We were already huge fans of Nordic Naturals‘ award-winning fish oil supplements for dogs, long before the company kindly asked us to review some. Central heating tends to contribute to dry skin in dogs and humans in the wintertime, so we’ve added fish oil to the pups’ dishes for a long while now. Unlike some of the other fish oil supplements we’ve tried, the Nordic Naturals oil smells less like a cat-food factory — which in turn decreases the number of stinky-dog complaints we get from the rest of the household. Adding salmon oil to the dogs’ food resulted in fewer — if any — dry-skin itchies. The old man, in particular, seems to get flaky skin in the winter. Adding the fish oil to his diet helped keep his old hide free of flakes.

In addition to the sample of cod liver oil and Omega-3 supplements for the dogs and all the lovely swag, Nordic Naturals also included a bag stuffed with their Omega-3 and DHA supplements for humans! The range of supplements they produce is astonishing: supplements for sports, for children, powdered Omega-3 supplements designed to dissolve in water, and so on. I’ve been taking them myself every day since they arrived. The Nordic Berries multivitamins, designed for children 2+ years of age, is my particular favorite — cloudberry-flavored gumdrops that just happen to deliver a powerful dose of vitamins. I am absolutely stocking up on those suckers as well as more Omega-3 supplements. (When I was on Newfoundland a few years ago, I ate or drank anything that had cloudberries in it. They call them bakeapples in the Maritimes.)

Plus you just have to love the company philosophy.

Just in case you’re having flashbacks to childhood, when you had to choke down a teaspoonful of cod liver oil every night, be assured that even the non-flavored supplements don’t taste — or even smell — like cod liver oil. Unlike the fish oil supplements I have been taking, the Nordic Naturals supplements don’t — er — repeat on me, so I haven’t had to experience the joy of tasting fish oil all day long after taking one capsule in the morning. Your mileage may vary, but this really pleased me.

Back to the pet products, though. The Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Pet line includes three different liquid formulations for dogs and cats (sized according to body weight), plus softgels. The fish used for this line are wild-caught Pacific sardines and anchovies from the South Pacific off the Peruvian coast (considered to be the premier sustainable fishery in the world). All of Nordic Naturals’ products surpass strict international standards of purity, and processed with minimal impact to the environment. Even their new facility in northern California is created from recycled, environmentally-friendly, health-friendly materials. All products are tested by independent labs for heavy metal, dioxin, and PCB content to ensure purity. You may request certificates of analysis for any product, just to understand the findings.

The oils themselves are carefully packaged to provide optimal doses for each size and species, and are offered in the triglyceride form rather than the ethyl ester form. Unless you are a fellow survivor of college organic chemistry classes, that last sentence is probably just so much gibberish — but esters tend to evaporate more quickly (and smell much stronger), whereas the triglycerides are more stable compounds with much larger molecules — these would tend to last longer. In plain English: doesn’t evaporate or “go bad” as quickly. The triglyceride form is supposed to have much better absorption into the body — 70% more — and this would explain the lack of cat-food smell. (Take it from someone from Maine: if you can smell the fish, don’t eat it!)

Keeping a healthy balance of omega-3 fatty acids in your dog’s diet will help maintain a healthy skin and coat and contribute to joint mobility, eye health, and cognitive function. In addition, omega-3s can help stave off degenerative disease and inflammatory disorders, and can play a part in healthy weight management. Some of the research being done on the effects of omega-3 levels in dogs suggests that low levels of omega-3s in a dog’s system can be a cause of aggression — but note that the same research does not claim that simply adding more omega-3s to the diet will fix behavior or temperament problems. (See the bibliography in this Q&A document.) Still, it can’t hurt, and what if it helps?

Win Some Omega-3s For Your Dog!

