Weekends With Charlie ~ Featured Blogger

Weekends with Charlie follows the adventures of a curious, happy, playful Cockapoo pup living in San Francisco. Told through his voice, Charlie writes about life from a dog’s perspective—a world in which there is nothing better than hanging your head out the car window, finding a discarded piece of food on the ground, giving your family as many “hello-you’re-back-and-I’m-so-happy-to-see-you” kisses as possible, and examining the unique and wonderful smell of each and every tree you pass.

Charlie lives with his grandparents in the suburbs during the weekdays while Mom is busy working, but on the weekends, he gets to go up to the City for two whole days of fun! Inheriting a high IQ from his poodle relatives and a happy, friendly demeanor from his Cocker Spaniel side, Charlie is a Cockapoo to the fullest! He’s naturally curious and his human-like personality is so big that even though he’s unable to talk, his big expressive eyes and body language lets everyone know exactly what he’s thinking. Whether chasing squirrels, visiting the pet store for a treat, training to be a therapy dog, or exploring the City, life with Charlie stays interesting on the weekends!

While Charlie may not always be perfectly groomed or have flawless manners, Weekends with Charlie helps us remember to see life as a dog does-- Appreciate the simple things, be curious, and always embrace new experiences with a tail wag and a goofy dog grin! Visit us at www.weekendswithcharlie.wordpress.com

Charlie's Rules For Life

I Played In The Snow!!!

Exciting News

Stop by Weekends With Charlie to learn more about his fun life!

If you're interested in being featured on Pet Blogs United, drop us a line at PBU at comcast dot net.

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The Lazy Pit Bull ~ New Blogger Alert

Today we are introducing you to the gang at The Lazy Pit Bull.

I'm a wife, mom, and pit bull advocate. I volunteer with a local pit bull rescue, as well as my local humane society. I've been blogging for many years, but just this year I founded my blog The Lazy Pit Bull. It focuses on educating the masses about the wonderful Pit Bull. Our mission is to open minds, warm hearts, and show the world that the Pit Bull is a great dog that makes a loving, faithful family pet. I also run a Facebook page dedicated to networking shelter dogs and finding forever homes for them. Social networking saves lives everyday!

My husband and I have 2 dogs, a 2 year old Pit Bull mix named Nike and a 13 year old Dachshund named Sadie. We also have a 10 year old cat named Snickers. We live in the suburbs of beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana, with our 21 year old son Jordan, but our desire is to one day retire to Florida where we can walk our dogs on the beach every day!

I'd love it if your readers would stop by and visit my blog, as well as my Facebook page.

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Tiniest Tiger Canine Cool Hipster Giveaway!

Once again we have the privilege of working with The Tiniest Tiger for a giveaway. This time we giving away a Canine Cool Hipster bag full of great swag that was handed out to the folks on the Emmy red carpet.
Inside the bag are goodies from companies like Iams, Bissell, Worlds Best Cat Litter and more!

This Hipster bag is embroidered with a simple dog pattern on a pewter gray bag. It's lightly padded and has a front zip pocket along with two inside slide pockets to keep everything organized.  If you just can't wait or want to check out the whole line, you can go to the purchase page.

If you're interested in winning a Canine Cool Hipster Bag for yourself, just leave a comment below.  Make sure I have a way to reach you if you win.

The contest will be open until Saturday, September 29th at midnight EST.  This contest is open to US residents only.

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Eukanuba Live Puppy Camera!

Eukanuba has a long standing relationship with Canines Companions for Independence and they are sponsoring the newest litter to be born.  The puppies will all have "E" names in honor of Eukanuba.

Taya - mom

Canine Companions for Independence has fed Eukanuba to their dog for a long time.  All of their breeder dogs, and the dogs in the puppy training facilities are fed Eukanuba and that's where Eukanuba gets a lot of their research information for their food, especially the Eukanuba puppy formulas and DHA.

Tremayne - dad

Eukanuba is raising money to help Canine Companions provide assistance dogs to those in need.  Canine Companions provide their dogs free of charge, but each dog costs approximately $10,000 from birth to 2 years.

Here's where you come in: just by clicking on the special Eukanuba Facebook Page  you can click the donate button to donate $1.

Now for my favorite part, the livestreaming puppies!

Watch live streaming video from eukanubapuppychannel at livestream.com

To watch for yourself you can click here.  You can watch live 7 days a week during these hours.

