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The girl played a lot with her pet dog Cinder. But she never played tug-of-war with her. Pulling and tugging on a dog's toy can make the dog mean. When Cinder was about nine weeks old, obedience school was started. The girl had picked a school that hardly ever uses the word "no" to train dogs. Instead, they ignore naughty dogs or praise good dogs. Sometimes the girl thought that she had the smartest dog in the world. She seemed to learn things even if the girl was goofing up the lesson. Having a dog is a lot of hard work. It's an important responsibility.

The girl wanted to take her dog Cinder everywhere. Puppies are supposed to need to do their business right after they eat. Cinder slept for over an hour. The girl also helped her learn to walk up the stairs. One day, she decided to take Cinder to the pet store to buy her a leash and collar. The day came when Cinder was taken to the veterinarian. The veterinarian said that Cinder was a very healthy puppy, but she had worms. Spaying and neutering are important operations. So the girl decided that when Cinder will turn six months old, she would have her spayed.

The day had finally come, when the girl and her family went to bring the puppy home. The girl was very excited and ran to see the puppies at the breeder's place. But they weren't in the kennel. The breeder said that she had socialized the puppies. That's why they were in the house instead of the kennel. The breeder told them that the submissive puppy wouldn't be as happy with children. She would be better off in a quiet home with a gentle person. The girl finally selected a puppy and named her Cinder. At home Cinder was more interested in exploring the yard than doing her business.

There are so many different ways to go about raising a puppy. The girl and her family decided to buy a kennel, so the puppy would have a special place of her own. Dogs like covered spaces. Dens make dogs feel safe and secure. Puppies need a few things right away when they come to a new home. They need bowls for food and water and a few toys. There are so many different kinds of dog dishes. Dogs can choke to death on toys that are small enough to go down their throat. The girl wanted to take the dog to obedience school as soon as possible. There seem to be as many kinds of training as there are puppy toys.

The girl decided to get a weimaraner breed of dog. Weimaraners are either grayish blue or grayish pink. They are good with children and are affectionate and lively. The next step was to find a breeder who raised weimaraners. The girl thought that maybe a pet store would have weimaraners. But many pet stores get their puppies from puppy mills. Puppy mills are places where dogs are raised only to make puppies. Weimaraners are hunting dogs. The girl thought that maybe other hunting dogs wouldn't be as expensive, Labrador retrievers. They're great dogs, too. They're good with kids and they're big enough but not too big.

A girl called Cindy wanted a dog of her own. But her parents always told her that taking care of a dog is a huge responsibility. A dog needs to be walked and trained. On her twelfth birthday, her parents gave her a handmade gift certificate for a puppy. The family decided to find a dog that will fit into their family the best. They needed a dog who would be good with children. Some breeds aren't as playful as others. And some breeds become attached to only one or two people. They also brought books from the library that explained why it's good to get a purebred dog.

For about 400 million years, sharks and their ancestors have ruled the seas. However, with increased seaside recreation, technology, and demand for sea food, people have been invading the oceans. Ironically, people have proven to be more dangerous to sharks than sharks are to people. Humans have polluted the shark's nurseries by dumping chemical wastes into the ocean and building on beachfront property. Scientists use physical characteristics to divide all the modern sharks into eight groups called orders. Within each order is at least one smaller group called a family. Within the 30 families of sharks are over 375 species.

Sharks fertilize eggs inside the female's body, just as mammals do. Scientists believe that internal fertilization and the development of young inside the mother is a main reason for the shark's reign of the sea. Most shark babies, or pups, are provided with nutrition and protection as they develop inside their mothers' bodies. Depending on the species, sharks may live from 8 to 40 years. Male and female sharks of the same species look very much alike. The only difference is that the male's pelvic fins extend into two long rod-shaped appendages called claspers. The male shark deposits sperm into his mate by inserting one of his claspers into an opening in the female's body called the cloaca. The three types of shark reproduction are oviparous, viviparous aplacental, and viviparous placental.

Sharks have six senses. These senses are smell, sight, hearing, touch, taste and sharks can sense electric fields, too. All the shark's senses are highly developed especially for life in the sea, which makes sharks excellent hunters. Sharks have a fabulous sense of smell. Sharks have developed vision that serves them well underwater. A shark's sense of hearing may be as important as its sense of smell in locating its prey. The shark's world is full of water currents, so the shark's sense of touch comes in handy. Sharks rely on their sense of taste when hunting. The greatest number of taste buds are in the mouth, right by the teeth. Sharks are also able to sense electric fields through organs called ampulla of Lorenzini.

The elasmobranch traits have helped sharks rule the sea. Special adaptations have ensured that sharks are well suited to ocean life and able to survive in many different environments throughout the sea. Sharks have skin like sandpaper. Tooth-like scales, called placoid scales or denticles, are embedded in sharks' skin and in parts of their mouth linings and gill cavities. These scales are probably replaced by larger scales as a shark grows. Different shark species have different types of scales. A shark's survival depends partly on the quality of its teeth. Sharks' teeth are modifications of the placoid scales on their bodies. INSET: How Sharks Breathe.

