February 4, 2012

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Puppy Bowl 2012

February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Most of us have finished our fantasy football season and now that it’s over the final thing to look forward to is the Puppy Bowl 2012!  I know some of you might be interested in a little thing called the Super Bowl, but over here at PuppyInTraining.com we cherish the opportunity to see Puppy Bowl 2012!

This is Animal Planet’s eighth puppy bowl and seeing that they’re in their eighth season it must be a successful TV show…DUH!?  Anyhow, I always flip over to the Puppy Bowl and it will be no different in 2012.  As exciting as the Superbowl can be and with many wonderful commercial my eyes are still drawn to adorable puppies running around on a fake football field.

So what do we have in store for Puppy Bowl 2012 aka Puppy Bowl VIII.  Here’s a little information from Animal Planet on this years event.

Puppy Bowl 2012

What: Puppy Bowl 2012
When: Sunday, February 5th, 2012 at 3pm E/P
Where: Animal Planet – You’ll have to figure that one out with your local cable or satellite provider
What’s new this year: Meep the Bird who will tweet all the action from inside the stadium and piggy pep squad that will “ham” it up on the sidelines and squeal with delight for their favorite pups.

One awesome thing to note about the Puppy Bowl 2012 is that all the pups participating in the event have been selected from rescues and shelters across the United States with the help of Petfinder.com…AWESOME!!!

Here’s a sample of one of the pups in the starting lineup this Sunday:

Australian Shepherd Mix

Aberdeen - Australian Shepherd Mix

Name: Aberdeen
Breed(s): Australian Shepherd Mix
Sex: Male
Age: 10 weeks
Fun Fact: Saving to buy a sailboat
Adoption Organization: Sullivan County SPCA

Linus will be cheering for Aberdeen.  Both Linus and Aberdeen are Australian Shepherd mixes!

Check out Animal Planet for the entire starting lineup for Puppy Bowl 2012.  By the way, there’s tons of great video footage from Puppy Bowls past on the Animal Planet Puppy Bowl Page.  You can see scenes from Puppy Bowl VII as well as the Top 10 Puppy Bowl moments.  This page is a must see for the Puppy Bowl enthusiast.

So what do you have in store for Super Bowl Sunday?  Is it going to be another boring blow out as the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots?  Or is it going to be scintillating end to end action as adorable puppies leave it all out on the field in Puppy Bowl 2012?

Filed Under: Dog Events, Puppy Training Videos Tagged With: , , , , ,

What Should I Do For My Puppy’s First Day Home?

February 2, 2012 By 1 Comment

My puppy’s first day home was definitely a whirlwind the first time.  The second puppy was no different.  The third puppy was the same…There’s so much excitement every time you bring home a new puppy that whether it’s your first, fifth, or fifteenth puppy you’re so excited you almost forget about all the little things you should be doing on your puppy’s first day home to keep him comfortable.   It’s one of the most common questions I get asked and that is “What Should I Do For My Puppy’s First Day Home?”

Golden Retriever Puppy - Apache

Golden Retriever Puppy, Apache's First Day Home

Of course you already handled all the pre-puppy stuff (hint-hint) that we talk about in our picking up your puppy video so we won’t even cover that.  Now you’re wondering what can I do to make my puppy more comfortable that first day.

As I always say every puppy is different, but here are a few pointers from the GDA manual on what we as puppy raisers are told to do on the first day(s) with your new puppy.

Up to this point your puppy has been with its mother and littermates in a comfortable setting.  Therefore, your puppy’s first week at home should be a quiet one.  The puppy should be allowed to explore and meet his new family.  You should now start teaching the puppy his name.  When you first arrive home give your puppy a chance to relieve itself in the area you have designated for that purpose.

Take your puppy out on leash (without his bib on) and repeat “Get Busy”.  (Remember, this maybe the first time your puppy has heard these words).  Allow your puppy 10-15 minutes, if he hasn’t relieved, take him inside.  Try again in 10 minutes.  If the puppy does relieve itself in the proper area, give him lots of praise.  Then let him explore the house (remember to supervise- don’t let him out of your sight).  Afterwards you may take it inside, but remember to supervise the puppy; do not let it out of your sight.  Talk to the puppy when it explores to make it feel more at home.

There’s plenty of great pointers you should take away from this excerpt that will help your new puppy better adjust to his new home environment.

  1. Your puppy’s first day/week should be a quiet one.  This is important for everyone not just puppy raisers because we are so excited to introduce them to everyone and everything, but temper your excitement for now and keep it a quiet first week.
  2. Teach Your Puppy His Name – yep, we wrote an entire article on teaching your puppy his name.  Go check it out! How to Teach Your Puppy His Name
  3. Give your puppy a chance to relieve himself when you first arrive home – It’s important to get your puppy to start relieving in his spot and not in the house.  A good start is to show him his spot when you first arrive home.
  4. Constantly supervise your puppy – make sure you don’t let him out of your sight as he could eat something he’s not supposed to or have a potty accident.
  5. Talk to your puppy to make him feel more at home – you want your puppy to get used to your voice and have it be a soothing sound to him.

There’s a lot going on that on your puppy’s first day home, but you have to remember your puppy has just been pulled away from his mother and littermates, it’s his first time on his own without any of his original family members, he’s only about 8 weeks old, and he’s in an entirely new environment.  Take it easy those first few days.  Get him used to his environment.  You have his entire life to show him off as a proud new puppy parent.  Now that the your got that first day out of the way here comes the hard part: Puppy’s First Night Home!  If you’re not sure what I’m talking about then fast forward to the 2 minute and 29 second mark of our picking up your puppy video.

What about you?  What do you like to do on your puppy’s first day home?  Let us know in the comment section below.

Filed Under: Dog Training Tips Tagged With: , , ,

My 2012 Goal Post

February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It’s a month late, but better late than never!  Actually this past month gave me a chance to take in and see some of the things my fellow pet bloggers plan on accomplishing in the coming year.   PuppyInTraining.com participated in the 2nd annual Pet Blogger Challenge (PBC) on January 10th and so did 94 other pet bloggers.  At a snails pace I read each and every PBC post which gave me inspiration for my 2012 goal post!

Golden Retriever Puppies - Einstein and Apache

My 2012 Goal Is To Be Big Like You!

This is the first year I decided to share my goals for this blog publicly.

Why?

