Walk for Dog Guides - Toronto (High Park) on May 29th

Hey guys! I just want to give you a quick update on something we are participating in next month that means a lot to me.

Troy, Zak (my boyfriend), and I will be taking part in this year's Purina Walk For Dog Guides at High Park on May 29th. If you don't have any plans for that day I strongly encourage you to come walk with us! If you're already planning on being there, I can't wait to meet you! 

Every dog guide from the Lions Foundation is provided at no cost to the client. Each dog costs approximately 25 thousand dollars to raise and train as a puppy. Since Troy was given to me at no cost, I want to be able to pay it forward in some way. The walk for Dog Guides is where I am starting.

My fundraising goal for this year is 500 dollars. We have raised 131 dollars so far and with your help I am confident that we can get Team Troy to $500! I would really appreciate it if you could share our fundraising page or this blog post to help us achieve our goal. 

Here is the link to our page where you can donate:

https://www.purinawalkfordogguides.com/locations/team.cfm?ID=136

Once again, thank you for reading our blog! If you cannot donate, you can still help us reach our goal by walking with us and/or sharing our story with your friends :) 

Canadian Pet Expo: Day 2

Saturday was our second (and last) day at the pet expo. We brought my boyfriend's little sister which is why we went a second day. Friday was very exhausting for both Troy and I so I was a little worried that a second day would be too much to handle. Fortunately, it was much less busy on Saturday compared to Friday. 

We spent most of the morning just walking around and getting more free samples. We also stopped by the Peachy Keen Pets booth to pick up a new collar for Troy. We special ordered it the day before (because we wanted a specific fabric - retro pac man, and a chain martingale style) and it was ready to be picked up on Saturday! Not only is the collar really great quality, the owner of the company is super sweet. I will definitely be ordering all of our future collars and accessories from her. My boyfriend also picked up one of the dress shirt accessories for his bichon poodle. Here are a few pictures of the new collar I got for Troy: 

After visiting a few booths, we had lunch. We ate at the pulled pork food truck again (Hank Daddy's barbecue) because it was so good the day before. I hope we run into them at another expo or festival this summer. I have never had a pulled pork sandwich with as much flavour before! 

In the afternoon we spent a bit of time watching some of the dock diving shows. We also visited the exotic pet section where there was a kangaroo, red fox (which was actually black), and we got to hold a lemur! Here are a few pictures from the afternoon. 

During the afternoon we also stopped at a booth to make Troy a pet ID tag. I haven't gotten around to getting one since we came home so I'm very glad I finally picked one up with his name and my cell number on it. While waiting for the tag to be made I spotted mini cowboy hats made for dogs! I HAD to get one for Troy. I am so excited for him to wear it when we go to see zac brown band this summer (as well as the other country concerts we will be going to in the future). Here's a picture of Troy with his cowboy hat on! 

Here is a picture of everything we got on day 2. Some of these were samples (nutrience was giving out a very generous sample! The day before I thought they were for sale. I wish I picked one up both days!) and some were items I purchased (antler, liver treats, collar, cowboy hat, etc.) 

By the end of the second day, we were all extremely exhausted. 2 days at the expo was sort of unnecessary in my opinion. We could have gotten everything done on the first day (except that zaks sister wanted to come and she was busy on the Friday). We had a ton of fun though and I can't wait to go next year! It was great to see everyone, talk to people, and try out a ton of new products. I wish there were more dog vendors and a larger variety of shops though. There were only a few vendors selling toys, collars, and treats. I was expecting many more shops/dog vendors. The next large dog event we are looking forward to attending is Woofstock. I hope to see some of you there too! 

Canadian Pet Expo: Day 1

Last week I won a really amazing Facebook contest from the Canadian Pet expo. I won 6 weekend passes to the expo and a 3D model of Troy from 3-D Pet Prints!

We started our day off by walking around and saying hi to people who recognized Troy and I from the blog, Facebook, and Instagram (thanks everyone for coming up and saying hi. I love meeting you guys!). Then we grabbed a few pulled pork sandwiches from a food truck before heading to the 3D pet prints booth to get our model of Troy. 

