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by Carrie Boyko, CEB

Hello from All Things Dog Blog
By Carrie Boyko
In our mutual efforts to help dogs live happier lives, Adopt-a-Pet has been rubbing elbows with a new friend. On the All Things Dog Blog, I share tips, tricks and generally helpful knowledge for keeping your family and your dog happy and healthy. My pack-oriented approach comes from owning 3 dogs, a diverse group of mixed and pure breeds, all of whom once were on the brink of homelessness. My Golden Retriever, Tanner, was adopted as the last available male pup from a litter of 12. Tanner’s physical features, such as a knobby head and extra height, are not exactly up to par for his breed, yet his temperament was exactly what I was looking for.
This high-activity, athletic dog matched my personality perfectly, and off we went to prepare for a life of vigorous outdoor fun. My pack of 3 includes 2 additional rescues--Retriever-mix, Xena, and a once-sickly, Papillon cast-off from a pet store--Oliver. Each has brought their own special brand of joy to my family of 5. On my blog, I share many ideas on activities to keep your pups busy, stimulated, and physically-challenged, such as walking and hiking, biking, running, swimming, playing fetch, Frisbee and running agility courses.
The focus of maintaining my 3 dogs’ cohesiveness as a pack, has been in constantly training with discipline, obedience classes, and plenty of socialization. Dog park visits are a regular part of our routine, providing plenty of stimulation, socialization, and the always-welcome opportunity to run off-leash. With this love of dog parks has come a comittedness to protecting these assets. After declaring National Clean Dog Park Awareness Week, I started a website, Adopt a Dog Park, designed to remind owners of their part in maintaining our precious dog parks. I am hopeful that others will catch on to participate in helping to care for their local parks as this website is passed among dog owners. The goal is to register volunteer park caretakers, showing the world that we care about our dog parks. You can adopt your local park by writing to LetsAdoptaDogPark@gmail.com.
All Things Dog Blog’s readers have enjoyed some highlights from Adopt-a-Pet’s Blog, and we are doing our part to support your cause. We will continue to offer Adopt-a-Pet’s search boxes to promote adoption among our readers. In addition, we will publish another post on April 9, 2010, sharing additional insights on Adopt-a-Pet.
When thinking about my proudest moments in starting and building my website, I suppose there are three that come to mind first:
· Adding an Ask a Vet column, with veterinarian Jacki Bert
· Starting an ASK THE TRAINER column, with trainer Judith Joseph
· Seeing a rescue dog that was once listed on my site, find a forever home and become a notable Frisbee dog. His owner, Chris Engle, has now written a series of articles for my, blog entitled Frisbee Dog 101. I hope you will take an opportunity to enjoy this extremely educational series of 5 posts.
I invite you to visit our site at All Things Dog Blog, and be sure to take advantage of a free subscription to my posts, so you won’t miss a one. The subscription box is in the top right sidebar. I’ll look forward to your visit for a dose of ‘dog doings’, as I continue to share more about happy dogs and their ‘forever families’.