Wordless Wednesday: Cosmo and Cokie

Cosmo Havanese and Cokie the Cat catch up at BlogPaws.

For more Wordless Wednesday fun, head on over to the BlogPaws Blog Hop!

Pet Bloggers Hop: Back From BlogPaws!

What a great trip we had to BlogPaws! In spite of earthquakes and hurricanes, the show went on and we had a blast seeing old pals and meeting new ones. We'll post more about what we learned in upcoming weeks, including some fun new products and terrific programs to help all furpals.

And, if you missed it, here's one way all bloggers can help feed shelter dogs right now! Simply write a post, help a dog and Pedigree will donate up to 10,000 pounds of food to shelter dogs. Please consider writing a simple post to help... and you can even copy all the info you find here. It can be done in a jiffy and Pedigree will donate 20 pounds of food for each blogger's post. Just remember to post it by September 3.

We'll also post more photos later, but here are just a few to get you started...

Cosmo (left) and his pal Dexter enjoyed catching up ... I think they were discussing this year's swag.

Dexter seems a little stunned by something ... perhaps Cosmo is telling him to watch out for the pet psychic,  she might reveal his secrets!

Now, let's go to the hop!

Giveaway WInner: Cesar Canine Cuisine and Treats!

We have a winner! Anna Galanos who writes about her menagerie of six small dogs and three cats is the lucky winner of our Cesar Canine Cuisine gift pack.  You truly must be a pet whisperer in your household.  Congratulations and we hope your pups love the selection of Cesar entrées and  Softies Medleys treats!

A Dog's Guide to BlogPaws

Cosmo and I are heading to our third BlogPaws pet bloggers conference. And when we heard there will be 65 dogs among the assortment of other pets and 400 or so bloggers, Cosmo felt it was time for a Dog's Guide to BlogPaws. Take it away Cosmo!

My favorite times at BlogPaws are when I'm surrounded by all my pals. Take lots of photos and try to be the center of attention. It usually works, even if you have to share it with a fine piece of art like this one.

Give plenty of kisses. It'll likely pay off.

Check out the swag, especially other people's. There's bound to be something good in there!

Get to the exhibition area early and find a good pal to cozy up to. You'll get to sample the treats and play with toys before everyone else gets there.

Pace yourself. Take plenty of naps between treats and belly rubs

Eat cake. Last year, I celebrated my birthday at BlogPaws. If it's not your birthday find someone else's cake to sample.

Stay close to your anipals ...

And snuggle up with as many pals as you can, they may have gifts...

Meet as many doggie pals as you can too. You might be able to learn a thing or two from them, especially the working dogs.

Give...

... Back

And most of all, see lots of pawsome pals, old and new, and have a furbulous time!

Now it's time for me to get ready to go and make sure mom has packed all the essentials:

• My food, treats and chews
• Leash and poo bags
• My comb and brush
• My favorite toy -- the big green fuzzy bone
• Food and water bowls
• My health certificate and shot record (for air travel)
• An extra-large expandable bag (room for all the toys and treats I'll bring home!)

See you at BlogPaws!

Your pal,

Cosmo Havanese

Pedigree Write a Post, Help a Dog 2011 #dogsrule

Anytime we have the chance to help donate food to shelter pets who need it most, we're all for it. And once again, here's a way that all bloggers can help too.

Write a Post, Help a Dog 2011

This year, as we head to the BlogPaws pet bloggers conference, Pedigree is resurrecting is insanely successful Write a Post, Help a Dog program. In 2010, 391 bloggers wrote about the program and with each post, Pedigree donated 20 pounds of its Healthy Longevity dog food to shelter animals. In all, 7,820 pounds of food was donated to two shelters renowned for their care of senior dogs: Muttville Senior Dog Rescue in San Francisco and Castaway Critters in Harrisburg, Pa.


How you can help in 2011

Simply spread the word about Write a Post, Help a Dog 2011 and once again Pedigree will donate 20 pounds of food for each blogger's post.  Here's all you need to include in your post:

• The Write a Post, Help a Dog program is aimed at raising awareness and food for the more than four million dogs that wind up in shelters and breed rescues each year.
• For each blog post mentioning the Pedigree Foundation from now until midnight ET on September 3, Pedigree will donate 20 pounds of its new dry Pedigree recipe food for dogs -- its best recipe ever -- to a shelter, because every dog deserves leading nutrition. 
• The Pedigree Foundation -- a 501 (C)(3) nonprofit organization is committed to helping dogs by providing grants to shelters and rescues and encouraging dog adoption. This year the Foundation has already raised more than $376,570 against its goal of $1.5 million to carry out its work to fund grants that not only help shelters operate, but to further shelter innovations.

