Ok so it’s one more day until Halloween, but I just couldn’t wait any longer to reveal my 2013 Halloween Costume!
Fittingly I decided to dress as another Hero of sorts, Raphael the Ninja Turtle, who even happens to be named after a famous painter. So I thought it was pretty appropriate that I chose to dress as him, since I am a painter as well!
Now being a Ninja Turtle doesn’t come without it’s own set of responsibilities. I don’t just carry around my Sai’s for fun, I have to protect the city from bad guys, specifically Shredder!
While I’m fighting crime my mask helps to protect my identity, although I’m pretty sure there aren’t too many masked turtles running around the city, but nonetheless!
I’ll let you in on a little secret though, the real reason I chose to dress as a Ninja Turtle is I hear they get all the pizza they can eat!
Weapons, pizza, and heroes – now that’s my kind of costume!
I even have an awesome turtle shell that my mom made to protect me from attacks! (and special thanks to Rebel Wag for custom making me my turtle hoodie) I’m totally ready for battle!
So when the darkness creeps in tomorrow on Halloween, you better watch out…..
….because nobody, and I mean nobody, is gonna touch my pizza while I’m on duty!
Cowabunga, Dude!
P.S. I’d love to see what creative costumes all my fans have come up with! So post your pets Halloweenie costumes this year on my Facebook page so we can all oooh and ahhhh over your adorable puppies!
With Halloween just around the corner, things have gotten quite spooky around my house. Over the weekend my mom and dad held their annual Halloween party, and while you’ll still have to wait just a bit longer to see my homemade costume for this year, I couldn’t help but get into the spooky spirit!
Pretty scary right?
My mom told me that all the ghouls and ghosts come out at night to haunt little puppies who do naughty things during the day.
I might just start hiding under the covers now! Eek!
Disclaimer: This review and giveaway is brought to you by Sleepypod.
One of the benefits to having a small dog is the ability to easily travel with them. So when Sleepypod, makers of all the things necessary to travel with your small pet, offered me up the chance to test out their Sleepypod Air Travel Bag and Sidekick Bike Rack I couldn’t wait to get riding!
The Sleepypod Air has all the bells and whistles needed for a comfortable and safe travel experience for your pet. The Air can even be used to safely transport your pet in the car (by attaching the bag with a seatbelt), and is also airline approved. It comes in 5 yummy colors (jet black, dark chocolate, orange dream, glacier silver, and strawberry red), I chose the orange dream color because I thought it might reflect the light/sun more (I thought black might get hot if I was biking in the sun), and plus, who doesn’t love some color!
The Sleepypod Air is also an airline approved bag that can easily adapt to under -seat storage requirements set by different airlines. The Sleepypod Air is a great bag for Dachshunds as it is one of their largest travel bags. The ends of the bag can compress from a length of 22″ to 19″ and all the way down to 16″ so it can easily fit under airline seats when needed. It even folds up completely flat when not in use (so once you reach your destination it won’t take up much room in your own suitcase).
Now I haven’t tested the Air in the actual AIR, but I decided for my first adventure with it I would take it for a spin with the Sidekick bike attachment designed to work with several of Sleepypod’s pet carriers.
Before setting out on my maiden voyage bike ride I had to help Mom and Dad install it. The Sidekick is designed to be a stable base to hold a Sleepypod pet carrier on your bike.
We followed the handy directions on how to install the Sidekick and with a little supervision from yours truly I was soon ready to take it for a spin. It helps to note that it works best on bikes that contain additional eyelets on the front wheels, but have no fear if your bike doesn’t have any (mine didn’t either), Sleepypod sells additional attachments to make it work on ones without them.
Once installed on your bike the Sleepypod Air easily attaches to the rack with a few buckles that are already included with the bag.
Now I’m a bit on the large side when it comes to fitting comfortably into the Air. Weighing 18 pounds I’m a bit over the recommended weight limit for dogs of 15 pounds, but I was still able to lay down in the bag and I could even turn around in it if I really wanted to.
When it came time for my first bike ride Mom and Dad weren’t sure how I would like it. If you know me, then you know I’m not exactly thrilled about being in confined spaces like crates. But for a few weeks leading up to my ride Mom had been hiding treats in the bag around the house to convince me that it wasn’t a scary place to be.
