Saving up for.....

We are always looking for a deal and ways to save money. 'Cause we want to do more agility, get that 5 acres of land we've been wanting, maybe rent a recreational vehicle (like this one) to get to Scottsdale for the Nationals, finally get a dogwalk and aframe.

Oh yeah, and I need a new bed (I chewed up the old one), Gracie needs her teeth cleaned (she came to us with tarter, poor girl), Wolfie and Wiggy (the cats) need an outdoor enclosure so they can enjoy the sunshine and fresh air more. Well, we could go on and on....

So when we have to buy 'stuff' we always look for coupons, ways to save on shipping, special deals. Sometimes we even find it's less expensive to shop on the Internet than to drive with gas prices the way they are now. Yikes!

We found this shopping discount site, and we got kind of excited. It's like finding all the coupons, sales, special deals, free shipping and more, all in one place.

Hopefully it will save us time and keep us from searching all over the Internet looking for free shipping or $$ off, because a lot of our favorite stores are listed on their site.

Don't forget about the Fruits and Veggies!

Hey everyone. We don't want you to forget about the Love Those Fruits and Veggies Link Love Project......we don't have enough fruits/veggies listed to satisfy us pups!

So, if you have info you can tell us on what fruits and veggies are good for us pups, and want to share in some link love at the same time - join in.

Us pups need you to add variety to our diet!

Summer vacation!

It's summer vacation time and what better way to spend your vacation than with your 'best friend'.

Thank goodness times are changing! There are so many fun things to do with your pup and so many places that they are accepted.

If you're planning your next trip and need some help, here are some great sites that you can use to plan ahead and have the best vacation ever:

Petswelcome.com - a great site with thousands of hotels, campgrounds, beaches and other petfriendly locations.
Travelingdogs.com - a small site with petfriendly resort destinations for the west coast, Florida and the New England area.
Urbanhound.com - for those living or visiting NY, San Francisco, or Chicago.
Petsonthego.com - it's pet travel unleashed!
Dogfriendly.com - the destination for everything dog travel related.

And don't forget to be prepared! Here are some great links to help you get you and Fido ready for the big trip:

Hitting the road with your four-legged friend
Top 10 tips for traveling with your dog
How to travel safely with your pup
Summary of Airline Pet-Transport Policies
Traveling by Car

And always remember, take along your first aid kit - for both human and canine, wear your ID at all times, be safe and have loads of fun!

Reuse and limit waste!

If you're like me and Mum, we have way too many books lying around that we don't need anymore. And there are other books that we'd like to have. Well we found a solution we may try out, it's SwitchPlanet.com - a 'use more - waste less' trading site for books, DVDs, CDs and games!

Now we are all for keeping the planet from waste, well except my 'output' waste of course. But if we can contribute to the good of the planet and get new stuff, well that's cause for action.

SwitchPlanet.com is a place to trade stuff you don't need anymore and get stuff you want. Right now you can trade DVDs, CDs, Books and Games, but soon they say you will be able to trade clothing, electronics, tools and much more.

And its 100% FREE to use.

The goal of SwitchPlanet.com is to establish their site as a premier online community that is committed to helping reduce the impact waste is having on the planet by trading things we no longer use to get the things we want.

And the company and its members proudly support non-profit organizations through cash and product contributions. Organizations like The Red Cross, Boys and Girls Club, Nature Conservancy, American Cancer Society and Child's Play Charity.

Now that's something to bark about!

Yikes, tagged again!

I gotta work on my speed, 'cause I got tagged again. Tagged by The Flying Beagle no less. Do Beagles really fly, no way! But none the less we can always share some info, so here goes:

The Rules: "Each person posts the rules before their list, then they list 8 things about themselves. At the end of the post, that person tags and links to 8 other people and then visits those peoples' sites and comments letting them know that they have been tagged, and to come read the post, so they know what they have to do."

Maybe instead of writing about me this time, I'll share 8 things about my Mum:

1. My Mum is a freelance marketing consultant to technology companies and is my secretary running my blogs and website in her spare time. Lucky for us she works from home!

2. She loves classical music. We listen to Internet radio all day while she works. That's one of the reasons why she named me Johann, my kitty brothers Wolfie and Wiggy (which is short for Ludwig) and my sis Gracie. Oh and she loves all kinds of other music.

