Celebrate NATIONAL DOG DAY

NATIONAL DOG DAY IS Sunday, AUGUST 26

http://www.nationaldogday.com 

Timely Tips to Help Our Furry Friends

Take Back-to-School Stress in Stride

 

Heading back to the classroom can be a frantic, frazzling experience for kids, parents and pets alike. With all the scheduling dilemmas the new school year brings – band practice, soccer practice, carpools and the like – the quality time we used to spend with our four-legged friends during the summer months is suddenly in short supply. So it’s no wonder if even the most well-behaved pets aren’t at their angelic best during these especially stressful days.

Here are a few suggestions from one of the world’s leading providers of training and mental exercise products to make the back-to-school transition period less trying.

1. A week or so before the kids return to school, start getting your pets used to their absence. Take a few trial runs by leaving them early in the morning for about an hour. Line up the lunchboxes on the kitchen counter so that your dog or cat starts to see this as part of your morning routine.

2. Consider crating your dog during the day. To many pet parents, the prospect of having their four-legged companions stay in a crate may seem like locking them away in prison. But crating a pet makes a lot more sense when you think of it as a protective crib or playpen. The sense of security a crate provides can be comforting to many dogs. Just be sure to leave them with fresh water, food or treats, a snugly blanket and some favorite toys to keep them occupied until you or the kids get home.

 

3. Quickly establish a new daily routine. Dogs and cats are creatures of habit and feel anxious when there are major disruptions in their life. While you’re scheduling carpools and after-school activities, you should also schedule regular times for your dog’s feedings, walks, play dates and together time.

4. Leave them playthings that keep their minds actively engaged. One excellent way to keep housebound pets from getting bored is to give them a fun homework assignment, such as the Dog Miracle Puzzle^™ from Nina Ottosson. This durable, cleverly constructed puzzle lets dogs seek out concealed treats by trying to move, lift or push aside durable, stackable bricks with their paw or nose. By changing the placement of the puzzle bricks and where the treats are concealed, pet parents can decide how difficult the game is going to be. The number of ways the bricks and hidden treats can be rearranged is virtually endless!

5. Use a pet-friendly training device to gently correct unwanted behaviors. One example is the Pet Corrector™ from The Company of Animals. This convenient can of harmless compressed air simplifies training by mimicking the “hissing” sound animals make in the wild. Dogs and cats have an instinctive aversion to this sound. For dogs who tend to pull or tug at the leash while walking and could use some gentle correction, there’s the Halti^® Headcollar. And for those more impulsive types who need to be more firmly yet humanely restrained, the Baskerville Ultra Muzzle is a great solution.

Hopefully, these tips will help prevent those back-to-school days from stressing out your precious pets – and you. The Company of Animals is widely regarded as one of the world’s most respected providers of pet training and mental exercise products.   For complete details, please visit www.companyofanimals.us.

 

Ways to Celebrate National Dog Day

Grab a leash or a dish and join the celebration.

• Have a back yard barbecue, inviting your friends to bring their dogs — fencing in all four-legged friends, for their own protection.
• Take your canine companion for a walk in the neighborhood or to the park or beach.
• Take a ride in the country. Go to a pet friendly winery.
• Take your dog for a doggie vacation/holiday weekend even if you just camp out in the back yard.
• Spread holiday cheer to local dog shelters year-round. Donate your resources to a dog rescue center. Volunteer and share your love for dogs with those less fortunate than your own family pet.
• Have a friend who loves dogs but for whatever reason cannot have one right now? Share your dog for a day! Your friend and your dog will enjoy a dog day of summer as you all walk and talk together.
• Share your love of pit bulls with others.
• Top the day off with the gift of a new dog dish for your furry friend (treats included, of course).

About National Dog Day

Founded in 2004 by pet lifestyle expert and author Colleen Paige, National Dog Day was created to honor dogs more than we currently do, to give them a day to show deep appreciation for our long connection to each other – for their endearing patience, unquestioning loyalty, for their work, their capacity for love and their ability to impact our lives everyday in the most miraculous ways. National Dog Day wishes to encourage dog ownership of all breeds, mixed and pure – and embraces the opportunity for all dogs to live a happy and safe life. To learn more, visit www.nationaldogday.com.

About The Company of Animals

Founded by highly acclaimed UK pet behaviorist Dr. Roger Mugford, The Company of Animals is the UK’s provider of training products designed to achieve a positive relationship between pets and their parents. The Company of Animals designs and manufactures a wide range of acclaimed products.  For more information, please visit www.companyofanimals.us or http://www.facebook.com/TheCompanyOfAnimalsUS.