I’m sharing my goals with you today because it’s a way to keep me accountable for meeting those goals.  Many of you probably aren’t interested in my goals, but the fact that I’m posting them here on the Puppy In Training blog gives me motivation to complete those goals and also put together a nice report for the beginning of next year.

So lets get started with Puppy In Training 2012 Goals!

GOAL: 366 Days of Blogging

For some this is easy for others (like me) this is a beast.  The closest I’ve gotten was way back in 2008, my first full year of blogging.  I hit 196 blog posts that year and it was by far my biggest growth year.  I only blogged for 5 months in 2007 and received a paltry 1,528 page views (probably all from me and my mom).  In 2008 that number jumped to 294,607 page views.  I’m not even going to calculate the percent increase, but it’s big.

Since then the growth of this blog has ranged from 30-60%.  Okay, but not great.  This year I’m going to strive for greater things.  Reach for the stars!  And 366 Days of Blogging is going to get me there!

By the way this year 366 days = 1 year so we’re going above and beyond your average joe and doing 1 more day then everyone else does in a regular year!!!

GOAL: Write 52 Articles For My Autoresponder by March 31st 2012

I’ve been saying this for a while, but now I have a measurable deadline.  I’m really just letting my email subscriber list go to waste by not creating a sequence of emails for my autoresponder.  I’ve got over 3,000 subscribers!  That’s a potential 3,000 extra people viewing my content on a weekly basis.  Time to start working on getting you guys valuable content through my autoresponder.

By the way, another reason why I should be working on this is because each subscriber is costing me precious $’s.  If I’m not going to use the list then I may as well stop paying Aweber.

GOAL: Attend BlogPaws and Barkworld Expo

The 2 major pet blogging conferences that I know of in 2012.  I’d like to know more about my fellow pet bloggers as well as work on my pet blogging skills.  These conferences will help me with both.  However, one is in Salt Lake City, UT and the other is in Atlanta, GA while I’m in Irvine, CA.  It will cost me a pretty penny to get out to these locations.  However, I think this is the year I get it done.  Plus I have old friends to visit in both cities :)

GOAL: Write An eBook by June 30th 2012

It’s been on my plate for years, but this is the year I write a companion eBook for this website.  The goal is to put together a How To Train Your Puppy eBook by mid year and I’m going to make it happen.  After all I can’t let that extra day go to waste (because of the leap year).

I’m pretty sure this is going to be a freebie, but I’m not entirely sure.  There’s always something to be said for charging a little bit of money.  When you pay for something you are more likely to read or use it.

GOAL: Build A Membership Site by January 31st 2013

This is the monster goal for the year.  I have tons of ideas hopping around in my head, but until I actually accomplish some of the other long awaited projects (see above) I’m not going to touch this goal.  If I can stick to the timeline then I definitely believe I will accomplish this one as well.

Another one of those things that might require fees.  Again I’m not too sure on membership fees.  I’ll look into it more after I start creating a timeline for the project.

GOAL: 2,000 Facebook “likes” by January 31st 2013

It seems realistic and unrealistic.  Realistic because it’s really not that large a number.  I’ve seen sites grow their facebook “likes” to 2,000 in hours/days/weeks.  All I need is that one viral moment and I should easily breach the 2,000 “Likes” on the Puppy In Training Facebook Fan Page.

However, on the other side of the coin it’s unrealistic because if you ever watched the number of “likes” on the Puppy In Training Fan Page then you will know that it only increments about 1 new “like” per day.  That means in 1 years time we’ll be lucky if we clear 1,000 “likes”.

I’m just looking for that 1 moment of brilliance.  That 1 extra effort.  That 1 time that will put us over the top.  2K is within reach, but we have to work for it!

*I think Google+ is going to be a big thing this year and I will probably set some kind of goal for the Puppy In Training Google+ page as well.  As of this writing the page is dormant, but not for long.

GOAL: 250K Page Views a Month by January 31st, 2013

Since I’m starting in February my goal time line will be exactly one year.  This is a monstrous goal with my top month in 2011 equaling 104,351 page views.  That means I would need a 140% increase from last years total.  However, lets take a look back and compare October 2010 and 2011.

October 2010 - 53,328 page views
October 2011 - 104,351 page views

That’s a 96% increase!  That’s with no goals or direction in 2011.  I think we can do better in 2012!  A 250K page view month is going to happen in 2012!  BOOK IT!

Things will inevitably change in 2012 and I may have to make a few adjustments to these goals, but here they are as they stand the first day in February 2012.  My goal of goals is to hit a homerun on all of these and with a little bit of luck…I will.

What are your goals for 2012?  Most of you probably already talked about your goals publicly and if so please leave me a link in the comment section below so I can check them out.  If not, please feel free to leave a few of your goals in the comment section below…of course we’re going to hold you accountable once they’re posted to the blog :)

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Dog Tagged With: , ,

What About Elk Antlers For Dogs?

January 24, 2012 By 1 Comment

About a month ago I wrote a short blog post asking the question Are Deer Antlers For Dogs A Good Chew Toy?  Check out the link if you missed the story.  Up until recently I had heard lots of good things about antlers for dogs, but not long ago I had been made aware of some side effects from antlers as a chew toy and I was told by our guide dog school that “We do not recommend antlers as a chew toy/supplement.”

Reindeer Antlers For Dogs

Reindeer Antlers For Dogs - Apache Christmas!

Since I had not ever purchased deer antlers for my dogs I figured it was not a big deal (being told that we could not give our dogs antlers).  However, I wanted to let everyone here on the blog know that there was a concern and I was hoping to hear your feed back thus I wrote the initial post.  Lucky for me we have an active audience that responded to our deer antlers blog post and left me some wonderful comments, answers, emails, and additional questions.

Here are bits of feedback we received from readers:

“I have had no problem and also purchase for my sons pup who also has no problems.” –Cheryl

“GDD where I am raising my puppy from right now, says they are fine for the dogs and they are great chew toys.” –Peggy

‘My dogs love the antler chews, however you have to be very careful about the ones you buy.” –Janice

“I just read your “deer antler” info and I am wondering if the elk antlers I have been giving my dogs are safe? THEY SIMPLE LOVE THEM AND I HAVE NOT NOTICED ANY SIDE EFFECTS. ” –JoAnna

After reading through comments and several emails I received after posting my deer antlers for dogs blog post I began to see a common theme.  First, everyone who responded had mostly positive things to say about the antlers they purchased for their dogs.  Second, it seemed that the most important point was to make sure you purchased your antler chews from a reputable source.  So perhaps down the line I will buy antlers for my dogs, but I will be sure to do research to find high quality antlers.