Sharks first appeared on earth about 400 million years ago — before dinosaurs ruled the land and long before human beings existed. Sharks were called "swimming noses" because it was thought that they were slaves to their sense of smell, recklessly killing whatever smelled like food to them. Now scientists know that sharks are highly developed and complex animals. As a matter of fact, they are no longer thought of as killing machines. Instead, sharks have earned the title of perfect predator. About 375 species of sharks are known to exist. One shark species, the mega-mouth, was discovered as recently as 1976. Sharks are fishes. They belong to the class of fish called Chondrichthyes.

Peafowl take care of their feathers by preening. They use their beaks to smooth their feathers. They use their beaks to spread oil through their feathers too. Oil keeps water off a peafowl. Peafowl often preen while they are roosting. Once every summer, a peafowl's feathers fall off. Old feathers fall off so new feathers can grow in. This is called molting.

Peahens get ready to lay eggs in early summer. But they don't go to the trouble of building nests. They just find places under shrubs or in tall grass. Sometimes, a peahen doesn't even lay her eggs in a nest. A peahen spends around a week laying her eggs. A group of eggs is called a clutch. After all her eggs are laid, the peahen is ready to incubate them. Incubation keeps eggs at the right temperature. The peahen incubates her eggs for 28 days. When peachicks hatch, their eyes are open. They are covered with down feathers. And they can run around. Peachicks stay with their families for up to nine weeks. Then they go off on their own.

Peafowl, like other birds, have three types of feathers. They are flight feathers, contour feathers, and down. Flight feathers are straight and stiff feathers that help birds fly. Contour feathers cover a peafowl's body. They make a bird look smooth. Under the contour feathers are small, fuzzy down feathers. Down is also the first kind of feather that grows on peachicks. The most beautiful feathers are the peacock's train. The train is made up of 150-200 feathers. Feathers help peafowl stay warm in cold weather and cool in hot weather.

The peacock leads his harem to food and water. In the wild, peafowl eat and drink in the morning and in the afternoon. But in captivity, in zoos and parks, peafowl nibble all day long. Peafowl are omnivores. Peafowl do not have teeth. Instead, they gobble up whole pieces of food. The food is stored in their bodies. It is stored in a pouch called the crop. Food from the crop goes into the stomach. Sometimes, peafowl swallow sand and small rocks. But this doesn't hurt them. Sand and rocks help a bird's stomach crush food.

Peafowl have been living in India for over 50,000 years. Peafowl can live through very hot as well as frosty cold weather. In India, peafowl live in open areas like parks. The land is grassy. A few trees and shrubs grow here and there. Open areas make it easy for peafowl to look out for enemies. When peafowl roost, they sit on branches high up in a tree. They feel safest in a tree that stands alone. Peafowl listen and look for enemies. To get away from predators, peafowl fly into trees.

The peacock is one of the most beautiful birds in the world. Peacocks are males. Peahens are females. The babies are called peachicks. Altogether, these birds are called peafowl. Peahens don't have the long, colorful feathers that peacocks have. Both peacocks and peahens have crests, though. A crest is a crown of feathers on a bird's head. The group of peahens in a family is called a harem. Three species, or kinds, of peafowl live in the world. They are the Congo, the green, and the Indian peafowl.

Different species of ants live their lives in different ways. Some ant species steal eggs from other ants. The kidnappers raise the other ants to be their slaves. Some ant species are farmers. They grow food in their anthills. Some ant species hunt other insects. Some kinds of Formica ants collect juice from insects called aphids. The tapping and stroking make liquid sugar drip out of the aphids' bodies. This liquid sugar is called honeydew. Drinking honeydew is a special treat for Formica ants. Ants are strong. All the ants in a colony work together.

An ant's body is made up of three main parts. They are the head, the chest, and the abdomen. Two antennas grow out of an ant's head. Antennas are used to touch, taste, smell, and feel movements. An ant also has two eyes on its head. Ants use their mandibles to dig, fight, and carry objects. Ants chew their food with their maxillas. An ant has its own stomach and a social stomach. Special workers go out to look for food. Some of the food is stored in a worker's own stomach. The worker uses food from her social stomach to feed other ants in her colony. Some kinds of Formica ants can shoot poison from their abdomen. They use poison to kill big insects that they want to eat.

Ants go through four stages of growth. The first stage is the egg. Deep inside the anthill, queens lay tiny eggs. They lay a few eggs every day. The baby ants are in their eggs for about 14 days. Then they hatch and are called larvas. The larvas live deep inside the anthill with the eggs and queens. Larvas grow quickly. Larvas shed four or five times. Then they enter the third stage. The larvas spin cocoons and become pupas. Finally, after two or three weeks of living in cocoons, the pupas are ready to come out. This is the fourth stage. The change from egg to adult is called metamorphosis.

Ants are insects, and they are small. All insects have some features in common. There are three parts to every insect's body. There are about 20,000 species, or kinds, of ants. They live almost everywhere in the world. Formica ants are just one type of ant. Formica ants that live in forests. Their homes are called anthills. All the ants in one anthill make up a colony. Insects that live in colonies are called social insects. At least one queen and many workers live in a colony. Queens and workers are all female. Queen lays eggs. One time each spring, young males and young queens fly together. They fly only once in their lives. After their flight, the males die.