Wednesday, December 31, 2008



This will get your New Years off on the right paw!

The prizes are out the door!


Mum spent the day today and yesterday getting all the prizes out to the winners of my Howling Howliday Giveaway. We think they are gonna like 'em!

We had to stay in our crates and wait for Mum to finish packing up the boxes, 'cause all the toy and treats and foods were just too tempting, and we were getting in the way. Heck even my kittie bros wanted in on the act, darn cats!

One surprise - when we opened up Rachael Ray's Nutrish gift, we found a super cool notepad and picture frame in the holiday stocking, along with her treats and other goodies. Don't have a clue how we missed it the first time, but we had a lot of stuff coming to the house. Merlin is going to like it!


So once all the goodies were out the door, Mum headed out to the post office. Dogs aren't allowed in our post office, otherwise I woulda been there to put my paw seal of approval! Hope all the winners enjoy their prizes and thanks again to all the great sponsors. It was a super fun contest and hope we get to do it again, and again, and...

Monday, December 29, 2008

Gracie vs the Babble Ball and other stuff!

Mum held out one of Gracie's Christmas presents until she was feeling better and could get some video. Well, Gracie just loves her Babble Ball! Check this out...



Mum has to take it away from her after a little time, 'cause she'll get pretty wild, but she just loves her new toy!

It's been five days now and Mum is still sick. We're getting pretty sick and tired of it! And we're getting a good experience of cabin fever. She went to the Chiro today and got an adjustment to help and it did. Then she headed over to Whole Foods and loaded up on some herbs and homeopathics - they are already helping. And she bought herself a neti pot. She says it was kind of weird to use in the beginning, but really made her feel better, for a little while anyway.

We sure hope she feels better by tomorrow night - the training center is having a get together and open practice and we both want to run (me at low height and no frame or teeter, until I'm fully better). We need the exercise!

And she needs to get better to get me started on my strengthening program so I'll be ready for the Feb trials! Tonight she worked with me on my ball a little after doing some stretching. But we are way behind schedule.

Did I tell ya Gracie went to agility practice last Wednesday without me? Yep, she did it again. And she did a fabulous job! Her first run was kinda wild and crazy, skipped a few jumps, bailed her DW contact. But she was still focusing on Mum and made it through the entire course - Mum just went on when Gracie skipped a few things. She ran again about three times, full courses each time and did super good. She bailed nearly all of her DW contacts, so Mum is thinking again of what do to with her DW; but they'll come up with something.

On one run Gracie had to do the weaves as the second obstacle and didn't want to take the time to stop and do them, but Mum made her and she did well. Super proud of my sis, Gracie, she's really starting to show her stuff.

Mum has been working some on updating our JohannTheDog.com website - and adding in lots of stuff that's on sale. Pretty good sales going on, so you may want to check it out. And we're hoping to get all the Howling Howliday prizes in the mail tomorrow. We're still gathering up a few of the gift certificates.

I'm sure you probably saw it, but if you haven't please be sure and read the Sport Illustrated article on the Vick Dogs. It a wonderful article and pretty unprecedented for SI - hoping that it will change a lot of minds about the state of the pittie! We found it very interesting - here's what SI thought about Pitties in 1987 and here's what they think in 2008. Maybe times are changing?

And we're sure you've probably seen it, but if not you've got to see this vid from CNN about the pup that shoplifted a rawhide bone in Murray, Utah the day before Christmas. Priceless!

Over on our Raise A Green Dog blog, Mum and I wrote up a year end post - The top 5 things you can do in 2009 to have a healthier, happier pup and help the environment at the same time! Check it out and get some ideas for your new year's resolutions :)

Being into the conditioning and stretching subject over my short life, I was interested to read a blog post and responses on The Adventures of the Miller Four Pack blog. Several folks outlining their strengthening, conditioning, and stretching programs for their dogs, agility and non.

I've also been re-reading Sarah Johnson's pdfs on Conditioning and Core Strenthening, part of Nancy Gyes' article series of wonderful articles on many things agility, good stuff!

If you've been wondering if the Tug It tug toy from Clean Run is working for some dogs with no interested in tugging before, check out this post from Agility Adventures. Chloe gets her tug on for the first time!

That's it for now...Mum's gotta go rest up. Hope you all are having a great holiday time!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

We had a great Christmas!

We had a great Christmas Day - hope you did too!

