It was a great and busy weekend for me starting on Friday with the Orange County Pet Expo.  The Pet Expo actually wasn’t the only event I had scheduled this weekend after volunteering for Guide Dogs of America all day Friday I hopped on a plane to Las Vegas for a friends bachelor party.  I scheduled an early Sunday morning flight back to Orange County in attempt to make our guide dog puppy training train trip to Universal City.  Unfortunately, I was too tired to make the final leg (train trip with Guide dogs) of my weekend.

Anyhow I wanted to give you guys a short recap of my experience at this years OC Pet Expo.

Orange County Pet Expo Recap

Did anyone get a chance to stop by the GDA booth over the weekend.  I was there from 10am to 2pm on Friday. Some of our other friends manned the booth the rest of the afternoon while I grabbed lunch and walked around the pet expo.

I was a little too tired this year to hang around for the demonstrations.  I did catch a few of the splash dog contestants jumping into the pool.  I caught a glimpse of the K9 demonstration, but overall I just checked out the latest pet products,  the different dog breeds, some of the other service dog organizations, and the cat and dog rescues.  We even saw one of the therapy dog groups we hope to one day join.

Overall it was a great experience my feet were barking by 4:30pm so at that time we headed home.

Interesting Dog Training Opportunities

While we were working the Guide Dogs of America booth we were visited by two of the other exhibitors at the Pet Expo that really caught my attention.  The first was Beach Animals Reading with Kids also known as BARK.  We visited an attended a BARK group meeting a few months ago. BARK is a volunteer program that encourages children to increase their reading skills by reading aloud to certified therapy dogs.  I’ve been procrastinating with Stetson, but I really want to get involved in a Therapy Dog program like BARK.

Next, a couple of young ladies stopped by to say hello and also introduced us to K9 Nose Work. From their website:

“Dogs have an amazing sense of smell and a natural desire to hunt. The sport of K9 Nose Work is designed to develop your dog’s natural scenting abilities by using their desire to hunt and their love of toys, food and exercise.”

COOL!  Stetson loves to sniff!  This would be an excellent sport for him to take up.  We’ll be investigating this in the near future.

Any New Pet Products At The Pet Expo?

So now I guess you’re wondering what about the latest and greatest pet products.  Well we did walk away with a few purchases that we plan to review in the coming weeks.  The pet-friendly Honda Element made it’s debut at this years OC Pet Expo.  Unfortunately, I did not come home with a new dog car.

However, I did find a new dog bowl for Stetson.  Well, it’s not exactly a dog bowl, but it’s the latest in a long line of dog bowls/products I found to help slow down Stetson’s fast eating.  It’s called the Amazing Treat Machine and I plan on getting a review on the site as soon as possible.  Also, I want to see if it’s viable solution as Stetson’s new dog bowl.

One pet product I did not buy was a new bed made out of PVC piping.  It was a little pricey at $70 and I’m going to see if it’s something my dad can custom make for Stetson and Linus.  Here’s a photo:

If you’re wondering who our dog bed model is that’s GDA Puppy In Training Winter.  We hung out most of the day greeting people at the GDA booth.

In the past I’ve also talked about Stetson and his dog skin allergies.  Well, we found something to kill the bacteria on Stetson’s skin and hopefully relieve him of his itching.  The product was recommended to us by good friends from Sudsy Dog Wash.  The stuff is called Vetericyn and is said to kill 99.999% of bacteria, single-cell organisms and fungi.  YAY!  hopefully no more dog skin allergies or itching for Stetson.

That’s about it for the 2010 Orange County Pet Expo.  Hopefully you had the chance to visit.  If not, there’s always next year.

Tell us about your experiences at the 2010 OC Pet Expo.