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OCTA Offers Service Animal Training

August 20, 2009 By 3 Comments

Last year the Orange County Transportation Authority provided public transit orientation training to service animals and their handlers / trainers.  Myself and Derby were lucky enough to take part in this free program.  We shuttled around in the bus starting at the Fullerton Park and Ride and ended at Knott’s Berry Farm for lunch with several of our friends from Guide Dogs of America and Guide Dogs of the Desert.  If you haven’t seen the pictures from last year take a look at this post: Puppies on Buses. We’re in luck because once again this October OCTA is offering service animal training on their buses.

Service Animal Training With OCTA

Puppy In Bus

Here are the details on this event:

What: OCTA Public Transit Orientation for service animals and their trainers / handlers
When: Saturday, October 3rd, 2009, 8am – 12pm
Where: Fullerton Park and Ride, 3000 West Orangethorpe, Fullerton, California

Here’s the information I received from the Orange County Transportation Authority:

Service Animal Trainers / Handlers of Orange County

The Orange County Transportation Authority will once again be providing public transit orientation training to service animals and their handlers / trainers on Saturday, October 3, 2009 at the Fullerton Park and Ride, 3000 West Orangethorpe, Fullerton, California.

Buses will be departing every thirty minutes on the hour and half hour beginning at 8:00 am, with the last bus leaving at 1200 noon.

All service animals and handlers/trainers are encouraged to attend.

During this event, you will have the opportunity to apply for a No Fare Identification Card (this is not a requirement). The No Fare Identification Card identifies the animal as being in training and the handler/trainer is not required to pay a fare when boarding the bus. The fee for this identification is $2.00.

Please contact event coordinator, Pam Peters at 714-265-4387 or ppeters [at] octa [dot] net with any questions.

I look forward to seeing everyone at this event.

Pam Peters
714-265-4387
ppeters [at] octa [dot] net
Instructor, Operations Training
Orange County Transportation Authority

So not only is OCTA offering this great service to allow us to ride their buses with our animals for the day, but they are also giving us the opportunity to apply for a No Fare Identification Card.  That’s awesome!  I can’t wait for this years event.

Service Animal Training – Puppies On Buses

I rarely ride the bus or any form of public transportation.  The OCTA’s Service Animal Training program is a great opportunity for Guide Dog puppy raisers to introduce their puppies to the bus.  Last year was a lot of fun.  We got to experience the bus ride, walking around with other people training guide dogs, and walking around the outside of Knott’s Berry Farm.  Not only that, but we also got to meet many different people and dogs.  We saw dogs from several other groups including Guide Dogs of America, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Canine Companions for Independence, Guide Dogs of the Desert, Therapy Dogs International, and many other groups.  We even came across a man who was training his Vizsla to be a Cadaver Dog.  The OCTA training was a great experience for both me and my puppy Derby.

Unfortunately this years Service Animal Training coincides with the GDA Partners Awards Dinner.  Hopefully our friends at Guide Dogs of America will have time to attend both events this year.

If you have a service animal we’d love to see you at this years OCTA Service Animal Training.

Have you attended this event in the past?  How was your experience?

A final note, this event takes place the first Saturday in October in case you want to put it on the calendar for next year.

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

Drug Sniffing Dogs And…DVD Sniffing Dogs?

June 4, 2009 By 3 Comments

I’ve heard of drug sniffing dogs and I’ve actually been thinking about enrolling Stetson, my black lab, in a Scent Tracking – Nose Works dog training class.Drug Sniffing Dog Afterall, we like to call Stetson Mr. Sniffers as he seems to be tracking all the dogs in the neighborhood.

I started to do my normal research and came across some unusual dog careers and thought to myself maybe Derby could put that dog nose to good use and change careers to a dog sniffer.  The only problem is Derby has trouble focusing and probably would have issues as a certified sniffer.