Easter sweet surprise giveaway

In her Easter bonnet, no, Cici will not appear in a hat…

and no we are NOT giving away Easter bunnies… hop hop hop…

Every once in awhile us pet parents have to indulge in a sweet delight just for ourselves, and usually mine is chocolate, something I can eat and Cici cannot… but recently I sampled these amazing sweet treats so what we ARE giving away is a box of …

Zeke’s Butterscotch 

This is the best butterscotch I’ve ever eaten. Tastes fresh, rich and is simply addicting. NOT for dogs.  Humans only. Melts in your mouth delicious.

To be eligible for the box of homemade vintage butterscotch, participants must “Like” the Zeke’s Facebook fan page and Tweet the following to Zeke’s Twitter page: “What’s your best memory with butterscotch?” Leave a comment here and/or like the Have Dog Blog will Travel Facebook page, too to keep us in the loop.

Contest ends April 18 at midnight PST. You’ve got just Eight more days to enter and win.  (Yes, we just extended the date) … And if you make us laugh, with a photo of your pet in rabbit ears, (optional) you may just get an extra special pet treat, too. 

So hop hop hop over and you just may win this yummy sweet surprise…

For me, my memories of butterscotch are of the hard candy kind. My dad had a store in Manhattan near to Chinatown. And on special occasions, we would visit the Lower East Side for candy. There were all kinds of goodies… shoe leather (apricot delight), licorice ropes in various flavors, fruity filled hard candies and butterscotch. The candy store near our home where I usually bought my candy held treasures such as MaryJane’s, Clark bars or anything sweet and salty combined with butter, chocolate and/or peanut butter, made me happy. But the more exotic types of candy obtained in NYC were a rare treat for us kid candy connoisseurs.

My grandmother‘s pocketbook was also a great resource for candy. It was usually filled with delights such as peppermint Chiclets gum and butterscotch candies, too. I loved to dig through her purse (how rude, huh) and find something sweet and delicious. It was one of our rituals. Whatever I found, I could eat. Hey, I was 10 and younger. I lived for stuff like that.

About Zeke’s

The Zeke butterscotch candy gets its unique flavor from the ingredients from a recipe from Zeke’s mother, Old Wuss as she was called, who found it in a cookbook that was published in Chicago around 1860, way before imitation flavors were invented.   REAL butterscotch is made with real ingredients.  The main ingredients are Hawaiian pure cane sugar, butter, Grade AA Creamery Butter and lots of it and unsulphered molasses which gives Zeke’s Butterscotch its deep, rich flavor.  The apple cider vinegar in the candy creates a chemical reaction that softens the butterscotch when it is warmed – as in your mouth, and that’s when you’ll start drooling.  It has a very juicy, buttery flavor.  Two more minor but very important ingredients are water (pure and natural) and salt.

Zeke’s Candy Company, formerly Cotton’s Candy Kitchen Co., is owned and operated by Sheila and Jeff Cotton in Cedarville, Ca. and has been in operation since 1988. The two married candy connoisseurs love making vintage candy butterscotch.

Blog Hop time…  thanks to Life with Dogs,Two Little Cavaliers and Confessions of the Plume…  grab the blog hop code…

memory lane

Completely off topic… but had to do something fun and light and I was reading other people’s recollections of growing up in the 50 and 60’s…because have been trying to remember this game we played with bottle caps, or maybe it wasn’t a game, but it was something with bottle caps from soda…

so here is what I recall from growing up in Bayside, Queens, NYC  we lived near Bell Boulevard and Union Turnpike and Springfield Boulevard in the Windsor Oaks apartments near to the Windsor Park apartments

local places: Pee Pond (Alley Pond Park), Kiddy City, Ice Skating at Roosevelt Field, Bowling Alley, Fresh Meadows, World’s Fairgrounds, Creedmoor (State mental hospital), Mays in Glen Oaks and Lake Success (Longyland) plus the pizza place, delis, candy stores, luncheonette, diners, five and dime (Woolworth’s) and the hamburger joint near Mays which brought food on Lionel trains

we not only had an assortment of ice cream trucks that came around from Good Humor to Mr Softie all with different sounds, but we also had Chow Chow Cup (Chinese food that came in an edible bowl. The bowl was made of a fried eggroll wrapper), Pizza, Knish Knosh and other foods

