World Cup Fever Giveaway!!! It's Air Bud: World Pup!

The US may be out of the running for the World Cup, but here's a fun way to keep the action going!

Air Bud: World Pup Special Edition is out on DVD and the nice folks at Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment are giving us a very cool DVD to give away!

Thanks to our pals at Walt Disney, on Sunday, July 4th, we'll be drawing for a winner for a copy of the new DVD! There are two pawsome ways you can enter:

1. Leave a comment on this blog post, telling us briefly why you think this would be a great DVD to own and you'll receive one entry into the drawing.

2. Like us on Facebook, and you'll receive another entry into the drawing - just be sure and leave a note on this blog post that you added us on FB, K?!

It's that easy!

Then on Sunday, July 4th, I'm going to pawsonally draw one winner from all the entries!

I don't know about you, but the Air Bud movies are some of my (and Gracies!) favorite movies to watch. And this one sure doesn't disappoint! Here's a bit about the movie:

"The whole family will get a kick out of the spectacular Special Edition of Disney's timeless canine adventure Air Bud: World Pup, including the all-new exclusive bonus, The Buddies' Sports Channel: Soccer Edition – and a free limited edition sports bag to continue the fun after the film is done!

The world's most talented pooch is back in a heartwarming and hilarious sports adventure. When Buddy meets Molly and they have puppies, the hotshot hound is in for an all-new challenge, but the fun is just beginning. This exciting family favorite features Buddy joining his teenage owner Josh on the field in pursuit of the state soccer championship."

So get busy and enter...You've only got a few days!

Pups keeping cool!

I don't know about you, but it's been super hot here lately. We've had to cut back our pasture walks to only 3 miles a day, split up early morning and late afternoon. But Mum says we are tolerating it a lot better than she is!

The nice thing is that it's supposed to cool down a tad over the next four to five days, yeah! Do I see more hiking in my future?

We've come across some very fun vids lately of pups beating the heat and had to share. Sure hope their pawrent have an a iphone warranty close to all that water, BOL!

The second to the last one is my goofy sis, Gracie! And the last one is a pup having fun with agility water obstacles from AffordableAgility.com! Cool!!! Want!!!!

Hope you are staying cool!

Here's a great way to support the AKC/USA team in their quest for Gold at the FCI Agility World Championships!

How cool! Here's a great way to support the AKC/USA Team and their quest for Gold at the FCI Agility World Championships coming in October!

Clean Run is exclusively selling a very cool version of Gracie's absolute favorite ComfortFlex Sport Harness, all decked out in Red, White and Blue!

We love this harness because it doesn't ride up on Gracie's neck, giving her great range of motion on her front legs to prevent injury. It's super easy on/easy off, and doesn't rub, even on our longest hikes. And it's come in very handy on occasion when Gracie has to pull Mum up a steep hill. Now all we need is a pulse oximeter to keep tabs on Mum, during our super long hikes, BOL!

The ComfortFlex Sport Harness is the most popular harness Clean Run sells. And for a limited time all net proceeds from the sale of these harnesses will be donated to the AKC/USA World Team travelling to Rieden, Germany, for the FCI Agility World Championships, October 1-3, 2010.

The harness is red with white nylon trim and navy with white stars ribbon. Get yours while supplies last!

Woooops!

Mum, Gracie and I have been going to agility classes on Wednesday. It's be super fun meeting new folks and puppers, and getting to run agility again.

We'll be blogging more about our classes later, but just had to show you what happened Wednesday! Can you say woooooopps!

Well, scared Mum (she may need one of those Branson vacations after that), but I was fine and still am, thank DOG! That's a long way to fly - I believe I can fly!!!! I believe I can touch the sky!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Bits of the Cumberland Trail!

Sunday afternoon we got to hike just a little bit of the Cumberland Trail. Something we've been wanting to do for weeks!

If you don't know anything about the Cumberland Trail, it's a hiking trail built by volunteer hikers. It runs from Cumberland Gap National Historical Park up near Knoxville, TN, and ends at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and Prentice Cooper Wildlife Management Area just outside Chattanooga, TN.

Still a work-in-progress, the Cumberland Trail, when completed, will pass through 11 Tennessee counties and numerous communities on the eastern escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau. What a great place, only a couple of miles from our cabin, and dog friendly too!

We started out driving from the entrance to the parking area and saw lots of lots of Kudzu covering the terrain. Kudzu is a very, very evasive plant that was brought over from Japan in the 1800's, and promoted as a way to for landowners to control erosion in the SE US. Well, the conditions here made it propagate so rapidly that's it's really taken over and become a detriment. Makes a very interesting site to see, everything covered in this one type of vine...

Once we got there, unloaded and started on the trail we immediately came up to where the trail runs along Richland Creek. Quite a site looking down on the creek. We saw a few folks hanging out on the rocks, jumping in the creek, and cooling off down there.

We walked on and then came to a long footbridge that ran over a feeder to the creek, really cool!

