Bailey's Outward Hound Sling

Because of Bailey's bad leg he gets a little tired on walks. If we take really long walks his bad leg will start to drag and the nails will bleed. He wears a little boot to help protect his foot but he loves his Outward Hound dog sling so he can be carried on walks! The sling works fantastic for when we go out to crowded places. Bailey is so small and low to the ground that I worry about people stepping on him. He loves riding in the sling. Usually once hes in the sling he starts to fall asleep. If I carry him in the sling for several hours it will start to hurt my shoulder but I think you would expect that. Outward Hound makes the sling, they have a few other dog products that we have tried and they have worked out well.

June 11th Fast and Furriest

The love of my life Bailey was adopted from Rochester Animal Services. Yet I have never participated in this fundraiser. A few years I meant to go but the weather wasn't great and I backed out. This year I definately want to go on the walk to support the shelter that took care of Bailey before he came to live with me. According to their website they take in about 6,000 animals a year. Unfortuneately about 60% of them are humanely euthanized. Last year this event raised $28,000, the goal for this year is $40,000. Thats a big increase in fundraising goal but I hope they can do it!

Raw Food Seminar at Boom Towne

I'm always interested in the best food to feed the dogs because I want them to live forever. Currently I feed them a high quality dry food, canned wet food, and the occasional home cooked meal. I don't know much about raw diets besides that I hear they are great. Honestly they kind of freak me out, sounds grose.

Boom Towne is offering a free seminar about raw diets on May 6th at 5:30pm. Jacqueline C. Hill will be giving the seminar. She worked as a vet tech for 15 years and now works for one of the largest raw pet food manufactures in the country. She sounds like a reliable source for information on this topic.

Collecting Cans for Bfest

Thats what $200 in cans looks like!

Part of the secret to my success last year for Barktober Fest was collecting cans. It sounds ridiculous but it does actually add up. At least $600 of my total last year came from cans. Now I did have a connection and the recycling center that would let me collect cans there but some of just came from my house, friends, and my office. Don't get me wrong returning the cans at times was really gross but people can be more willing to give up their recycling then money sometimes.

I've started early this year collecting cans. Right now its just from a few friends, my office, my moms office and home but it does add up quick. I returned $17 worth of cans the other night. I hope this year to be the #1 Barktober Fest individual fundraiser but the competition is steep!

Muffin Pan Game

Peanut and I headed off to Flyball yesterday only to find that there was an agility competition running late at Boom Towne. We stayed and watched some of the dogs compete but poor Peanut was dying to get out there and run around. The competition ran so late that practice was canceled. So when we got home I wanted to give the dogs something interesting to do. I remembered the muffin pan game that I had learned at Lollypop Farm's Boredom Busters Workshop.

The idea of the game is to get an old muffin pan and some tennis balls. We couldn't find enough balls so we used all sorts of their toys. I hid some cheese under one of the toys and the dogs had to take turns figuring out where the treat was. It sounds simple but its a good puzzle to keep the dogs minds active!

Flyball Practice 3-4-11

Peanut is really starting to figure flyball out. Last Friday we worked hard on her box turn. Before then she was doing the turn well but we had not incorporated the ball yet. We finally got all of the pieces together and had her doing a swimmers turn on the box and grabbing the ball! Our first little break through. She is going to be a flyball queen in no time! Of course I was not able to get this on video but I did get some pictures of her practicing the box turn.

Naughty Little Peanut

I love buying different treats for the dogs. This week I bought new organic duck treats. All four dogs loved them. They broke up nicely to use as training treats so I was planning on saving most of them for Peanuts next flyball class. Well Peanut had something else in mind. Stupidly I left the bag sitting on the coffee table and went to work. By the time I came home on lunch to check on the pups Peanut had already taken the bag of treats and eaten all of them! Poor girl had a tummy ache for a few days.