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

Post from: Puppy Training

My 2012 Goal Post

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By the way, my favorite part comes right around the 41 second mark in the video.  The move the kitty pulls is definitely very Ninja-Like!

Puppy Vs Kitty Video

Every time I see a video like this it makes me want to run to the animal shelter and rescue a kitty to play with my dogs.  If you’re interested in rescuing a kitty or puppy I highly recommend visiting Petfinder.com and search their massive database of homeless animals.  I used Petfinder.com to find and rescue my first dog, Linus and Australian Shepherd mix.

Happy Friday!  I hope you enjoyed today’s video!  If you have any questions please leave us a comment in the comment section below.

Post from: Puppy Training

Another Puppy Vs Kitty Video

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• Technorati Authority measures a site’s standing & influence in the blogosphere.
• Authority is calculated based on a site’s linking behavior, categorization and other associated data over a short, finite period of time. A site’s authority may rapidly rise and fall depending on what the blogosphere is discussing at the moment, and how often a site produces content being referenced by other sites

Go to this page to see a full explanation of Technorati Authority.

The Best Dog Blog!

Anyhow after noticing the extra trickle of traffic we visited Technorati and after poking around a bit stumbled across the Blog Directory and clicked to the “Pets” section of the blog directory.  Low and behold the top pet blog is PuppyInTraining.com!

Here’s a screen shot just in case our ranking changes (I’m sure it will):

Our conclusion is that if PuppyInTraining.com is the top pet blog then according to Technorati we must also be the best dog blog as well.

Thanks To Everyone!

We just wanted to send off a quick thanks to everyone for supporting our blog.  We would never have reached the distinction as top pet blog in Technorati without support from family, friends, subscribers, and all the visitors who find their way to the Puppy In Training site.

Please keep stopping by the blog, subscribing, commenting, and linking to our articles.  Who knows?  Maybe one day we’ll break into the Top 100 list on Technorati or dare I say compete for the number one overall position?

For Your Information: The current number one site overall site on Technorati is The Huffington Post.  I read they received 13 million unique visitors in March 2010 with 18 page views per unique.

What do you think?  Is Puppy In Training the best dog blog?

Post from: Puppy Training

The Best Dog Blog!

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Since then I’ve received many comments on the article suggesting other breeds be included in my top 10 list.  I definitely agree that dogs that are good with children shouldn’t be narrowed to only a list of 10 dog breeds.   However, that is the main reason why I wrote the article and left the comment section open to our readers.  I wanted our readers input on their experiences with dogs and their thoughts on what dog are good with children.

Good Dogs For Kids

Some might think a giant breed dog might not be good for kids.  After all a giant breed might be clumsy and knock over children or might get overly excited and play to rough possibly hurting kids.

A couple days ago I came across this video of a Great Dane playing with a very young child.  Take a look:

Maybe I should include the Great Dane as one of my top 10 family dogs!  That is an adorable video and I love seeing how gentle a dog as large as a Great Dane can be with a young child.

What do you think?  Have you found the perfect dog for your family?  What dog breeds would you consider good dogs for kids?

Post from: Puppy Training

Good Dogs For Kids

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Little Pink Pup

I also noticed on Johanna’s website that she has a new book coming out called Little Pink Pup.  The book is due to come out until June 10, 2010.

Here are a few excerpts I found about the upcoming book:

From Johanna’s website:

Little Pink Pup is a wonderful picture book for children. It is about our miniature dachshund, Tink, who raises a premature baby pig born on our farm. The pig was named Pink for his bubblegum pink skin. The book tells their unique story of love and acceptance. The message of being accepted for who you are is the main theme of the story. The love that Tink gave Pink was very heartwarming. Pink is now part of our family and has a happy forever home with us.The book will be available in June 2010 and is published by Penguin Group, G.P. Putnam’s Sons in NY, NY. I took all the photographs in the book.

From Amazon.com:

Pink was the runt of the pig litter. He was so small that the Kerby family didn’t think he would survive– so they brought him into the house where he met Tink, a new dachshund mom. When Tink saw Pink, she immediately adopted him into her family, and helped nurse him back to health. Pink thrived in his new family: the puppies didn’t mind that Pink looked nothing like them—he was just their size.

This remarkable story has already garnered a great deal of media attention: the irresistible photographs documenting Pink and Tink’s relationship have appeared on Good Morning America and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Readers of all ages will be captivated by these adorable animals and the amazing bond that they share.

I’m hoping we might get to see some new pictures of Pink and his Dachshund litter mates Johanna’s upcoming book: Little Pink Pup.  By the way if you haven’t already visited Johanna’s website I suggest you take a look at the more recent pictures of Pink.  Here’s a link to Pink’s page: Pink and Tink. Pink sure his grown. He dwarfs little Tink in the picture on the bottom of the page.

That’s the latest update on a story we started covering two years ago about a little piglet named Pink and has Dachshund mom, Tink.

Post from: Puppy Training

Little Pink Pup

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German Shepherd Puppy Poop

image by *Jame*

Do you think someone good with Photoshop and just cropped their puppy into the picture?