Sniffing Dogs

Anyhow, back to dog sniffers…dog’s have great noses and as mentioned earlier they can work with police officers as drug sniffing dogs.  However, did you know they can also sniff out a DVD?  Here are a few other strange and not so strange things a dog can sniff out:

  • DVD’s
  • Explosives
  • Cancer
  • Accelerant, Flammable Liquid, Lighter Fluid – Arson Dogs
  • Underwater drowning victims
  • Cadavers
  • Missing People

DVD Sniffing Dogs

DVD Sniffer dogs now…that just sounds crazy.  How can a dog find a DVD? and even if it did, how would the dog know if that DVD was a pirated copy?

First of all a dog can be trained to sniff out the polycarbonate used in DVD’s.  However, as mentioned in the Wired article: “The dogs cannot decipher the difference between pirated and authentic DVDs.” The article does mention: “…Some day, he might be able to train his dogs to alert on subtle chemical differences between authorized DVDs and the cheaper knockoffs produced by crooks.” Now that would be amazing. Then again the recent Oprah article says that “the average canine can detect scents 10,000 to 100,000 times better than the average human.”

Cancer Sniffing Dogs

A second article I read today was on Cancer Sniffing Dogs which led to my earlier statement about Derby and a possible career in sniffing.

The dog in this story named Tessy was destined to be a Guide Dog…just like Derby.  However, her plans were sidetracked when an infection left her blind in one eye ending any chances for a career as a Guide Dog.  Lucky for Tessy she still had her nose leading her to her second career as an Ovarian Cancer Sniffing Dog.

How does it work?  Tumors release tiny amounts of chemicals different than those of healthy tissue.   It is this subtle difference that a dog can detect.

Check out the entire article on Dogs Who Can Sniff Out Cancer.

Stetson AKA “Mr. Sniffers”

Some of our friends including Nexxus and Nadia are already taking scenting classes and we think that Stetson would enjoy a sniffing career of his own.  Hopefully this summer we can enroll Mr Sniffers in training and see if he has the stuff to be a true scenting dog.  I’ll keep everyone informed and do my best to chronicle his journey in the world of sniffing!

Do you know of any unual dog careers?  Have you taken your dog to scenting class?  I’d love to hear about it in the coments below.

Filed Under: Featured, Working Dog Tagged With: , , , ,

What Happens To A Retired Guide Dog?

May 7, 2009 By 11 Comments

I’ve been asked many questions since I began raising guide dog puppies including “What Happens To A Retired Guide Dog?” and “What about Guide Dog Rejects?” What’s the difference between “retired” and “rejected”? A retired Guide Dog would be one who has served as a Guide Dog while a rejected (career change) guide dog is one who never made it as a guide dog.

Rejected Guide DogNow you might be wondering: Why are we answering these questions today? For openers, today is Derby’s first birthday! So everyone needs to wish him a happy birthday. However, on a sadder note we were just informed that Derby didn’t pass his last evaluation and as some of you have put it he is now a “Guide Dog Reject” I hate the sound of that and we like to consider him a “Career Change Dog” moving on to a different phase of his life.

Retired Guide Dog

I don’t have any experience retiring a guide dog, but I do know what I’ve seen, heard, and read through Guide Dogs of America. A guide dog begins working at approximately 2 1/2 years and will on average work for six to eight years. The guide dog user will decide when it is time to retire their guide dog and has the choice to either keep the dog as a pet, give it to a family member, or return it to Guide Dogs of America. It can be difficult on the retired guide dog to be kept as a pet because the dog will sometimes become jealous or depressed over the new guide dog partner. You have to remember that the Guide Dog team has been almost inseparable for 6 to 8 years. How would you feel if you saw someone else assume your normal role in the guide dog team?

Guide Dog RejectRetired Guide Dogs that are returned to Guide Dogs of America are put into the adoption program The original puppy raisers are called first and asked if they wish to adopt the dog. I have not been in the puppy raising program long enough to experience this, but I have seen some of our puppy raisers receive their retired guide dogs back after ~10 years. If the puppy raiser does not take the guide dog back then the dog is given to a pre-screened individual from the GDA adoption waiting list. The GDA website says there is currently a 4-6 year wait to adopt a career change or retired guide dog. I’ve also heard that Guide Dogs of America are not accepting new applicants in the adoption program (this may have changed).