Once we all got over Mum being nervous walking us across the bridge, and us stopping, looking down and hanging our heads over the edge, BOL, we ventured on and came up on one of the entrances to a mine that was used long ago. Oooo, it was dark in there, very interesting! We heard from some folks that you can only get in about 20 feet because the mine has collapsed inside over time.

We walked on...the drop off was quite steep, but I loved teetering on the edge and scaring Mum. (You'll see in the vid how close to the edge I loved walking :) We walked on and came up on a small falls coming out of the rock, from a natural spring. Now that's good tasting water!

We kept on and came up on where the railroad used to cut through. Here we are checking out the stone pilons (covered in moss, so cool!) that are still there from when the railroad ran over the creek.

We had to cut our time short, so then we headed back and got to stop and wade in the creek some. Great way to cool off!

What a great little hike! And the best part is Mum says we are going back this afternoon to venture even further. We hear there is lots of cool stuff to be seen down the trail. Can't wait!

Agility class here we come!

Mum, Gracie and I are super, super excited! Mum signed us up for an agility class starting next Wednesday for six weeks, to get us ready for competition this fall.

It's been so long since we've been around agility running around people that Mum thought it would be a good idea to do a class before we started competing again. Well, I don't need it, but Gracie does, BOL!

So I'm going to be doing some of this....

And Gracie is going to be doing some of this...

We've been keeping ourselves fit doing lots and lots of walking around the pasture, doing our core body work, our hill hiking, and other stuff. Even Mum has lost 14 lbs since we've arrived here in TN, from walking us so much. She sure doesn't need any diets for quick weight loss, she's got us, BOL!

We can't wait for class on Wednesday. Hope to be able to get a little video and tell you all about it.

Hope you all are having a pawsome weekend!

Scorpion in a Jar!

We were over at our neighbors the other day, the nice one that take hikes with us sometimes.And she wanted to show us something...

Take a look at this...It's one of the scorpions that she caught and put in a jar, OMD! It was still alive, in there with a dead bee!

Mum and I just had to show it to you. This one is smaller than the one we found in our bathroom that day we told you about. Guess it didn't get any of that testosterone booster, like the one we found, BOL!

We've heard and have noticed that the scorpions come out when it's cooler. Haven't seen once since that first one we saw. And we learned that they like ants, so when we sprinkled the Diatomaceous Earth around the house, the ants when away, so guess the scorpions didn't think our house was much fun!

We're in Entrepreneur Magazine! OMD!

Last week we got the news that Mum, Gracie and I are in Entrepreneur Magazine!

Mum's company, Pawsible Marketing, for which I am chief dog, and Gracie is chief shredder and tester, was listed in the magazine's list of “100 Brilliant Ideas” and companies to watch for 2010.

And to top that off, just a couple of months before our photo was shown on Entrepreneur.com's website along with a little article, "10 Ways to Build Your Personal Brand," where they singled out Mum's and my companies, Pawsible Marketing, JohannTheDog and RaiseAGreenDog, for our branding success. (Click on the links to read the articles if you wants).

Since the articles came out, our phone has been ringing off the hook, and our email box is getting overloaded. I just sit on the old school furniture next to Mum and help her with the phone calls (barking away, saying hi to the new folks we've been meeting :) and help her paw out emails. It's so cool to be able to meet new and pawsome pet peeps, who love their work and want to help better the lives of pets through their businesses.

Thank you Entrepreneur Magazine for including us in your articles! We are honored!

New things we've seen lately!

There sure is a lot of fun stuff to see around here, so we wanted to share some more of the new stuff we've seen lately!

The other day Mum thought she heard a noise outside and went to investigate. At first she didn't see anything, and then she looked closer and saw a head peeking up at her from out in the pasture.

She noticed it was a doe and thought it was so cool! Then she watched a little more and saw that there was a little baby fawn with this doe, having a grand ole time exploring her new world! Sure wish we had a big ole zoom lens so we could have gotten a better photo, but if you look real close you can see the fawn right beside the doe's back legs. So cute!

We've been having a lot of off and on rain here the past few days, and lots and lots of humidity. When that happens is when we see the turtles come out. We found this one near the barn the on our way to the pasture to get in some exercise. He (or is it a she?) was a little more friendly than the other one we saw a few weeks back. Didn't make us bark at all!

Our little friend the snake is still hanging out in the flower bed next to the cabin. Every morning we see his little head peaking out of the entrance to his home. We walk by and he slithers back in so we can't see him anymore. Smart little snake, BOL!

Since it's been so humid, we are seeing tons of mushrooms around. We hear some can make a pup pretty sick, so Mum makes sure we steer clear of them, even though we've never shown an interest in one. Here's one of them we saw in red (we think he need to learn more about clearing up those spots, BOL!)...

We also have seen lots of wild garlic growing around the cabin. Gracie and I love to chomp on some grass near there, but every time we come close to the garlic Mum watches us to see if we show any interest and we never have, with the garlic or the wild onions that we see growing on the edge of the pasture. Since those things can be harmful, Mum is wondering if our natural instincts to keep away are kicking in? Probably!

