Bits and pieces + We have a Winner!

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Marquie

We have a winner for our Vitacost $25 gift card giveaway!

Our winner is…

Dachshund Nola!

Congrats Nola!

I know I said I would have the winner email me, but since I have your email, I went ahead and emailed you. 😉

Thank you to everyone who entered!

Now for a few other things…

Earlier this week we had the pleasure of being featured on Healthy Paws blog!
We wrote up some of our favorite activities to do together for their “8 Active Pet Parents.” article.
You can read it here, if you’re interested, you may even recognize a few other dogs/blogs there!
https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/blog/2013/06/11/pet-activities/

We have a visitor…
Guess who arrived here just a few hours ago?
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(excuse the crappy iPhone picture, I knew that if I got up to get the Canon, Pepper would follow and I would miss getting this picture)

Petal’s friend Pepper!
For the next 3 weeks we will have a Petal, Penny and Pepper in the house.
Oh yeah, and Pancake the cat who often goes by Panny.
Petal, Pepper, Penny, and Panny.
Yikes. I’m getting tongue tied already.
Should be fun though!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

♥

Review // Giveaway // Contest: KONG Treats

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Marquie

We’ve got a lot to share with you all in this post!
We’ll start with the review first.

We love our KONG toys, so when opportunity came knocking we jumped on the chance to review KONG Treats!JAKKS Pacific, Inc. recently partnered with KONG to create their USA Made, All Natural Premium Treat line.

We received these three tasty treats to review:

Sweet Potato Stix, Chew Buddies (variety pack) and Mini Meaty Bites (in beef).

They are all corn free, wheat free, soy free and contain no animal by products or artificial colors. They were all made in the USA! We love USA made treats!

Mini Meaty Bites are soft, bite-sized treats (or swallow-size in the case of my meaty-treat-loving dogs). They’re a quick but tasty reward; perfect for training. They come in beef and chicken.

They’re also shaped like little KONG toys which I think is cute.

“I could care less what it is shaped like, give it to me!”

They smell very strongly (but not badly, if you ask me, they smell like beef jerky) and the dogs go wild for them, another great quality for a training treat. They’re very soft and easy to break in half, you know, if small is not small enough. 😉

“Nom nom nom.”

They’re about $5 on Amazon for a 4.5 oz bag.

Sweet Potato Stix are a soft and chewy vegetarian treat.

As you can probably tell by Lassie’s drool (I was so amused to find that when importing pictures from camera to computer), they were delicious!

These treats are easy to break into smaller pieces, if desired, and are great for training or hiding in a KONG Genius toy (the Leo in particular).

“Mmmm, delicious!”I did expect them to be a little longer, simply because of the word “stix” plus in images they do look longer. But that’s not a problem, I would’ve broken them anyway. ;)They’re about $7 on Amazon for a 6.5 oz bag.Chew Buddies “Long Lasting Chews are the perfect way to treat your dog and help clean their teeth as well.”

We received a variety pack with 4 large Chew Buddies inside. Chew Buddies come in three different flavors to choose from: Chicken (porcupine and cow pictured), Fresh Breath (alligator), and Bacon ((adorable) dinosaur).

They smelled alright to me, but they must’ve smelled amazing to the animals because 2 out of three cats came running when I opened the bag and dumped them out for pictures.

Petal was my first taste tester. I let her pick which one she wanted to try.

Moony the cat wants one too!

Petal chose the chicken flavored cow and promptly chewed it’s head off.

Look! It has a little belly button! Hehe.

The chew lasted a little longer than expected, about 5 or so minutes.
She greatly enjoyed it, licking up all the crumbs she left and begging for another.

I gave Lassie the Bacon Dino to try and he gobbled it up happily.

Front

Back

Lassie gobbled it up in about five minutes and licked up every crumb. I think it’s safe to say he greatly enjoyed it.

As you can see from the picture above, it’s not a solid treat. For my dogs, it’s not a long lasting chew, but I didn’t expect it to be. I only expected for my dogs to enjoy chewing it, which they did!
I can’t claim it did anything to clean their teeth; they each have had only one so far. I would think, however, that long term use would provide dental benefits.
The large chews come in a package of 4 and the small chews come in a package of 10. The large chews go for about $13 on Amazon.