Mum, Gracie, Wolfie and Wiggy and I didn't open presents right away when we got up. I was all ready with my holiday bandanna, and I was getting pretty impatient.

Finally it was time! Mum gave Wolfie and Wiggy their presents first. They got a really cool cat scratcher with some catnip, and a couple of interactive toys. Gracie and I had to wait outside and give them some space to enjoy their presents for a little while.


These things took just a little too much time for them to enjoy, delaying the opening of my presents, humpf...

Then it was dog's turn, finally!

Mum gave us our bags and we went at 'em. I found a super cool little dinosaur stuffie and some other stuffies and treats in my bag - Zukes and Dr. Harvey's green tripe (my fav). Gracie found a couple of Planet Dog rubber toys and a couple of stuffies and treats in her bag (Lakse Kronch, her fav). Although yesterday Gracie enjoyed the wrapping bag much more than the toys. Sadly we aren't sure what happened to the video of Gracie destroying her bag of presents.

After we mauled all the toys and wrapping bags, Mum opened up some of the treats for us - but like usual we had to work for them.

Here we are with all of our loot!


After a nice chicken dinner with marrow bone dessert - Gracie and I headed outside. It was a pretty nice and sunny day and we got to enjoy it, but the kitties weren't very happy we got to be in the great outdoors. They sat at the window and meowed up a storm!

Later in the afternoon, Mum started getting really sick - we think she has the flu. But yesterday was her worst day and she's already starting to feel better, although she's still running a fever. And all that coughing is keeping me awake at night!

It's getting warmer, so Mum thinks Gracie and I need a bath, it's been a while. Kind of a long while :) We have our new cleanser, now all we need are those super cool Grohe faucet attachments for our tub and we'll be good to go! Can't wait for those after bath zoomies - and I'm healthy enough to take it, yeah!

We had a super nice quiet Christmas. Having some friends over this weekend, and then a few quick trips to make to some friends, as well. Then Sunday we are resting up for the big New Year's. There's an agility party the night of Dec 30th at the training center!

Hope you all had a pawsome holiday!

Friday, December 26, 2008

And the winners are!

My first annual (hopefully!) Johann's Howling Howliday Giveaway is now history. The prizes are being assembled and will hopefully get in the mail first thing Monday - if all goes as planned.

I won't keep you waiting any longer...here are the winners!

1st Place goes to Merlin!

2nd Place goes to Kaley!

And 3rd Place goes to Ricky!

And we'd like to give a big shout out Honorable Mention to Joyce!

With over 200,000 votes cast, the response to our giveaway/contest was just overwhelming! Congratulations to all the winners!

And we'd like to give a big, big, big thank you to all the wonderful, amazing, and generous companies who donated the prizes for my Giveaway! YOU GUYS ROCK!

GollyGear.com
SewCrazyDogLady.com
RockStarPooch.com
Hachette Book Group USA
Rachael Ray Nutrish
PawNaturaw.com
CanineEarth.com
Taste of the Wild
BrightBites
Petsmart
Chimpfeet.com
Petside.com
Dr. Harvey's
CleanRun.com
EcoDiscoveries
AimToBeginn, LLC - Official Vick Dog Chew Toy
PopDogPress
PunkRockDogg.com
HCI Books - Rover. Get Off Her Leg!
BigPawDesigns.com
Camp Run-a-Pup

Please support these amazing companies - we couldn't have done it without them! Click here to see all the entries.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy Howlidays from me, Gracie and Mum, Leslie!


Doggie karaoke - Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland!

Press play on the MP3 player and sing along!



Walkin' in A Doggie Wonderland
(sung to the tune of Winter Wonderland)

Dog tags ring, are you listenin'?
In the lane, snow is glistenin'.
It's yellow, NOT white - I've been there tonight,
Marking up my winter wonderland.

Smell that tree? That's my fragrance.
It's a sign for wand'ring vagrants;
"Avoid where I pee, it's MY pro-per-ty!
Marked up as my winter wonderland."

In the meadow dad will build a snowman,
following the classical design.
Then I'll lift my leg and let it go Man,
So all the world will know it's
mine-mine-mine!

Straight from me to the fencepost,
flows my natural incense boast;
"Stay off of my TURF, this small piece of earth,
I mark it as my winter wonderland.

Bailey, the unknow reindeer!