The Pedigree Foundation depends on charitable contributions from individuals to carry out its mission to help dogs find loving homes. In addition to writing a blog post, here's how you can help:

• Donate online at http://pedigreefoundation.org/donate.aspx
• Apply for a shelter grant from the Pedigree Foundation by completing a form at www.pedigreefoundation.org
• Purchase Dogs Rule Gear at www.dogsrulegear.com where the proceeds go to the Pedigree Foundation to help loving dogs find a home. SPECIAL OFFER: Get 10 percent off Dogs Rule Gear by using the promo code BlogPaws10 from August 22 - September 30.

We'll make it even easier to spread the word

Feel free to copy and use anything from this post, including all images. (HINT: double click on any image to see it at full size, then save it to your computer or post).

Then, link up to our Blog Hop below, hosted by the Pedigree BlogPaws bloggers to help spread the word about Write a Post, Help a Dog.

Once again, we are honored to be one of the Pedigree-sponsored bloggers at BlogPaws 2011 and we can't wait to join up with the rest of our group to help feed more shelter dogs. If you're going to BlogPaws, come over and meet us! If you won't be there, please meet the rest of the Pedigree bloggers here:

• Sharon Castellanos at Grouchy Puppy
• Ryan Rice at Houston Dog Blog
• Ashley Niels and Nikki Jeske at I Love Rescue Animals
• Felissa Elfenbein at Two Little Cavaliers
• Debbie Jacobs at Fearfuldogs' Blog
• Joan DeMartin at Bocci's Beefs
• Paris Permenter and John Bigley at DogTipper and CatTipper

Look for Cosmo at BlogPaws and I should be close by!

Big Ten Pub Crawl to Benefit Homeless Pets Foundation

Cosmo hangs out with Dr. Michael Good,
an Atlanta area veterinarian and founder
of the Homeless Pets Foundation, at a recent
Big Ten fundraising event

I can think of two great reasons to partake in this weekend's Big Ten Pub Crawl in Atlanta.

• First, if you live in the Southeast and you attended a Big Ten school, no doubt you're tired of all the barking (Georgia style), Florida Gator antics and anything else the SEC and ACC schools have to offer. Here's your chance to be surrounded by the glory that is the Big Ten (GO BLUE!).
• Second, this year's Big Ten Crawl is benefitting the Homeless Pets Foundation, created in 1998 to aid abandoned and homeless animals AND to bring people and animals together to enrich each other's lives. 

The Big Ten Alumni Club of Atlanta raised more than $25,000 for charities in past events, and it's hoping to "crush that number" this year! All net proceeds from the pub crawl with benefit Homeless Pets Foundation. 

Here's how to learn more about the pub crawl and buy tickets. The event starts tomorrow, Aug. 20 at 3 p.m. in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. 

A little more about the Homeless Pets Foundation

The Homeless Pets Foundation has placed more than 10,000 pets in loving homes since its inception in 1998. It's currently comprised of three different entities:

• Homeless Pets Adoption -- adopts out animals through Town and Country Veterinary Clinics in the Atlanta area, and cares for the many dogs and cats in the program. Learn more about how to adopt.
• Homeless Pet Clubs -- partners with schools and workplaces to help adopt out animals. Learn more about how to start a club for your school or workplace.
• Homeless Pets Transport -- moves animals to high-demand areas to help ensure the dogs and cats find loving homes.

To learn more, donate or volunteer, visit www.homelesspets.com.

Cosmo says, get off your sofa and get in the game to help homeless pets...

Cosmo's a champion for homeless pets and for the mighty Wolverines. Go Blue!

Giveaway: Cesar Canine Cuisine and Treats!

Cosmo just about jumped out of his furs when these goodies arrived. Good thing the nice folks at Cesar sent us two packages -- one for Cosmo to devour and one for us to give away to a one lucky winner!

Here's what you can win:

• Seven Cesar Canine Cuisine entrées in flavors like Filet Mignon, Grilled Steak and Eggs and Chicken and Cheddar Cheese Soufflé. The last two flavors are from the Cesar Sunrise collection. Yum!
• One adorable purse-shaped bag of Cesar's new Softies Medley treats.  These are the same delicious treats Cosmo sampled at BlogPaws last year, but now they come with three yummy flavors in one bag -- Porterhouse Steak, Grilled Chicken and Applewood Smoked Bacon. And they're shaped like cute little bones, hearts and paws!
• One fabulous t-shirt, human-size large, that any small dog lover will enjoy wearing!

Cosmo thoroughly enjoyed sampling the entrées as a topper on his regular dry dog food and he ripped into the bag of softies before we could even finish our photo shoot! We find the softies great for training or on dog walks because they are soft enough to be broken into even smaller pieces for more treat enjoyment.

Here's how to enter:

• Leave a comment on this post and tell me a little about your small dog.