8am-9pm PST
9am-10pm MDT
10am-11pm CDT
11am-12am EST

When the puppies are 8 weeks old they will be turned over to their puppy raisers.  Two of them will be raised by Eukanuba employees.

Don't forget to click to donate and then enjoy the puppies!

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Pebbles the Puppy

My name is Pebbles the Puppy, though to be perfectly honest at 2 1/2 I am pushing the Puppy bit. Still, I am short, so that counts in many, many ways (like getting trodden on.) I have been writing my blog since very young, but it has taken me a while to get into my stride. It is about what I do and what I get up to and about what I think about what I do and what I get up to and what then I write about what I think about and what I do and .... oh, you get the idea! I am mad about agility and won my first competition this year.

Me and my ghost writer (oh, come on, have you tried typing with paws?) did a redesign a few months ago. My mistress, who does my agility training, used to do the blog, but because she is a full time very senior nurse, she really doesn't have enough time. So, the Big Dog (it is what I call him) decided to give it a revamp and do some posting for me. He is a composer and budding writer, so I think he knows what he is doing (or he better do, buster, or his toes are history!).

During the day, I sleep on a bed in his office (I mean, OUR office), which means I can keep an eye on him. Unfortunately, it means he can also keep and eye on me and he is rather too quick with that camera of his. Photography is really important on my blog and the Big Dog says that the best posts always start with a picture and what you post about might not be what the picture was about. He says that you should always look at the best picture you took that day and see what it says to you, and then, that is what you write. Well, since I can't read, it works for me. 

Blogging is fun, and being me is fun, so putting one fun bit with the other fun bit just has to be double fun, doesn't it?

My hope in life is to cure all the world of all disease and make sure there are no poor puppies anywhere. But failing that, I would just go for getting some more comments on my blog. It uses Disqus comments, which means you can use all kinds of accounts like Twitter, Facebook and other stuff to comment. So, what you waiting for?

Here are several of Pebbles favorite posts:

I Think I Have Been Found Out

Too Busy To Update My Blog, Huh

Make It Stop

Stop by Pebbles blog and give her a little comment love!

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My Favorite Pet Shop Cat Tree Review

My Favorite Pet Shop sent us the Ailou 3-Tier Cat Tree to review and I have to say that Chloe & Moe love it!

The platforms are fully carpeted and the base has a cool tunnel.  It's got 4 sisal posts for scratching and a dangling mouse from the top tier.

Now we didn't get instructions for how to assemble this tower, but it was pretty self-explanatory and took only a few minutes.

Chloe, Moe & I give the Ailou 3-Tier Cat Tower a paws up!

My Favorite Pet Shop sent me a cat tower to review for free.  All opinions expressed are my own.

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Tiniest Tiger Red Carpet Twitter Event Tonight

Tonight is the Tiniest Tiger Red Carpet Event on Twitter.  Event Barkers will be throwing a fantastic bash with tons of prizes.

Click here for more details!

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Granite and Gneiss ~ New Blogger Alert

Oskar & I would like to introduce you to Catherine Anne & Nanook of Granite & Gneiss.

I'm Catherine Anne and I live on the Isle of Lewis which is part of the Outer Hebrides, just west off the coast of Scotland. I moved here a month ago to live with the love of my life, and part of the deal about me moving from city to country was that I could get a dog. After spending years in the city in Aberdeen working full time and living in an apartment I didn't have the opportunity to have a dog. I didn't have the space or time, but I missed the loving qualities and companionship dogs bring. When I lived with my parents we had a Shar Pei German Shepherd cross and we were so close, so when my partner agreed we could get a dog (which coincided with being an early 25th birthday present from him to me) we decided to get a puppy. He tried to sway me into getting a medium sized breed, or a cross. Like a Border Collie. But I couldn't be swayed - after having my last dog I knew I wanted a German Shepherd.

I searched for a few months, and then a month before the move I found Nanook. He wasn't called that then, but it was obvious to my friend and I when we visited the breeder he was the one. A month later, days before the 300 mile move to the island I picked him up. It was the best feeling in the world that little boy was coming home with me and was mine, my dog.

Now Nanook is growing up fast and I enjoy every day of it. I am the annoying parent who always takes too many photographs and records every achievement. Thankfully Nanook's easy going and will let me take his photo like crazy so long as I'll still play, let him nibble my thumb and hand out the milky biscuits.

