITIONED to respond, at a distance, under higher-level distractions. Taught not just that you're the most interesting thing out there, but that regardless of whether there's something more interesting going on than what you're saying, they MUST tear their attention away from it and obey a given command. Usually we start with low level distractions at a close proximity, something like giving the dog a 'COME' command, throwing a ball in the opposite direction, and teaching that the desired result is to ignore the ball going the other way and still come to you. Then we move outside and work at increasing distances, with increasing levels of distraction, until the dog is responding to you in the most distracting situation they are likely to encounter in your environment. Some will say working with a long lead and pulling him in when he doesn't respond is all you need to do. I say this CAN work at limited distances, with limited distractions, but there is still the risk the dog will become equipment-savy. Specifically, he will recognize that the absence of that leash means you no longer have a way to reinforce your command. And he will not respond if something else is so much more interesting than you that he wants to explore that first. This is possibly a great option for a dog that needs to be recalled when he wanders 20-30 feet towards the other end of the fence line, but I question its effectiveness in a heavy distraction situation where there's lots of open ground and other animals around. This is why I am a fan of the electric collar. I believe it is crucial that the dog, in the midst of distraction, hears a command, feels that sensation, and recognizes that the sensation came from you even though you are a great distance away and there is no physical link between you. It is more practical for him to always have that collar on than for him to always be tied up or on a long lead. Once he recognizes the weight of the collar, he knows any time it is there you can reinforce the command. Once the electric stimulation has become a recognized result of disobedience, you can transition to tone-only or vibration only stimulation and have the same effect. Many times you can achieve a level where the collar is present but stimulation of any kind is rarely needed.