That's all you have to do to enter, but here are a few more ways to get extra entries:

• Follow our blog (on the right sidebar where it says "join this site")
• Like our To Dog With Love Facebook fan page
• Like Cosmo Havanese's Facebook fan page 
• Leave a note on this blog post telling us you followed or liked us!

Entries will be open until Tuesday, August 23 at midnight ET and the winner will be announced on this blog on Thursday, August 25. U.S. entries only are eligible to win. Be sure to leave your email address in your comment if your comment doesn't link back to some way to contact you. 

Disclaimer: Cesar provided us with the prize packages to sample and give away. The opinions posted from me and Cosmo are our own.  Cosmo provides proof, below:

Once the photo shoot is complete, Cosmo tears into the Softies Medley Treat bag.

Mission acccomplished, he moves on to the Cesar Canine Cuisine entrées.

Wait a minute Cosmo! We need to open these first! I guarantee the inside will taste much better.

Don't forget to leave your comment below to enter. And learn about more fantastic giveaways at the Fido's Freebie Friday Blog Hop hosted by All Things Dog Blog and Doggies and Stuff.

Wordless Wednesday: Cosmo and Riley

It's me, Cosmo here, back from my weekend trip to Chicago to visit my cousin Riley.

I'm in Riley's backyard here. Nice and cool in the ivy...

We look like we're about the same size here, don't we?! Hee hee, look again!...

Riley's a Goldendoodle, I'm about the size of his head.

More of my Chicago adventures later pals. I got to see Niqqi and Jinx and ride on a boat and look at all the tall buildings! We'll post more pics later!

More fun from the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop!

My 7 Links: Our Addition to the Tripbase blog post project

Thanks to Champion of My Heart for tagging us in Tripbase's My 7 Links blog post project, created to unite bloggers of all types to dig up some of their favorite posts that deserve to see the light of day again.  The idea is, we post our links in the 7 categories below and then we nominate five bloggers to carry on the torch.

So here we go:

1. Most beautiful post: Travel to Italy with Your Dog: Arriving in Rome

This post makes me feel like we're in Rome all over again. You can see it, hear it and almost taste it!

Grab your cappuccino and brioche and read on!

2. Most controversial post: The Hundstol Dog High Chair from Ikea

Ok, so we're not very controversial. But this post stirred up a lot of fun speculation whether this was real or not! Some folks even believed Cosmo actual toured the Ikea factory in Sweden!! ROTFBOL! Afterall, he did travel to Italy, so why not?!

We did follow up with a confession!

3. Most helpful post: How To Prepare Your Dog for a Long Plane Flight

This one answers the age old question: To Pee or Not to Pee...

Cosmo checks out the dog park at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport

Speaking of pet travel, our Travel Bag Comfort post has some pretty useful tips too.

4. Post whose success surprised us:  Iams Will Donate 50 Bowls of Food for Every Tweet with #CosmoIH4TH and The Final Count is in for #CosmoIH4TH

The anipal community never ceases to suprise us with their support, passion and generosity. This time, they rallied together to help raise 297,600 meals donated to animal shelters in need as part of the Iams' Home for the Holiday's program.

Cosmo led the charge on this program!

5. Post that didn't get the attention it deserved: A Walk Through Parco della Villa Borghese

Just a simple post of a lovely walk through a lovely park in Italy. Don't miss it, it you plan to be in Rome with your dog!

6. Post we're most proud of: Noms for a Cause

One of our first blog posts, we took the Be The Change for Pets challenge and organized a neighborhood pet food drive. Together our neighbors donated 230 pounds of pet food to our local food pet food bank.

Passing on the torch

Here are the five bloggers who graciously accepted our challenge to keep this relay alive!

Carol Bryant at Fido Friendly Blog
Prudence and Ashley at Of Cows' Tails and Chew Toys
Mary and Roxy at The Traveling Dog
Ryan Rice at Houston Dog Blog
Monica Ricci at Your Life. Organized

Wordless Wednesday: Fore Dog With Love

Cosmo provides golf guidance at the PGA Championship practice round at Atlanta Athletic Club. Practice, practice, practice...

More photo fun at the BlogPaws Worldess Wednesday Blog Hop!

Dr. Marcie Campion talks about the newest recipes from IAMS Naturals

Dr. Marcie Campion and her pup Tucker

We recently had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Marcie Campion, nutritionist and scientific relations manager for IAMS/P&G Pet Care, about the newest recipes from IAMS in its Naturals line of pet foods:

• New IAMS Sensitive Naturals, ideal for dogs with ingredient sensitivities and avoids common ingredients that cause itching and scratching
• New IAMS Simple & Natural, simply made for dogs for 100 percent nutrition and contains no fillers

Since Cosmo has allergies that cause itching and scratching, we were especially interested in what Dr. Campion had to say.

We learned that IAMS worked closely with pet experts like animal nutritionists to develop these two new natural recipes to meet the needs of dog owners who either want a simply made dog food with highest quality ingredients or one that is carefully designed to address specific issues that may cause itching and scratching.