Hope you're weather is a lot better than our's lately. We're hoping that it clears up and cools off just a bit this weekend, 'cause Mum is planning for us to hike some of the Cumberland Trail this weekend! More on that later...

Arrrggghhhh!

Oh what a Mum won't do to embarrass ya!

There I was, minding my own business hanging out on the bed with my kittie bro, Wiggy, when Mum thought it would be cute to cuddle me up in a blanket. Looks like I visited www.irvingia.net and lost some weight, BOL! But I haven't, thank Dog.

What is it with Mum's and thinking this kind of stuff looks cute! Oh the humiliation, I say!!!

Natural beauty!

On our long walks the past couple of weeks we've seen some awesome natural beauty. No, I don't mean me surveying my new domain, BOL!!!

I mean real beauty! Flowers, flowers and more, that have cropped up in the past couple of weeks. So we wanted to share 'em all with you!

Out by the big pasture and between the two ponds that border the entrance to the big woods is a big field of daisy's (mixed in with some other white weeds). Makes for an awesome site, that the photo just doesn't do justice.

On our walks around the big pasture, there is one section where I do my Calvin Bo-Rail impression that has a wall of privets on the other side of the fence. Early on when they first started blooming the smell along this part of our walk was just amazing!

On our way to the mailbox is where we picked up the rose the other day, now they are blooming much more along the lane, so beautiful!

On our way back from the mailbox on the other side of the lane, we found some wild strawberries growing here and there. I wanted to eat 'em!

Then back in the large pasture is this one section that has weeds that at a certain time of day look like spun gold! (Photo just doesn't do it justice :)

These are other new flowers we've seen popping up lately in the pasture and up near the woods. Orange! Mum thinks it may be Butterflyweed.

Back closer to the woods we came across a different kind of moss the other day, very fuzzy. Mum just loves moss, takes photos of it all the time!

Then even deeper into the woods we found these the other day - Mum was wondering if they may be Johnny Jump Ups, flowers she used to find in the woods all the time when she was just a wee pup, related to pansies! Or it could be a Trillium - so much to learn!

Mum says there is beauty in everything, even a wild animal print. Wait! That's Gracie's paw print, my wild manic sis, without boots, BOL!

But then we saw a real wild print, a racoon we think :)

Hope you are seeing as much beauty as we are this spring!

Marmaduke comes to the big screen!

From the popular comic strip, Marmaduke comes to the big screen on Friday! And this one looks like a lot of fun!

Brad Anderson created the decades-running newspaper comic strip Maraduke about a mischievous Great Dane who lives with the Winslow family, in 1954. Director Tom Dey has updated the story for 2010, and the story focuses on the Winslow's family move to a new neighborhood with their large yet lovable Great Dane, who has a tendency to wreak havoc in his own oblivious way and sure doesn't need to click here for any weight loss tips!

Directed by Tom Dey and starring Owen Wilson as the voice of Maraduke, the film is sure to be a hit with families. The film also stars Amanda Seyfried, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Ron Perlman, Judy Greer, Anjelah Johnson, Lee Pace, Steve Coogan, William H. Macy, George Lopez, Damon Wayans Jr., and David Walliams.

Read more on IMDB!

Want to know more about dogs and movies? Check out my Squidoo lens - The latest and greatest movies about dogs!

New Nina Ottoson plastic interactive puzzle toys!

Not too long after we moved to the cabin, the nice folks at the Company of Animals sent us, for free, two of the new plastic Nina Ottosson toys to try out!

Well, you know how much we just love the Nina toys, so we were anxious to 'get busy'. Mum finally got us enjoying them on tape out on our porch this weekend, so wanted to share with you.

The first one in the video is me working the new Nina Ottosson Plastic Dog Casino. Since we already had tried out the wooden version, I knew pretty much how to work it.

The goal is to lift out the plastic bones to release the drawer that slides out that holds the treats. So I quickly got to work. The plastic bones are a little more difficult to lift out, than the pegs on the wooden version, presenting a little different challenge, but Mum thought I did pretty well.

The second toy you see is the Dog Finder, demonstrated by my manic sis, Gracie. She loved it, of course. The goal with this toy is to slide the bones in the channel so that you can lift them out and reveal the treats. She did really well with it, despite never seeing this toy before. Next time, Mum wants to tie some string in the holes on the top of the bones and give her an even different challenge in lifting the bones out. She's love that too, we think!

After our toy session, Mum took us for a nice long, long walk. Near the end the sky opened up and we got caught out in the pasture in a big down pour. We were all soaked, so Mum got us all cleaned up with the Grohe, then we settled in for a Memorial Day movie extravaganza! Loved it!

We both had a lot of fun playing with the new toys. Thank you so much to the Company of Animals for sending them and letting us get our puzzle on!

Hope you all had a pawsome holiday weekend!