we had milk delivered to our apartment, it came in bottles
we also had donuts and cake delivered
we got our ice cream from cows from a farm my dad passed by called Gouz (rhymes with cows)

candy:

maryjanes
candy cigarettes
little bottles with sugar water colored
ootton candy
toasted marshmallows
rawhide (apricot) and licorice ropes
filled jelly candies from lower east side nyc
necco
pez

desserts/ice cream stores:
Carvel’s
Dunkin Donuts
Jahn’s ice cream parlor, free ice cream sundae on your birthday
charlotte russes (sponge cake topped with whipped cream)

we lived in what we called a court (yard) of garden apartments. we had lots of trees  and grass behind the apartments and played a lot of different street games… including:

ringolevio
stoop ball
jacks
checkers
something with bottle caps
freeze
table hockey
monkey in the middle
softball
jump rope
card games like War, Spades,  Hearts, Casino, 21, Poker, and Rummy
cowboys and indians
forts
king of the mountain/jungle
tag
ball games such as A my name is Alice and I come from Alabama and I make apples (with your spaldeen you bounce the ball and raise your leg over the ball every time the A (or B C D etc) is said, A Alice Alabama Apples
hopscotch
arm wrestling
sledding in winter

we used a hose to cool off…or went to Jones Beach or Far Rockaway

caught caterpillars and fire flies in jars
did not step on sidewalk cracks (it would break your mother’s back)

get dressed up for Halloween
mean boys (usually, sometimes girls) would put huge chunks of hard chalk inside socks and hit you with it

when we were bored inside on snow days :

we’d make phoney phone calls, call people we did not know up and ask if their refrigerator was running and hang up
listen to the radio and make dedications, ask for a particular song to be played for a particular person and hear our names on the radio

came home from school to watch and dance to:

American Bandstand
Soul Train (later)

we played in the playgrounds:
in the sandboxes
on the monkeybars
swings
slide
see-saw or teeter/totter

sang songs and made up songs:
Susie and Johnny sitting in a tree K I S S I N G
First Came Love Then Came Marriage
Then Came Susie with a Baby Carriage

we put on shows, circuses, sometimes to raise money
adults had BBQ’s and Mock Marriages where people would pretend to marry other people’s husbands/wives after they got tipsy drunk
the housewives were Yenta Center (where all the women would sit outside and gossip about everyone in the neighborhood)

played mah jongg

board games like Monolpoly, Chinese checkers

played with

hula hoops
pogo sticks
bubbles

collected and traded:

marbles
baseball cards
dolls

we were crafty:

made laniards
pot holders
crocheted baby items
braided chewing gum wrappers into necklaces
pop-it beads
cut out paper dolls
sea shells

imaginary games:

write down how we’d spend a million dollars when the Millionaire John Beresford Tipton came to our house

tea parties

watched TV shows:

Howdy Doody
Little Rascals
Bowery Boys
Lone Ranger
Sky King
Wagon Train
I Love Lucy
Milton Berle
Ed Sullivan
Lassie
Mickey Mouse Club
Capt. Kangaroo
cartoons (Rocky and Bullwinkle; The Jetsons)
Twilight Zone
Superman
Loretta Young
Merv Griffin
Dragnet
Roy Rogers
Donna Reed
George Burns and Gracie Allen
Beat the Clock
Hopalong Cassidy
Jack Benny
Truth or Consequences
Honeymooners
You Bet Your Life (Groucho Marx)
Kukla, Fran and Ollie
The Red Skelton Show
My Little Margie
Make Room for Daddy
Life of Riley
Ozzie and Harriet
Father Knows Best
Leave It to Beaver
The Real McCoys
Dobie Gillis
Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
Soupy Sales
I’ve Got a Secret
Topper
Dr Kildare
Ben Casey
Abbott and Costello
77 Sunset Strip
Three Stooges

Movies:

Old Shirley Temple movies

West Side Story

Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon beach movies

Elvis movies

Musicals: King and I, Sound of Music, Oklahoma

Ben Hur

Spartacus

The Time Machine

Songs:

Purple People Eater

Lion Sleeps Tonight

Louis, Louis

Duke of Earl

In the Still of the Night

Itsy Bitsy Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

You Don’t Own Me

Que Sera Sera whatever will be will be

Tears on My Pillow

A Teenager in Love

Hey Paula

Book of Love

Who Put the Bop in the Bop de Bop Rama Lama Ding Dong

Tell Laura I Love Her

You Belong To Me

Sherry

Peppermint Twist

Songs by: Lesley Gore, Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie and the 4 Seasons, Beatles, Supremes, Monkees, Dave Clark 5, Rascals, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Melanie, Roy Orbison, Johnny Mathis, Peter, Paul and Mary, 5th Dimension, Mamas and Papas, Herman’s Hermits, Paul Anka, and others

Dances:

Twist

Cha Cha

Monkey

Mashed Potatoes

Read comics:
Archie
Superman

Nancy Drew

we had:

rank out sessions (traded insults) your mother wears army boots;
gave people knucks (hit knuckles hard with baseball cards)

slam books (wrote who was most popular, best dresser, smartest person, etc in class)

cats (alley) who we named and took care of although we were not allowed to have pets in the garden apartments… my cat’s name was Ginger

Pet Food Revolution

love Jamie Oliver and his Food Revolution, saw an episode last night where he dressed up as a tomato and other outrageous stuff in Los Angeles. The LAUSD blocked him from going into any of the schools / kitchens, what are they hiding? UGH…

He did a demo with a cow showing people what the disgusting pink slime crap is that is fed to kids… leftover scraps from cow meat goes into a bucket, ammonia is poured over it and then it is minced or something and that is what is fed to kids, mystery slime…

and he made a comment that made me ANGRY. He said people can feed that garbage to dogs because they can eat it. NO WAY.  I wrote to him and told him there is NOT a chance I would feed that to my fur baby… She deserves better, too.

In fact, I find that attitude reprehensible. People have an idea that dogs and cats, hey they’re just a dog or just a cat, NO RESPECT, Jamie Oliver, for the animals. Our pets are four legged friends who deserve kindness, too. And better diets than the crap given to them from the grocery stores/pet stores.

In the 90’s I did some research about cat food since my cats kept throwing up. I almost threw up when I found out what was in most commercial cat food.

Ok this is graphic and disgusting so if you do not have the stomach, see ya later.

what do you think that they do with the millions of dead dog and cat carcasses from shelters across the country. Yes, indeed they send them to rendering plants. And the rendering plants turn DEAD DOGS AND CATS into dog and cat food. I kid you NOT.

Not to mention all of the other shit like feces, pus, hairs, and stuff, yummy.  From that moment on, I stopped buying commercial cat food and started feeding my cats Flint River Ranch. My knowledge and research has evolved since then to feeding Cici grain-free foods and organic foods, meat from free range cows, not factory farmed cooped up and bred to die animals who are full of antibiotics, hormones, fear and terror and sickness.

http://www.hypoallergenicdogfood.net/best-dry-dog-food/what-are-the-best-dog-foods-and-the-worst-dog-foods-to-feed-your-large-breed-dog

http://www.hugsandstitches.com/petfood.htm

Research done on rendering plants that sell meat to pet food companies found that the rendering plants accept everything from road kill, dead zoo animals and euthanized pets from both shelters and veterinary clinics. One such plant was found to have rendered 11 tons of dogs and cats in one week! Another plant in California reported processing an average of 200 ton of dogs and cats per month.

Foods your dog should not eat

http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/slideshow-foods-your-dog-should-never-eat

Our animals deserve SO MUCH BETTER than to eat dead dogs and cats.

http://www.acreaturecomfort.com/truthaboutpetfood.htm

 

Here is a list of companies and the pet foods they manufacture. Huge food manufacturers use pet food companies as a cheap and profitable way of disposing of the waste from their human food manufacturing plants.

* Nestle: Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog, Purina

* Heinz: 9 lives, Amore, Gravy Train, Kibbles-n-Bits, Nature’s Recipe

* Colgate-Palmolive: Hill’s Science Diet

* Proctor & Gamble: Iams, Eukanuba

* Mars: Kal Kan, Mealtime, Sheba, Waltman’s

 

 

and Jamie Oliver deserves a swift slap upside the head for saying that dogs can eat pink slime.

Thank you.

This video is not about pet food but it is important to learn this info about Aspartame, Chicken McNuggets, GE/GMO Frankenfood (corn, cottonseed, soy) and other so-called food stuff that is ILLEGAL in other countries around the world.

http://www.infowars.com/food-the-ultimate-secret-exposed/

If the video makes you mad/ill, then STOP BUYING FAST FOOD, COMMERCIAL BRANDS AT GROCERY STORE CHAINS, TAKE YOUR POWER BACK and join the COFFEE PARTY MOVEMENT… Just found out about this on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/coffeeparty