What About Elk Antlers For Dogs?

A second question that came to light was what about elk antlers for dogs? are they potentially unsafe as well?  Since I have never purchased any kind of antler for my dogs I wasn’t too sure.  I went back to the original emails I received and conducted a little bit of internet research.

As someone who has not purchased, but only heard and researched antlers for dogs it seems to me that the worries from our deer antlers for dogs blog article are the same for all antler chews for dogs (deer, elk, moose, etc).  According to our findings the majority have found antlers to be a great chew for their dogs as long as you get your dog the right size and purchase a high quality antler product from a reliable source.

Here’s a nice thread on Elk Antler Chews:  http://www.dogforums.com/dog-food-forum/100618-elk-antler-chews.html.  One person even mentions that his dogs love Elk Antlers even more than they love the Deer Antlers (which is a lot)!

I went ahead and dug even deeper into the antler for dogs market and found many different sizes and variations including deer antlers for dogs, elk antlers for dogs, reindeer antlers for dogs, and moose antlers for dogs.  Here’s a short list of some of the antler products you can purchase from Amazon.com (Below are the highest rated by average customer reviews on Amazon).

  • Antlers For Dogs (affiliate link)- Both Deer and Antler Chews.  Antler chews are natural, healthy, odor-free and long-lasting chew toys that will help keep your dog busy and out of trouble and will help keep his teeth clean. Our antler dog chews come right out of nature from North American deer and elk and are completely unprocessed!…[Read More]
  • Elk Antlers For Dogs (affiliate link) - Our Antler Chews are 100-percent naturally shed and foraged by hand from Colorado. No animal was harmed in the making of our antler chews…[Read More]
  • Moose Antlers For Dogs (affiliate link) - Our Antler Chews are 100% naturally shed and foraged by hand from the woods in Maine and New Hampshire USA. Our Antlers are foraged, pressure washed, and cutup…[Read More]
  • Reindeer Antlers For Dogs (affiliate link) – So you may have already guessed, but the commonly searched Reindeer Antlers For Dogs refers to the doggy costume you usually see around Christmas (check out the picture of Apache above).  We got Apache his costume from Target, but you can just as easily order Reindeer antlers for you dog through Amazon.

After researching, feedback from friends and family, and finally from reader comments here on the blog I feel much more comfortable about purchasing antlers for my dogs.  Although its something I cannot give to any of my guide dog puppies in training I may try letting my own pet dogs try the antler chews.  If my 2 boys do try the antlers for dogs I’ll make sure to report back to you and give a thorough review telling exactly what we thought about the product.

I know a lot of you have already chimed in through last months article on deer antlers for dogs.  However, now that the new year is upon us and many may have received antlers for our dogs as Christmas gifts what kind of experiences have you had with elk antlers for dogs?   How about any of the other aforementioned antler for dog products?  We’d love to hear about your experiences in the comment section below.

Filed Under: Dog Products Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Working Dog Postage Stamps Now Available!

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It’s been a few years since I saw any kind of dogs on stamps.  I don’t really know too much about the history of postage stamps or how they go about choosing who, what, where ends up on a stamp, but I do know that the United States Postal Service has released a set of working dog postage stamps.

Canadian Guide Dog Postage Stamps

Several years ago our friends, Anne and Jim visited Canada and returned with a special gift for me and the doggies.  I was quite excited to find a set of Canadian Guide Dog Postage Stamps.  They were super cool because not only did the stamps celebrate guide dogs with a picture of a working guide on the stamp, but it also featured Braille on the stamp.  Here’s what the accompanying information pamphlet said about these guide dog postage stamps:

“The Guide Dogs stamp, the first Canadian stamp to feature Braille, is issued on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Montreal Association for the Blind.”

Here’s a picture of the Canadian Stamps:

Guide Dog Postage Stamps

Guide Dog Postage Stamps From Canada

Sorry for the lousy picture, but the stamps are pretty cool.

USPS Working Dog Postage Stamps

Now back to the aforementioned United States working dog postage stamps.  Here’s what they had to say at the USPS website:

The U.S. Postal Service® celebrates the enduring part­nership between dogs and people with this set of four dif­ferent stamps depicting dogs at work: a guide dog assisting a blind woman; a military dog scouting and track­ing; a therapy dog visiting an elderly woman in her home; and a search and rescue dog in a field, ready to tackle the next assignment. Artist John M. Thompson created original paintings for the stamps, which were designed by art direc­tor Howard E. Paine.

The stamp will go on sale nationwide January 20, 2012.

And here’s a peek at what they look like:

Dog Postage Stamps

Working Dogs On Postage Stamps

Starting in the upper left hand corner of the image and going clockwise:

  1. Guide Dog – I’ve been volunteering at Guide Dogs of America now for over 5 years and I’m hoping my latest guide dog puppy in training, Dublin makes it as a guide…hopefully 3 more months!
  2. Therapy Dog – Stetson has already taken his first step towards becoming a therapy dog and passed his Canine Good Citizen test.  I’ve been thinking about getting him involved with the Beach Animals Reading with Kids (BARK) group.
  3. Military Dog – The dog in the image is scouting and tracking.  Although we really don’t know too much about military dogs, Stetson has been working on his sniffer dog training at K9 Nosework classes.
  4. Search And Rescue Dog – Some of the dogs from our guide dog school career change and become search and rescue dogs.  In fact, one of our good pals, Nicholas is in the middle of search and rescue dog training.  Go Nicholas!

The denominations for these stamps are kind of odd since the typical letter can be sent for 44 cents.  Maybe if you have an over-sized letter you can put these working dog stamps to use.  As for me I think I’ll pick some up at my local post office and put them beside my Canadian guide dog postal stamp.  Hopefully in the coming years we’ll see something in the U.S. like they produced in Canada with Braille on each stamp.

I don’t recall seeing dogs on stamps too often.  What about you?  Are you going to go out and buy some working dog postage stamps?  What do you think about the latest 65 cent stamps?

