Wordless Wednesday: Photo shoot!

Rocco, left, learns to pose with his trick dog pals Preston Casanova, Norman Scooter Dog and Jasmine at BlogPaws.

Some folks thought Rocco and Norman were they same type of dog. Silly! The only thing they share is smarts... and cutes! Norman is a Briard, a French herding dog. Rocco, like Jasmine, is a Havanese, a descendent of breeds brought from Spain to Cuba where they evolved from pampered lap dogs of the aristocracy to companion dogs and herders of the family's poultry flock!

... the evolution continues as Rocco learns to be the next skateboarding dog!

Maddie's Pet Adoption Days Comes to NYC for Free Pet Adoption Weekend!

Here's a great opportunity for our NYC pals who are thinking about adopting a pet.

If you're looking to find your forever kitty or dog pal, there's no better time than the weekend of June 1-2. That's because, for the first time, Maddie's Pet Adoption Days is coming to NYC!

Maddie's Pet Adoption Day, the biggest free pet adoption event in America, is going national this year and the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals is leading the charge in New York City!

Mayor’s Alliance hopes to place hundreds of dogs and cats in qualified forever homes in the New York City Area on June 1 & 2.

Free adoptions for qualified adopters will be offered throughout the weekend at participating shelters and other adoption locations, and at two large, outdoor adoption events in Manhattan.

Here are a couple of the cuties available for adoption in the NYC area!

Bernard

Buddy

The goal of Maddie's Pet Adoption Days is to give all healthy, senior and treatable shelter dogs and cats a second chance. As in past years, adoptions of dogs and cats will be free to qualified adopters.

In return, Maddie's Fund has set aside $4 million so that it can give each shelter or rescue group $500 - $2,000 per adoption.

Edgar

The adoption event honors the memory of the foundation's namesake, a Miniature Schnauzer named Maddie, who was lovingly owned by PeopleSoft founder Dave Duffield and his wife Cheryl. Dave promised Maddie that if his company ever made some money, he would help other cats and dogs so that their families could be as happy as they were with Maddie.

Since then, Dave and Cheryl have endowed Maddie's Fund with more than $300 million to help shelter cats and dogs find new, loving homes.

Maddie's Fund expanded this year's event to include adoption sites across the U.S. because of the continued success of Maddie's Pet Adoption Days on a local level. Every year, the number of adoptions has increased with a total of 6,722 dogs and cats adopted during the event's three-year history.

This year, the hope is to adopt 5,000 animals during the two-day event by expanding the geographical boundaries to reach 11 million more people. To see other cities participating in Maddie's Pet Adoption Days click here.
 

This is a sponsored post but the opinions reflected herein are my own. 

BlogPaws: The Monday After

Rocco Havanese passes out after BlogPaws!

We're recovering from a whirlwind weekend at BlogPaws with so much information to digest and photos to download and sort through!

From the sponsors and exhibitors to the educational sessions there was so much to see and learn. And of course, one of the best parts of the conference was seeing old friends and meeting new ones! 

We heard there were about 500 attendees and more than 80 dogs! Wow! I remember the very first BlogPaws where Cosmo was one of very few dogs in attendance. This year, Rocco made his BlogPaws debut and I think he handled all the activity perfectly, especially since he's only eight months old!

We'll download all our photos to our Facebook page in the next few days, but in the meantime, here's something fun to watch! 

Almost every Monday night for that last four years or so, we've participated in the Twitter discussion/party called #Petchat, hosted by Elly @Petchat and Ron @PianoWeatherman. After all this time, we finally met Ron, Elly and pup Schmitty in person this past weekend at BlogPaws, and we had such a great time! Assisting Ron and Schmitty in the weather forecast, above, are some of the rest of the regular #Petchat crew!

Follow #Petchat on Twitter every Monday night starting at 8 p.m. ET. 

Another great thing about pet-related social media conferences, is that you don't have to wait a whole year to do it again. BarkWorld Expo is August 22-24 in Atlanta, and if you haven't already registered, you can register now for BarkWorld! You'll learn plenty from both conferences to make it worth your while to attend both of them. 

See you at BarkWorld and then next year in Las Vegas at BlogPaws! 

FitDog Friday Reporting From BlogPaws!

Today is FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Peggy's Pet Place to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!) and to help combat pet obesity. Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop. And be sure to comment and you'll be entered into a giveaway for great FitDog prizes!

This week's post comes to you from the BlogPaws pet blogger conference. Yesterday, Rocco and I met  up with our new pals Dolly the Doxie and Dolly's mom at the BlogPaws host hotel and we headed out for a morning walk.

It seemed like a great idea to get in a nice walk before the conference officially began, but the surroundings sure gave new meaning to "urban walk!" Still, even with construction all along the way, it  was a great feeling to get out on a little adventure with the pups.

Last weekend we met Dolly the Doxie and Sugar Golden Woofs at Lincoln Park in Chicago where we had a lovely pre-BlogPaws meet up with a romp for the dogs followed by a lovely walk around the park. We will post more about that adventure next week!

