Shaggy Dog Stories

Archive for the ‘coupons’ Category

Famous Seamus has never been a very good car traveler. He absolutely loves doing dog sports and has been a terrific competition buddy, but he just hates riding in the car. He paces around the crate. He whines. He barks at pedestrians and bicycles. He chews on the bars of the crate, even when more tempting things to chew are right in there with him. When a motorcycle passes by, he comes completely unglued. I’ve tried music, singing, talking to him, toys and treats to distract him, issuing training commands to sit and lie down, and even DAP (Dog Appeasing Pheromone) spray. Only that last one has had much of an effect; when I use it, he only barks at motorcycles with chain drives and Harleys. He no longer barks at BMW motorcycles or other bikes with shaft drives. I suppose we’ll take progress wherever we can get it.

We were invited to try a bottle of Earth Heart Travel Calm natural remedy mist, to see if aromatherapy would help with Seamus’s travel issues. Like all of Earth Heart Inc.’s products, Travel Calm is made in the USA from pure essential oils and packaged in BPA-free spray bottles. When I opened the package, I nearly drifted away from the wonderful scent! Travel Calm contains essential oils of bergamot, tangerine, ginger, geranium, marjoram, and ylang ylang. Aromatherapy works well on me, so why not give it a try for Seamus?

I used the Travel Calm mist by spraying it lightly over the faux-fleece bed in my car’s travel crate, but there are multiple ways to use Earth Heart products. You can spray some on cotton balls to use as a sachet of sorts, spray your fingertips and then massage the dog’s ears and abdomen, or spray it on a blanket or the interior of the car. The formula is safe even for use on 8-week-old puppies.

Seamus didn’t turn into a car-riding angel overnight from using the spray, but I can honestly say that his level of anxiety has been ratcheted down by a noticeable degree. He will actually sit in the car during car rides, and he doesn’t drool quite as much. He’s 9; he’ll never be perfectly at home in the car, but any chance we can get to help him feel a little better is a win for everybody. I know I enjoyed traveling with the scent of Travel Calm in the car!

Earth Heart’s other formulas include Canine Calm, which helps dogs through stressful situations such as thunderstorms, grooming, and vet visits, Buzz Guard insect repellent, and Guard Well mist, which helps dogs cope with itching, swelling, or minor illnesses brought on by chemical or environmental irritants, viruses, dry air, or long-term use of medications.

In addition to the products themselves, the newly-redesigned Earth Heart website contains resources on aromatherapy and health, FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions), and information about Earth Heart’s Nonprofit Partner Program.

Earth Heart products can be found in brick-and-mortar and online stores across the USA and Canada, or you can order from the Earth Heart website.

Current Specials

Earth Heart is offering the following promotion for followers and fans of Shaggy Dog Stories:

To help you and your dog better survive Summer Travel, Earth Heart is offering a special deal for followers of Shaggy Dog Stories.

Assemble your ‘Shaggy Dog Travel Kit’ by selecting 3 or more products from the Earth Heart website. Enter the code ShaggyTravel at checkout to receive your $11.98 discount (that’s one FREE product with your online order of 3 or more products).

Offer good between now and Memorial Day. (Be sure to order by May 15th to guarantee delivery in time for the holiday weekend.)

Want To Win Some?

In addition to a multi-bottle discount that anybody can use, Earth Heart Inc. is letting us give away a bottle of Travel Calm mist! We know there are a lot of friends out there planning vacations and trips to dog shows with new puppies this year (plus some adults like Seamus who just aren’t fans of the car). How about winning a bottle to make the journey easier for your little buddy? All you have to do is follow our Wicked Simple Rules…

Wicked Simple Rules

1. Go visit the Earth Heart website. You’re welcome to use the special discount code to order while you’re there.
2. Visit the Earth Heart page on Facebook and give them a Like.
3. Come on back to this blog and leave a comment. Let us know which Earth Heart formula is your favorite. Just make sure to leave it on the blog. We really enjoy Facebook comments, but they won’t help you enter the giveaway.
4. We’d never turn down a Like on our Facebook page, either.

