Monday, August 31, 2015

Giveaway reminder

Hey, just a quick reminder that the giveaway for some canine ice cream treats ends tonight, so don't forget to visit the review post and enter to win!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Friday, August 28, 2015

Fit Dog Friday: Dock diving slo mo

I arrived a little early when meeting a friend at the park, and took Koira down to the dock for a few jumps. When my friend arrived, she was nice enough to record a couple jumps for me. I added a little mid-air slo-mo to the video.





Afterwards, we took a walk to another part of the park where there is a relatively flat and straight stretch of gravelly beach, and did water sprints. Basically, we ran up river in knee deep water, then moved to waist deep water and ran downstream back to our starting point. Koira absolutely loved it, and thought running in the water upstream was awesome (but that maybe I should throw her toy for her) and that swimming back downstream was great too.

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Koira thinks running and splashing in the water is awesome.


I've found that, as long as you pick the right activity for the right dog, your dog is a great companion for your human workouts.

Pallo stayed at home during this trip. He doesn't approve of hanging out in water. He'll go in to fetch a toy, but he wants to head straight back to shore afterwards, and people in the water don't count as fun in his book.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Beach Trip

Two weeks ago, I got food poisoning. Or the flu. Or something. Whatever it was, it was totally miserable. I ran a fever for close to two days, and ran to the bathroom a ton. I got sick just after getting home from work Wednesday afternoon. By Friday, my fever was gone but my energy was as well, and my digestion was not thrilled with me.

I spent the day Saturday at my mom's house as there is a big local festival in the town I grew up in. I ate nothing but a big bottle of goat milk kefir. My stomach didn't complain too much, and though it wasn't anywhere near my ideal food for an entire day, when I woke up Sunday morning, I was feeling worlds better. Better enough to eat a piece of the blackberry pie I'd missed out on the day before for breakfast.

And then because I am bad at being sick and taking care of myself, I met up with a friend and her dogs at the beach.

Aug 16th with Nico-1889
Jazz and Flynn


I brought both Pallo and Koira along, and my friend had her border collie/aussie Jazz and her new puppy Flynn (border collie/papillon). Koira and Jazz took an immediate dislike to each other, so we took a few trips down the stairs to the beach to walk each group separately.


Aug 16th with Nico-1903
Flynn trying to steal the ball from Pallo


Pallo thought the puppy was kind of annoying, but also really wanted to get him to play. Flynn thought Pallo and all his corgi talk was a little too intimidating. They did do a little bit of romping together, though.

Aug 16th with Nico-1893
Pallo sad because Jazz got the ball first


And Pallo and Jazz just pretty much ignored each other. Jazz loves chasing the seagulls while at the beach, and anytime we didn't have the ball out to play, Jazz was off looking for or chasing birds.

Then we tossed Pallo and Jazz back in the cars and took Koira and Flynn for a second walk down the beach. Koira didn't really care about Flynn in the least, and Flynn didn't really care about Koira either.

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Flynn doing something. No idea.


So much so, actually, that I have no photos of them together at all. Flynn did keep finding sticks on the beach, and Koira kept stealing them from him.

Aug 16th with Nico-1924
Koira's favorite thing at the beach. Driftwood sticks to chew on. 


And there was a really adorable moment when Koira got the zoomies big time. (Can I just say that I love that she still gets the full on, butt-tucking zoomies at 7.5 years old?) She was zooming back and forth and around us humans, and through a big puddle of seawater left as the tide went out, back and forth and around, over and over, at absolute top speed, with her butt fully tucked in, big grin on her face, and ears flying. But she zoomed too close to Flynn and sent a giant wave of water over him, soaking him and freaking him out a little. He wasn't the biggest fan of the water to start with.

Overall, my stomach held out, my energy level was low but let me do stuff, and it was a great day. We even stopped at Mo's for some clam chowder before heading back into the valley.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Tasty Tuesday: Dogsters Ice Cream Treats for Dogs

Update: Winner has been drawn and contacted!

This summer has been blazing hot and horribly dry. The weather has brought everything from horrible disasters like the terrible wildfires spreading across Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska to the small discomforts of hot dogs and no air conditioning to cool off.

We've been using our pool and the river to cool down. When Dogster's asked if we would be interested in trying out some of their ice cream for dogs, and hosting a giveaway for our fans, we jumped on it. Anything to help stay cool, right?