Guide Dog Reject

Retired Guide DogI hate that phrase, but for some reason “Guide Dog Reject” seems to be the one that most people are accustomed to.

Guide Dog Reject = Career Change Dog

There are many reasons a puppy can get career changed the Guide Dog program is very stringent. Stetson was career changed because he was too soft. Derby was career changed because he had too much nervous energy. Check out this list of other reasons why a guide dog puppy can be rejected from the program.

Here’s a little excerpt from the Guide Dogs of America website on their adoption program:

ADOPTION PROGRAM: To be a successful guide dog, many factors including health and willingness to work come into play. If a dog in our program does not meet all the proper criteria necessary to be a guide dog, they must be removed from the program.

All dogs that are removed from the program for any reason we call Career Change dogs. If a dog in our program becomes a Career Change dog, the volunteer puppy raiser is given the option to keep the animal or to give them up for adoption. Also, when a guide dog is retired, the guide dog user has the option to keep the dog or give it back to Guide Dogs of America for adoption. If the retired guide dog is returned to Guide Dogs of America, we give the dog’s original volunteer puppy raiser the first option to adopt the retired guide dog. If the puppy raiser prefers not to adopt that retired guide dog, once again the dog is put up for adoption.

Currently we have such a long list of people waiting to adopt a dog (over a 6 year wait at this time) that we are no longer taking new applications to adopt a dog. You can always inquire about it in a years time.

Career Change Dogs

Now that we’ve talked about career change dogs…what sort of careers are suitable for these career change and retired guide dogs? As far as I know the majority become pets. Here are a list of several career change options I’ve heard of for our puppies:

  • Loving Family Pet
  • Therapy Dog
  • Search and Rescue Dog
  • Assistance Dog

Derby was tested for Search and Rescue, but unfortunately they said he lacks the focus needed for that program. Our goal with Stetson is to get him certified as a Therapy Dog and get him involved in one of the children’s reading programs. I think he’d enjoy kids reading him books.

After much thought and deliberation I decided the best thing for Derby is to put him in the GDA adoption program. It makes me sad because he is a great dog and I’ll miss him: sitting at my feet during the working day, coming up to me on the couch for a good butt rub while I watch TV, watching him play with Stetson and Linus, waiting patiently for his food, rubbing his chest during belly up, cuddling up next to him on the floor, playing a good game of fetch, watching him steal a toy from Stetson and hurdle Linus on the way to safety, car rides on the passenger side floor boards, playing with his other doggie friends, classes with Ramona, group meetings with the other GDA puppy raisers and puppies, and hundreds of other little things that make me smile everyday.

Although I have Derby for a few more days/weeks…I already miss him…

Filed Under: Featured, Puppy Career Change Tagged With: ,

Do You Have A Smart Dog?

April 13, 2009 By 8 Comments
Derby - Yellow Lab

Derby - Yellow Lab

Do you have a smart dog? I know there are many different tests availabe to see if you have a smart dog. Some dogs are more trainable, but does that actually constitute a higher intelligence. Another ongoing controversy has to do with smart dog breeds and which one is considered the most intelligent. I did a little online research and the consensus is the Border Collie is the smartest (I guess that would make Sprollies a pretty darn smart hybrid breed). Anyhow, we received an email the other day claiming that “if your dog does this, he’s very smart.” Here’s the email I received:

Smart Dog Test

If Your Dog Does THIS, He’s Very Smart

What happens when you yawn? If that causes your dog to yawn, give him a treat. He’s one smart pooch. Reuters reports that some dogs find human yawns contagious, which suggests they have a rudimentary capacity for empathy, something scientists thought only applied to humans and chimpanzees. Fully 72 percent of 29 dogs tested by British researchers at London’s Birkbeck College were so sensitive to human yawns that seeing one made them yawn in response. Writing in the journal Biology Letters, lead study author Atsushi Senju said this behavior showed dogs were skilled at reading human social cues and “may relate to their capacity for empathy.”