Dogs with blogs have wishes this Christmas!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Pups get a surprise ready for Christmas!

More cool stuff for my Howling Howliday Giveaway!

Tomorrow is the last day of voting for my Howling Howliday Giveaway! Good luck to everypup!

One of the super cool prizes is coming by FedEx this week. From Paw Naturaw, the 1st place winner will get a dehydrated gift pack of organic beef, chicken and turkey diets and a bag of organic beef jerky. The second and third place winners will get a bag of treats and samples of their super dehydrated diets!

And the cool thing is that we're now featuring Paw Naturaw on JohannTheDog.com, so you can get dehydrated diets for your pup anytime!

Some lucky pup will also be getting the HCI Books, new book "Rover. Get Off Her Leg!" Author, Darlene Arden (one of our new Twitter and Facebook friends), knows there's no dog (or human) who can't be helped in the behavior department--and she's there to provide the 411 for all kinds of doggie dilemmas in this must-have primer on the essentials of pet etiquette.

And our good friends at Pop Dog Press are donating a fun, colorful, hand-made key chain, designed by Pop Dog Press.

Pop Dog Press got their start by providing amazing original portraits of our beloved dog co-pilot's, all painted with acrylics on gallery style canvas, and they are now expanding into smaller gift items like keychains, magnets and note cards.

We got word last week that our friends at Big Paw Designs will be donating a $20 gift certificate to one of the prize winners!

Founded in 2002, Big Paw Designs was inspired by all of the over sized paws at home & a desire to provide unique, high-quality accessories for pets. Each pet had a paw into the designs. The high-quality, handcrafted accessories are made in the USA and bring out the nobility in pets.

Gracie and I have a couple of their pewter charms and we just love them! Thanks Big Paw Designs! Look for their products to be featured on JohannTheDog.com in 2009!

PunkRockDogg.com will be donating a bag of their Punk Rock Dogg’s Hardcore Cookies - all natural and made in the USA. Be sure and stop by their shop, they have all their cool dog stuff on sale, nearly everything is 10% off, and we saw some pawsome sweaters to keep your pup warm for only $27.00!

Just last week we got notice that Camp Run-a-Pup Bed and Biscuit Inn, located in Chicago, is donating one large deer antler chew for each of the winners - OMD! Deer antler chews! I've never had one of those - and bet you haven't either. I can't wait to see these when they come in the mail this week.

Again, we want to give a big shout out - THANK YOU!!!! - to all the great companies that donated to my, hopefully, first annual Johann's Howling Howliday Giveaway. The extreme generosity is just amazing!!!!!

Tuppy Dog gets ready for Santa's arrival!

The second reindeer on the right - looks like Santa's dog!

Monday, December 22, 2008

More goodies for my howling howliday giveaway!

Some lucky pup is gonna have a grooming bonanza on their hands when they win this super cool FURminator Bathing Essentials Kit from Petsmart!

This kit is your one-stop shop for all the FURminator products you know and love! It includes all the grooming essentials to reduce shedding and keep your pet clean. All items are work great on all shedding, long and short-haired dogs and cats.

For a limited time only the Furminator kit is available at Petsmart and only Petsmart. And they've been kind enough to donate one of these to my Howling Howliday Giveaway.

The kit includes:

* Medium deShedding Tool
* deShedding Shampoo
* deShedding Solution
* TubNub Bath Brush
* Super Absorbent Microfiber Towel
* Embroidered carrying case
* Coupon book

So be sure and get those votes going...you won't want to miss this one!

Gracie does it again!

Gracie did it again! She Q'd on Sunday in both of her runs with perfect scores in Snooker and Jumpers. We gotta say we are pretty proud of her!

The Jumpers course was the first run of the day. Jumpers is not one of Gracie's strong suits - she thinks all those jumps are boring, but there were a couple of tunnels mixed in which helped make it more fun for her.

Mum thought her Jumpers run was probably one of the very best runs Gracie has ever had in her life! She was focused, fairly fast, and super determined. Of course Mum had to tackle her after her run, but they both had so much fun! You can see the Jumpers run - first one in the vid, and here's the course:


A couple of hours later Gracie and Mum ran Snooker. Mum made a good plan to make it super flowing for Gracie, no jerky stuff, no having to call off obstacle stuff. She's just not ready for that. Their run was pretty good. Gracie was so focused that Mum remembers making eye contact with her several times during the run - that was different.