Whilst I moved 300 miles to be with my love, sadly due to his job he works away and is only home 6 months of the year. Nanook therefore gives me company in the house, and someone dragging me out of bed every morning! He is as important to me as I am to him, and it will no doubt be very interesting when his "father" returns in two months time, he'll have been gone for three months and missed Nanook's 12-22 week stages! As Nanook's a White German Shepherd he'll have left behind our baby fluffy polar bear puppy and come back greeted by a long haired young wolf no doubt.

So this is who we are, what we do and so far it's been such a monumental journey and change of life I couldn't not blog about it. Now the move's over the blog's shifted focus to Nanook, he is essentially what happened next after I moved from Granite to Gneiss.

Stop by today & welcome Catherine Anne & Nanook to the world of blogging!

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Seamsters Weave Bone Review

One of the great toys that Kyjen sent us to test out is the Seamsters Weave Bone.

Right away there was some interest from our test subject.

The Seamsters Weave Bone is a rubber bone with slots for a strip of rawhide to be woven through, making it a challenge to get the rawhide.  The toy comes with 2 extra rawhides that you wet and then weave through.

After much chewing, you can see that he was starting to make some progress.

You can order the Seamsters Rawhide Refills from Kyjens website.

This toy suited Oskar well.  He usually has a short attention span, but this kept him engaged for a good half hour.  Also the blue rubber toy held up to his jaws of steel without even a mark.

We would heartily recommend this toy to our readers :)

*Kyjen sent us the Seamsters Weave Bone for free to test out.  All views and opinions expressed are my own.

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Nerissa's Life ~ Featured Blogger

For our second Featured Blogger this week, we have Nerissa's Life.  Here's his story.

I just started blogging ‘bout six months ago. It was a cold and dreary day in November 2011... not much was going on... too cold to be outside (I live in Canada, you know)... bored ‘cause all my fur family were napping... and I thought to myself, I know, I could right a blog! And that was the beginning of Nerissa’s Life.

I’m a Canadian kitty living in the province of Nova Scotia. I have two peeps... peep #1 and peep #2. I also have eleven other kitties living in my house. Primrose, Snowdrop and Blossom are my aunties. Jacob is my dad. Beatrice and Constance are my litter mate sisters. Tobias, Tess and Mason are my ‘have the same peeps’ sisters. Rushton and Seville are my ‘have the same peeps’ brothers. It’s a pretty big family, I think, but it works for us.

I, myself, was born in a wood pile. Obviously, Beatrice & Constance were too. We were all feral. Tobias was also feral. The rest were all rescues although in the case of my aunties, their mamawas the rescue and they came along for the ride (in her tummy, I think).

And I should mention that I’m nine years old now. Yup, had my ninth birthday on April 15th. It was a big day at our house, let me tell you. There were all my favourite eats and treats and nip. Actually, I’m a little addicted to the nip. But all we cats are so there’s no judging going on here. My peep #1 even promised me a nip garden this year. That’s exciting, I think.

Finally, I should say that on twitter, I’m known as @nerissathecat. I’ve made such wonderful friends there. Tweeters are great animals, I think. Wouldn’t you agree?

Here are 3 of her favorite posts:

I Was Only Trying To Help

My Magical Sister That Is Tess

Oh Those Silly Peeps!

Nerissa is one cool cat, so stop by his blog & say hi!

As always, if you're interested in being featured on Pet Blogs United, you can email us at PBU at comcast dot net.

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Luna's Life In The Garden State ~ Featured Blogger

Due to an error on my part, we will have two Featured Bloggers this week.  I'll be posting another one tomorrow.

Today we are highlighting Luna's Life in the Garden State.  Here's what Luna's person had to say.

I started Luna's Life in the Garden State after I adopted her last July. I wanted to record Luna's transformation from track dog to pet. I could never have guessed at how important the blog would become for me until Luna's accident. It was an invaluable tool that forced me to record her progress. There were some days I just did not want to write another post, but the followers were very demanding for frequent posts. If I missed a day, I would have people contacting me out of worry. This support network was amazing. Suddenly, dogs and owners from across the globe were rooting for Luna's speedy recovery and offering me kind words of encouragement. Since the accident, Luna's Life in the Garden State has focused on her recovery and new normalcy. I would love to have her story shared with more owners in the hopes that they can learn from our experience.