I am so excited to share the 3D model with all of you. I am pretty sure this is the first 3D model of a Lions Foundation Dog Guide to ever exist, which makes it even more exciting. Here are a few pictures of 3D Troy. They're not the greatest quality pictures. I'll post some better ones on our Facebook page when I get home on Monday but here's a first look at the model!

After doing we got our model of Troy we did a little bit of shopping at some of the vendors. We also got a few free samples. Here are some photos of what we got today at the expo. 

The items I purchased were the 3 dental balls (small, medium, and large sizes), a tricky treat ball, a "build your own" bag of 12 gourmet dog treats from Ambers barkery, and a "happy Easter" cookie from candid K nines. All of the other items in the picture were free samples. 

I am very excited to go back again tomorrow to see some of the dog shows and get more free samples. I may pick up a few more treats as well. There were some really good prices on Merrick and Northern biscuits!

If you're going to be at the pet expo tomorrow make sure you come up and say hi to us! Troy still has some trouble with being distracted by other dogs but he did REALLY well today. We even ran into one of his trainers from Lions and she was very impressed by how well he was doing around the dogs and people! :) 

P.S. Happy Easter weekend everyone. Troy hopes your dogs (and cats!) are getting lots of extra cookies and cuddles for Easter!

Our first meet-up was a success!

On Sunday March 1st, 30 foster puppies and graduates from the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides (where I got Troy) met at Square One to socialize as well as work on some mall-training with the puppies. I organized this event and I am so grateful and overwhelmed by how successful it was! I was expecting 3-5 people to show up but we had 30 dogs plus their handlers/foster families join us! 26 of the dogs were foster puppies and 4 (including Troy) were from various dog guide programs. I even met my first Autism Assistance Dog which was really exciting!

We didn't really have a plan for the day and I think that it worked out really well. We all met in a part of the mall that isn't busy and talked for about an hour there. Then after getting the dogs used to each other and settled down, we walked into the food court (which, if you've ever been to Square One, you'll know how busy it was!). We stayed in the food court for a few hours talking to mall-goers about what Dog Guides is/what they do, the difference between a foster puppy and a fully-trained dog guide, and people even had a chance to pet the foster puppies. This was confusing for some people (especially children) because they didn't realize at first that you can't pet the fully-trained dog guides. Although Troy was pet a few times, it was a great opportunity for everyone to learn more about the rules around working dogs.

After a few hours of talking with the other fosters/handlers, working on ignoring and staying calm around so many puppies, and walking around the mall, it was definitely time for Troy to go home and take a nap. He was exhausted.

I was nervous before the outing because Troy generally has a really hard time around other dogs and gets very distracted but he was a super-star and with some treats and praise, he was able to lay down and ignore the puppies!

I am looking forward to doing something like this again. My hope is that the next meet-up we host can also be a fundraiser for LFC Dog Guides. I am working on getting the necessary paperwork completed to make that happen!

Here are a few shots from the Square One event. I did not take these pictures but I have permission to post them from the photographers. Also, a huge thank you goes out to everyone who came and I hope you all had a great time too!

The crowd surrounding all of us in the food court.

A few people showed up after this was taken but here's most of us. Thanks everyone <3

February Barkbox Review... and information on our meet-up!

Last week we got out February bark box in the mail. It is the last bark box I will be receiving as I have discovered a new box that Troy and I like even more. However that being said, our bark box was VERY cute and full of great things this month.

Here are pictures of everything that was in the box:

This month had a super cute Mardi Gras Theme!

Gluten-free Peanut Butter treats. Troy loves these! They're fairly large but easy to break so they're good for training.

Bully Stick - I don't particularly like giving these to Troy but he loves them so when we get them in boxes, he gets to eat them. This one was larger than the one we got in our December bark box but still fairly small.

Troy LOVES this rope/squeaky toy. I have to watch him carefully as he has started ripping apart his toys (especially rope ones!). So far it has held up pretty well. It still squeaks after a week and the ropes haven't been shredded apart yet.