As always, we pick the lucky winnah by comment number using a random number picking script, then contact that same lucky winnah by email. If you’re a Facebook friend, you might also get a Facebook message. However you hear about your good fortune, you need to respond within a week, or the “You snooze, you lose” rule will be invoked. Just sayin’.

The website promotion continues until Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day), but contest entries close on Friday, May 18.

Okay, I admit it. I have the worst case of Puppy Fever on this planet (and probably some others, too). Many of my Facebook friends have new puppies this year, or litters, or are planning litters. It doesn’t matter whether the puppies are close by or in Outer Mongolia — if someone posts a puppy photo to Facebook, I melt.

Anyway, if you have a new puppy, here’s a Nature’s Variety coupon good for $5.00 (yes, Five Whole Bucks) off a bag of Prairie Puppy or Large Breed Puppy kibble. No, I don’t work for the company or get any remuneration for sharing these. I just use them myself. I’ve asked permission from NV to share their coupons, so here’s the coupon:

Click on this image to get a full-sized coupon suitable for printing. (I haven’t tried getting the nice ladies at my local pet supply place to scan the barcodes from my cell phone yet, but I think they need an actual piece of paper to get remuneration from the company anyway — so print this one just in case).

This coupon is good until May 31, 2012.

If you use both Nature’s Variety raw and kibble, or if you’ve been feeding kibble but want to see what the excitement about their raw food is all about, then this coupon is definitely for you…

(Click on the image to get a printable copy to take to the store.)

Can’t hate that! If you’re going to buy both anyway (as I usually do), then here’s a chance to save $3. The coupon expires May 31, so you have time. Enjoy!

Here it is — first coupon for Instinct Raw for this year. Nature’s Variety has created a new presence for the Instinct brand on Facebook. If you like using the coupons, why don’t you stop over there and say hello?

Click on the image below to get one in a printable size.

If you’re already a fan of Nature’s Variety products, don’t forget that we have two other coupons here on the blog that are still valid…

• $3 off Instinct Raw Patties 4-packs
• $3 off two boxes of Instinct Biscuits

Have you always wanted to try feeding raw or adding raw to your dog’s diet, but without having to make a major financial commitment up front? Are you headed off for a dog sport weekend and only need a few portions to fit into that tiny hotel room freezer?

Nature’s Variety has just announced another easy, convenient way to serve and store Instinct® raw foods: in packages of four individually-wrapped patties. Note that these are the big patties, not the little medallions; half a patty is breakfast for a Beardie who gets fed twice a day. All you have to do is pop one into the microwave, set it to Defrost (50% power), and nuke it for 4 minutes.

Check the Feeding Guidelines on the package, or use the Interactive Feeding Guide on Nature’s Variety’s website to determine how much to feed your dog.

Want To Try it?

Here’s a coupon good for $3 off a 4-pack of Instinct Raw patties in chicken, beef, or lamb. You can bet we’re getting one! Click on the image below to get a printable copy.

Your dog doesn’t want a stupid costume for Christmas. Healthful treats are sure to be appreciated, though — so use this coupon to put some under the tree. Nature’s Variety makes four different formulas of Instinct biscuits:

• Chicken Meal, Cranberries, and Garlic
• Lamb Meal, Carrots, and Mint
• Duck Meal, Sweet Potatoes, and Cinnamon
• Rabbit Meal, Apples, and Ginger

To get a full-sized coupon suitable for printing, click the mini-coupon in this post.

The coupon is good until the end of January, so you can even wait until after New Year’s to redeem it.

Thanks to the good folks over at Nature’s Variety, here’s a new coupon for Prairie kibble (a household favorite here). This coupon is good for either dog or cat food varieties. It expires at the end of August, so download your copy soon!

(I do have authorization to share this coupon, and downloaded and printed copies will be honored by Nature’s Variety.)