The only thing I was disappointed in with these chews was that I didn’t get an adorable piggy chew in my bag.
;P

Lassie and Petal give Mini Meaty Bites 4 out of 4 paws up for tastiness!
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I give them 4 1/2 out of 5 hearts.
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Lassie and Petal give Sweet Potato Stix 3 paws up!
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I give them 4 hearts.
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Lassie and Petal give Chew Buddies 4 paws up!
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I give them 4 1/2 hearts.
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I would definitely consider buying the Mini Meaty Bites and the Chew Buddies. The Sweet Potato Stix are great and my dogs love them, but I tend to go for the meaty treats first. Plus I try to give very little of anything sweet potato to Petal. As a puppy, for whatever reason, her tummy was a little sensitive to sweet potatoes. I’m not sure if it still is. She did just fine with the Sweet Potato Stix, but like I said, I limited her to just 1 or 1 1/2 every few days. Lassie gobbled up many of them though and really enjoys them. I would consider buying them for use in our KONG Genius.

For more fun and more info about KONG Treats, you can follow them here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KONGTreats?ref=tn_tnmn
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KONGTreats (handle: @KONGTreats)
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/kongtreats/pins/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/kong_treats

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Alright doggies, get your humans over here and bark bark bark until they enter you into this giveaway. You wouldn’t want to miss out on some tasty treats, would you?

We’re offering 3 people a chance to win the same 3 bags of treats we just reviewed!

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That’s right! 3 of you will win 1 bag of Mini Meaty Bites + 1 bag of Sweet Potato Stix + 1 bag of Chew Buddies!

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The contest is open to US residents only. The winners will be announced here on the blog and contacted via email within 72 hours of the contest ending, so please be sure to leave your email address in the comments so I can contact you if you win.

Now get to entering! 😉
a Rafflecopter giveaway
You’re welcome to earn as little or as many entries as you want.

Now just one last thing before you go.

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KONG Treats has a video contest going on! They want to see what your dog(s) will do for a KONG premium treat!
We have lots of talented doggy friends who may enjoy this contest.
For those of you who may be interested, here are some of the details:

• “Like” the KONG Treats Facebook

• Film a 20-30 second video (no larger than 20 megabytes in size) of what your dog will do for his or her favorite KONG Premium Treats and upload to CONTEST app on KONG Treats Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/KONGTreats/app_214224245382377)

o The video clip must include: 1) your real-life dog or dogs (not animated/computer-generated), and 2) clearly visible KONG Premium Treats product and packaging

• All eligible submissions will receive three (3), 6.5 ounce bags of KONG Soft & Chewy Treats!

• In addition to those KONG Soft & Chewy Treats, three (3) winners will receive the following which keep their dogs’ tails wagging:

– Six (6), 4.5 ounce bags of KONG Mini Meaty Bites – Chicken;

– Six (6), 6.5 ounce bags of KONG Meat Stix – Lamb;

– Six (6), 9-count each bags of medium/large-sized KONG Fresh Breath Dental Chews; and

– Six (6), 2-count each bags of KONG Dental Rawhide Retriever Rolls

– Plus, KONG Treats will donate twenty-four (24), 6.5 ounce bags of KONG Soft & Chewy Treats to the dog rescue shelter of each of the 3 winners’ choice!

For complete contest rules, please visit:http://www.jakks.com/KONGTreatsContestRulesFacebook

Discloser: I received 3 bags of KONG Premium Treats, free of charge, to review. I was not otherwise compensated. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own based on my experience with the products. I was not paid to write a positive review.
I am in no way involved with running the KONG video contest. I am simply spreading the word to those who may be interested.

Walking, walking, walking

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Marquie

We went for a walk in town last week, just to mix things up a bit.
We walked around the neighborhoods I sometimes day dream about living in. We walked down Main Street and looked through the shop windows. We enjoyed the change of scenery and the nice weather.