So when I was finally zipped inside and off on my ride I was quite comfortable. The mesh lining on top of the bag is quite see-through and breathable so it helped me feel less confined. I didn’t even mind when mom made a few quick turns with the bike.
Check out the video below of me enjoying my first few rides with the Sleepypod Air and Sidekick.
Since I’m a larger dachshund my weight was a little hard for mom to handle on the front of her bike (making steering a little more difficult), but I told mom she needs to start lifting weights anyway! I’m sure you could probably install the Sidekick on the back of a bike too, making it much easier to ride with a little bit heavier of a dog. I may end up helping mom install mine on the back of our bike – just so she stops complaining that her arms are sore after our bike rides…..what a wimp!
I can’t wait for the many more bike rides that are sure to be in my future with the Sleepypod Air & Sidekick!
And now for the best part…
ONE Lucky WINNER will WIN a Sleepypod Air! (winner chooses color)
Here’s HOW TO WIN:
For this giveaway I will be using, Rafflecopter. We only use the information you provide to contact the winners and we never share it – so not to worry. Winners will be chosen at random and you will be contacted via e-mail to claim your prize. All the winners will also be announced on this blog post once the giveaway ends on 11/5/13 12AM EST. Open to US Residents Only. Winners must claim their prizes within 48 hours of being notified or prize will be forfeited. Good luck!
Disclaimer: This review is brought to you by Glowdoggie.
You may remember me mentioning my pals (Hi Liela & Harriet!) over at Glowdoggie a time or two, as I am no stranger to their LED lighted collars. I own several in many of their varying colors (yellow, blue, red, green) that I wear daily on the farm, in my backyard, and even on nightly walks at this time of year, but did you know that they also make girly colors? Like pink?
With October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I thought it was the perfect time to show some pink around here, so I enlisted the help of my female friend, Shilah the Husky, to model one of Glowdoggies pink ultra collars.
Stunning, right?
I can’t say enough good things about the Glowdoggie product, they’re durable, waterproof, long-lasting (using batteries to keep them glowing), and bright.
And since this is MY BLOG, I couldn’t let Shilah have all the fun – so I broke out my Glowdoggie mini in yellow so I could get in on the photoshoot fun.
Shilah may be pretty in in pink, but I’m manly in yellow!
I’m pretty sure we could be super models, especially after I taught Shilah the Blue Steel look.
Well I guess that is until you see our outtakes, in my defense a bug flew in my mouth, and Shilah thought she saw a bird!
So if you are looking for something to keep your pet safe this fall and winter, make sure you check out Glowdoggie. I always wear mine on Halloween (or during Halloween parties) on the off chance someone “accidentally” lets me out (which MAY have happened before). But with the Glowdoggie I’m never hard to spot in the dark, which keeps me safe from cars and makes it easier for my family to spot me.
Disclosure: Shilah received a glowdoggie collar to use in these photos. All opinions are entirely my own and I truly love this company and it’s products!
Recently I helped mom come up with a button design for my etsy shop, because everyone loves a good button! You can put them everywhere – on your book bag, on your shirt, on your friends shirt, on anything you want!
Blindingly bright yellow and featuring my logo and favorite saying, “Adventure Awaits”, these buttons are now available in my etsy shop! And for the time being I’ll also be sending them out in every purchase from my shop too! It’s my little gift to you!
Halloween is just around the corner and while I already have my costume planned out I thought it would be fun to round-up some of my favorite costumes for pets – incase you still haven’t decided yet. So here are a few of my spooky faves this year!
Unknown to me until recently there is this whole world out there of secret dog agility toys. Toys designed to encourage dogs to jump, run, and soar over the agility equipment. Toys that any dog would love – regardless of whether or not they love dog agility too.
So I convinced my mom that since I’m training so hard in my weekly dog agility classes that I MUST have some of these dog agility training toys. So mom purchased me a few goodies from Clean Run.
This jackpot and tug toy is designed to win over even the toughest of critics. I only use this one when I’m training, but it’s mighty mighty fun to “kill”.