While you’re here downloading the coupon, don’t forget to enter our fabulous Kong Squiggles toy giveaway! Today is the last day!

You like to save outrageous amounts (sometimes 50-75% or even more) on food, adventures, and merchandise through Groupon and LivingSocial, right? Don’t you wish you could get similar deals for your best friend?

Online mega-coupon sites are beginning to emerge for pet owners. There’s Barking Deals, along with its sibling site Meowing Deals. Barking Deals is establishing relationships with bloggers, shelters and rescues (including those for local Florida rescues for Dachshunds, Siberian Huskies, pitbulls, and Beagles), worthy groups such as Guiding Eyes for the Blind, other pet product makers, and pet publications. They offer up plenty of deals you can use for stuff with brand names you recognize, and few if any repeats.

PetSimply.com is another coupon site; it says it donates money to animal charities. It’s awfully hard to determine which actual charities PetSimply donates to, and the images of puppies behind chain-link fencing on the PetSimply website feels more than a little AR-icky to me, as does the fact that their Facebook page lists HSUS and In Defense of Animals among their friends. If you really love animals (not just in theory but also in practice) and care where your dollars go, stick with Barking Deals, or come see…

The New Guy in Town: Bamzilla.com!

Bamzilla.com is the latest entry into the Doggie Daily Deals market. A lot is going on behind the scenes as they prepare for their launch. Bamzilla will work in a way similar to Groupon, where a certain number of people need to purchase the daily deal in order for it to “tip,” but once tipped, the deal is on! You have a given period of time to snap up your deal and then enjoy it. The more people you can bring to the deal, the sooner it will tip for all of you.

Bamzilla really wants to launch with — well, a BAM! The friendly folks over there want to start out with as many friends as they can find, and are calling on you and your social circle to join their invite list. You could win a $500 PetSmart gift card! Here’s the information they’ve shared about the pre-launch promotion:

---

Bamzilla.com is launching soon! To celebrate their upcoming launch, they are giving away a $500 PetSmart gift card to one lucky winner! Yes, you heard it right… $500! That is enough money for a year’s worth of food and toys for your furry friend.

So what is Bamzilla?

Bamzilla.com is a members-only website for pet lovers, offering pet products from leading online pet retailers & manufacturers at discounts of 50-90% off retail prices!

So how do you enter to win? It’s easy!

1. Head over to Bamzilla.com
2. Enter your email address to join their invite list so they can let you know when they launch
3. Let your friends know about them via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

To be eligible, at least 5 of your friends need to enter the contest from your unique link. The more friends you invite, the better chance you have! You can track how many people are signing up from your unique link by putting your email address back into Bamzilla.com and clicking “Go.”

More information on the contest can be found here: http://bamzilla.posterous.com/58043389.

---

The rules on Bamzilla’s Posterous site say that the gift card will be awarded on or before August 22.

Go ahead — ping your friends and get ready for Bamzilla’s big launch! I’ll be waiting with you to see what each day’s bargain will be. In the meantime, you can also be thinking about how you’d spend that $500 gift card!

Pet Botanics is one of the labels under the solar-powered umbrella of Cardinal Pet Care from California. They also make Crazy Pet (was Crazy Dog) shampoo and other grooming products under the Crazy Pet, Gold Medal, and Pet Botanics Naturals labels. Actually, it turns out that I have a number of Cardinal products in my grooming kit, from their styptic powder to the aforementioned, wonderful-smelling Crazy Pet shampoo (in the Baby Powder scent). Although Cardinal Pet Care started out marketing grooming supplies to groomers, the Pet Botanics foods and treats mark their expansion into other types of products as well, and a focus on the individual pet owner.