Filed Under: Guide Dogs, Working Dog Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Check Out These 5 Awesome Doggy Links

January 14, 2012 By 6 Comments

We’re always reading wonderful articles throughout the blogosphere and each week (at least each week we have time) we post our favorite doggy blog articles and post them here at the Puppy In Training blog.  If you have an especially awesome blog post coming up please let us know about it and we will consider it for our weekly roundup.

This weeks cute puppy picture:

Derby - Yellow Lab Taking A Nap

Derby - Yellow Lab Taking A Nap

Weekly Doggy Blog Post Roundup

Whale Poop Sniffing Dog Is Saving Killer Whales – If you know us then you’ll know over the past couple years we’ve been very interested in sniffer dog training.  In fact, our black Labrador Retriever, Stetson loves our K9 Nosework training class and has an unmatched enthusiasm for searching and finding the different odors/scents.  Obviously we have not worked on Stetson finding whale poop, but maybe it’s in his future!?  Anyhow check out how a whale poop sniffing dog helps save killer whales.

Are Too Many Vaccinations Bad For Dogs – We’ve always wondered about over vaccination and this article discusses some of the things you might want to do when it comes to vaccinating your dog.  We plan on visiting our vet and finding out his thoughts on the subject as well.  I’ve always been worried that over vaccination could be harmful to my dog and agree with the article that “less is more”.

When Dogs Dig: How To Curb The Digging Habit In Your Canine – We haven’t had a digger in a while, but our old family dog used to love digging to hide his possessions.  Anytime we gave him a treat he’d bury it in the side yard when we weren’t looking.  If we stared at him for a couple minutes instead of burying his treat he’d just eat it.  I wonder if he ever dug up those old treats when he was hungry?

GoPetFriendly.com Pet Blogger Challenge – This year we participated in the 2nd annual Pet Blogger Challenge sponsored by the GoPetFriendly Blog and the WillMyDogHateMe Blog.  Lucky for us we barely got our blog entry into the blog hop and we were the 95th blog to participate.  Here’s our Pet Blogger Challenge Entry.  The challenge asks 8 questions about your blog that was a good exercise in looking at the past and future of our blog.  If you’re a dog blogger there’s definitely some gold in these mines!

What’s the Story Behind Your Pet’s Name – I love hearing about how people name their pets…there’s always a story.  We’re constantly thinking of new names for our puppies as we always seem to either be picking up new puppies or talking to our friends about their new pups.  Here’s our page on puppy names that helps us get started when it’s time to name our next pups.

That’s it for this week.  Remember if you ever have some awesome dog or puppy articles please let us know about it through our contact form or just leave us a comment in the comment section below.

So what about you guys?  Did you come across any interesting doggy blog posts this week?

Filed Under: Dog Training Tips Tagged With: , , , , ,

2nd Annual Pet Blogger Challenge

January 11, 2012 By 24 Comments

The beginning of the new year is a great time to reflect back on what you accomplished over the past year as well as look to the future.  I’ve been thinking about this (my goals) a lot over the past few days and although I don’t quite yet have a clear picture of what I’d like to do with my puppy training blog in the upcoming 12 months I do have some general ideas.

Pet Blogger Challenge Jan. 10This morning after browsing through my RSS Feeds I found a number of dog blogs participating in the Pet Blogger Challenge.  After reading through a few Pet Blogger Challenge Posts I decided that this would be a great way to take a quick glimpse at things we’ve done on the blog in the past and what we plan to do in the future.

So we went ahead and visited this post: Pet Blogger Challenge, followed the rules, answered a few questions and voila…we have today’s blog post!

1. When did you begin your blog?

I published my first blog post on PuppyInTraining.com way back on August 1st 2007.  My first post was basically the story about how I adopted my puppy, Linus from the animal shelter.  I remember being very concerned with my blog design (I used a free WordPress template and made a few customizations) and using a bunch of pictures of my first guide dog puppy in the heading (actually 2 are of Stetson my guide pup and 2 are Linus my rescue pup).  In fact I still have my original wordpress theme.  Here’s what it looked like:

First Blog Theme

This is the first Puppy In Training Blog theme

Since then I’ve published over 450 blog posts and changed my theme I believe 4 times.  My current theme is using the Genesis Framework (affiliate link).

2. What was your original purpose for starting a blog?

My original purpose for starting a blog was to document my journey raising a guide dog puppy in training.  I originally set it up to keep friends and family up to date on my first guide pup, Stetson’s progress on his way to becoming a working guide dog.

3. Is your current purpose the same?

Since I started the Puppy In Training Blog I’ve raised 3 guide dog pups and I’m currently raising a 4th.  The purpose of my blog has evolved a little bit since it’s beginnings and as technology has changed so has the purposed of my blog.

If not, what’s different?

As I mentioned the blog has evolved.  My main purpose and goal today is to offer “Puppy Training Tips From My Experiences As A Guide Dog Puppy Raiser”.  As I mentioned as technology has changed so has my blogging.  Today, I report a lot of my puppies activities using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube rather than my blog.  For instance I post a lot of my pictures from outings on the Puppy In Training Facebook page.  I post short little tweets about what we’re doing on our Twitter page.  On YouTube we started our Puppy In Training TV channel and also post dog product video reviews.

The blog really brings everything together and as I mentioned today we use it to share our experiences in order to help others with their puppy training problems.

If so, how do you feel you’ve met your goals?

My friends and family still interact with me on the blog and also now on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube so I guess I did meet my original goals by keeping them up to date on our journey as guide dog puppy raisers.  The coolest part are the thousands of other people who also follow along and learn the in’s and out’s of raising a puppy.

4. Do you blog on a schedule or as the spirit moves you?

Recently it’s been “as the spirit moves me”, but in the past I’ve tried several different scheduling techniques.

If the former, how often — and what techniques do you use to stick to it?

As I mentioned in the past I’ve tried different scheduling techniques including blogging Monday thru Friday.  I also tried posting every day of the month.  We’ve even worked on posting only 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).  However, in the long run we haven’t stuck to any specific schedule.  In my experience I’ve had the best success sticking to a schedule by following this list:

  1. Decide on a schedule (3 days a week, 5 days a week, every day in a month)
  2. Brainstorm for ideas on a weekly or monthly basis
  3. For each idea create an initial topic/title
  4. Schedule the topics/titles for specific days using your blog software
  5. Expand each topic/title into a blog post before the scheduled publish date.
  6. Keep a back log of blog posts for busy days, vacation days, sick days, etc.
  7. Repeat the following week/month
I’m in the process of putting together a new schedule for my blog for the year.