Mum thought Gracie felt unsure, and not as determined. Maybe she was a bit tired - but having Gracie overly focused was a bit of a new thing. Gracie ran pretty slow on her Snooker run, even though she Q'd. But Mum couldn't complain, she didn't run off. But Mum doesn't ever want her to think she needs to be slow, so Mum thinks Gracie just needs to have more confidence - maybe now that she's getting focused.

Overall they had a great trial. Three Q's out of four is just an amazing accomplishment for Gracie. She now has 2 Q's in Colors and Snooker, 1 Q in Jumpers and 1 in Standard. Guess Mum will have to start thinking about entering her in the other events, cause now she's close to a title in Level 2.

Have to say it was so funny to see Gracie after her runs when she Q'd - she sooooo knew it she did well. And after the weekend was over, Mum thought that she knew when she did well, and when she didn't. If that's the case - that's huge!


Some super nice folks taped their runs during the weekend and would like to thank them!

Needless to say I was left at home on Sunday. The temperature yesterday was about 6 degrees during the day with a windchill of about 14 below. Not the best weather for me to be out in when I'm trying to stay warm and flexible.

Then last night the temp dropped to below 0, with a windchill of below -20. Have to say that no dog should have to go out in that to potty. Both Gracie and I had trouble with our feet, since there was also a dusting of snow on the ground. Mum had to carry us both inside - we just collapsed on the ground. So for another day or so while this weather is around, we hunkering down and not going outside unless we have to!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Gracie gets a Q!

We're back from day one of Gracie's CPE trail!

Have to say that it was pretty weird for me being at trial and not running.

Mum was nice enough to make it an interesting day for me even though I didn't get to run. But tomorrow I'm taking books to read! BOL!

We were lucky enough that our Chiro was at the trial today and she was kind enough to work on me before Gracie's runs.

Mum wanted to warm me up some before I saw my Chiro, so we did some downs and trotting in the lobby of the building. I was nearly back to my wacko self, offering behaviors right and left. Mum was super happy to see me acting much more to my usual.

During my chiro adjustment, my Chiro she said there were several places that were out on me. Primarily on my back end, hip area and back, and my shoulder. Have to say I felt a lot better after she worked on me. Mum put me back in my travel crate for a nice rest, and bundled up the crate so I would stay warm.

She and Mum talked about the MSM supplement I'm taking now. We're going to up the dose for a week to 1/2 a pill a day since my systems is handling it well, and then drop it down again to 1/4 pill for maintenance.

They also talked about the Traumeel I've been taking. Mum took me off of it because even with 1/2 pill twice a day, it was kind of knocking me out and Mum couldn't tell if it was the pill, or me being in pain. After I was off of it she could tell it was knocking me out. So she's going to give me 1/4 of a pill for two more doses and then I'm off of it.

My Chiro also said she'd like to see more muscle on me. So Mum is going to get me on my exercise ball more when I'm ready, and also on the treadmill and add in the hill climbing feature that we can program into the treadmill. More begs are called for and they want me to work up to holding the beg for 90 seconds. Right now, I'm at about 20 seconds. So I have much work to do.

But on to Gracie's day!

We left late because Gracie was only entered in the last two events of the day - Standard and Colors (CPE). And Mum wanted to see if she could get me in to see my Chiro before her runs. That worked, but we waited a couple of more hours until Gracie's run, Standard first.

Needless to say Gracie was way over the top for her first run of the weekend. And the timer/scribe were sitting just three or so feet from where she needed to sit at the start. She wouldn't have anything to do with sitting. So Mum gave her a big hug in the direction of the start jump, and let her go with Mum running as fast as she possibly could. Gracie took the first jump, ran around the second, but tackled the dog walk like a pro. Then she had to stop and take six weaves after that wild start.

She wasn't having anything to do with the weaves. So they skipped them and headed for the tunnel, she took it - nice job! Then ran around the next jump looking at Mum, hmmm... interesting. Then she took the teeter and did it fairly nicely.

Tunnel was next and for a difficult entrance she did great. Next was another curved tunnel and she ran around the back of it, and then Mum lost her big time. Mum doesn't even remember much after that accept she was going from one side of the ring to the other trying to get Gracie focused.

