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Even though it is the stuff that makes us tear up in movies and television shows, giving a puppy as a Christmas present is rarely a good idea. Despite all of your best intentions, adding a furry family member needs very careful consideration.

The holidays are a stressful time for most people. There is a ton of hustle and bustle about the home every day. There may be family traveling in, or you may need to travel to them. There are presents to wrap and food to cook. Now, add an 8 week old puppy to the mix and someone is going to howl for sure!

Having a new puppy is, well, expensive. There are the costs of acquiring the puppy, plus all the “must-haves” that need to be purchased. There are the expenses for Veterinary care and puppy-proofing the home. Not too mention, replacing anything that little Marmaduke happens to chew on with those baby teeth. Christmas is probably not the best time of year to add on a list of expenses.

Then, there is the little-known issue of whether or not the puppy will be healthy. See, most reputable breeders actually will refuse to sell puppies at Christmas, for fear they will not be accepted or cared for properly. Or, the fact that someone may end up allergic and that would break everyone’s heart. Unfortunately, puppy mills breed their dogs to make money around the holidays. It seems that pet stores make a lot of money and most of it is off of puppies bred solely for profit. The saddest part here is that many are in-bred and come to their new homes with genetic defects, illnesses and many other ailments. And, way too many times, they end up at shelters.

So, before purchasing a puppy as a gift this Christmas here are some ideas that should help:

• Check with your local shelter about a gift certificate-then, go AFTER the holidays are over.
• Buy a few books on dogs—fun and interesting for the children to read. This way, they can learn about how to raise a puppy and get ready for the big day.
• Pet-sit for a day. Borrow a friend’s dog for the day. This will allow the children to have all the fun of playing with a friendly dog, but not necessarily the hard work of it all. Just be sure the dog is kid-friendly
• Plan for the puppy. Make a calendar of when you plan to go look at puppies. Discuss shelters vs. breeders with the family. Figure out where he or she will sleep, what they will eat, etc. Make it a family affair!
• Visit your local Veterinarian. Get to know the doctor who will be taking care of your pet. This way, the children get to ask questions, maybe even see some animals, and the whole family is comfortable with their puppy’s new doctor.

These are just some basic ideas. Try to remember that bringing home a pet is almost as important as bringing home a baby. With children, we get 9 months or so to prepare. For your new puppy, at least take a month or two to prepare. In the long run, your holidays will go smoother and everyone will end up with a family member that is loved and cherished for many Christmas’ to come.

How to Design Your English Presentation

Part of any Business English Course that deals with presentations will look at how to design or develop your presentation. How do you start? What do you put into it? In a Business English course this is the method or process that I would advise my students to use when developing their presentation. The method that I suggest using is to start at the result that you want at the end of your presentation and work your way backwards to the introduction. This should help you to develop a concise and effective presentation that does not contain unnecessary information. This is not a new idea, but it is one that I taught my students before actually finding it in an English presentations text.

What result do you want from your Presentation?

At the same time as you decide on the result you want you should also decide on who your audience will be and what to write for them. As well, decide what you want them to know or do after participating in your presentation. After this start with what is the end result you want from your presentation. Is it just an information presentation where you want to impart data or knowledge, do you want them to make a particular decision, or do you want them to make a purchase from you. There are other results you may want, so start with the end result that you want from your presentation. As I mentioned and as you probably noticed we will be working backwards in designing the English presentation.

Key Points for Your Presentation Result

When you have determined the result that you want you then need to think about what are the 3 or 4 key things you want them to know or think about in order to get the result. The key points should come easily after you know what you want to happen after the end of the presentation. These will be the points you bring up in your summary so that they are fresh in the minds of your audience. By doing this you will limit the amount of information that you will need to add into the presentation. You don’t want to use the shotgun approach when designing an English presentation.

Information needed to Support Your Presentation’s Key Points?

After you have decided on the key point that you need it will be easy to decide or determine what information or data you need to support these key points. Because you know the data that you need to include, you will not need to include excess information, thereby shortening your presentation and making it more concise.

The Finish of Your Freshly Designed Presentation

You have designed most of your English presentation by deciding on your conclusion or result, determining your key points, and adding information to support your key points. Now you only need to work on the introduction to your presentation. You know the end result or conclusion, you have your key points, and your presentation now contains the data or information needed to support the key points. So you can use these to write your Outline and Introduction, which should now be a ‘piece of cake’ (easy).

I would advocate using the process outlined above because it should make designing your presentation easier. It may seem to be against common sense by starting at the end and working your way to the beginning, but the end result will be a more focused English presentation which gets to the point without all the fluffy padding. It will be less boring, and it will contain less useless information. I hope you enjoyed this brief look at how to design an English presentation.