If the latter, do you worry about… well, whatever you might worry about (e.g. losing traffic, losing momentum)?

I’m not good when I’m not on a schedule which is how I’m currently operating.  However, I don’t worry too much about losing traffic (a lot of my traffic comes from Search Engines), but I do worry about losing loyal readers.  I took a look at some of my numbers for the past few years and here’s what I found:

Google Analytics 2008

Google Analytics Stats 2008 -196 blog posts

Google Analytics 2009

Google Analytics Stats 2009 - 106 blog posts

Google Analytics 2010

Google Analytics Stats 2010 - 58 blog posts

Google Analytics 2011

Google Analytics Stats 2011 - 81 blog posts

My first post was on August 1st 2007 and I received virtually no traffic during those first few months besides the occasional visit from my mom, dad, and a few friends.  I didn’t even have Google Analytics installed until February 2008.  However, I did have Google AdSense installed during those early months and according to AdSense I received 1,528 page views from 25 blog posts during the time period: August 1st, 2007 – December 31st, 2007.

As you can see over the years my traffic has steadily climbed, but none more than in 2008, my first full year as a blogger.  I really stuck to a good schedule in 2008 and produced 196 blog posts and that’s what I’d like to get back to in 2012.

I’m going to try and be an overachiever this year and focus on producing on average 4 blog posts a week.  That means I should end the year with 208 blog posts and hopefully my most productive year as a blogger.  This goal is definitely attainable especially given the fact that it’s a leap year and I have an extra day to complete the task!

5. Are you generating income from your blog?

Yes, we actually made almost enough money to buy a cup of coffee in our first year of blogging.  We feel very lucky that we receive a little bit of money from our Puppy Training blog which helps to cover our hosting costs which shot way up this year thanks to a few traffic spikes back in April 2011 that forced us to move off our shared hosting plan.  Bluehost refused to reactivate our account so we moved to a HostGator (affiliate link) Virtual Private Server.   However, our income still exceeds our costs and this allows us to make more donations to some of our favorite non-profit organizations including Guide Dogs of America and Cuddly Canines Rescue.

If so, how (e.g. sponsor ads, affiliate relationships, spokesperson opportunities)?

The Puppy In Training Blog has actually been producing income starting in it’s first year, 2007 (although we didn’t receive an actual check until a few months in to 2008).  Way back in 2007 we made just over $1 with Google AdSense.  Since then we’ve made a little bit of money every month using mainly Google AdSense, Amazon Affiliates, Chitika, and a few other affiliate programs.  We’ve also dabbled in sponsored ads, posts, and text link advertising.

According to our Amazon Affiliates account we’ve sold over $25,000 worth of products since 2007.  However, it doesn’t amount to a ton of money since our commission is usually between 4% and 8% (usually closer to 4%).

Our Google AdSense Ads produced some of the highest single day earnings in 2011 and we nearly broke the $100 mark one day.   However, on average we receive much less than $100 a day.

None of our other forms of income individually produce more than $50 a month on average.   I made a few changes to this section of the post (1/21/2012) and it’s a little more vague then I’d like, but if you’re interested in chatting further on this topic then please feel free to contact me through our contact form.

If not currently, do you hope to in the future — and how?

We have a few plans to try and diversify our income in 2012 and hopefully should announce a few things in the coming weeks.

6. What do you like most about blogging in general and your blog in particular (bragging is good!)?

Some of our favorite things about blogging are:

  1. Making relationships with other bloggers.
  2. Helping people with their puppy training issues.
  3. Being part of an online community.
  4. Helping some of the organizations we volunteer for with monetary donations produced from the blog.
  5. Keeping connected with friends and family through the blog.

7. What do you like least?

  1. Feeling obligated to write a blog post
  2. Managing the technical aspects of the blog.  This seems to get worse as the blog grows.
  3. Dealing with negative people who visit the blog.
  4. Not having enough time to read and comment on other people’s pet blogs.

8. How do you see your blog changing/growing in 2012?

I’m hoping that 2012 will be a big year for the Puppy In Training blog.  A few of my goals off the top of my head are to:

  • Create and maintain new relationships with other pet bloggers
  • Work on my email newsletter
  • Create an e-book
  • Create a puppy training membership area for new puppy raisers

Thanks to Edie of Will My Dog Hate Me and Amy from the Go Pet Friendly Blog for hosting the 2nd Annual Pet Blogger Challenge.  We really got a lot out of not only thinking about our own blog, but also reading through the many other blogs participating in this years challenge.

How about you?  Did you participate in this years Pet Blogger Challenge?  What is the most interesting thing you learned from someone else’s Pet Blogger Challenge post?

Filed Under: Dog Events Tagged With: , , , , ,

Spotlight: Raise A Green Dog!

January 6, 2012 By 2 Comments

Welcome to the new year!  Along with the new year I decided to start a new blog series spotlighting some of my favorite dog blogs across the internet.  My goals is to analyze these great doggy blogs so you have a better idea of what they have to offer and hopefully give you another great doggy blog resource that you can subscribe to for more great information.

If you recall, last year I complied a list of the top dog blogs across the internet.   This years series will be a more in-depth analysis of some of the blogs from our top dog blog list along with perhaps some new blogs we discover throughout 2012.

So lets get started with this years first dog blog Spotlight: Raise A Green Dog!

Raise A Green Dog!

Raise A Green Dog

Raise A Green Dog Logo

The Dog Blog: Raise A Green Dog!
The Dog(s): Johann and Gracie
The Human: Leslie
About This Blog: From the RAGD about page: “Our site brings you tips, tricks, products, and other information on how you can help your dog go green.”
Why We Love This Blog: I’ve been following Leslie, Johann, and Gracie since I first started blogging back in 2007 and it’s been one of my favorite blogs since the beginning.  Actually they produce 4 blogs that I know of including Raise A Green Dog!, The Days of Johann an Agility Dog, Pawsible Marketing, and Rescue Me.  Along with these 4 blogs these guys have produced 100′s of Squidoo Lenses…AMAZING!  The first thing you got to love about the Raise A Green Dog crew is the amount of time and effort they put into these amazing blogs, but I’ve singled out Raise A Green Dog because I and my dogs are huge fans of becoming more eco-friendly.