As I’ve already mentioned, we were Nordic Naturals fans even before we reviewed their products. If you’d like to become a fan, how about entering a giveaway to win an 8-ounce bottle of Omega-3 Pet™ liquid? All you have to do is follow these Wicked Simple Rules…

Wicked Simple Rules

1. Visit the Nordic Naturals Pet site.
2. Come on back to the blog and leave a comment. Tell us one thing you learned about the benefits of fish oils from browsing that gorgeous site. Remember that you need to comment on the blog, because our winner-picking script doesn’t know Facebook exists.
3. Like Nordic Naturals on Facebook. The company offers frequent giveaways and Freebie Fridays, so it’s worth your while to vist them often.
4. We know you already Like us, but just in case… you’re welcome to Like Shaggy Dog Stories on Facebook, too.
5. If you do Twitter, you can follow Nordic Naturals there.

As always, we’ll pick our winnah by comment number using a number-picking script. If you win, you’ll get a shiny new email in your inbox, and maybe also a Facebook message. Remember that you have to respond to one of these messages in order to win, or we’ll invoke the old “You snooze, you lose” clause.

Note: This contest is open to USA residents only. Sorry, Canadians and other friends. We’ll catch you next time.

Entries close on Saturday, May 26.

Today’s post is a joint effort between Yours Truly and the folks at Arenus. Arenus, maker of health and nutrition products, caters to horses, dogs, cats, and even birds. Developed jointly with veterinarians, nutritionists, and other animal health experts, Arenus supplements and flower essences address the specific needs of companion animals. Their canine product lines include supplements for digestive and joint health and for skin and coat, plus 14 flower essences, each formulated for a particular purpose.

We tested out a couple of bottles of the Arenus CoatPlus™ Skin & Coat supplement for large breed dogs. I have long been a fan of fish oil — both for the humans in the household and for the dogs — and like the benefits to skin and coat that fish oil provides. We’ve had such a funky winter/spring/whatever-the-heck-season-we’re-in this year that sometimes we still have to turn on the heat after a string of very warm days. Since central heat tends to dry out coats and skin, the fish oil helps to keep skin from flaking, and it keeps coats nice and shiny.

In addition to the human-grade fish oil itself, Arenus supplements contain Vitamin E to minimize free radical damage and to reap the maximum benefit from the long-chain molecules of EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil.

One additional feature of the Arenus supplements are the beef-flavored capsules. Good Old Charlie, two weeks shy of 15 years old, has never exactly been a good sport about taking pills. Even at his age, he’ll still find a way to get out of taking something he just doesn’t want to take. We usually use a liquid fish oil on his food, which he’ll consume with no problems. However, he loved the beef flavor of the Arenus capsules. He might have thought that they were treats, and I’m not going to disabuse him of that notion.

"Surely you wouldn't give me anything I don't want...!"

How About Your Dogs? Do They Want Some?

Thanks to our friends at Arenus, we have free CoatPlus supplements to give away! Here are the details:

Win FREE CoatPlus™ Supplement for Your Dog!

Does your dog constantly scratch or shed excessively? He may not be getting enough Omega-3 fatty acids. Proper fatty acid nutrition is essential for maintaining a healthy skin and coat for your dog. Without these beneficial fats, or the proper balance between Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, dogs may develop a dull coat, with brittle hairs that break easily and shed. In addition, fatty acid deficiency may result in flaky, itchy, and scaly skin.

But there is relief for your dog. Research has proven that supplementing your dog’s diet with fish oil can support a more healthy skin and coat. While many dog foods provide enough fat as a whole, they may not contain sufficient levels of Omega-3 fatty acids. Necessary levels of omega-3s, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are less common in pet food because the combination of these two together occurs in significant concentrations only in marine oil sources.

This is why so many pet owners choose to add fish oil to their dogs’ diets. CoatPlus™ by Arenus is a nutritional supplement that will supply your dog with the daily recommended allowance of Omega-3 fatty acids in a convenient, soft-gel capsule. This high-quality, concentrated fish oil is an excellent source of EPA and DHA, plus vitamin E.