That image kind of reminds me of the old Peanuts cartoons with Snoopy and Woodstock.  “KEEP OFF THE GRASS, NO DOGS ALLOWED!”  If you’re feeling nostalgic (like I kind of am) then I think the Peanuts DVD you’re looking for is Snoopy, Come Home (yep, that’s an affiliate link).  Even better yet after doing a little research I came across Snoopy, Come Home on YouTube.  The only problem is it’s broken up into 12 episodes.  Here’s episode number 1:

I’m pretty sure you can watch the entire thing on YouTube.  At the end of each video the next one is listed as SCH2, SCH3, etc.  Also, I’m not sure how long the video will stay on YouTube.  It looks like it was posted a couple years ago, but you never know when YouTube or the actual person who posted the video will pull it off the site.

Well, happy Friday everyone and have a good weekend.  We’ll see you next month.

Do you have any funny images you’d like to share with us?  Leave me a comment below or just send me a message through our contact form.

Post from: Puppy Training

German Shepherd Puppy Poop

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image by 23am.com

Online Dog Training

Blogs are great and are often times full of wonderful information.  Online Dog Training was not available to us in the early 90′s.  However, today we can go to our favorite blog and just simple read the online dog training tip of the day.  Here are a few blogs offering tips on how to train your dog.

Send Her To The Crate presented by the Best Dog Crate Review Blog.  A few short tips on how to crate train your dog.  Stetson, Linus, and Derby were all crate trained and I highly recommend you crate train your dog as well.

Dog Training – Adapt Your Methods to Fit the Breed presented by Pet Prattle and Products. This is one of those articles that I wish would have had more detail.  You could probably write an entire book on adapting your training methods to fit a dog breed.  However, I would like to see more information in this area.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t leave a comment on this blog and if the blog owner reads this comment I’d very much be interested in seeing more resources on this subject.

Crap! Curb your Dog! presented by JERKLogic. You ever step in dog poop.  It’s maddening and so too agree the folks over at JERKLogic.

Archives for Small Dog Training presented by the Small Dog Training Blog.  You’ll find many articles here regarding small dog training.  While this is not an individual article it does offer a great resource for people interested in Online Dog Training.

Key Differences Between Dog and Puppy Training presented by Dog Training Pet.  Some interesting information on the differences between training an adult dog and a puppy.  I’ve raised puppies and they have grown into fine adults, but haven’t had as much experience with rescuing adult dogs.  We rescued our family dog, Maffy, a border collie mix and a purebred German Shepherd while volunteering with a local rescue.  However, at the time I did not really consider the differences in training puppies and adults.  Check out this article for more information.

Puppy Training

A New Puppy? Now Comes House Training! presented by The Dog Lover’s Blog. This article has some great tips on how to house train your puppy.  If you’re on the verge of bringinig home a new puppy I urge you to check out this article on some of the basics of potty training.

Puppies! presented by (Mis)adventures.  Who can resist puppies?  First off their are some adorable puppy pictures on this post.  That being said the article brings to light the upcoming Puppy Bowl and Puppy Therapy at universities.  Check out the article for more information.

Dog Products

Finding Frontline For Less presented by PetPip.  I currently use Frontline, but I’m looking for a greener alternative.  I’ve come across home remedies, but would love to hear others experience with eco-friendly, green ideas for keeping fleas and ticks off your dog.  Theres’ also a cute, short puppy pee video embedded in the article.

Miscellaneous Dog

25 Common Foods That Can Be Toxic for Your Pet presented by Veterinary Technician Schools Online.  This is a good resource of things you should not feed your dog.  Some of the most common food can be poisonous like grapes and raisins.   Be sure to take a look at this list.

Top 10 Celebrity Pets: Famous Cats and Dogs presented by The Pet Gazette.  Who do you think is number 1?  I’ve never heard of many of these pets, but I do know all the celebrities.  I think most people will recognize celebrity pet #1.

An Interview with Guffly mascot, Soy presented by Guffly.  I like this website and they often times have great products advertised on their blog.  However, today they wanted to advertise one of their mascots named Soy.

That’s it for this edition of the Puppy In Training Blog Carnival.  If you’d like to submit an article to our carnival please leave us a note in the comments section below.

Post from: Puppy Training

Puppy In Training Blog Carnival 2010

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After seeing this image again I’m going to have to say mark 1 for the cat.

Should I Get A Cat Or A Dog?

If you asked my mother she would not hesitate in her answer.  She prefers cats and currently has three living at her home (I’m sure she’ll have more soon).  On the other hand come talk to me and I’m pretty sure I can convince you that a dog makes the better pet.  Of course, I’m biased after all the name of this blog is PUPPYintraining.com and not KITTYinTraining.com.

Well lucky for us we don’t have to rely on mine or my mother’s biased outlook on dogs and cats.  Instead we came across an article that reveals a scientific approach to determine whether a dog or a cat is the better pet.  Lets visit the results from the Daily Mail website:

In the ‘great pet showdown’ experts compared 11 traits from brain size to environmental impact by looking at research published in scientific journals.