Dog Blog Analysis

I put together this dog blog analysis not only to help you find other great content, but to also help me understand and find ways to reach new readers, entertain, and hopefully improve the Puppy In Training blog as well.

My template for the dog blog analysis came straight from one of the top professional bloggers in the industry (in fact his blog is called Problogger).  Here’s the Problogger.com article I based my analysis on: Analyze a Top Blog in Your Niche.

Content

Raise A Green Dog is a great place to find some of the best tips, tricks, products, and other information on how you can help your dog go green.  One of the cool things about dog blogs is that many of the blog in our industry speak from the dog’s point of view and it’s no different at the Raise A Green Dog Blog.  Johann the dog is your host along with his human, Leslie and his sister Gracie.  Johann produces just under 1 post a week which is less than I’d like to see…of course who wouldn’t want more content from one of their favorite blogs.  Also, I give leniency because Johann, Leslie, and Gracie also contribute to 3 other blogs (that we know of) and the plethora of Squidoo Lenses they manage.  If you and your dog are interested in “going green” then the Raise A Green Dog Blog is the perfect place to start for a budding green dog.

Reader Engagement

Here are a few statistics to gage Reader Engagement on the Raise A Green Dog Blog:

Green Puppy PicRSS Subscribers: 737
Facebook Likes: 1,223
Twitter Followers: 4,692

The most popular reader engagement posts (number of comments) that I noticed after flipping through the archives were contests, dog product reviews, and eco-friendly dog tips.  I read through a number of the comments across the blog and the questions I most often came across were related to eco-friendly dog products being reviewed in posts.  Unfortunately, I read through many comments on the blog and could not find too many questions or complaints.  Most of the comments are the “at a boy” pats on the back like “Great Post…”

I feel like I receive a lot of the same (“at a boy” comments) on the Puppy In Training blog, but one thing I do notice on my own blog is that I receive a lot of questions through my contact form and not necessarily in the comment section of my posts.  A lot of times people like to keep things more personal and not expose their questions to the public.  I assume something similar probably happens at Raise A Green Dog!

Design

I’ve been following the Raise a Green Dog Blog pretty much since it’s inception and I believe the blog design has not really changed much if any at all.   I think this can be both good an bad.  First the good:

GOOD

  • Often times the most thought is put into the original design ideas.
  • Navigation – we get used to the original navigation.
  • What we think will work better in a new design may not be true.

BAD

  • Over the years your design may become stale.
  • New technologies may become popular and important (flash, javascript slide shows, video, etc.).
  • Web design norms may change.

Those are just a few things I thought of off the top of my head.  I’d love to see a new design at the Raise A Green Dog!.  However, I do know that many people become so used to a certain look and feel to a site that a drastic re-design often pisses people off.  So, I can see where Johann has elected to stick with the original design.  However, if it were up to me and I had the cash to spend I’d hire a developer and revamp the entire design with new images, headings, logos, navigation, etc and make the site look unique and standout from the crowd (I’d do the same with my site if I had the time and cash) maybe a more web 2.0 look and feel.  As far as I can tell Johann is using one of the standard Blogger templates for his website design.

Subscribing to the Raise a Green Dog Blog is easy as pie.  You can connect on Twitter or Facebook or subscribe to their feed via email or RSS.  I currently subscribe to the RSS feed, Twitter, and Facebook.  One thing that’s missing that we’re hoping we’ll see in the future is an email newsletter subscription.  As mentioned earlier we’d love to see more content from Johann and the crew.

Monetization

Without asking Johann directly we can never really know exactly what’s going on with monetization.  However, there are lots fo 125×125 banners in the sidebar which are usually standard advertising banners.  All the products and advertisers are promoting green and eco-friendly products.  I’ve also seen plenty of doggy products listed within posts with affiliate links.  After looking even deeper into the Raise A Green Dog Blog I found Johann’s disclosure page where he mentions that

“This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.  The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in the blog. All advertising is in the form of payments by companies for placements of logos and products on the website and blog side bar and are identified as partners. Any reference to these advertisers and advertisements on the blog will be identified as paid advertisements and/or blog/website partners.”

I run advertisements on the Puppy In Training blog as well and I also have our a disclosure page to let my readers know that I do receive advertisement revenue to help pay the cost of web hosting, development work, design work, and other expenses associated with my blog.  Disclosure pages are important and something all of us bloggers should consider adding to our blogs.

Traffic

It’s difficult to determine any exact traffic numbers without having direct access to someone’s analytics software.  However, as Darren mentions in his Analyze a Top Blog in Your Niche there are ways we can guesstimate.  Here’s a look at what Alexa and Compete have to say about Raise A Green Dog:

Alexa Stats
Traffic Rank: 1,280,379
US Traffic: 380,944

Green Dog Alexa Stats

Raise A Green Dog Alexa Stats


Compete Stats
Unique Visitors: 2,740
Rank: 457,232

Green Dog Compete Stats

Raise A Green Dog Compete Stats

Honestly I would not put too much stock into the stats on Compete and Alexa.  I’m not positive how they are measured, but they can be easily influenced. Some things I took away from these numbers are that it looks like according to the Compete graph that unique visitors are trending up which is definitely a good thing.  I can also see some of the top keywords in the Alexa image (raise a green dog, raise a safe dog, frosty paws…).

As far as the unique visitors and traffic rankings I can only tell you that the numbers are much different on compete compared to my own Google Analytics data and I can only assume that this is probably similar for a lot of the websites listed on Alexa and Compete.  The only way to truly know the numbers is to ask the owners of the site (maybe we should…).

SEO

Skip this section if you’re not into all of this technical mumbo jumbo and go directly to the conclusions section.

Finally, the last part of our analysis is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or how well is this blog optimized for search engine traffic.  I entered the Google command:

  • link: www.raiseagreendog.com and received 17,000 results (links).
  • link: blog.raiseagreendog.com and received 10,300 results (links).

Those look like pretty solid numbers to me.  I’m not sure if Johann and friends work on a back linking strategy, but even if they do not organic or natural back links through great content is a perfectly valid back linking strategy,  In fact we do this quite often and just let back links come naturally to our blog posts.