3. Mum loves photography, particularly B&W. But she doesn't get a chance to work in her darkroom much since she got me and Gracie. She secretly wishes for a new Canon EOS5D Digital SLR with a telephoto lens.

4. My Mum grew up in rural Indiana and moved to Indianapolis in her 20's. She spent about 9 years living and working in Texas - Houston and Dallas. But came back to Indiana 'cause she missed the seasons and her friends.

5. Not by choice, but more by happenstance, Mum has been single all her life. She hopes someday to find a great human Dad for us. One that loves animals, of course!

6. Mum was an accomplished flutist when she was younger and played in symphonies during high school. Another reason for our names. She gave it up though to concentrate on her career. Occasionally she's get that 'noisy thing' out and plays it - I howl and the kitties run for the hills!

7. She has been called nice, friendly, sociable, tenacious, determined, cute, athletic, healthy, diplomatic, stubborn, forthright, open minded, resourceful, creative, direct and many other adjectives. Sometimes she is those things, sometimes not.

8. Mum came by training us pups pretty naturally. She even trained my kittie brother, Wolfie, to stay in the yard by voice command when he is outside, and my kittie brother, Wiggy, to play fetch. She loves working/playing with us.

With all the tagging going on lately. I've decided not to tag anyone. But if you'd like to play along, feel free and let us know - we'll link to you!

I'm a thoughtful blogger? Cool!

I am so humbled! My friend Tish has presented me with the Thoughtful Blogger Award. Wow what an honor, thank you Tish!



The Thoughtful Blogger Award was created by Kristy at Writer’s Reviews. The award is for “those who answer blog comments, emails, and make their visitors feel at home on their blogs. For the people who take others’ feelings into consideration before speaking out and who are kind and courteous. Also for those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping other bloggers design, improve, and fix their sites. This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.”

I now present the award to five other thoughtful bloggers.

1. Tip Tail - when I started really getting to know other bloggers this year, I was very fortunate to meet the dog lover behind Tip Tail. She is at the top of my list of two-leggers to meet in person. Not only does Cyn love dogs, agility and rescue, she shares her blogging expertise with us. Thank you!

2. Dogs' Aye View - Talk about a dog lover with a heart of gold! Opie and Gomer's Dog Mum takes the cake. Recently she orchestrated a wonderful blog project to help raise funds for dog rescue - and what a great success it was!

3. Life with a Newf - We met up with Ayla and her Mum recently. Ayla is a Newf; she and her family live in Germany. There is a lot of cool stuff on Life with a Newf - and her Mum shares all kinds of great info for dogs. We've learned a lot from reading their blog. One of our favorite features is the weekly Ayla's Awesome Assays. But I have to say our latest recent favorite post is the one they did on homemade Frosty Paws. Oh my gosh!!! Since I've had tummy troubles the last week, Mum hasn't made me any yet, but she promises she will, very soon.

4. PetsitUSA - There is a lot of dog news to keep up on, with all the recalls and things happening in our lives. We are grateful to know the folks at PetsitUSA.com, they keep us up to date on all kinds of news that's important.

5. AbbyK9 - If I remember correctly, we met AbbyK9 on the Dogs with Blogs forum, and were very impressed with a great project they were doing on keeping your dog cool in the summer, as well as other great info they share in their blog, including terrific product reviews. Can't wait to get a bone to chew and sit down to read their summer heat study.

Congratulations to all these thoughtful bloggers! You now get to pass the award to five other bloggers. Be sure to link to the original post where Kristy describes the award.

1Q, 1NQ!

Back from the trial. Mum, Gracie and I are beat! Mum's tired and sore from running me on that deep sandy dirt, and working the trial all day. I am beat, because I had to run in the stuff. And Gracie is tired because she got to socialize all day with folks and play with other dogs. What a ruff life! We sure had fun.

The day's runs were pretty good. Had a really tough standard course, think only a handful of dogs qualified. And guess what? I was one of 'em! Mum was particularly concerned with a nasty tunnel/dog walk discrimination in the run, as well as a couple of other things. We started the run, and I was running good. She put me in the tunnel, then into the chute....then a double to a single.....then we were facing the tunnel/dogwalk. Mum did something new - she backed up some, got my attention, then shot me up the dogwalk and I did it great!!! Woo hoo! Mum got real excited about that. We've had lots of troubles with these discriminations lately, so it was really cool to get a bit of a handle on how to run 'em clean and have fun doing it.