FitDog Friday Giveaways and Blog Hop

For a chance to be entered into our weekly FitDog Friday giveaway, link your FitDog Friday post to our Blog Hop or just leave a comment on one or all of our co-hosts posts -- SlimDoggy, Peggy's Pet Place and To Dog With Love!

Each comment (one each per co-host post) and each Blog Hop link counts as one entry, so you have many chances to win! (Winners will be chosen at random.)

This week's prizes are:

1. A dog pedometer and $25 Target gift card donated by Project: Pet Slim Down from Purina
2. A cool waste bag dispenser with refill rolls for dogs on the go and a colorful pet bandana from Pruven by 3M
3. Dieting with My Dog bookmark & magnet
4. SlimDoggy food scoop

Grab a badge from our sidebar and come on and join the FitDog Friday Blog Hop!

Wordless Wednesday: BlogPaws or Bust!

@RoccoHavanese and I are on our way!

Can't wait to see our old pals and meet new ones. Rocco will be eight months old tomorrow and he's ready to rock! 

We're fortunate this year to be sponsored by Purina, and they will be hosting two presentations on Friday we think will be worth attending! At 11 a.m. Arleigh Reynolds will host "The Link Between Diet and Domestication:  10,000 Years of Dietary Influences on the Canine Genome" and at 2 p.m., Brenda Bax and David Meyer  (of Adopt A Pet) will present "Pet Welfare in America." 

I had the pleasure of meeting both Brenda and Arleigh during a visit to Purina last October. 

See you at BlogPaws! Come by and give Rocco a pat (and a treat!) if you see us!

Pre-BlogPaws Meetup With Sugar and Dolly!

This past weekend Rocco experienced his first airplane flight AND he got the chance to meet our bloggie pals Sugar Golden Woofs and Dolly the Doxie! 

Sugar's mom took this fab photo of Rocco, Dolly and Sugar! 

We spent the weekend visiting family in Chicago and had a super fun time romping with Sugar, Dolly and their humans in Lincoln Park.  We'll all be heading to BlogPaws later this week so it was great to meet before we go!

Sugar chased his ball while Rocco practiced his herding skills!

All three pups started the outing with a good run and then later, Rocco and Sugar hit some of the nature trails in the park. We'll post more about that this week at FitDog Friday.  If you haven't heard about FitDog Friday, please stop by and considering sharing how you and your dog stay fit and healthy!

Rocco didn't stop for HOURS!

Not only was it great to meet a few new pals before BlogPaws, but it was a nice trial run for Rocco on the airplane.  He did great on the plane, even though we had an hour delay, and he had a terrific time in Chicago playing in the park and seeing the lake and beach for the first time!

During the flight delay, the flight attendant brought us some ice chips to help keep Rocco refreshed and cool. Typically dogs are not allowed out of their travel bags on flights, but since it was hot and we were delayed on the ground they seemed more lenient.

We'll post more photos from our weekend adventure in upcoming posts!

Now let's see what everyone else was up to this weekend!

FitDog Friday: Traveling Edition

Today is FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Peggy's Pet Place to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!) and to help combat pet obesity. Join in every Friday by linking up or visiting the blogs in the Hop. And be sure to comment and you'll be entered into a giveaway for great FitDog prizes!

Rocco chills out in his travel bag at home

We encourage you to join our Blog Hop by sharing your own FitDog adventures every Friday. And we want you to know it can be as simple as a photo, a quick tip or just some type of activity you like to do with your dog.  Then link up your posts to our Blog Hop below to share the inspiration! 

Our post today is about the adventure we're looking forward to this weekend as we head to Chicago for Mother's Day and  Rocco's first trip on an airplane!

Rocco has been preparing for this trip since he was a young pup... not too long ago! ... by getting comfortable with his travel bag and learning good manners!

While we're in Chicago I'm hoping to introduce Rocco to the beautiful walks along the lakefront and through Lincoln Park that Cosmo and I enjoyed so much.

Looking north at Lincoln Park and the Lake Michigan lakefront

A windy day at Oak Street Beach last year

Cosmo seems to be meditating during a peaceful Sunday morning near North Avenue Beach last year

We hope to see some of our bloggie pals in Chicago too! Stay tuned for more fun and adventure!

FitDog Friday Giveaways and Blog Hop

For a chance to be entered into our weekly FitDog Friday giveaway, link your FitDog Friday post to our Blog Hop or just leave a comment on one or all of our co-hosts posts -- SlimDoggy, Peggy's Pet Place and To Dog With Love!

Each comment (one each per co-host post) and each Blog Hop link counts as one entry, so you have many chances to win! (Winners will be chosen at random.)

This week's prizes are:

1. A cool waste bag dispenser with refill rolls for dogs on the go and a colorful pet bandana from Pruven by 3M
2. Dieting with My Dog bookmark & magnet
3. SlimDoggy food scoop

Grab a badge from our sidebar and come on and join the FitDog Friday Blog Hop!