I’m not much of a techy, but I did take a peek at the source code on their site just to see if Johann was doing for title tags,  h1 headings, etc.  In the blog post: Help Your Dog Be More Green And Healthy in 2012 I found:

  • Title Tag – The title tag included the blog title, Raise A Green Dog.  I used to do this at my blog, but found that this is not good for SEO.  Although it will help you rank better for your blog title it will dilute your blog post titles.  I have the SEO All In One plugin which allows me to change what falls in between my title tags on a per post basis.
  • h1 Tag – The h1 tag is very important for SEO as it identifies the main subject of the page.  There should only be one of these on a page.  I could not find any h1 tags on the page and in general my blog title is the only h1 tag I use on my page.  This is pretty much built into my blog theme.
  • h2 Tag - Another high ranking tag.  I use this tag more liberally, but it also signifies important keywords and phrases.  While I found lots of sidebar content with h2 tags (similar to our old theme) I did not notice any h2 tags in the content area of this post.
  • h3-h6 tags - I rarely use these tags (although I did use some h3 tags in this post), but again they signify importance of keywords and phrases and should be used when appropriate.  The title of the blog post is an h3 tag…I’ve normally reserved the title as our h1 tag as one of the most important elements of a post.  That was the only h3 tag we spotted.
  • blog  <b> and <strong> tags – I’ve read that for SEO purposes google treats both tags the same.  That being said you should use bold tags to highlight your keywords and phrases this shows the search engines that these words are more important.  I notice Johann uses bold tags to separate content similar to how I use the <h2> tag on my blog.  This is good because it emphasizes important words however, I did not notice that these particular bolded words were “key” to the content.
  • italics <em> and <i> tags – as far as I know search engine treat the 2 italics tags the same as well.  Again just a way to emphasize keywords.  The last paragraph in Johann’s post is italicized.  In this case it does not signify a keyword phrase, but a way to separate content.
  • Internal Links – Internal linking is important not only to let your readers know about articles in your archive, but to also send a little bit of link juice to some of your older posts.  Johann did a great job not only linking back to some of his older blog posts, but also using some great and very helpful anchor text.
  • External Links – I’ve read that external links can also help build your authority in search engines and help your SEO.  However, make sure you do not link to scraper or spam sites because this could hurt your SEO.  Not only can linking to high authority sites in your niche help your SEO effort, but you may catch the attention of the high authority blogger or website author and receive some links in return.  Who know perhaps you’ll some day build a relationship or partnership with said big time blogger!

These are some of the SEO strategies I’ve heard or learned along the way and there are many, many more important strategies when it comes to SEO (don’t forget keyword analysis).  However, these things may not all be true and Google is always changing their search engine algorithm so what’s true today may change tomorrow.

While I don’t think about these things all the time I do find that SEO is an important part of my blogging strategy and it does help bring in a tremendous amount of traffic to the Puppy In Training blog.

Conclusions For Raise A Green Dog Blog

That was a fairly long winded post and I’m sorry that it got a bit technical at the end.  Anyhow, as I’ve mentioned I love the Raise A Green Dog Blog and I think that Johann, Gracie, and Leslie do an excellent job.  What are the areas I’d like to see improvement?

  • Well I hate to be critical, but I’d like to see more content (seeing how we love their content)…perhaps a newsletter?
  • I’m indifferent on a new design as I think I might get lost after understanding and getting used to the current design over the years.  However, a fresh design may attract new readers.
  • Finally, I think an upgraded blog theme might help SEO.  I think the current theme is not making proper use of some of the important HTML tags.

So for everyone out there don’t forget to subscribe to the Raise A Green Dog Blog.  Here are all the places you can follow:

Oh and if you’re not following my blog at Puppy In Training then please subscribe, facebook, twitter, or youtube us!

What do you guys think?  Are you following the Raise A Green Dog Blog?  Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.

Filed Under: Dog Training Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Are Deer Antlers For Dogs A Good Chew Toy?

December 27, 2011 By 15 Comments

Over the past couple years we’ve been hearing rave reviews about deer antlers for dogs.  If you have Labrador Retrievers in your house then you probably run into some of the same issues we do with Dublin, our yellow lab, and Stetson, our black lab.  Those two boys just love to chew up their dog toys, treats, chews, rawhides…you name it, they chew it.  In fact, Stetson can chew up a giant pressed rawhide bone in less than 5 minutes!  That’s the same bone that used to take Dublin 2 weeks to polish off (now it takes him about a half hour).  Some of the things we’ve heard about these wonderful chew toys/treats are:

  • “They are great for dogs who love to chew because they last for a very long time.”
  • “You can purchase them in different sizes depending on the size of your dog.”
  • “They don’t stink really bad like the bully sticks you get from the store.”
Deer Antlers For Dogs

Deer Antlers For Dogs

If you’d like to read more information about deer antlers for dogs then check out this affiliate link  Amazon.com (affiliate link).  Amazon readers give mostly good reviews of the Antler Dog Chew (affiliate link).

However, we recently received an email from our Guide Dog group that we wanted to share with our readers.  Here’s what they had to say about deer antlers for dogs.

Deer Antlers For Dogs

We are having an increase in the instances of dogs (puppies and adults) with acute diarrhea. All test show that the cause is not bacterial or parasitic. What all these cases do have in common……

Now I am not knocking antlers, they definitely have their place. Antlers are an excellent tool for dogs with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. But because they are considered a novel protein, once a dog is given this as a treat, Venison can no longer be considered a novel protein for that dog. This makes it much more difficult to find a novel protein if needed in the future for skin or intestinal issues.

Recently, as antler dog chews become more popular, antler is getting more scarce. Antler chew sellers are popping up all over and they are looking to sell the cheaper, low grade antler to make more profit. These antlers are old, brittle and can crack and splinter when chewed. Because of the scarcity antlers are being brought in from other countries like China where they may be treated with chemical preservatives. Antlers are also high in protein, this too can cause stomach upset especially in young dogs.

We recommend the following “chew toys” : Sterile bones, Nylabones and the occasional rawhide, these are the same chew toys that are given while they are in training. All of these chews need to be given only under direct supervision.

We do not recommend antlers as a chew toy/supplement.

Are Deer Antlers For Dogs A Good Chew Toy?  Obviously we can no longer use deer antlers as a chew toy/supplement for our guide dog puppies in training, but then again we never had the chance to use them in the first place.  By the way, I’m glad I did not have to experience acute diarrhea with my pups.  The fear of all 3 of my dogs getting diarrhea is enough to make me avoid purchasing deer antler chews for my dogs.