The rest of the run went real well, despite the fact that Mum worried about having to run completely around a jump, as I took the tire and another jump, but it worked. Then it was on to the table, where Mum always gives me lots of good boys......then jump and a 90 degree turn to the weaves. I made the entrance great, but started to try and snif (that dirt is really smelly), but Mum gave me a good 'weave, buddy, weave' and I perked right up through my weaves. We finished clean and I got loads of treats after that run.

And I have to say it was so great to get real treats, again. Since my tummy hasn't been so good from the gastroenteritis last week, today was the first day Mum gave me real treats. Love 'em!!!

Had our JWW run a couple of hours later. Looked like a good course when Mum walked it. But dogs were dropping bars, taking off courses, and missing weaves over and over. Then it was my turn. We were running really, really well - great speed - then I hit my weaves and this smell just overcame me!!! Mum thought I pulled out of the weaves, but the judge didn't call it. Then we had two tunnels in a row, and I got real confused about which one to go in. Mum got me straightened out and we were off through the rest of the jumps at really good speed again.

Later Mum checked the results and we were over time from all the sniffing and tunnel mixups, but had no other faults. Hmmm, did that judge see Mum touched the weaves by accident, or me try to go in a wrong tunnel, or me miss a weave pole. Guess not! Ha!

Seems we were in good company not q'ing on this run. Only four dogs of the entire class Q'd. Yikes!

So we finished the weekend with three Q's, 1 DQ, a second, a third and a fourth place. Not too shabby for the first time running on loose, deep sand.

Trainer J is gone for the next couple of weeks so we are heading down to Columbus to train with a friend of Mum's. We are so looking forward to our trip and training sessions. Mum says I have to work on my discriminations, weave speed, and gambles. And Gracie needs to work on her ring focus - 'cause guess what Mum did? She entered Gracie in a trial on August 8th and 9th. One run a day. Hope Gracie can keep her head on her runs!!!!

Hee, Hee! NQ!!!

Mum and I were back at the trail again this morning. What a beautiful weather weekend we are having. It may be 86, but there is so little humidity and a real nice breeze. Great running weather.

Think I told you yesterday that we are running in a horse arena this weekend. They grated the sandy dirt last night and rolled. But for some reason, it was a lot deeper today in the jumpers ring. I ran jumpers and nearly sank in spots. So I dropped a few bars, and didn't make some turns. But gotta say that running in that stuff is the BEST!!!! I love it and am having a ball!

Our standard run Mum did a front cross too early for me on a double and I trashed it. So no Q, but we used the rest of the run for practice. Again, way fun running on that stuff. And since we didn't Q, we worked on some new stuff and did some experimenting (some gamble stuff, leading out, etc.) I love it when Mum mixes it up, keeps me on my toes!

Tomorrow is the last day of the trail. Wish us luck, K?

DQ!!!

Mum and I headed off for the agility trial this morning. It was cool and damp and a little drizzly. We have never been at this venue before, but we heard it may be kind of neat! Well it was!!!

A great horse arena, under cover from the sun, and about 3 inches of sandy dirty to run through. Mum's kinda sore from running in it. But when I saw that stuff for the first time, I thought I was in our Winter training barn. Yaaahoooo!!!!

Our first run was Exec B Standard. The course was open, no real discriminations (that have been killing us). So we were hopeful. Mum led out a bit, good thing, because once I started running on that sand, it was like I was shot out of a cannon! She barely made it to the end of the dog walk to manage my contact. But we did, ran the rest of the course pretty well and with good speed. I even got a good sniff in after the chute. Just for ole times sake.

Then we had Exec B JWW. The course had - count them - three pinwheels. That means we have to run in a circle doing three jumps when our handlers pretty much stay in the same spot. Well they are the most demotivating things on earth. I like to run with my Mum! Well she tried some new stuff - some of that backing up stuff when I was in the pinwheel and I kept my speed up pretty well.

The course were good, but the times on the course were really tight. Some that have Q'd in the past didn't make time today. Good thing I'm feeling better and running pretty fine.

We ended up Q'ing both runs, another DQ! Yippee!!!! That makes 5 DQ's and 141 MACH points. We on our way.

And the best part - is we get to go back tomorrow and Sunday!