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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Make a great little dog tee!

When it's cold outside like it is now, sometimes you just need a tee to keep you warm inside! And a tee is good for milder days for those pups who get chilled on their walks.

Check out this nice little Instructable, how to make a dog tee from repurposed children's clothing! Bet you could pick up a very nice little children's tee from your local Goodwill for just a buck or two, if you don't have any around the house.

Recycle Children's Clothes - More DIY How To Projects

Monday, January 24, 2011

Learning CPR for your dog!

Over the years, we've read about many dogs who have been saved because their owners knew what to do when their dogs were choking and/or stopped breathing.

Just the other day we read about a by-stander that saved a pup after he was trapped and rescued from a home fire. This wonderful by-stander brought the pup back to life for his loving family!

Back in 2007, we read about our friend Tish and how she saved her dog Cruella with CPR. That story inspired us to make a Squidoo lens on the subject, because we thought it was so important to share.

So get reading! And, take the time to sign up with your local Red Cross and learn CPR for your dog...you never know when you may need it!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Make a cute little dog sweater from old sweat pants!

At Raise A Green Dog we are all about reducing, reusing, recycling and repurposing!

We came across this nice little Instructable that we wanted to share with you. How you can make a cute little dog sweater from old cotton sweat pants and keep your pup warm in this chill!

Make a warm dog vest from sweatpants leg - More DIY How To Projects

Monday, January 17, 2011

Winter health and safety tips for the Green Dog!

Winter is here!!! And we wanted to remind you of some of our Green Dog Winter Survival Tips!

There are a lot of dangers in the winter months for us dogs. Here are our top tips for keeping your green dog, or aspiring green dog safer during this time of the year.

#1 Salt and other chemicals used to melt snow and ice are really very unhealthy and dangerous for your dog. They can ingest these chemicals by licking their feet and potentially become sick! Keep your pup away from streets and sidewalks with snow and ice melting chemicals to avoid ingestion, and be sure and clean up their paws when coming inside after a nice walk with a good safe plant based soap and water.

As an alternative to melt the ice and snow, use one of the safer products like Safe Paw Ice Melter. It's not only safe for your pup, but safe for the environment too! Or you can do what we do, put down a few non-skid mats on your outside steps, or patio temporarily. We do it and it works great!

#2 When it gets below freezing, it's just not safe for us dogs to be out in the cold for any length of time. Even a half hour in frigid temperatures can cause problems. Be sure to keep a sharp eye on your dog’s body temperature and never leave him in the yard for more than 10 minutes when temperatures dip below freezing.

To keep them warm when they go out to do their 'biz,' don't hesitate to put a nice warm dog coat, like the West Paw CloudBurst Dog Jacket (and even boots, if necessary) on your pup. They need it. Even a sporting dog like me, will wear both if it makes me more comfy outside. Yes, I'll even wear boots! Try these Pawz Biodegradable Natural Dog Boots, or make your own from reused items in your home!

#3 Trim the excess fur from footpads and toes of long haired dogs. It makes it a lot more comfortable for our toes in the snow. That fur is a catalyst for building up those painful and nasty ice balls between our toes. And you can add a little Salmon Oil or Olive Oil on their paws to keep the ice balls from forming, and they can lick it off safely when they come in?

#4 Be very careful with your dogs around rivers, creeks, ponds and lakes. Dogs are drawn to those areas and during the winter months they can be deceivingly dangerous. They may look frozen, but many times they aren't and the water can be super cold, creating hypothermia, just like in humans.

#5 Did you know that dogs can get frostbite? A dog’s ears, feet and tail are highly susceptible to frostbite. So be aware and limit our time outdoors. And keep this link handy. It has great info on recognizing hypothermia and frostbite in dogs, and what to do if you suspect a danger.

#6 My sis Gracie loves to eat snow. A little isn't too bad for us dogs and Gracie thinks its fun, so Mum let's her eat a little. But snow is not a substitute for water. Even in the harshest part of winter, make sure your pup has fresh drinking water available at all time. And remember, filtered is best.

#7 During the winter months, you may be utilizing an additional heating source, like a fireplace. These heating sources can be dangerous to dogs. Be sure and keep an eye on your dog around them, or use a barrier, like an x-pen for safety.