So I guess we’ll just stick to the Sterile bones, Nylabones and the occasional rawhide.  Lucky for us Dublin (and now Apache) loves the Nylabones and Sterile Bones so we rarely give them any other kind of dog chews.

Are current favorite dog chew toys are KONG Extreme Dog Toy and Nylabone Dura Chew Wishbone Chew Toy (affiliate links).  The KONG Dog Toy has been pretty much indestructible while the Nylabone Wishbone gets a bit jagged when our dogs chew on it, but has remained in one piece…just don’t let your dog drop it on your bare foot…OUCH!

Do you have a destructive dog that loves to chew?  What are your favorite dog chew toys?  Have you tried deer antlers for dogs?  How about elk antlers for dogs?  We’d love to hear about your experiences so tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.

Filed Under: Dog Products Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Puppy In Training TV – Ep 18 – Puppy Turn In Day

December 23, 2011 By 4 Comments

Make sure you bring a handkerchief for this episode of Puppy In Training TV because it’s a real tear jerker.  It seems just like yesterday that we picked up a 7 week old puppy from the “D” litter that we named Dublin.  As a guide dog puppy raiser we work on basic dog obedience training, puppy socialization (taking our pups out in public), and good house manners.  We begin working on these things from the time our pups are 7 weeks old until they are approximately 18 months.  At about 18 months we return our puppies to the schools where they begin a more intense “formal” guide dog training.  This is where they learn to wear their harness, left and right turns, intelligent disobedience, and many other advanced skills.

Black and White Lab Puppy

Curious Pup, Dublin!

Dublin was a shade under 18 months when we dropped him off for “Guide Dog College”.  Puppy Turn In Day is one of the most difficult days for us as puppy raisers.  This is the day we’ve all been dreading when we have to say good bye to our puppies, wish them the best, and hope to see them again wearing a nice shiny harness at graduation.

Check out this weeks episode of Puppy In Training TV – Ep 18 – Puppy Turn In Day:

Ep 18 – Puppy Turn In Day

Here’s this weeks episode of Puppy In Training TV.  If you’d like to sponsor an episode take a look at the Puppy In Training TV Sponsorship page.

That one makes me a little bit sad every time I watch it.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Below is the transcription for this weeks episode just in case you can’t see this weeks puppy training video.

Puppy Turn In Day Transcription

PuppyInTraining.com Logo and Website Address

Hi Everyone! Today’s Dublin’s last day here. He’s going off to Guide Dog College. Stetson and Linus just wanted to say goodbye. Welcome to this episode of Puppy In Training TV.

Guide Dog Puppy Training Starring DUBLIN
With Linus Aussie Shepherd Rescue
Also Colby The Human
And Stetson Career Changed Guide Dog

So Dublin and I headed out the front door for the last time. Just like we had done everyday for the past 1 ½ years Dublin hopped onto the passenger side floor boards of my car. And just like that we were on the road! Heading to Guide Dogs of America with Dublin for the last time.

Traffic can be unpredictable so we left nice and early. Lucky for us we arrived early…a chance to shoot some video of the campus!

The front office is normally closed on weekends so we went through the side gate. This gave Dublin a chance to work on walking calmly through a threshold.

We walked down the hill to the vets office. Then on the way back up the hill we saw Gentry and Denise who you might remember from Ep 17 and our trip to Disneyland.

We decided to walk over towards the puppy nursery and work on one last walk up the brick stairs.

Guide Dogs of America holds a short luncheon to thank all the puppy raisers on puppy turn in day. We also get a nice certificate and photo commemorating our accomplishment of raising a puppy.

We took one final snapshot with Dublin’s pal Chloe and then walked back down the hill and made our way towards the GDA kennels.

And just like that they called Dublin’s name. We’re allowed to walk our pups to the kennel and stay with them for a bit while they get used to their new roomate and their environment.

Dublin’s new roomate isa Yellow Lab Golden Retriever cross named Saffie and look! Chloe and Dublin got to be neighbors!

We went to the outdoor side of the kennel and Here comes Dublin happy to see me!

One final hug for me and Dublin and giving him some last minute advice to be a good boy.

It’s tough saying goodbye!

And finally my first walk without my pal Dublin…thinking back to all the happy memories I spent with my little buddy!

[Video of our adventures with Dublin]

Dropping your puppy off for formal guide dog training is one of the toughest things you can do as a puppy raiser.  We worked really hard with Dublin on his training and we know he’ll do well in college.  Thanks for joining us for our last episode…

Hold on!  That can’t be the end.  In fact we plan on posting more video in the coming months including hopefully a video of Dublin’s graduation.  And of course there’s always a chance for Puppy In Training TV Season 2.

…of Puppy In Training TV and we hope to see you soon!

Please Subscribe

A special thanks to Denise and Gentry for showing us around Disneyland today

If you’d like to sponsor an episode of Puppy In Training TV visit PuppyInTraining.com

Our Final Thoughts On Puppy Turn In Day

One of the saddest and happiest days of puppy raising.  We’re always sad to say goodbye, but happy to let Dublin continue his journey to becoming a guide dog. A few points to add about our turn in day:

  • We always take off our Pet ID Tags at home.  This way we don’t fumble around trying to remove the tags when we’re trying to say our goodbye’s at the kennel.  The only tags you need to leave with your puppy are the ID tags that GDA originally issued to you on Puppy Pickup Day.
  • One of the toughest parts about turn in is so many others are crying that it just makes it that much more sad.  Be prepared with sunglasses and a hanky.
  • We were lucky and all the pups were paired with a kennel mate.  One of the things that made me feel better was to see Dublin playing with his new pal Saffie.  It was the same when Stetson met up with his kennel mate.  However, when we turned Stetson in there were a few pups without kennel mates which made me sad for those pups…so be prepared.
  • You can always call the school to see how your puppy is doing in his formal guide dog training.
  • Northwoods Inn generously donates food for the luncheon.  Special thanks to Northwoods Inn for providing food!

We worked hard with Dublin’s obedience training, house manners, and socialization as you can see on all the puppy training videos we produced for our Puppy In Training TV series.  I’m sure he’ll do well at Guide Dog College and even if he doesn’t make it as a guide we’ll still love him just the same.

How about you guys?  Are you puppy raisers?  What’s it like for you on Puppy Turn In Day?  We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

Filed Under: Puppy Training Videos Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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