I think Petal and I walk better together when I have the camera.
Which has a lot more to do with me than it does with her.
With the camera in my hand and my determination to get some nice pictures, I wasn’t looking for all the things that could possibly set Petal off into a barking frenzy. I wasn’t worried she would upset someone or look ridiculous or that people would tell me I’m a bad dog owner. I didn’t worry about any of that. I was too busy taking pictures and looking for good things to photograph. Petal was much calmer this walk and only barked at other barking dogs and even then, she calmed down much faster than she usually does.
Guess I was the issue.
Isn’t that usually the case?

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Lassie rolling around in the grass.

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Random watermelon sticker. He has a knife in his other hand. Guess he cut out his own smile?

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The door to one of my favorite stores!

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“CHEEEESE!”

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Main Street!

It’s a good thing we really enjoyed that walk, because now it’s too hot to go outdoors in the middle of the day.

Hope you guys are staying cool!

Review & Giveaway: Happytails Spa from Vitacost.com

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Marquie

Today we are reviewing the services of Vitacost.com and two of the products they have to offer: Happytails Spa’s Sleepytime Tonic and Happytails Spa’s Fur Butter.

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Vitacost.com is an online store where you can buy discount vitamins and other health care supplies for yourself and your pet! They have a large variety of brands to offer and excellent customer service.

Our package arrived in an adequate amount of time and the box it came in even had a recipe for gluten free cookies on it, neat! However, it was a rather large box for the two little items I had and they were both just freely rolling around in it. Both my items were in good shape regardless, nothing broken and nothing open. When I asked them about it, I was assured that they otherwise package their products very well.

Vitacost.com is easy to navigate, they have a large variety of brands to choose from and great prices.

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(image source: Happytails Spa)

Now we are already long time fans of the Happytails Spa products, especially their Fur Butter, a deep conditioner. That stuff is pure magic for Lassie and Petal’s coats.

As you probably know, Petal recently had a bath. She was covered in dirt and debris from outside. Like foxtails, dreaded foxtails. We really hate those itchy, sharp little nasties. In the past I’ve never really used the Fur Butter on Petal, who is already fairly easy to brush, but this last bath I did. While she did not enjoy standing in the tub for ten minutes while it worked it’s magic (for best results, you must leave the Fur Butter in their fur for 5-10 minutes before rinsing, and it really does make a difference), I however greatly enjoyed that the Fur Butter did some of the work for me. The majority of the foxtails rinsed right out of her fur as I rinsed out the Fur Butter and what remained was easily brushed out as I blow dried her. So much easier than usual.

I’ve already been a long time lover of Fur Butter when it comes to Lassie. It makes him so soft and so much easier to brush. It’s amazing for any stubborn tangles. Love it, love it, love it.

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Lassie after yesterday’s bath.

Being a conditioner it doesn’t suds up as you rub it in, but you can feel it, so it’s easy to feel where you have and haven’t applied it. As you rinse it out, it suds/bubbles up a bit which is really convenient for knowing where you’ve rinsed it all out and where you haven’t.
It works best on long coats, from my experience. I used it once on Ella and while it did make her a tad softer, it felt pointless to use it on her short coat. I never use it on her again and I wouldn’t use it on Penny, simply because there is no real need.
While it smells amazing while using it, the scent seems to get rinsed out for the most part. But at least it smelled great while you worked and my dogs do smell good afterwards, just not as great as, let’s say, opening the container and taking a whiff (yes, I have been know to do this often. It smells incredible, okay? ;P).

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While I’ve been a fan of Fur Butter for awhile, I had never tried the Sleepytime Tonic before now.
Sleepytime Tonic is a herbal remedy made to calm nervous, anxious or over active dogs without making them sleepy. I’ve looked into it many times for Lassie’s fear of thunder and fireworks and for Ella’s general nervousness, but I never got around to actually buying a bottle of it. So I was pretty excited to finally try this stuff. Especially since Penny has put Ella to shame as far as the constant nervous energy goes.

Penny goes bonkers whenever it’s feeding time. For anyone. The cats, the humans, but especially when it’s her own feeding time. She literally screams and cries and barks. We have to put her in a crate while we dish the food out or else she’ll just go crazy running and pacing and jumping anxiously around the family room. I thought with time she would get over it, and maybe she still will, but she has been with us for months now and there was no improvement before Sleepytime Tonic. I’ve noticed some improvement since using it.

Sleepytime Tonic can be used twice daily or as needed. Penny has been getting it twice daily for past three weeks (tomorrow will mark 3 weeks). Petal gets some only when she needs it. The amount you give is based on the weight of your dog.

It seems to work best if I give it to Penny 20-30 minutes before feedings, directly in her mouth. Luckily she will eat anything, so she happily allows me to squirt some in her mouth with the dropper. At first I was hiding it in her food, thinking that would be easier, but as the bottle says, it does work best if put directly in their mouth.

Penny still cries at feeding time, but it’s not as bad and her frenzy is not as intense. I went a weekend without it just to see and I noticed she was much more tense and desperate.

I know I’ve mentioned before that Petal has a fear of popping gum and my sister has a gum popping addiction. Not a great combo. Petal paces, pants, and crawls on top of or behind me or any place she feels she can hide. I was really hoping Sleepytime Tonic would help her with this. She won’t happily take it like Penny will, but she doesn’t fight me when I lift her lip and squirt it in her mouth. Before I would hide her under a blanket and rub her, which would sometimes help. That combined with the Sleepytime Tonic was excellent. It worked so well and pretty quickly too. I was very happy with the results and as the bottle says, it didn’t put her or Penny to sleep. It just aided in calming them down.

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“She’s lying. Nothing scares me.”

I didn’t get a chance to try it on Lassie (no thunder or fireworks since the arrival of Sleepytime Tonic), but I think it may be just the trick.

While Sleepytime Tonic wasn’t the cure-all for Penny (I wasn’t expecting it to be either) it has helped. As for Petal, it has helped her a lot, which I am very grateful for!

Overall, I give Vitacost.com 4 1/2 out of 5 hearts for their easy to navigate website, great prices and their kind customer service. I docked half a point for the packaging, but only half since it seems to have been just a fluke.
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I give Fur Butter ~~a million~~ 5 hearts for effectiveness (and it’s incredible scent ;)).
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And 4 hearts for Sleepytime Tonic’s effectiveness.
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Now how about a giveaway?
Interested in getting some great products from Vitacost? Maybe your pooch is in need of some shampoo or treats. Or maybe you’re in need for some health care products. Whatever your need may be, you can enter to win a $25 gift card for Vitacost.com!
The winner will be announced here on the blog within 48 hours after the giveaway ends, so be sure to check back! This giveaway is open to US residents only. You only have to do the two mandatory things to enter. The others are all optional, but they will earn you more entries if you do them.
Enter here to win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! 😉

Discloser: I was sent 1 (one) bottle of Sleepytime Tonic and 1 (one) container of Fur Butter, free of charge, from Vitacost in exchange for an honest review. I was not otherwise compensated for this review. All opinions expressed here are my own and based on my experience with the products and with Vitacost.

Wordless Wednesday: I love the ear fluff

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Marquie

Where the dog toys live

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Marquie

My Mom and I (okay mostly Mom, but I have a good explanation for this) painted the dogs’ toy box a few months ago.

Yeah, I’m a little late on posting about it.

The paint job was made necessary by Cat number 3 (Harriet) after she peed in the dogs’ toys.

Yes, we were all very offended.

The Collies say it’s a good thing you’re cute, cat!

I would’ve painted it myself, but my Mom is addicted to painting and begged to paint the inside (this is my good explanation).

No seriously. She really did beg.

Out of the goodness of my heart I said yes.

Here’s the inside, painted a lovely mint color with the magnet latch spray painted pink.

Then it was my turn to paint. I didn’t really want to paint the entire outside of it because I actually really like the outside.

So I added a few stripes to the top of the lid, just for fun.

I thought about painting the word “Toys” on the lid too, but I like the simple look with just the stripes.

Their toy box is the same box seen in the background in this Wordless Wednesday post. It use to hold a few cooking dishes for camping, that was its original purpose. But the years go by and somehow it ends up as the dog toy box instead. 😉

Where do you keep your toys? A box/chest? A bag? A bucket? All over the floor?

Review: Maqnifiscent Grooming and Finishing Splash

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Marquie

It’s summer time, a time for swimming and carnivals and cotton candy.
Delicious cotton candy.