These handy toys are called food tubes. Stuff them with a yummy treats (dried hotdogs were my choice) and then you can shake them to get your dogs attention and even toss them. The handy top makes dispensing them super easy (which is totally my kind of toy).
My favorite of the toys is the rip n tug treat dispensing ball. You put your dog’s favorite treats in the center, then velco it closed.
I’ve been having a blast playing fetch with this ball, then ripping it apart to grab my treats.
Now where exactly has this hidden world of dog agility toys been all my life! It’s a magical magical world, and as I’ve already told mom, I think I need to test them all now!
P.S. if you’re interested in dog agility and want to try the fun activity with your dog too, make sure you check out our sponsor The Dog Agility Shop, for great materials to make inexpensive DIY agility equipment for your own backyard.
Disclosure: I was not paid or perked to write about these toys or this company. I purchased these toys with my own monies, and simply wanted to share the goodness with all of you!
For those of you who follow me on Facebook I’m sure you have been on the edge of your seats waiting for me to share all my adventures from this past weekend at the Yuengling Oktoberfest event in Bethlehem, Pennyslvania.
Well after obtaining my special Puppy Pass (for VIP Dachshunds only) I was excited to attend my very first Oktoberfest!
I was super excited to see some fellow germans at the Oktoberfest – I felt right at home immediately!
I had fun touring around the event, everything smelled so wonderful, especially the sausages and beer!
I quickly began to make new friends – the german ladies loved me, what can I say I’m a handsome guy!
Even the children couldn’t keep their hands off me!
I had fun soaking up the culture, and after watching some german dances I was definitely ready for the main event – the Dachshund Races!
The Dachshunds came from all over to race, and there was even a few other super heroes in the mix besides myself!
I even got to meet one of my Facebook friends, Super Dash, who came sporting a bowtie his mom made him from my DIY Bowtie tutorial!
There were dachshunds big and small – some twice my size, some half my size, but everyone came for one reason – to race for the title of Champion!
With over 40 Dachshunds competing I knew it was going to be pretty tough to beat them all. But after winning a few of the preliminary heats I was pretty confident I could make it to the top. And after showing off a few of my favorite tricks I was clearly the crowd favorite to win when I made it to the final race!
Just watch what happened yourself….
If you had trouble telling what happened – it’s because mom’s camera skills were not so stellar. She said it was difficult to film me and call my name/shake cookies at the same time. Excuses, excuses.
Regardless, I won 3 preliminary heats, beating out some really fast weenies – and earning myself a spot in the final against 2 other super fast dachshunds. The final race was run and I came in at a photo finish with a dachshund named Tucker – who had me beat in size by a lot! So the judges decided to re-run the race, just me and Tucker.
I like to think I won that final race, but since it was so close to call the judges said Tucker won by just a nose!
Even though I didn’t win the coveted Champion title, reserve champ still came with some pretty nice perks. I got to take home this hand-blown glass dog bone from the ArtsQuest Glass Blowing Studio and these yummy handmade cookies from Whisker Biscuits.
Not only that but I also brought home not one, but two dachshund cakes from the Vallos Bakery! (too bad mom says they are only for human consumption).
Even though I can’t say I’m the Dachshund Races Champion it still feels pretty great to be Reserve Champion. After all, I am still faster than a speeding bullet!
You may have already heard, but it’s official, my 2014 wall calendar has hit the shelves!
Packed with lots of photos from my adventures this past year, it’s sure to put a smile on your face each new month.
The perfect size to hang above your desk, next to your kitchen sink, or on the wall next to your bed – it even includes a bulldog clip for easy hanging.
So tell your friends, tell your mom, tell everyone you know! You can purchase one of my 2014 Calendars in my Etsy Shop! Soon I will be coming out with some Holiday cards and several new products as well, so stay tuned. And if you need even more smiles every month, make sure you check out the Painting Ponies’ 2014 Calendar too!
Style Tails‘ goal is to bring you luxury pet items with style. Style Tails seeks out the most beautifully designed and lovingly crafted products for your hip hound or cool cat. From designer dog coats, to Italian leather cat collars and luxuriously comfortable pet beds, these pieces are sure to compliment your style.
Below are a few of my favorite items..
You can fetch these fun pet products and more from Style Tails.