Too bad the article didn’t mention which dog breeds were included in this test so we could definitely find the smart dog breeds. A second point to note is that 72 percent of dogs tested would yawn in response to human yawns. That means the majority of dogs responded. So maybe if your dog doesn’t respond to the yawn then he’s actually not smart and does not empathize with you. Anyhow on to self testing…

Do I Have Smart Dogs?

Time to head on over to the all important and highly scientific experimentation of the Smart Dog Test. Remember the days of high school or college where you had to do lab write ups with a purpose , hypothesis, procedure, data, and conclusion? Well that’s where we’re going with this article…afterall I am an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major!

Purpose

  • The purpose of this experiment is to find out if my dogs are smart according to the email I received via forward which has probably touched everyone on the globe by now.

Hypothesis

  • After reading the highly traveled email I hypothesize (I think that is the proper word?) that 2 out of 3 of my dogs will yawn in response to my yawn. That would mean 66.6 percent of my dogs have skill in reading my social cues (that percentage is a little smaller than the amount reported in the email, but with such a small test group it’s the best I could come up with).

Procedure

  1. Take one dog at a time free of distraction in the comfort of our home.
  2. Sit on couch with dog in front of me (be sure you have his attention).
  3. Give him a nice big yawn.
  4. Repeat 5-10 times.
  5. Record results.
  6. Repeat with the other dogs.

Data

  • Smart Dog Test Subject 1 – Linus
    Linus - The Australian Shepherd Mix

    Linus The Aussie Shepherd Mix

    1. Yawn – Yes/No
    2. Yawn – Yes/No
    3. Yawn – Yes/No
    4. Yawn – Yes/No
    5. Yawn – Yes/No
  • Smart Dog Test Subject 2 – Stetson
    Stetson The Black Lab

    Stetson The Black Lab

    1. Yawn – Yes/No
    2. Yawn – Yes/No
    3. Yawn – Yes/No
    4. Yawn – Yes/No
    5. Yawn – Yes/No
  • Smart Dog Test Subject 3 - Derby
    Derby - Yellow Lab

    Derby The Yellow Lab

    1. Yawn – Yes/No
    2. Yawn – Yes/No
    3. Yawn – Yes/No
    4. Yawn – Yes/No
    5. Yawn – Yes/No

Conclusion

After a countless number of yawns (15) and a very sore jaw I can conclude that my dogs do not empathize with me and are therefore of below average dog intelligence according to the email I received circulating the internet.

According to most resources both online and in print my dogs should be above average intelligence based on their breed. Linus is an Australian Shepherd mix and both Derby and Linus are purebred Labrador Retrievers. Both are considered smart dog breeds and my three dogs should be highly intelligent. Maybe empathy is not high among the criteria on the list of smartest dog breeds.

Here’s the consensus list of top 20 Smartest Dogs (why is it the consensus…after searching through several different top 10 lists the same dog breeds were always in the same order – I know not very scientific).

Top 20 Smartest Dogs

  1. Border Collie
  2. Poodle
  3. German Shepherd
  4. Golden Retriever
  5. Doberman Pinscher
  6. Shetland Sheepdog
  7. Labrador Retriever
  8. Papillon
  9. Rottweiler
  10. Australian Cattle Dog
  11. Pembroke Welsh Corgi
  12. Miniature Schnauzer
  13. English Springer Spaniel
  14. Belgian Terrine
  15. Schipperke / Belgian Sheepdog
  16. Collie / Keeshound
  17. German Short Haired Pointer
  18. Flat Coated Retriever / English Cocker Spaniel / Standard Schnauzer
  19. Brittany Spaniel
  20. Cocker spaniel

Source(s):
The Intelligence of Dogs by Stanley Coren

Of course this entire experiment and article is all in good fun. If you have a chance try experimenting with your dog and let me know if he yawns in the comments area below. Maybe we can get a larger pool of dogs and come to some more realistic conclusions. What do you think constitutes high dog intelligence?

For the record: I tried doing this again and did get Stetson to yawn at me…was it coincidence or did I just need to give my dogs more yawns? or maybe Stetson is just lazy and tired all the time.