Here are the results of those 11 traits:

1. Brains - who has bigger brain size in proportion to their body size – Winner= CATS
2. Time Species Has Been Domesticated – dogs have shared history with humans.  Domesticated at nearly 135,000 years ago – Winner= DOGS
3. Bonding – Research has shown that even a 4 month old puppy chooses a human companion over another dog – Winner= DOGS
4. Popularity – 204 millions cats in the top 10 cat owning nations vs 173 millions dogs in the top 10 dog owning nations – Winner= CATS
5. Ability to Understand Words – One study has shown a Border Collie named Rico has mastered over 200 words – Winner= DOGS
6. Problem Solving – dogs can follow gestures such as outstretched fingers or the nod of a head – Winner = DOGS
7. Purr vs Bark – the attention seeking purr wins out against the dogs bark even though a dog can change the frequency, pitch, and range of their bark – Winner = CATS
8. Ease of Training – dogs are said to be easier to train then cats (I guess the proof there can be my mothers attempts at training her cats) – Winner = DOGS
9. Senses of Sight, Smell, and Hearing – no contest a cat can see in lower light, have a wider range of hearing, and can smell better than a dog – Winner = CATS
10. Eco-Friendliness – because a cat is smaller in size they have a smaller ecological footprint.  Less land to farm food…less poop - Winner = CATS

The score is tied at 5 with the final category (the tie breaker): Usefulness -Winner = DOGS

Dogs, studies show, help cut human stress, while taking them for walks keeps their owners fit and helps them meet new people. New Scientist says: ‘Dogs can hunt, herd and guard.

‘They can sniff out drugs and bombs; they guide blind and deaf people, race for sport, pull sledges, find someone buried by an avalanche, help children learn and possibly even predict earthquakes.’

And in a conclusion bound to set tongues wagging, it adds: ‘Cats are good if you have an infestation of rodents.’

There you have it.  The dogs win out by a hair.  As always it really comes down to personal preference and this list of categories is not comprehensive and in reality each category should carry some kind of weighting.  As I scan over the list of traits in this comparison many of the Dog Friendly traits seem to be a result of earlier domestication things like bonding, ability to understand words, problem solving, and ease of training.  While on the other hand the traits more suited for cats seem to be those traits that make them more adapted to living in the wild (less domestication) such as larger brains and better sense of sight, smell, and hearing.

Honestly I love both dogs and cats.  My biggest deterrent for not having a cat right now are allergies.  There seems to be a much higher number of people allergic to cats versus dogs.  So, if you are highly allergic to cats then my answer to the question: Should I Get A Cat Or A Dog? is A DOG!

What do you guys think?  Which is a better pet?  A Cat or A Dog?

Post from: Puppy Training

Should I Get A Cat Or A Dog?

No related posts.

Speaking of puppies in costume did I show you Stetson’s dog costume this year?

Stetson and I were lucky enough to get invited to the Orange County Guide Dog Halloween group meeting where the majority of the dogs were dressed up for Halloween.  Linus is not a big fan of dog costumes, so we didn’t dress him up this year.

Stetson’s Halloween Dog Costume

Yep, that’s my boy.  We went eco-friendly this year and recycled some of our household items including a free Bobby Grich T-Shirt we received at the Angel game, a vintage 1980′s Angel baseball cap that we also received for free, and finally a rally monkey that we purchased at the Angel game several years ago.  Stetson and the other dogs thought the rally monkey was a dog toy, but had trouble finding the squeeker.

Back to the Halloween Contest I mentioned earlier.  Here’s the information:

We know that Halloween is over but we’re still reveling in leftover candy and photos of costumed pets.   Send us a photo of your pet dressed up for Halloween.  If we pick it as our favorite, we will send you a set of EatBetter and Drinkbetter bowls.  Hurry though, the contest closes November 30th.  Enter Contech’s November Photo Contest

We reviewed both the EatBetter and DrinkBetter Dog Bowls here on the Puppy In Training website.  If you want win your own set the rush over to the Contech’s November Photo Contest and submit your dog costume picture.

We’d love to see your Halloween dog costumes too.  Leave us a link in the comments section below or send me your images at ckmorita [at] puppyintraining [dot] com and I’ll put together a post with your Halloween dog costume.

Post from: Puppy Training

Halloween Dog Costume Contest

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Bulldog Gives Birth To 21 Puppies

This clip got my imagination running with the “What if” scenarios.

• What if I agreed to foster a pregnant mother dog for your local rescue group and she proceeded to give birth to 21 puppies.  Can you imagine how much poop there would be?  We fostered 7 German Shepherd puppies for 2 months and I felt like I was constantly picking up poop.
• What if there was a guide dog puppy litter with 21 puppies.  Can you imagine?  Guide dog litters are assigned a letter.  For instance, Stetson was in the “S” litter and Derby was in the “D” litter.  You’d run out of names for your 21 puppies.  Perhaps they would just split the litter into two different letter groups.

I’m sure you can think of many other “What if” scenarios, but those two hit close to home for me.  I just thought I’d bring you a bit of the news today…I hope all those little bulldog puppies find good homes.

Post from: Puppy Training

Can You Imagine 21 Puppies In A Litter?

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