Here’s what Dr. Campion had to say:

TDWL: What exactly is Naturals. Is it organic?

Dr. Campion: Naturals isn’t organic, AAFCO (Association Of American Feed Control Officials) created guidelines for pet food companies to use when developing “Natural” recipes. Only ingredients that have elements derived solely from plant, animal or mined sources can be included in a “Natural” recipe. All of the IAMS Naturals recipes, Simple & Natural, IAMS Sensitive Naturals and Healthy Naturals were developed using these guidelines.

TDWL: How did you come up with the new recipes?

Dr. Campion: Natural nutrition can make all the difference for many dogs whether they have ingredients sensitivities or just seem to thrive on a more simple recipe. IAMS Sensitive Naturals is a specially formulated recipe designed to limit ingredients that may cause your dog to itch and scratch, while IAMS Simple & Natural is made with chicken as the number one ingredient and no corn, wheat, soy or meat by-products*.

While these new products are designed for consumers with a more natural (vs. scientific) mindset, these products are fully consistent with our nutritional philosophy, where we are first concerned with enhancing the health and well-being of dogs and cats.  For instance, IAMS believes that dogs and cats are best fed as carnivores, so the main source of protein in our new Naturals diet comes from animal sources (fish or chicken in this case).  We also packed our new recipes with ingredients like vitamin E and other antioxidants for a strong immune system and prebiotics for digestive health.

*Official Feed Term, AAFCO

TDWL: When you say ‘ingredient sensitivities’ – do you mean food allergies?

Dr. Campion: Well, only your vet can determine if your pet has food allergies. Many allergic reactions, such as excessive itching and scratching can be caused by sensitivities to certain ingredients.

TDWL:  What’s the difference between IAMS Naturals and IAMS Healthy Naturals?

Dr. Campion:  With the introduction of our new products, IAMS Healthy Naturals is now part of a larger “IAMS Naturals” family.  The IAMS Naturals family includes two new products - IAMS Simple & Natural and IAMS Sensitive Naturals. IAMS Healthy Naturals continues to offer seven recipes (three for cats and four for dogs) for consumers looking to keep their pets healthy with ingredients they recognize like real chicken, fish, or lamb meal, wholesome grains, fruits, and vegetables.

TDWL:  What is the price point of the new recipes?

Dr. Campion:  All IAMS Simple & Natural and Sensitive Naturals have an MSRP of $11.99 for a 5-pound bag, $19.99 for a 10.5-pound bag and $38.99 for a 25-pound bag. 

TDWL:  How should someone safely switch their pet from the food they’re currently feeding to this if they want their dog or cat to try it?

Dr. Campion:  Switching your dog to a new food takes some planning and should be done gradually. The most successful way to ease your dog into the change in diet would be to start by mixing 25 percent new food with 75 percent old food. Slowly change the proportions over the next three days or so by gradually increasing the new food and lessening the amount of the old food. At the end of this weaning process, you should be feeding 100 percent of the new food.

To learn more about IAMS Naturals, visit www.Iams.com/natural or www.facebook.com/iams. All IAMS Naturals recipes are available at pet specialty stores, mass retailers and grocers.

Look Who's in Fido Friendly This Month!

This month's issue of Fido Friendly magazine is extra special! It's the celebration of the mag's 50th anniversary issue AND Cosmo and I are featured in it! See the image below. These photos were taking during our trip to Italy... guess what lake Cosmo is enjoying!! Answer below the image...



Cosmo is sitting in front of the beautiful Lake Como. So speaking of beauties at Lake Como... who do you think is more handsome -- Cosmo Havanese or George Clooney?!!!

For more weekend fun, let's head over to the Saturday Pet Blogger Hop!

Giveaway Winner: SturdiBag Pet Carrier

Me and Cosmo, in his SturdiBag,
during a rcent trip to Chicago

If you're planning a trip with your pet, it's so important to have a quality carrier that both you and your pet are comfortable with.  We've been using the SturdiBag the past few years, traveling twice to Italy and all across the United States. So we were so excited when the folks at SturdiProducts, makers of the SturdiBag, provided a large SturdiBag, the size Cosmo travels in, for our To Dog With Love birthday giveaway!

So without further ado, the winner of our SturdiBag Pet Carrier giveaway is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Maura Warnecke, who says she'd like to win a bag "so both my little mutts can travel all over with me on vacation and to agility/nosework matches around the U.S.!"

Maura, if you're ever traveling to Atlanta for agility, let us know. We just might be competing too!

Thanks to all who entered our giveaway. And safe and happy travels this summer!

Wordless Wednesday: Doggie in the Window

Next best place to Cosmo's backyard for squirrel watching is a window view of treetops!

Now let's head on over to the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop!