Frogs, frogs and more frogs!

A few times the past couple of weeks, Mum has taken us up to where they are either filling in a pond or starting a new pond, not quite sure. But DOG...there are a lot of frogs up in that pond!

Gracie and I pull every time we walk near there so we can go say hi to the frogs. Check it out, oh and you may want to turn up the volume :)

Reminiscing about agility on my Gotcha Day!

This past weekend was the anniversary of my Gotcha Day!!! The day I got, got!

Milestone days sometimes bring on a little reminiscing, no?

It's been six years since Mum adopted me from the Southside Animal Shelter in Indianapolis. Mum woke up one day and said, "I want a dog to do stuff with." So she got on Petfinder and found this pic of me and my brother and instantly fell in love. I am her first dog ever!

Neither one of us had a clue or twinkle in the eye for agility in the beginning, but after an agility class when I was almost a year old, both of our lives took a major turn. We immediately began agility training and haven't even thought about looking back, despite my bad luck over the years.

I like to think I'm a lucky dog. Much has happened to me and much has had to be overcome for me to do agility, my absolutely favorite thing to do in life, besides be with my Mum, of course!

For those of you who don't know, when I was one year old I was attacked by a bunch of dogs. It was touch and go for a while, but I recovered and competed in my first agility trial just a couple of months later at the age of 18 months and one day, with a little shorter fur on my backside. It was USDAA and I got four Q's - three 1st and one 2nd - and came home with lots of ribbons. Needless to say we were completely hooked on agility!

About a year later, I turned up with a dislocated toe, after three trips to the vet to find out what was up, I finally got an x-ray that showed my toe out of whack. A little adjustment and six weeks of leash rest and I was back to my wacky self. And back running and competing in agility!

Then, when I was three, Mum had to board me when she went to Las Vegas for work. While I was there I got a broken foot. After eight weeks in a cast, I recovered well from that too and was back in agility in about five months. Came back and got a QQ in my first AKC trial back at it in Lewisburg, Ohio!

Just about a year later, I started not running well in agility, I got hesitant, till one day I sniffed in front of lots of jumps during an AKC JWW run. Turned out I had pulled my iliopsoas muscle. It took a lot of trips to vets and rehab specialists to figure out what was wrong, but once we did, it was into recovery I went. Took off a few months and I was back at agility again! Yeah!

That year following, we competed in 24 trials in Indiana and in Ohio. During that time I had a great string of 7 QQs in a row through three trials, and in one trial that year I got three first places with a total of 86 MACH points for the weekend.

Also that year, I competed in the USDAA regionals in Indiana and our team came away with 15th place and a nice DAM Q, qualifying me for nationals in all three events with the other GP and STP Q's I got that year. I ended up after that year about 100 pts from my MACH and five Q's from my ADCH. What a rush!!!

Competing at nationals in both AKC and USDAA was not to be that year, I was 50 or so points away from qualifying for AKC nationals when my iliopsoas started acting up again. Mum, Gracie and I were planning a move to the mountains, so Mum decided it was time to take me off agility, get us moved and settled in, let me completely recover and work through a plan to help prevent my iliopsas from acting up.

Turns out a trip to our new vet at the University of Tennessee after we moved, helped me and Mom figure out that it was the resulting affects of the dog attack back in my first year of life that is deterring the strength and flexibility in my back through some fused skin layers from the surgery, and that's why I have iliopsoas troubles.

I've been off for over a year, getting well and working my rehab. Mum and I have been working on my strength and flexibility, and all indicators seem that it's working well, although we both realize that I have troubles throughout my life. Mum and I sometimes think about what would my agility life be like if I hadn't gotten hurt so much, and had to take off more time recuperating, than actually being able to play the game. But alas, such a waste of time, right?

So, lots of you know we've been practicing agility again for the past few months, and the best news in the world is that I'll be competing next weekend in my first trial back since the Spring of 2009. It's the best Gotcha Day present ever!!!!

Thanks Mum for getting me....I am furever grateful to have you and agility in my life, no matter what we've been through...I'm a fighter, just like you! And right now, I'm just glad we can do it again! Let's go and kick some agility course butt and have tons of fun at the trial this weekend, K? I am ready to run, run, run, for however long I can!