UPDATE: I was playing with Stetson yesterday blowing out of my nose at him and everytime I did it he did the same thing back to me.  It seemed very similar to the experiment in this article.  Does that mean that Stetson was empathizing with me or just playing a game???  Another thought I had this week was regarding a dog training book I read a while back on dog tricks.  One of the tricks was teaching your dog to sneeze.  It was a while back, but I remember the idea was to sneeze at your dog and in response he would sneeze back at you.  Again an example of your dog showing empathy.  I tried this with my dog Linus several years ago and it just freaked him out.  He didn’t want any part of it and just left the room and didn’t want to be around me for several minutes.

Have you had any luck with your dog?

Filed Under: Featured, Pure Bred Dogs Tagged With: , , ,

Dachshund Mother Takes Care of Baby Goat

February 9, 2009 By 2 Comments

Do you remember last years story about the Dachshund Acts As Mom To Baby Piglet? We ran that article almost this same time last year. If you’ve been following along then you know that Tink the Dachshund mom was not feeling to well last time we spoke to Momma Johanna. Here’s the last update we had on Tink and Pink:

The Latest News On “The Pink Puppy”

Pink was doing well, but Tink was having a little bit of a medical problem. We went ahead and contacted Johanna to see if we could get an update on Tink and Pink and we were happy to hear that she’s doing much better and there was a little surprise to go with it.

I’ll go ahead and let the pictures do the talking and add Momma Johanna’s email update at the end:

Dachshund Mother Takes Care of Baby Goat

Spencer Gets A Kiss

Dachshund and Baby Goat

Tink and Spencer

Dachshund and Baby Goat

Spencer Getting Warmed Up

Dachshund and Baby Goat

She’s Telling Him She Loves Him and Everything Will Be All Right

Dachshund and Baby Goat

Tink and Her Baby Goat “Spencer”

Dachshund and Baby Goat

Tink and Spencer (I think he was looking for a meal)

Dachshund and Baby Goat

Colby,

I actually do have an update. Tink is doing great..so far no more tumors! She seems very healthy, so keep your fingers crossed. Pink is going to turn one year old next week. We are going to have a little birthday party for him and Tink and I’ll try to get you some photos of that. I’m going to make him a marshmallow cake! He will love it.

Tink had another wonderful experience last weekend with a baby pygmy goat born on our farm. The mother had triplets and one of the babies was stillborn, one healthy and one was nearly frozen. My husband brought the little guy to the house and we worked on getting him warmed up and to get some milk in him to see if we could take him back to his mommy. Tink was excited and thought she had another new baby. If Tink had milk, she would have tried to nurse him. She laid with him while we were warming him up and licked him all over. Later that day he could walk and she followed him everywhere he went and mothered him. Unfortunately, the mommy goat died and the little billy goat and his sister were given to a family that had a few other bottle fed babies. So for those two days, she got to be a mommy again. Here is a few pictures of her with “Spencer”, the baby billy goat. There is always something going on our little farm..never a dull moment!

Be looking for another book in the near future from a major publishing company. I will let you know more about it when I can.

Take care,

Johanna

Lots of exciting news! We’ll be sure to keep everyone posted on Tink, Pink, Spencer, and Johanna’s new book. Thanks Johanna for the update!

If you’d like to read Johanna’s children’s book about Tink the Dachshund and Pink the Piglet click the image below:

The Pink Puppy

Filed Under: Dog Friends, Featured Tagged With: , , , ,

Are You Interested In A Pet Portrait?

January 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I love my dogs as I’m sure many of you do to. I probably have thousands of photos of them sitting on my digital camera, on my computer, on an external hard drive, and probably a handful on print. It’s sad that I don’t have too many printed images of my dogs.

Sandy Taylor “Colorful Impressionist”

I recently received an email from a Sandy Taylor a Sawdust Festival Fine Art Festival Artist. She told me about her love for painting and pets and her intereste in fulfilling both those passions by painting pet portraits. Immediately, I thought of my readers and how they might enjoy a wonderful portrait of their loving pet(s). Here’s a short blurb about Sandy’s painting straight from her website:

Many of her pieces are painted plein air in Laguna Beach & nearby Newport Beach, as well as throughout the states and abroad, primarily France & England. She is known as a “colorful impressionist” by both critics & clients, who describe her work as happy, fresh, mystical & magical with a childlike vulnerability.