Here are the three posts that I would like to highlight:
A Winning Team

A Terrible Accident

Commercial Inspired Trick

I hope you'll take a minute to stop by and see Luna today.

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New Games To Play With Your Dog

The Dog Daily: Play

By Jodi Bryson for The Dog Daily

There are myriad reasons to play with your dog, such as weight management or to simply have a good time -- for both of you. "If you play with your dog for five minutes a day, three times a week, you'll have a better behaved and happier dog," says trainer Ellen Poole of Just Tails, a pet training site and service in the California Bay Area.

"Dogs are like you -- you feel better when you exercise and when you spend time with people you love," says Poole. "Play time is exercise time for dogs, and being with you is what your pet wants the most. This is true for all breeds, not just natural herders or retrievers who need 'jobs.' Little dogs love to play, and should play, too."

Poole says there are so many interesting, different games that you can play with your pet that go beyond fetch or tug of war. Although your dog may be used to those classic games, and it may at first turn its nose up to new games, Poole suggests patience is in order. She advises, "Try a few games to see which ones make your dog happiest."

Treasure Hunt
Different trainers have different names for this game, but the premise of Treasure Hunt is the same: hide treats, and then let your dog find them. "You always want to be a part of the game, and you always want to be in control," says Poole. For Treasure Hunt, command the dog to wait. For some dogs, this is a "down" command, while others will respond to "stay" or "wait." Next, hide three-to-five treats -- you want the dog to be able to keep track of where you've hidden each surprise. Let your dog watch you hide the "prize." Then give the command "GO!" and allow your dog to run and find the treats. Poole says if weight is a concern, you can hide toys instead of treats. Good owner!

Hide and Seek
Hide and Seek is similar to Treasure Hunt, but instead of treats, your dog is going to find you! "What your dog wants the most is to be with you," says Poole. "And what your dog likes to do the most is play, so this game is definitely bonding." Hide and Seek could also be the easiest game to play with your dog. Simply have your dog sit and stay, and then you hide. Next, call to the dog by using a name, a whistle or a funny animal sound to get your dog revved up! When Doggie finds you, give lots of praise. And try not to think of your dog's "peeking" when you hide as cheating! Smart dog!

Toy Cleanup
Toy Cleanup is a game that reinforces "return for refund," because your dog will earn a treat for every toy placed successfully in your hands. Give a sit and stay command. Grab your dog's toy basket and scatter the toys around the room. Using verbal and physical cues, like simply pointing at an individual toy, encourage your dog to pick up one toy at a time and place it in your hand. The challenge is for your dog to not drop the toys at your feet. Then encourage your dog to put the toys in a basket, or other storage container, which your pet can access. "Even the oldest dogs can be trained with repetition and positive reinforcement," reminds Poole. Over time, your dog will clean up his own toys at your command. What was once work for you can become play for your pooch.

Go Wild and Freeze!This is a great game for dogs with a jumping-on-visitors habit and/or canines that get a little over-excited. Take a treat and wiggle it just above your dog's nose so its head moves up toward the treat. This will naturally position your pet's rear to the ground in a "sit." Then command "GO WILD!" and jump around, clap and make sounds like a nine-year-old headed to recess. (This is a great game for children to play with the family dog.) You want your dog to get as excited as you are. Next, give the command, "Stop!" Then you stand tall without moving. Repeat the wiggle-treat-to-sit step. Wait, and resume the entire process as many times as you both desire. Over time, your dog will learn that "stop" means sit and freeze in place, a skill that can come in handy when in-laws drop by.

Nose It
Now it's time to bring toys into the mix. Poole advises that you choose toys that encourage chewing, because it's relaxing for the dog. "I like activities for dogs where they can roll a toy and nose it around," she says. For Nose It, select a toy that can be stuffed with edible treats, such as the Kong. Or, choose one of the new "monkeys in a barrel" type toys that have several little surprises inside a bigger toy. Hide-A-Squirrel and the Iqube II Cagey Cube are two examples. These toys allow your dog to "nose" and pull each of the surprises out while enjoying a good chew on the soft plush "prey." Just stuff the little toys back into the bigger toy for another round. "This keeps the dog busy, and nosing out the treat and chewing is calming for the dog," says Poole.

Jodi Bryson is a writer in San Francisco who enjoys playing fetch daily with Sadie Lou, her 11-year-old red Doberman/Shepherd mix.

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