The kind folks at Pet Botanics just sent me a 5-pound bag of their grain-free kibble in the Lamb Meal formula. They also offer Chicken and Salmon flavors. (Just to note: The Lamb formula also contains some chicken.) These foods are all natural with fruits (tomatoes, cranberries, and blueberries), vegetables (peas, and so on), and Omega-3 fatty acids, plus vitamins, minerals, and probiotics. All formulas are free of grains, soy, corn (isn’t corn a grain?), by-products, or artificial preservatives, and they come in environmentally friendly packaging.

Some folks worry about grain-free dog foods that offer very high protein percentages, especially those dog owners with large-breed puppies and young dogs. The Pet Botanics Lamb comes in at 26%. Another good feature of Pet Botanics foods is that they also come in meat rolls in the same formulas. If you have a dog whose tummy tends to get a bit upset when you feed him too many different things in a day, having the rolled formula available will help when you’re training and in the show ring.

When I was looking for a new brand of dog food, one important factor for me was being able to purchase it locally. Not only do I like being able to support my local shops, but Murphy’s Law would always make very sure that I’d run out of dog food one minute till closing time on Saturday, and the shop would be closed Sundays. As much as I try to plan ahead, having the stuff shipped only works for me occasionally.

One very good, very convenient feature of Pet Botanics is that you can buy it at PetSmart. Yes, I know — this is the same company that claims that Beneful is a healthy formula — but at least they’re open till 9 PM if you should discover at dinnertime that the cupboard will be bare for breakfast. Not only that, but Pet Botanics offers a couple of handy coupons for their food and for Omega Chews healthy dog treats. Sure, you can order online if you need to — but if you don’t have time to wait for the UPS truck, you can still get hold of Pet Botanics products easily enough.

The Best Price is… Free!

Would you like to have this 5-pound bag to try with your dog(s), or do you already feed Pet Botanics and know a bargain when you see one? Please comment to enter the giveaway!

This time around, we have only a few rules:

1. Please visit the Pet Botanics page on Facebook and click “Like.” If you’re one of my 10 friends who already Like Pet Botanics, great!
2. Please comment on the blog. Much as I love the Facebook comments, they don’t constitute valid entries.
3. As always, the winner will be drawn at random by comment number. The person doing the drawing doesn’t even read the blog — I just ask him to pick a number between 1 and X, and he does.
4. I’m so sorry, Canadian friends, but this giveaway is open only to commenters from the USA this time around. That’s because I have to pay to ship the prize.

Entries will close on Tuesday, July 5.

I hate to be a dog-food alarmist, but it’s just so difficult these days not to be. It seems that every week or so, there’s another recall for contamination, or a cautionary recall due to a processing problem, or some other issue with the food we’ve trusted some company to create for our beloved pets. When well-known and well-thought-of foods are revealed to contain none of the ingredients you thought they did, and others that weren’t supposed to be there in the first place, what can you do?

If you’re a lucky pet owner (as I confess that I am), you don’t have to do much if your lamb-based pet food turns out to have come from — er — lambs that say “Moo”. If your pet isn’t sensitive to beef, then s/he won’t have much of a problem if the lamb dinner you just fed contains beef. (As a consumer, you should be feeling rather angry and ripped-off, and be looking to the manufacturer to make things right — but that’s a story for a different day.) On the other hand, what do you do if your pet does perfectly fine on lamb, but has an allergy to beef or a digestive condition that flares up if s/he eats beef? The repercussions can range from nasty gas to much floor-mopping to a hasty visit to the vet.

Nature’s Variety has formulated a line of Instinct Limited Ingredient Diet (LID) foods: two types (turkey meal and lamb meal) for dogs, and one (turkey meal) for cats. These dairy-free, grain-free, gluten-free foods contain only one source of protein and one hypoallergenic starch, combined with vitamins and minerals and other wholesome ingredients, and coated with a green-tea-based antioxidant blend.

Want to Try Some?

Would you like to try the Instinct LID diet with your sensitive pet? Download and print this coupon to save $3 off a bag of any LID formula…

Nature’s Variety authorizes the use of coupons downloaded and printed from this website. Act quickly, though: this coupon expires on July 31, 2011.