#8 Watch out for that anti freeze! It can leak onto driveways and roads and it smells and tastes really good to dogs. But it is highly poisonous and can be lethal to your canine companion if ingested. Keep this phone number and link (from the ASPCA), as well as your vet and emergency vet number, just in case of an emergency. And keep away from the green stuff!

#9 Don't let your dog off the leash on snow or ice, especially during a snowstorm. Did you know that dogs can lose their scent and easily become lost during these times? More dogs are lost during the winter than during any other season, so make sure yours always wear ID tags, and keep 'em safe, K?

#10 Running around in the snow is one of my absolute favorite things to do. But Mum only let's me when it's safely warm enough. And we don't do it for long. If your dog spends a lot of time engaged in safe outdoor activities during the winter months and is used to it, increase their supply of food, particularly protein, to keep 'em in tip-top shape.

And when it warms up a bit, get out there and have fun with your dog! One of our favorite things is hiking in the snow when it warms up a bit. This past weekend we hiked up the ridge! The snow was soft and the tempers were in the mid 40's! So much fun!

Stay green and safe, K?

Friday, January 7, 2011

What's in your bottled water?

Ahhh, the age old question...What water is the best, healthiest, safest? Bottled, tap, filtered?

Today our friends at the Environmental Working Group have answered many of those questions through their new report "What’s In Your Bottled Water – Besides Water?"

"Since July 2009, when Environmental Working Group released its groundbreaking Bottled Water Scorecard, documenting the industry's failure to disclose contaminants and other crucial facts about their products, bottled water producers have been taking withering fire from consumer and environmental groups.

A new EWG survey of 173 unique bottled water products finds a few improvements – but still too many secrets and too much advertising hype. Overall, 18 percent of bottled waters fail to list the source, and 32 percent disclose nothing about the treatment or purity of the water. Much of the marketing nonsense that drew ridicule last year can still be found on a number of labels."

The EWG, like us here at Raise A Green Dog, recommend that you drink filtered tap water. From all of our research, we believe it to be the healthiest and safest alternative to water consumption. And we definitely recommend water filtration for your Green Dog!

And when you're out and about, fill some great reusuable, BPA free bottles and take your water with you.

Not only will you save money, but you will be drinking the purest water, and save all that plastic in landfills!

Check out EWG's widget (on the right nav bar of our blog) to see how your bottled water stacks up. And to read more about water, see our blog post, "Water, the basis of a dog's life."

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Great site to find good for you food and treats, shipped right to your dooor!

We posted about this on our companion blog, JohannTheDog.com, yesterday and thought it was definitely worth sharing with our Green Dog readers too!

Lately we've been using a new company to purchase our cat litter, some cat food and kibble for training; and we were very excited to find them.

Petflow has an amazing selection of super high quality cat and dog foods, cat litters, treats and a few other staples. And they have all the great foods that we like, other than raw of course. They have Fromm, Orijen, Halo, Stella & Chewey's, Honest Kitchen, Go!, Taste of the Wild and lots more! And they have our favorite cat litter, too, World's Best Cat Litter.

We have several requirements when we price and shop compare. Is the quality what we require? Is the customer service, A+? Can we save money? Are we supporting small and/or local business? Are we reducing our carbon pawprint?

Since we've moved to the Mountains of Tennessee it's very difficult for us to find many dog and cat staples, and we have to travel over two hours both ways to stock up once a week. So when we found PetFlow we were very excited because it met all of our criteria, saving us a lot of time, money, gas and wear and tear on the car. Since we don't have a local business to support we are glad to support a new and innovative small pet business.

Our first shipment was cat food and cat litter, weighing in at a whopping 45 lbs. And we got it all with free shipping! If we would have purchased that amount of product at that weight from any other online shop it would have been so cost prohibitive. Yesterday we got another shipment of cat staples and it was free too!

It's a scheduled delivery service, so you need to order and set up subsequent deliveries. But you are locked into the shipping price for however long you are signed up for regular shipments.

Right now Petflow has an offer on their site that you can get free shipping if you purchase $65.00 or more and sign up for scheduled deliveries. And we've heard this offer is going to last all week. Otherwise the shipping is just $4.95 for all that you order, which is still super inexpensive. Cool huh?

Definitely worth a look in our opinion.

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