Write a Post, Help a Dog 2012! Pedigree will donate a bag of food for every post written! #BlogPaws #Dogsrule

As we head to this year's BlogPaws pet blogger conference in Salt Lake City, Cosmo and I once again have the honor of participating in the Pedigree Write a Post, Help a Dog campaign! Now in it's third year, the program has generated 650 blog posts and 6.5 TONS of food to help feed shelter dogs! 

Here's how you can help too!

Simply write a blog post from now until midnight on Saturday, June 30 and mention Pedigree's commitment to adoption and finding shelter dogs loving homes. For each post, Pedigree will donate a 17-pound bag of Pedigree Dry Dog Food to a shelter in need. 

You can use any of the wording or images you find in this blog post. Or perhaps get some inspiration from the Pedigree Adoption website. It's up to you! Just write a post and a shelter dog wins.

Once you write your post, add it to our Blog Hop below, so we can see the collective effort for helping  feed more shelter dogs! And remember, any type of blog can post to help a shelter dog, so please spread the word! Update: Once you post, enter our Rafflecopter giveaway for some fab Dogs Rule swag! 

At BlogPaws, along with eight other Pedigree-sponsored bloggers, we'll be handing out postcards like the yellow images you see above. We hope that everyone will write a post and spread the word so we can reach our goal of 450 posts for a total donation of 7,650 pounds of food!

The sooner you post, the more people will see it! So go ahead and Write a Post and Help a Dog! You know you want to!

Cosmo wants you to write a post too! This photo was taken after he worked his paws off at BlogPaws West in Denver 2010, the first year of the Pedigree Write a Post, Help a Dog campaign.  Cosmo reminds you that you can use any of the info in this post, including his photo if you want to! 

And here's a badge image you can use too! Feel free to use it in your post or on your sidebar! We linked the badge on our sidebar to http://www.pedigreefoundation.org/.

And now, to officially introduce the Pedigree-sponsored bloggers!

• Paris Permenter and John Bigley from DogTipper and CatTipper
• Joan DeMartin from Bocci's Beefs
• Ashley Niels and Nikki Jeske from I Love Rescue Animals
• Debbie Jacobs from Fearfuldogs' Blog
• Missy Johnson from Dogs for the PAWS
• Laurie Eno from The Daily Corgi

Disclosure: We are sponsored by Pedigree at BlogPaws; we are not compensated any other way for our posts.

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!

Pedigree Canine Nutrition Summit: Behind the Scenes

I couldn't keep from smiling when entering the Mars Petcare headquarters
when I saw all the happy dogs who come to work here every day!

During a recent trip to Mars Petcare Headquarters US in Nashville, Tenn.,  for the Pedigree Canine Nutrition Summit, we had the opportunity to learn a whole lot of great things about the Pedigree brand and what it's like to work at Mars Petcare, including:

• Poop is a daily topic of conversation (more on that later)
• The science behind the newest Pedigree Dry Recipe
• Employees bring their dogs to work. Yay!
• There's an endless supply of chocolate (the next best thing to dogs)
• The new X-shaped kibble tastes a little like a Triscuit. Not too bad, I might add...

Along with 11 other bloggers, we got the chance to tour headquarters and meet with lots of knowledgable folks from Pedigree US and the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition. Here's a behind-the-scenes peak at our visit!

How can you not love coming to work everyday, when you get to bring your favorite four-legger! Everyday is bring your dog to work day at Mars Petcare HQ, and they even host pet adoption fairs on-site!  At Pedigree, they say "pets make a better world for us and we make a better world for pets." That came through loud and clear during our visit.

Pets even got to attend our sessions during the summit! During one of the sessions, Dr. Ralph Merrill, left, told us all about the 4 Universal Needs of Dogs, a breakthrough in canine nutrition developed by the Pedigree Brand team and the researchers at the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition in Leicestershire, England. On the right, that's Lisa Campbell, a Pedigree senior brand manager, and her pup Sweet Pea! Campbell explained how the new Pedigree dry recipes were formulated based on the 4 Universal Needs so that all dogs have access to leading nutrition.

On one of our favorite topics, Merrill explained that poop should be almost kickable. Thanks Maria Goodavage for summing up the scoop on poop on Dogster's For the Love of Dog Blog. 

We played some fun games to learn more about pet nutrition, and of course had an endless supply of Mars candies from which to choose! 

A few of my favorite things: Dogs and Candy...

Then, we got a closer look at the new Pedigree dry food formulations...

And even got to taste the new X-shaped kibble, which which helps reduce plaque and tartar build-up.  Not everyone opted for the tast test... but believe me, it's pretty darn palatable!

We met the fabulous Rosie, a rescue dog who was featured in a Pedigree Foundation poster during last year's pet adoption drive. Rosie has since been adopted by a Mars Petcare employee!

And we got to visit with some fabulous bloggie buddies and the Pedigree folks we met at BlogPaws last year.  Bloggers in this photo include, Felissa Elfenbein, Two Little Cavaliers; Paris Permenter and John Bigley, Dogtipper;  Deborah Flick, Boulder Dog; Debbie Jacobs, Fearful Dogs;  Ashley Niels, I Love Rescue Animals;  Maria Goodavage, Dogster Dog Blog; Michelle Maskaly, My Tail Hurts from Wagging So Much; Ryan Rice, Houston Dog Blog; Sharon Castellanos, Grouchy Puppy; Janet McCulley, The Daily Treat: Animal Planet, and of course me, Diane Silver. 

Can't wait to see you all again real soon. And thank you Pedigree for sponsoring this trip!