Here are samples of her work:

Nikki

Pet Portrait

Dallas

Pet Portrait

If you want to see more information about Sandy Taylor and her work visit her website at Sandy Taylor Paintings. Below is a short message she sent me including her contact information.

I am an artist with two passions, pets and painting. Painting pet portraits fulfill both passions. Feel free to checkout my website at www.sandytaylorpaintings.com and if interested in immortalizing your precious one/ones, call me at 949-394-7867. I request not only a photo, but name, sex and a personality blurb along with your choice of background so I can create a piece that you will love and cherish. Sandy Taylor

***$200 of the pet portrait cost goes to the Puppy In Training organization. We will donate half of that money to our favorite rescue, Cuddly Canines and Guide Dogs of America.

If you are interested in getting a pet portrait then please contact Sandy Taylor and let her know that you heard about her from the Puppy In Training website.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: , ,

How Many Sprollies?

January 5, 2009 By 15 Comments

While browsing through my RSS feed I came across another great puppy photo from the PuppyParade. I was trying to figure out what breed of puppies these were because they or absolutely adorable. If you go to the flickr stream by clicking the title: The Calm before the storma you can see more great pictures of the litter.

After viewing some of the other images I was thinking some looked an awful lot like Springer Spaniel, but I also thought mixed with some other breed. Here’s what I found in the tags: Sprollie, Springer Spaniel, and Border Collies. I’ve never heard of a Sprollie before, but I guess it’s a mix between a Springer Spaniel and a Border Collie. These puppies are adorable Sprollies!

Take a look at this picture and tell me how many puppies there are.

How Many Sprollies Do You See?

The Calm before the storma, originally uploaded by Maa Jong

Did you guess 6? You need to go back to school and work on your math skills!

Did you guess 7? Pretty good, but not quite there yet.

Did you guess 8? As far as I can tell 8 is the correct number. If you look closely just off to the right side of center of the image you’ll see puppy number 8′s head and if you scan to the top of the screen just below the black and white puppy at the very top you’ll see the end of the puppies butt.

Did you guess 9? A solid possibility because we can definitively say that the head and butt I identified above are conclusively the same puppy. Therefore 9 may also be the correct answer.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say there are 8 puppies in the picture above. What do you think? Do you see more or less than 8 puppies in the picture? Have you ever heard of a Sprollie?

Filed Under: Featured, Pure Bred Dogs Tagged With: , , ,

Who Is The Cutest Puppy Ever?

November 30, 2008 By 22 Comments

Now that you’ve seen all ten of the cutest puppies ever it’s your turn to decide who actually is Puppy In Training’s Cutest Puppy Ever!

Here is a short recap on my ten puppies. Click on their picture or their name to go directly to the puppy’s individual page. Scroll to the very bottom to vote for the cutest puppy ever.

The Cutest Puppy Ever

1. Linus 6. George
2. Buttercup 7. Brisby
3. Blondie 8. Boots
4. Sally 9. Cocoa
5. Derby 10. Stetson

Who Is The Cutest Puppy Ever?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

I hope you enjoyed this series of articles. Please let me know what you think of all these puppies by commenting below. If you’d like to see more articles like these please join my newsletter or subscribe to my RSS feed.

Filed Under: Featured, Miscellaneous Dog Tagged With: , ,

The Cutest Puppy Ever Part I

November 20, 2008 By 15 Comments

Have you ever thought “my puppy has to be the cutest puppy ever!” That’s what I think and say to myself every time I bring home a new puppy.

Now you might be wondering “how many puppies have you brought home?” I was thinking about this the other day and realized in the past few years I’ve brought home ten of the cutest puppies I’ve ever seen. I raised each puppy for at least two months…some were adopted to great homes and others were/are in training to be guide dogs.

I decided to write a series of articles on these ten puppies including adorable pictures to let you decide which one of my puppies was/is the cutest puppy ever!

The Cutest Puppy Ever – Linus

You’ve all heard about Linus my rescue dog, but just in case here’s a little recap of his story. I found Linus searching the Petfinder.com website and visited the Carson shelter to see him and his sister. Both dogs were adorable, but I winded up taking Linus home and have never regretted my decision.

Linus is an Australian Shepherd mix and we think he may have some Labrador Retriever, Chow Chow, and possibly some Husky mixed in. He was approximately two months old when we picked him up and probably around the same age in these pictures.

Click here to vote Linus the Cutest Puppy Ever!

Linus On The Back Porch

Linus Doing His Best Cute Puppy Look

Linus Taking A Break On My Bedroom Floor

Subscribe NOW To Receive The Entire Cutest Puppy Ever Article Series

Did you like this article and pictures? If so, then fill out the form below and receive the entire Cutest Puppy Ever series daily via email. The final article of the series will allow you to vote on your favorite puppy! Be sure not to miss one puppy picture by filling out your email address in the form below.

Enter your email address:

One final note. If you use social media or even if you don’t we’d love to get this series of stories a little more exposure by getting them up on StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit. If you are a member of any of these website then can you please stumble, digg, and reddit this post. I added some links to the bottom of the page that will allow you to quickly stumble, digg, or reddit us.

Did you read the other articles from this series? I’ll add the links to the bottom of each post as they are published.

The Cutest Puppy Ever Part I – Linus the Australian Shepherd Mix
The Cutest Puppy Ever Part II – Buttercup the German Shepherd Mix
The Cutest Puppy Ever Part III – Blondie the Labrador Retriever Mix
The Cutest Puppy Ever Part IV – Sally the German Shepherd Mix
The Cutest Puppy Ever Part V – Derby the Yellow Labrador Retriever
The Cutest Puppy Ever Part VI – George the German Shepherd Mix
The Cutest Puppy Ever Part VII – Brisby the German Shepherd Mix
 The Cutest Puppy Ever Part VIII – Boots the Labrador German Shepherd Mix
 The Cutest Puppy Ever Part IX – Cocoa the German Shepherd Mix
 The Cutest Puppy Ever Part X – Stetson the Black Labrador Retriever

Filed Under: Featured, Miscellaneous Dog Tagged With: , , ,

How Do I Subscribe To The Puppy In Training RSS Feed?

November 14, 2008 By 3 Comments

Have you ever heard of an RSS Feed? Just this morning I heard that only 10% of web surfers know how to subscribe to RSS feeds. That means approximately 90% of you probably do not know what an RSS feed is.

Today I wanted to write a short post about RSS which stands for Real Simple Syndication. First watch this 3 minute video from the Common Craft called RSS in Plain English:

What Is RSS?

Now that you know all about RSS what should you do about it? As mentioned in the video there are a few steps you need to take:

  1. Sign up for a Google account (or other RSS Feed Reader account)
  2. After you sign up go to http://www.google.com/reader

That’s all you have to do to sign up for your RSS Feed Reader. Now all you have to do is subscribe to feeds by clicking the little orange button.

You can see my RSS feed in the upper right corner of any page on my website. It looks like this:

You can also see from my feed button how many readers I currently have. The image above shows 79 total readers as of this post…hopefully by the time you read this article it’s in the thousands :)

Click on the RSS button and add the Puppy In Training feed to your Google Reader. Now the next time you visit Google Reader you’ll see my website and any new articles in your Google Reader.

Other Ways To Subscribe To The Puppy In Training Website

You can also subscribe to this website’s RSS email subscription or newsletter.

RSS Email Subscriptions - If you subscribe to the RSS email subscription an email will be delivered to you daily with the Puppy In Training website daily posts. I try to post once a day to the website.

  • You can sign up for the RSS Email Subscription by adding your email address to this form:

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    • You can sign up for the newsletter by filling out the form below, the form in the right side bar of this website or fill out the light box popup that opens the first time you visit this site (if you’re reading this then you may have already seen the lightbox).

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