Dogsters Review-1976
So tempting


Dogsters comes in two different flavors, Nutly Peanut Butter and Cheese, and Mintë Kissably Fresh. They are made in the USA and have eight ingredients each, by my count. An interesting and awesome thing about their packaging is that they also have a braille accessible label for the visually impaired. It isn't something that I need, but I can really appreciate a company taking an extra step to make their product more easily accessible.

Dogsters Review-1953
These remind me of those little ice cream cups they gave you at school, with the wooden stick to use as a spoon.


Also, since this is a frozen item that you purchase already frozen, it is awesome that they are available alongside the frozen novelties in grocery stores across the country. Which makes it easy to run to the store for some ice cream for the humans, and a frozen treat for the dogs, all at once.

Dogsters Review-1972
Delicious. 


And my dogs were fans. It took a tiny bit of encouragement when I told them to take it, I think because as a frozen item it doesn't have a super strong smell, but once they took a first lick, both of my dogs loved it. Pallo kept trying to steal the whole thing from me because he thought he could enjoy it better on his own.

I did end up sending him outside with it to enjoy, and he licked the entire container clean without trying to eat the container. If you have dogs who might be prone to eating non-food items like the container these come in, I'd just pop it out and into a dish for them, though it might not last as long since they could pick it up and chomp instead of just licking.

Dogsters Review-2029
Lickably delicious and cooling on a hot day.


Both Koira and Pallo tried these. Koira tried the mint flavor, and Pallo tried the peanut butter. I didn't smell these things at all until I stuck my nose right down on top of them, which makes it a nice treat to give your dogs if you have a sensitive nose.

And the best news is that Dogsters sent me two cute collapsible bowls and two vouchers for a free product to give away to one of my awesome readers.

Dogsters Review-2035
You can win the two vouchers and the two nifty collapsible bowls by entering below!


Just use the Rafflecopter widget to enter by commenting on this post. You can get bonus entries by visiting our facebook page, and Dogster on facebook as well. Winners will be announced on Sept 1st, and will have 1 week to contact me with a shipping address. Sorry, only open to people with a shipping address in the US.

a Rafflecopter giveaway




Saturday, August 22, 2015

Caturday

Happy Caturday!

Temptations Chewy Review-2036



This month, Chewy.com sent us an awesome product, or should I say products, to review. Temptations has come out with an interactive treat dispensing toy called the Snacky Mouse just for cats. (The Snacky Mouse is on sale for $5.95 right now.) To review the treat dispenser, we were also sent a bag of the new flavor of Temptations Mixups Catnip treats (on sale for $3.89) as well.

Temptations Chewy Review-2037



So I set up, took the pictures of the products in the package, then opened up both to set up a photo of just the mouse dispenser. And Theodore Trex apparently heard the bag of treats being opened and knew it was meant for him, because he invited himself into the photoshoot.

Temptations Chewy Review-2038



That is quite literally the photo of his first sniff of this treat dispenser.

Temptations Chewy Review-2040



A couple more sniffs, then he added in a gentle nudge. Because cats, when in doubt, head bump. Or at least my cat does.

Temptations Chewy Review-2042



And then he seriously got the hang of it. He figured out that the more he bumped it, the more treats fell out.

Temptations Chewy Review-2045


I think it is fairly obvious from the pictures that he not only got the hang of the treat dispenser pretty quickly, but that he also enjoyed the treats.

Temptations Chewy Review-2047


The little mouse dispenser has three holes in it, on all sides of the mouse. The treats can come out of any of the holes, making things a little random.

Temptations Chewy Review-2049


You can see here how Theo nudged the mousie out of the way to eat a treat he had knocked out, and a treat is coming out of one of the back holes as well.

Temptations Chewy Review-2055


After spending a good bit of time just nudging the mousie around with his nose and head, the level of treats got lower, and things got a little harder.

Temptations Chewy Review-2059


Theodore quickly figured out that adding in some paw action made things pick back up and provided plenty of treats.

Temptations Chewy Review-2057


Overall, both this toy and these treats were big hits. I may start even feeding Theodore Trex his normal kibbles out of this dispenser to give him more of a workout, and just add some treats in it when I need him out of my way for a little bit. The treats work great in the dispenser, but obviously are best used as treats in addition to normal feeding.

You can grab this treat dispenser and these treats on Chewy.com. Since orders over $49 ship for free, and ship quickly, it is super simple to just add these onto your normal order of cat or dog food and treats.


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