We've been tagged!

The super nice folks at Dog Tag Art were kind enough to let us pick out and send us for free some pawsome new tags, since it's so important to have up-to-date information on the tags you wear!

Here I am with my EarthDog tag since I'm a green dog, you know! (Click to bigify!)

And we found a pawsome cute agility tag for Gracie! See she's got her lucky agility tag on, 'cause you know how much she needs luck on the agility course, BOL!!!

The neat thing about Dog Tag Art is that you can choose from lots and lots of tags created by some talented artists, or you can create one of your own by just uploading a pic and doing a quick little design.

They are very durable too, we've been wearing them on our hikes and during travel, and they don't even have a scratch on 'em! Here's a zoom in version of Gracie's tag!

And the new thing that Dog Tag Art is doing is called Virtual Leash, where for only $1 a month you can have a unique website (a.k.a. online profile) for your pet with unlimited emergency contacts that can be instantly notified. The website can send you and your emergency contacts, messages through email, Twitter, text message and voicemail when your pet is found. Virtual Leash also uses Google Maps to show potential finders a safe place for your pet. You can change this address easily and at anytime.

Your pet's unique website is printed on the tag (along with your phone number) and worn by your pet. Your pet's website can be updated as you move, travel or even when they are at a pet sitters for the weekend. How cool is that!

Oh and did I tell ya, they are very inexpensive too!

Treibball - updated!

Back in 2007, (can you believe I've been blogging since 2007, OMD!) we blogged about a new sport we found coming out of Germany - Treibball!

So we thought it would be good to update some information that nice folks have sent us and we've found around the Internets about the sport, since this is one of the most highly searched terms for my blog.

Here's a video we shared from our 2007 post:

And here's some info from our 2009 post:

Being the herding breed that I am, I have to say that I'm a bit fascinated with this Treibball sport.

We understand the sport has actually been around since about 2003 in Germany, and officially became a dog sport in 2008 with competitions held there. (If any of my European friends have more info, feel free to leave in the comments :).

From what we can gather, the ultimate goal is for the dog to herd eight large balls into a soccer like net as quickly as possible. These balls originate from a formed triangle in the center of a field. But we see other variations as well - herding through obstacles, lanes, and more.

What I like is that it's something new and fun to learn - and would be great to work on even inside during the heat of summer or cold of winter. Inside I could learn to herd those balls around tables and chairs, before venturing outside to wider spaces.

We found a few sites (use translate.google.com) that may be of interest:

• This site, Treibball, has some links to starting training, exercises, a blog and more.
• And here's a Wiki that explains some about the sport, which we believe is also called 'Drift Ball' (EDIT: Drive Ball) from what we can gather from translations. This site also has some tips on what rewards are important in teaching Treibball.

Here's a vid to enjoy, as well!

And a few updates:

We received several emails in the past year about more info for folks to learn more about Treibball we wanted to share. Now all you have to do is get some competition going, get some video on blu ray movies then on YouTube and have fun!

• There are several Yahoo groups for folks interested, click here to join!
• Sandi Pensinger has put together an ebook on the new sport.
• And if you do a little search in Facebook, once you're logged in you find the American Treibball Association and a few other pages devoted to the sport

Enjoy!

Great practice tonight!

Gracie and I got to go to another agility practice tonight. Dang was it fun!

We did a standard course, complete with all the new AKC rules; lowered tire, four paw table count, no judging on the up contact (no worries for me) and other stuff.

The interesting thing is there was an off course tunnel coming right off the dogwalk that Mum thought would be a challenge since we've been working our running dogwalk during our own Monday sessions with a tunnel as the reward and focus point. Mum decided to direct Gracie right into the tunnel since she's still working her dogwalk, but for me she decided to go with the plan and direct me to the jump right instead of into the tunnel. Good test right?

Well I passed!

We had worked on my running dogwalk with a higher table and plank to the tunnel on Monday, and I was at 100%, so Mum moved me up to the full dogwalk and I was at only about 85%. So she decided to test me tonight and I did the dogwalk seven times tonight and was at 100%, even with turns after. We'll see it if it holds for the trial next weekend. If not, I'm sure you'll hear a driveway alarm going off, BOL!.

