No food or drug can ever be made 100 percent safe, and that’s a fact.

I’m OK with that, because life can’t ever be made 100 percent safe, and that’s a fact, too. Honestly, who would want life to be 100 percent safe? Not me, for sure, because that would be awfully damn dull.

I know that even under the best of circumstances food will occasionally be contaminated and need to be recalled. I can forgive a company for that, although my level of forgiveness will vary depending on how likely the company was to know that there was a problem, and how much of the resulting problem was due to accident, or to a decision after doing the math that a few dead pets (or people) weren’t worth the cost of making changes.

When there is a problem, though, I expect — no, I demand — that a company make a real, true and honest effort to let everyone know about it, not dump-and-run a media release late on a Friday night. I want the information front and center on  company’s Web site, and I want to see that the company is making at least as big an effort to get bad product back as they did to market their goods in the first place.

And then I want a company to be honest about what happened, how it happened, and have a plan for getting the problem fixed so the problem — at least not that problem — won’t happen again.

With all that in mind, I say this: Nature’s Variety is a case in point of how to handle a recall right.

They never hid their recall notices — always the first thing you saw on their Web site.  They reached out to retailers, purchasers, media and bloggers to make sure the word got out. And now, they’ve reviewed their internal manufacturing process and are making changes:

… Nature’s Variety now uses High Pressure Pasteurization on our Raw Frozen Diets as a unique process to kill pathogenic bacteria through high-pressure, water-based technology. Having incorporated this state-of-the-art technology on our Freeze Dried Raw products in late 2009, we were able to confidently implement the process universally on all Raw Frozen Diets after the February 11, 2010 recall in order to further enhance food safety. Nature’s Variety also utilizes a test and hold protocol to ensure that all High Pressure Pasteurized Raw Frozen Diets test negative for harmful bacteria before being released for sale.

Let’s repeat that:

Nature’s Variety also utilizes a test and hold protocol to ensure that all High Pressure Pasteurized Raw Frozen Diets test negative for harmful bacteria before being released for sale.

You know what makes me sad? That this sort of thing is news, not standard operating procedure in the food industry.  I have hope, though, that it increasingly will be. Or that we can make sure it will be, by law.

In the meantime, kudos to Nature’s Variety for behaving in such an overtly responsible way.

A dog’s continuous barking can be most annoying. Here’s a couple of ways to remedy the situation if this is a problem for you.

The first thing to do is make sure your crate is big enough for the puppy and the job you wish to use it for. If traveling, by plane, check with the air line or travel company that you get the right crate for the job.

While puppy training classes come highly recommended as a means of helping a dog owner to correctly train their new pets, it must be remembered that such classes conducted by reputable dog training schools have a minimum age requirement, which makes it difficult if your new puppy is below that age. There are two types of puppy training classes that could be beneficial to any dog owner, so let us examine what each does.

You love your dog… you really do. But it’s very hard to love your dog when they are barking all of the time. It may bot even be all of the time, but only when specific things happen, such as a doorbell ringing, or a car driving by. You know how annoying it can become, and it is time to stop it. Stopping the barking is much easier than you might think, if you know a few simple secrets…

When you first get a dog, whether it’s a new puppy or an older dog, you want to be able to have fun with him and the best way to do that is to teach him some basic dog training tricks. There are numerous tricks that you can teach your dog including many complicated routines, however irrespective of the breed of dog you should always start with simple tricks first.

If you are thinking of starting out with a dry dog food diet for your new dog or contemplating a change of diet for your existing dog there are many factors to take into consideration. With the market place bulging at the seams with products today you need to be very careful to choose the most adequate, nutritious and economically sound choice both for you and your dog.

Alike human beings, dogs also need a proper blend of various nutrients in their diet. So as a guardian of such a lovable pet you need to take care that your dog is getting all the necessary nutrients in proper proportions.

Wanting to stop their dog barking is one of the most frustrating motions a dog owner can go through, especially so when it continues throughout the night. Barking is a normal behavior of dogs; however continuous barking for a long time is the symbol that your dog has a problem or needs attention from you. Always try to control of the situation as soon as your dog develops with a barking problem.

When you are training your dog there are four important things to keep in mind. They are the command, marker, reward and release.