Winner: Omega Paw Tricky Treat Ball

I’m so excited about announcing the winner for our first random giveaway! The winner is commenter #32 Kristie (and dog Bear). Congrats Kristie!! Send me your snail mail address and I’ll get the Omega Paw Tricky Treat ball ordered and on its way to you.

If you didn’t win this time, make sure you subscribe to the blog updates so that you’ll be alerted about future dog giveaways.

Also, if this looked like the perfect toy for your dog, lemme tell you, Vance *adores* his. He’s had it for about three years now and it hasn’t worn out, and he hasn’t destroyed it. Remember, he’s a Labrador and they’re known for their powerful jaws and chewing up *everything*. Granted, he’s really gentle with this particular toy, and it probably wouldn’t stand up to intense chewing, but that’s not what it’s for. It’s great for keeping him entertained when I’m on the phone, it’s soft and quiet as he rolls it around on the carpet, and it doesn’t bang into walls or furniture like some of the other toys available.

The one drawback is that you won’t want to clean it in the dishwasher–if water gets inside it, it’s almost impossible to get it out, so rather just wipe it clean with a rag (I use a rag lightly dampened with vinegar to clean the outside). Also, don’t put anything inside that’s bigger than the hole on any dimension (like, long dog treats) because it’ll be too hard to get it out again. As long as you only fill it with kibble and never submerge it in water, though, it should last you a really long time!

The Omega Paw Tricky Treat Ball is available at Amazon for a great price, and they ship it quickly so your dog can be playing with it in just a few days.

Dog Ballet (Canine Freestyle)

Have you ever seen a dog dance with it’s owner? It’s the most amazing thing. It’s a real sign that the dog-owner-bond is strong and also a clear indication of amazing, amazing dog training. While Vance isn’t nearly this well trained, watching canine freestyle has me really inspired about just how much he and I could accomplish if I paid more attention to his training.

While I’ve always loved dog agility shows, there’s something even more amazing and inspiring about canine freestyle. I think that’s because the performance is so reflective of both the dog’s personality and the bond between the owner and the dog and that makes it even more inspiring than a traditional agility course. Vance loves agility training, and watching these videos, I wonder if he wouldn’t love a form of even more intense dog training like this. You can see so clearly that the dogs in these videos are loving every single minute of it, and that’s a really amazing thing to see.

Here are a few of my favorite canine freestyle videos from YouTube–I’d love to hear about your favorites if you have any of your own! And what’s something you’d love to be able to train your dog to do?

(And make sure to check in again later today for the announcement of the winner of the Tricky Treat Ball!)

Watch the Dog Whisperer Online (It’s Totally Legal!)

We don’t get the National Geographic channel here at our house (we only have very basic cable) which means we usually have to wait for the Dog Whisperer to come out on DVD. Well, not anymore! I just noticed that they’ve started adding four episodes at a time of the Dog Whisperer to Hulu.com so we can now watch them at our leisure.

A few fabulous things about Hulu–it’s advertiser supported (so it’s free) but the commercial breaks are much shorter than they are on TV, the streaming works flawlessly with our high speed connection, and you can resize the viewing window to any size you’d like from tiny to full size. Sometimes, I keep something open in a window while I’m doing something else on the computer, so this is perfect for me. Other times, I want to watch something on the entire space of the widescreen 23″ monitor, so I go full screen mode and can sit back and enjoy.

Also, this means you can watch the Dog Whisperer *legally* even if you don’t get the National Geographic channel. I know there are ways to watch TV shows that aren’t so legal and I’ve never tried that approach because it’s littered with viruses (and, you know, the whole breaking the law thing factors in in a mega way). I just got through watching Season 5, Episode 7 where our favorite dog whisperer Cesar Millan works with an adorable basset who’s afraid of the head of the house. I couldn’t believe when Sadie (the basset) wouldn’t even take a treat from him because she’s so afraid of him. It’s always so amazing to watch how patiently Cesar listens to the people who need his help–if it were me, I wouldn’t be nearly so nice to them. Guess that’s why he’s the dog whisperer and not me ;-).