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I don’t know about you, but I think cotton candy smells amazing. So sweet and pleasant.
More things should smell like cotton candy.
For example, Collies.
Collies should smell like cotton candy.

Today we’re reviewing Maqnifiscent Grooming and Finishing Splash in the Cotton Candy scent.
Yes, my dogs smell like cotton candy.

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Maqnifiscent Grooming and Finishing Splash comes in many different unique scents such as Dark Chocolate, Raspberry Bubble Gum, Pina Colada and others. They even offer custom* fragrances!

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Here’s what they have to say about their product:
“Maqnifiscent Grooming & Finishing Splash is a non-toxic multi-purpose unisex formula that has been designed to keep your pet and home smelling Maqnifiscent. This product instantly eliminates odors and conditions and detangles your pet’s coat while keeping your loved one fresh between baths. Our preparation contains a long-lasting, non-sticky, first of its kind, scratch-n-smell formula that is immediately reactivated when you comfort your pet or they rub themselves. All of our fragrances are alcohol and paraben free. It can be used as often as necessary.”
You can read a little more about the company here.

Made in the USA! Yay!

When I was first contacted about this product I had my doubts about it’s scratch-n-smell ability. I was worried about what would go into this bottle to give it such an ability. But according to their FAQ page all their splashes are made up of “… a food-grade based gelatin, water, and Virgin Coconut Oil which conditions the skin while keeping the coat shiny.”

Sounds good to me!

And guess what?

It works. And it really does smell like cotton candy. I crave it every time I spray it.

I sprayed some on Petal’s back, chest, each side, and back end and rubbed it in. Probably didn’t need that much, I went a little crazy with it. But it made her smell wonderful and it lasted for several days, nearly a week, even after being rolled through the dirt by Penny. Several times.

And it really does work like a scratch and sniff!

One day my sister buried her face in Petal’s hair and claimed she couldn’t smell the cotton candy. I told her to try petting her a little first. She looked at me like I was insane. “What is she, a scratch and sniff?”

I smirked, we were about to find out, “Just try it!”

She did and her eyes were rather wide when it actually worked.

The more you pet Petal the more she smells like cotton candy.
Love. It.

While the bottle claims that it works best on short haired dogs, it seemed to last longer on Lassie and Petal than it did on Penny. The spray lasted 5-7 days on both Petal and Lassie, but on Penny it only seems to last about 2-3 days. I really feel that that may have something to do with the fact that she hates to be sprayed with anything. So while Lassie and Petal get 3-4 spritz on various parts of their body, Penny gets 1 or even just half a spritz before she runs off. It’s too bad, because she needs it the most if you ask me. Smelly dog.

“I resent that. I do not smell.”

Regardless of that, it is the most effective dog body splash I have ever used on my dogs. It’s also the best smelling one and the most cost effective one, too. I’ve had previous sprays that were $9.99 or more for a tiny little 2 or 4 ounce bottle. This bottle was a very impressive size at 8 fl. oz. for $12.99 and a little goes a long way so I think it’s going to last us a good long time.

We give Maqnifiscent Grooming and Finishing Splash 5 out of 5 hearts for their wonderful cotton candy fragrance and effectiveness.
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4 hearts for their excellent prices.
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And the dogs give it 4 out of 4 paws up for being gentle on their skin and not sticky in their fur.
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We really love this spray. Go check them out here and tell them we sent you! 😉

*When ordering custom fragrances, they require that you order two bottles minimum.

Discloser: I was sent one bottle of Maqnifiscent Grooming and Finishing Splash free of charge for review. I was not paid or otherwise encouraged to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own based on my experience with the product.

22 years, goofy dogs & memorial day

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Marquie

Yesterday I turned 22. I had a great, busy, day at home with my family and goofy dogs. It was lovely.

Speaking of goofy dogs…
I caught a few silly pictures of Petal a few days ago.
Hammin’ it up for the camera and stealing the spotlight for herself.

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“Hey, don’t take his picture!”

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“Take mine!”

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Thinking of all those brave men and women who died for our country this Memorial Day,
and all those who are still fighting for it.
Thank you.
♥

Loved By A Collie

Tag Archives: collies