Mum finally caught up with her and made her sit. Then picked her up and took her off course. What a disaster. We got it on tape, but there is no way we're posting it. Who wants to watch that mess! But it was the first run of the day, and Mum understands Gracie. So they concentrated on how to handle the next run.

Gracie's next run was colors, you choose your course from two different ones. And they are super short - maybe eight obstacles. Mum confidently took Gracie into the run, had her sit quickly at the start line, led out quickly and then said OK. Gracie took off like a bat out of heck, taking the first two jumps with Mum running full out.

It was the first two jumps into a slightly curved tunnel, then a jump and tire straight into the corner (it's the corners where Gracie usually runs off) but she didn't! Mum gave her big good girl, then it was one more jump and a slight turn into the tunnel.

Mum tried to get a front cross in before the tunnel, but Gracie was going full speed ahead and ended up behind Mum. Mum turned quickly, got Gracie's attention as Gracie was smartly heading for the correct next obstacle - the tunnel. So Mum yelled tunnel and Gracie took it like a pro. Then Mum ran like a bat out of heck to the last jump, which Gracie, again, took like a pro. And she even came back to Mum a little after the last jump! OMD! A Q!

Mum was super proud. She ran it in about 14 seconds, and they even took up a couple of seconds on that messed up front cross where Gracie saved Mum's butt before the tunnel. So we were pretty proud!

After that run, you could so tell that Gracie knew she did a great job. She was strutting around, giving that big goofy grin of hers at Mum. And when they went up to get her ribbon her tail was a wagging machine - a super nice sight to see :)

No video unfortunately - Gracie is now being plagued by the 'technical malfunction only happens on the good run syndrome' that I've been plagued with. But who cares, she was super focused!

We got home and she couldn't wait to roach in the grass. Me? I got home and started doing goofy faces and goofy barking at Mum - and began a long stretch of offering behaviors, my usual wacky self. I am feeling better!

We can't wait to see what Gracie does tomorrow!

More great stuff for our giveaway!

More awesome giveaways for my Howling Howliday Giveaway are coming in the mail!

One of the fun ones are these cool Petside.com t-shirts! They may be a little big for me, but I'm still looking cool, don't ya think?

And Petside is also donating some awesome pet tags to go along with the shirts, how cool is that?

One of my favorite online stores (they have a brick and mortar store in the Chicago area, too) for small dogs is GollyGear.com!

And they have donated a $25 gift certificate to one lucky winner! They have all kinds of stuff for small dogs - collars, leashes, clothing, toys, and much more. And 10% of Golly Gear profits go straight to small dog rescue organizations. Be sure and check 'em out K?

Another one of my absolute favorite places to shop online - Clean Run - is donating three $10 gift certificates, one for each of the 1st through 3rd place winners.

Clean Run has all kinds of great dog gear - from training and motivational toys and treats, to agility gear for dogs and handlers, performance dog clothing, books, dvds, collars and leashes, and much, much more. They even have those super cool Nina Ottosson intelligent dog toys I've been talking about lately.

Super thanks to all these and all the companies that are contributing to my giveaway. We're well over 100,00 votes so far!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Sheep games!

We love sheep games and thought you may too! Check all these cool online games we found, good fun for when you get bored during the holidays :)

Sheepish 2 Game
The aim of the game is to navigate your sheep around the multitude of puzzles, obstacles and…


Sheep Are Safe Game
Description:Shoot those pesky wolves that try to eat your sheep and guard them with your life.…


Sheepteroids Game
OBJECTIVES AND CONTROLS:Blast the pesky sheep from the skys in this remake of the Atari classic!This…


Sheep Invaders Game
OBJECTIVES AND CONTROLS:Space invaders with a cool sheep theme.This game will only work on…


Traps Mines And A Sheep Game
Description:Navigate a sheep through a dangerous land filled with traps and mines, and try…


Sheep Jumping Dog Game
Description: Guide the dog to jump over the sheep!


Sheepish Game
Get the sheep across the road and into a pen. Instructions: use Arrow keys to move sheep across…


Sheep Pool Game
In this game you have to help a Frisbee dog to round up the numbered sheep and guide them…


Sheep Reaction Game
Description:Test your reflex reaction in this funny dart shooting game. You're a shepard and…


Sheep Racer Game
Help this swanky sheep drive his racing bike around the farm and collect the flags, avoiding…


Sheep Game
Avoid the traps, try to hit the mines and try to get as far as possible.


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