Mum has decided that both of us will do a down on the table since we love USDAA, and we both come off the table faster that way anyway. One question Mum asked tonight is what if our paws during the down are hanging over the edge of the table, does it still count as four paws on for AKC? Yep, it does according to our instructor tonight who is an AKC judge.

Mum remembered something with me tonight that she had forgotten in our year off of agility and me recovering from my iliopsoas pull. If I'm doing a lot of work far from her laterally, like the five jumps in an arc during tonights run, she has to keep her arm out. If her arm is down closer to her side, I'll come in toward her. Duh, Mum!!!

All my runs were good except the one where she had her arm down, sheesh! My teeter is better, it's been kind of wonky since the one where we practice is really slick, and that time I flew off the top. It even freaked Gracie out on Monday, She was barreling up the teeter and when she lowered her body for the drop she went sliding down to the end. But now Gracie is loving the slide, oh no, watch out! BOL!

Speaking of Gracie, she was great again tonight at practice, completely focused, didn't run off at all. Since she's been having a little weirdness with the teeter she ran by it the first time, but took it like a pro the second. Gracie even has her running frame back, still needs work on her running dogwalk though.

Mum was super impressed with Gracie on Monday. After she ran a sequence Mum would throw a treat after the last obstacle for her reward. Gracie scrambled to get it, and then you could see in her eyes she wanted to get her zoomies on and run around the building. But instead, Gracie did a few crazy in place turns and then settled down and focused again. Mum and I both saw that she was trying to keep control and not zoom off, even though she wanted to, oh so badly! What a crazy, good girl!

We have one more practice next Wednesday with a drop in class before the three day trial the following weekend. We can hardly wait! Oh and did I tell ya, it's packed dirt...my absolutely, positively favorite flooring for running agility. Watch out Mum, you better be ready for me!

I'm a rock climber!

This past weekend we got to do a little hiking up the ridge. And guess what I got to do? A little rock climbing, BOL!

OK, OK...so Mum had to put my little self up on that big rock, but I had a great time scouting out another angle of the squirrels, fur sure!

We got to see some of Mum's favorite plant, Coriopsis. She used to buy and buy these at the nursery, and plant them in our beds in the back yard. Now they are blooming everywhere here naturally. So cool!

We also got to see a stick bug. There were two of them right in the middle of the trail that kind of spooked us, then we had to get a closer look. They are difficult to see in the pic 'cause they look just like a stick, but he's to the right of the green leaves. When we got home there was another one on our front screen door, only it was green. Guess they turn colors with their environment.

We got to go and visit the creek bed. It's bone dry right now, but this is the same creek I got to swim in this past spring. Can't wait till it fills up again.

And over by the ponds we saw some Goldfinchs flitting around, we got very close before they flitted off. :) They're eyes looked like loose diamonds, so cool!

Then we headed around the pasture and saw a deer grazing...kind of difficult to see, she's running off 'cause Gracie started screaming her fool head off and scared the doe.

Hope you are all having a great week!

The Company of Animals joined us at BarkWorld Expo!

We were so lucky to have The Company of Animals join us in all the fun we had at BarkWorld Expo. They were kind enough to send some of their pawsome products with us for free and allow us to show them off to all the attendees at the event, two and four-legged!

Here's a pick of all the loot we got to share with everyone! They sent with us the Clix Car Harness (you know how big I am on 'safety first'!), some Halties (which at the end of the event we donated to the nice folks at the Atlanta Pet Rescue, a no-kill shelter, to help with their foster pups) , a Clix Multi-Clicker (which we can't wait to try out in the next week or so) and they sent along a Nina Ottosson Dog Pyramid and Tornado, along with some other great gear.

Lucky me, I got to try out the Dog Pyramid first. It didn't take me long to tackle it. Here's my quick test vid in the green room at BarkWorld before we shared it with the other pups. Gracie got a go too and loved it!


Then some other pups got to try out the toys too! Here's Cosmo posing with the Pyramid and Tornado. He's my agility bud I met long ago on Twitter. They live just a couple of hours from us and we're planning to go to a trial down in Atlanta together soon. Cosmo loved the toys!

Then Preston got to try out the Pyramid, he was so on it, got the treats out on the first try!

Then Judy from DOGingham got to take a try at the Tornado. You can see that Judy is part herding breed. Mum was in love, BOL! Judy got the Tornado right away, and was 'hungry' for more!

It sure was super fun sharing all the cool stuff The Company of Animals sent along with us with all the pups and hoomans! Big thanks to them for sponsoring us at BarkWorld Expo!

Now this is the life!

Sorry Mum, there's just no more room on the king size!

Had to share! This is our bed in the hotel room at the Twelve Hotel in Atlanta when we were at BarkWorld Expo last weekend. Mum took a sheet, so we wouldn't get the pretty bedspread a mess, but you get the idea of the luxury we got to experience!

Ahhhh....Great place to lounge after a hard day getting our photos taken. All it needs are a few Ferrari parts and we'd be zoomin in style!

Guess what? No seed ticks on this bed, BOL!

A little of everyday...

No fence, still...but the fun part is that we get out and about on the property at least twice a day. We're still doing about three miles a day, but it's getting cooler and we are eager for more!

With the cooler weather and less humidity, the deer are out running around all times of the day, instead of early in the morning and later in the evening. For the past two days we've seen them in or around the pastures during our longer morning hike, which of course make us crazy for a chase!

Gracie, look!!!!! Was that a deer? (BOL!)

All this walking and hiking makes for a happy boy, I must say (having fun with our new camera :).

The pasture has grown up and is now over my head, and almost over Gracie's head. The caretaker is still mowing us a path for walking which is pawsome, but sometimes you just gotta dig in, right? Didn't I just see a frog in there with apple bottom jeans? Wait, I think I smell squirrel!!! Yes, it was a squirrel!

And the nice thing is all this hiking makes for a tired puppy....Mum oooos and aahhhhs over these tongue pics :)

Sweet dreams, Gracie!

Seed ticks are the devils spawn!

Ok, I'm convinced that seed ticks are the devils spawn! And they are after me!!!

We went hiking a little up the ridge the other day, and found a new little trail which, of course, we had to explore, right? A little ways in we interrupted a deer bedding down for the night. That should have been Mum's clue (but I have to give her credit, she's learning as we go, as we all are). Wherever there are deer, there are ticks, that's for sure.

So we go on this little trail and get home and start relaxing in front of the TV, when I start getting the jitters. I scratch, I twitch, I jump off the couch and run into the bedroom and jump on the bed. Then I run back into the living room and sit on the rug and scratch. Then jump into Mum's lap and down to the floor. Then it's back up on the couch and I do it all over again. It's like I'm searching for some kind of signal or something, but....

I've been tick bombed!!!

Mum gets me up on the bed, turns on the overhead light, gets the flashlight and what does she find? Yep, tons of seed ticks all over my tummy. I swear these little buggers checked out antenna reviews to find out how to lock on to me!

And this time they are smaller than the last time (about one half the size of a pinhead). They were so small you need an HDTV amplifier to see 'em. So she can't even use the tweezers to get them off me! OMD! The devils spawn is all over me!

Mum tries getting as many off of me that she can, she used tweezers and she used packing tape, which actually kind of worked some if she could get to the bare skin. Finally after a few hours, they bite and they die (since I'm treated) and I'm feeling a little better.

But many of them are still on me even though they are dead. Mum is having to separate my fur a little at a time and then use the tape or her fingernail to scratch them off. And it's totally grossing both of us out, those little creepy crawlies with their little legs and antennas, yuck!

Mum is convinced this is happening to me and not her or Gracie because I'm low to the ground. If it happens again, Mum's going for the tape the minute I start squirming and see if that helps get them off so I'm not so miserable. Dang, these things are nasty!

A little about our agility practice!

We've been going to agility class on Wednesday nights, and Mum has also been taking us occasionally on Monday afternoons to work on our own.

Dang it's good to be back doing our thang!

Gracie got lots of compliments last night at class....several of the folks told her that she has really, really improved over the time we've been attending. Gracie hasn't run around with zoomies for almost three classes now. She's been totally focused on the task at hand all the time we are there, either for class or during our own time on Mondays.

The best part about that is that Mum can now finally start really teaching her some handling and communication. Gracie knows all of her obstacles, but now Mum can work on distance with her, tight jumping, going on (to the obstacle in front of her), help her refine her contacts and more. It's just so cool to see my sis really getting down to business, the business of running a fun, clean run. And because she knows more about what to do, she's getting faster, OMD! She can so already beat me around that course if she wants to.

Mum and I have been re-working my dogwalk, since I pretty much have lost my running contact with the move and everything. She's gone back to the beginning, kind of like lsat prep, but we are progressing through the steps very quickly. Pretty soon Mum thinks I'll be back to my nice running contact again. And we started working on distance with me again, since I'm pretty rusty on my gambling skills. But that's progressing very quickly, as well.

Our next trial is in September, a three dayer. We can hardly wait!

(BTW, this photo? It's from my very first agility trial when I was exactly 18 months and one day old. It's a standard run in USDAA in December 2005. I ran seven runs that weekend. Q'd in four of them with three firsts and one second. I'll never forget it. And some of you may recognize the judge, it's Rafael Quinones, who we've had the pleasure of running under several times throughout the years).

BarkWorld was so much fun!

We had a ton of fun at BarkWorld Expo! We got to meet lots of pet lovers, pet business folks, and pets!

Friday morning we got up early, and drove to Atlanta where the event was held. It was in this really big green, eco-friendly complex area near midtown called Atlantic Station, the former site of the Atlantic Steel Mill, which we got to read about in the park where we did our business near the hotel. Pretty interesting stuff! There were shops and lots of restaurants and hotels and apartments and homes all within 130+ acres.

We thought we would check into the hotel first but it was getting late so we went straight to the expo which was about two blocks from the hotel. We found Shari, Mom to Dusty and Hurley from Just Another Trend looking around for where to go, so she hopped in our car and we all went looking for the facility together. We finally found it and went underground to park, unloaded the car and off we went to the event with crates, boxes and bags in tow. Shari helped us with our gear, for which we were very grateful!

To get up to the event room we had to go up an elevator that had a glass back so you could see everything as we went up. It was kinda weird, but Mum was there, so we were OK.

We unloaded all our gear in the green room where we spent some time between our work and fun times. There were windows all around, so we got to see folks coming and going all day when we weren't doing our stuff.

Mum went and gave her presentation to a packed room of people. She talked about social media and how it can help folks market their pet businesses. (If you'd like to go and see Mum's presentation, she uploaded it to her YouTube channel.) Good thing I helped her with the presentation, 'cause she said the part she thought they loved the best were the photos of me, Gracie, Wolfie and Wiggy. Good call on my part, BOL!

After that we got to meet lots of the folks and anipals. We saw the Informed Ferrets, Preston of PrestonSpeaks, Lucy (a fellow herding breed) from DOGingham, and we got to finally meet Cosmo the Havanese in pawson, who we've been Twitter buds with for a long time. And we got to meet the scribes behind a couple of long time Twitter buds - FrugalDougal and RomeoTheCat, who do great work raising monies for the less fortunate four- leggers.

The next day, Saturday, we got to showcase all the cool products from both Cranimals and The Company of Animals. That was so much fun to share some products with all the pawrents and pups. They loved them!

All throughout the conference we were Twittering and Facebooking everything that was going on, as were all the attendees. They even had a Twitter stream going on a big flat screen in the lobby area where all the yummy break food was, so folks could keep up on what was going on in the rooms where the speakers were doing their thing.

We got to meet some of the great folks at the Atlanta Pet Rescue too and gave them some of the Cranimals Supplements and Haltis from The Company of Animals to help get their foster pups healthy and ready for their furever homes. They are a no-kill foster shelter that rescues and finds home for over 1,000 pups a year. Good work they do!

Later in the day on Saturday they had an outdoor expo, with lots of booths with free stuff! Everyone wanted to take pics of me, and luckily Mum had brought a few treats, BOL! I obliged of course :) I even did a quick little trick demo in the grass area. Mum thought I needed to work my brain a little.

Along with the incredible swag bag, we got some other great stuff like treats, shampoo bars, gear and I even got to try out some Bowser Beer! What a nice treat on a hot day!

Between breaks Mum and Gracie (since she's the quiet one of the family, BOL!) attended some of the sessions to hear some fun folks talk about pets, blogging, social media, tweeting, facebooking, social media etiquette and much more. Mum found it all very interesting, Gracie just wanted to play with the other pups in the room, silly girl!

We stayed at the Twelve Hotel. Super nice hotel with super nice people. We got to ride the elevator a lot up and down. Gracie loved getting in. Mum tried to teach me to push the button, BOL!

They gave us a cable line so we could hook up our netbooks with a firewall for safety. They brought pawsome food for Mum and were really nice to me and Gracie. Gracie was the biggest dog in the place since she just reached their limit of 25 lbs. We thought the room was fun! It had hallways to play some chase, a full kitchen, a nice comfy couch, and the best part was the king size bed! We loved lounging on it (with a sheet we brought on top of course :).

Sunday morning we had to head back. We loaded up the car and drove the couple of hours home. And later in the afternoon we took a nice nap all together with the kitties, and had a nice rest.

It was a great trip...tiring, but super great! We can't wait to do it again next year and really want to thank the great folks at BarkWorld Expo for having us and asking Mum to speak at the event. They were pawsome hosts!

A little hike this afternoon!

We're back from BarkWorld Expo! Made it all safe and sound from the wooded jungle to the concrete jungle and back to the wooded jungle! We'll be blogging all about our trip in the next few days, so much to tell you!!!

Mum is catching up on work, but we took a little time this afternoon to take a little hike back by the ponds.

The weather has been really nice the past two days since we got back. Highs only in the 90s, which means that the mornings and later afternoons are more in the 80s with low humidity. Super nice relief from the 95's we've had for months. But we still needed some custom water bottles with us to keep hydrated!

Guess there has been a lot going on around the property since we got back. We went back to the ponds and found two big logs that were placed on the path. Nice place to take a little break and look out on the pond. Mum just had to get a pic :)

Then we made our way through the pasture and up the lane on the other side of the property and guess what I spied up the tree? Can you guess? BOL!!!

Our trip was a lot of fun, tiring, but oh so much fun! I worked my buns off and so did Mum and Gracie :) Will tell ya more later!

Hope you are all having a great week, Hey, tomorrow is hump day and you know what that means for us dogs, BOL!

Some fun pics!

I don't think I told all of you that we got a new little pocket digital camera. Mum was having troubles with our other one, which she purchased when I was only 12 weeks old. It did us well for almost six years, but the little door that makes the lens come out was not latching tight when open, so the lens would go in and out, in and out. And it would too expensive to get fixed.

Mum did her research, as she always does, to find the right camera for our needs. The reason she settled on this one - the Casio High-Speed Exilim EX-FC100 - was because it was under $220 and it takes photos at 9.1MP with a 5x zoom, and takes HD movies. It has a couple of cool features that are great for action shots. One is a 30 shot-per-second high-speed burst shooting feature, and a slo mo function - that we can't wait to use more and get the hang of it. All we need are some jewelry making supplies to make a nice neck thing to carry it with us when Mum doesn't have pockets.

For part of Mum's presentation at BarkWorld Expo she wanted a couple of photos of us waving. So here are the results using the new camera. Thought they turned out better than our old camera :) Here's Gracie doing her favorite trick, wave!

And this is me doing my big wave - which is a beg with a two footed!

She wanted a handy little camera that would she could put in her pocket and take pretty good action shots and a little video too. So far we are very pleased!

Calgon take me away!!!

Torture....I say! Torture!

With everything to get done before our trip to BarkWorld Expo, Mum didn't have time to hook up our sprayer to give us our baths at home. And since Gracie isn't getting as much exercise as she used to at our old house, Mum is having trouble keeping her still enough to trim up her ears and feet. So Mum took us for our first professional grooming, ever!

I know, it's weird. I'm six and Gracie is five years old, and we've never been to a professional groomer our entire lives. Mum has always groomed us. She likes to do it. And even though both of us have a little pet peeve about parts of it (me the toes and ears, Gracie the back feet), we still don't mind it too much.

But dang this professional groomer thing was really different. I think every dog should have their pawrent look into Universal Orlando tickets for a doggie getaway after a professional grooming. It can be kinda stressful!

There was so much noise from the dryer that neither one of us wanted anything to do with it. Gracie got a little freaked out in the bathtub because the groomer used a sprayer and Mum had always used a hose. I'm sure that all of our little town of 7000 thought Gracie was being tortured from a little of her famous screaming action.

But overall, we didn't think it was too bad, we've been through worse stuff. But the nice thing is we are so clean, shiny, trimmed up and smelling good!!!! Just for our publics that we're gonna meet at BarkWorld. Can't wait to live in the morning!

Look what Mum got me!

Mum, Gracie and I went to River Ridge Farms the other day and picked up some yummy meats for all of us.

She got some chicken necks, feet and backs for me and Gracie and some ground beef for her. All organic, so we won't have to look into HCG shots Austin, BOL, 'cause we know they are healthy! Look you can even see some organs in theres.

We also got to meet Two, their cat who helps around the farm. Gracie was in love....me? I just wanted to herd her.

Here's one of the chicken backs. Oh my, can't wait to get my jaws on that, OMD!!!!

We're getting ready for BarkWorld Expo!

Mum and I have been getting ready for our trip to BarkWorld Expo, August 20-22 in Atlanta. It's going to be a pawsome event for anyone interested in learning more about social media for your pet or your pet business. We are so looking forward to our trip and a little R&R with some buds!

We're booked into the hotel, which we hear is super dog friendly. I'm just hoping they have a pawsome mattress for me, Mum and Gracie! And we've got someone watching the cabin and taking care of Wolfie and Wiggy while we're gone.

I helped Mum get her powerpoint presentation together for her session on Friday afternoon, which will make it even better, BOL! And I got some new business cards to paw out at the event, I like 'em! They have JohannTheDog on one side and RaiseAGreenDog on the other. Mum even got some new cards for her company - Pawsible Marketing.

The super cool part is that we've teamed up with the great folks at Cranimals - makers of the healthy, green, whole food supplements and functional biscuits for our upcoming trip!

While I'm at BarkWorld, I'll be handing out some yummy treats and some pawsome supplements. You may remember I got a chance to review their Cranimals Supplements and ZenDog Treats a couple of months ago.

Over at Raise A Green Dog, we're giving away some pawsome gift packs, in honor of our trip. The packs include a package of your choice of Cranimals organic, healthy and tasty supplements, and a full size package of organic ZenDog Biscuits (which I have to say from experience are very tasty). Their ZenDog Biscuits were recently awarded the Editors Choice Award from Pet Product News International.

Their Cranimals supplements are created from antioxidant super foods like cranberries, red raspberries, and blueberries, and with vegan DHA Omega 3 extracted from algae. Very healthy! All of their products are made with wholesome, healthy ingredients, organic and have no artificial yucky stuff.

So be sure and head on over to pawticipate in the giveaway, it's easy to enter!

Now I'm off to help Mum with the laundry before we can pack. My job is to fold the socks, BOL!

Tugging fun!

Oh, I am a lucky dog!

The other day the nice folks at Spot Pet Toys were kind enough to send me, Gracie, Wolfie and Wiggy (the kitties) some of their Skinneeez toys for free to test out!

Mum held them back from me and Gracie until we went to agility practice the other night. I ran my little sequence and what was my reward? The Skinneeez Duck, that goes quack, quack. Dog did I go nuts over that! Didn't even want to jump into Mum's arms after, I wouldn't let go of the thing, BOL!

Mum used the Skinneeez Squirrel to get Gracie focused for her agility run. Well, she got so excited she was a bit on the uncontrollable side during her sequence run. Good to know...don't rev up Gracie too much, she gets over the top, BOL!

The kitties got a little catnip filled pink bird and they love playing with it, which makes me nuts of course!

The neat thing about these toys is they don't have any stuffing, but they still have squeakers, or in the case of my duck, a squawker, and in the case of the kitties toy - nip! They have lots of styles from ducks to squirrels to skunks, birds and more! They took a pretty good beating with Gracie and me tugging with them, although I wouldn't recommend them for 'severe' tuggers, but only for controlled tuggers. We loved them and they were great as rewards for our agility runs! And they are lightweight so you can shake the devil out of 'em.

Thank you Spot Pet Products for sending these toys for us to try out!