We haven't tried these yet but he's a lab. He'll eat anything ;)

Troy LOVED this toy... until it stopped squeaking. We brought it to my boyfriend's house to share with his tiny dog.(Benji) After about 20 minutes of the little dog playing with the ball, it stopped squeaking. Now Troy could care less about it. Benji still likes it though so it will be re-homed.

This was my favourite box out of the three Bark Boxes we have received. We got another subscription box this month from Paws & Play. I will be posting our review of that shortly. I still love Barkbox but have decided to try something different for a few months. When you read my review I think you'll see why I have decided to switch companies! 

Also, if you live in the area, Troy and I will be doing a meet-up at Square One in Mississauga with a bunch of other graduates and foster puppies from Lion's Foundation Dog Guides on Sunday March 1st at 12:00. We are meeting at entrance 4 (near Lush) and would love to see you there!

A very special post...with PUPPY pictures!

About a month ago I received a package in the mail from Troy's foster mom. I haven't shared what was inside with any of you as I have been trying to find the right words to say to her (she doesn't read the blog but her friend tells her all about my updates).

Inside the package was a very sweet letter telling me all about Troy when he was a puppy. There was also a USB with pictures of Troy when he was a puppy. Here are a few of the super cute ones. I wish I had gotten to meet him when he was this little and fluffy! I believe that in these pictures he is approximately 2 months old.

This week I plan on posting an update to let you all know what we've been up to these last few weeks. I also plan on posting our Bark Box review and Paws and Play review once the boxes arrive!

I hope you're all having a great long weekend/valentine's day. If you're not, maybe these pictures will help ;)

P.S. A huge thank you goes out to Larraine for sending me these adorable pictures. I really appreciate everything you've done and there is a package coming your way in the mail very soon! :)

January 2015 Bark Box Review

Hi everyone!

Troy and I received our second bark box today (the large January 2015 box). Last month's box was great and if you didn't see that post click here to look at what we got in December.

This month's box in my opinion wasn't as amazing as the box we got last month just because there was only one toy and all of the other items were treats/food.

Here's a few pictures to show you what the box looked like.

Here's a picture of the inside of the box when you first open it. The theme this month is "Ice Age". The one and only toy included is pictured here. It is very fuzzy and soft. The arms make a crinkly noise when you touch them and the "body" of the toy has a honker inside. This is Troy's first "honking" toy. He doesn't seem to be too interested in it right now but in a few days he might enjoy it more. It took him a couple of days to love the yule log toy we got last month and then it quickly became his favourite toy.

So far these fish strips seem to be Troy's favourite product this month. As soon as I opened the box he started sniffing for these strips and I gave him one. He devoured it in less than 2 minutes (he's not a very aggressive chewer so your dog might eat it even faster!)

I haven't opened these treats yet because we have so many other types on the go right now. I know he will love them because he will eat anything - he's a lab ;)

At first I was sort of disappointed to see this product because it is dog food and I don't want to introduce new foods into his diet. However I have decided that on his birthday I will give him some of this as a treat (his birthday is May 27th).

The ingredients look pretty good!

This is a very interesting dog treat. At first I thought it was a hollow bone but then after reading the card with a description of each item in the box, I discovered it is actually a beef trachea. I'm sure Troy will love this as well and I plan on giving it to him after a hard day of work this week (probably Wednesday night).

A picture of the inside of the "tube". It's very thin so I don't anticipate this will last very long... We'll see

Overall I am happy with this month's box, I just wish there was another toy or fun item included (like last month's bandana). We are receiving another box next month but after that I haven't decided if we will continue our subscription or not.

The value of this box is good. The items total approximately 31 dollars (according to the card included) which is a pretty good deal depending on how much you pay (which varies depending on your subscription length).

If you're interested in signing up for February's box, click this link to get 10% off your order!
https://barkbox.com/r/PAETXPV37M?utm_source=old_ref&utm_medium=referrals&utm_campaign=url_copy&utm_content=100008

Did you receive a bark box this month? Was it the same? Different? I'd love to hear your thoughts below! :)