Wicked Simple Rules

1. Visit Arenus and select one of the two CoatPlus formulas you’d like to receive for your dog.
2. Come on back to the blog. Leave a comment below and tell us the formula of your choice. Facebook comments are loved and cherished, but they don’t count.
3. For an extra chance to win, go Like ArenusPet on Facebook. If you do that, come back here and leave another comment saying you did so. That’s what gets you the extra entry.
4. For another extra chance to win, follow @ArenusPet on Twitter. Again, come back and let us know you did this, so we can get you that extra entry.
5. As always, if you haven’t shown Shaggy Dog Stories some love on Facebook, we’ll be grateful if you do.

As always, we’ll pick the lucky winnah by comment number, using a random number-picking script. If you’re the lucky one, we’ll send you an email (and if you’re a Facebook friend, a FB message) — but in order to actually receive the prize, you’ll have to respond to one or the other within a week. We’ll send your shipping info over to the good folks at Arenus, and they’ll get your supplements right out to you!

Closing date for entries is Monday, May 14.

Seamus loves dog sports, but the journey is not his reward.

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.

Congratulations to Jodi Trudel from London, Ontario, Canada for being the lucky winnah of the YumZies dog treats from MrChewy.com! Jodi chose the Cheese flavored YumZies for her dog, but admitted that Peanut Butter sounded pretty good, too.

Didn’t win this time? Don’t be sad. We have another tasty giveaway from Mr. Chewy right around the corner!

This was Dinah at 10 weeks old.

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.

Everybody loves an underdog story, especially when it involves an actual dog. Whether the story involves a dog trying to succeed against near-impossible odds, a “bad dog” who does good, or anything with the word “rescue” in it, we just can’t get enough. We cheer for our canine heroes, hiss at the villains, laugh at the funny parts, and cry at the sad parts. Just when we think that our hearts can’t stand the pain of reading through to the part where the doggy hero crosses over to the Rainbow Bridge, we buy another box of Kleenex, get through the last chapter somehow, and then eagerly await the next opportunity to laugh and cry and cheer all over again.

The doggy memoir has been with us for a very long time. I remember devouring every one I could find as a kid, and it was a copy of Champion Dog Prince Tom that sparked an interest in competitive obedience for me all those years ago. The ginormous, phenomenal popularity of Marley and Me helped precipitate a huge increase in the number of true-life dog stories available on the market.

Here's the book that started it all for me.

Perhaps the most thoughtful, keenly observant, best-written, and yet least sentimental doggy memoir is Ted Kerasote’s Merle’s Door. Just because it’s not sentimental doesn’t mean that it isn’t highly emotional or deeply felt, though. You would have to be made of stone to not be moved by the description of Merle’s Tibetan Buddhist funeral. If you haven’t read the book, go get a copy right now, enjoy it, and then come back to this blog. Don’t forget to buy Kleenex.

Doully Tales is no Merle’s Door, nor is it a Marley and Me. It is, however, a tale, told from the vantage point of Doully himself, of the many adventures of a mischievous Australian Shepherd. In spite of himself and his almost-magical tendency to find trouble before trouble can find him, Doully manages to succeed in a number of dog sports, including conformation showing, obedience, and tracking — and he manages to bring back some humorous “war stories” from those and other activities, including herding and agility. Between the “bad dog” episodes, Doully actually shows the great potential and versatility of the Aussie breed. As far as the episodes themselves, anyone who has ever done dog sports with a special canine will be able to laugh, identify, and supply his/her own “war stories” from dog events past.

Canadian dog exhibitor Cindy Blanchette’s testament to her “heart dog” makes its print debut on May 4 at the Saskatoon dog show in Saskatoon, SK, Canada. Publisher 3 Generations Publishing will be on hand at the show with signed copies for sale. If you know Cindy and knew Doully, you’re sure to want a copy. The book is also available online from 3 Generations Publishing.

Would You Like to Win a Copy?

No, you don’t have to go all the way to Saskatoon to get Doully Tales. Thanks to the generosity of 3 Generations Publishing, we have a copy to give away! All you have to do is follow these Wicked Simple Rules…

Wicked Simple Rules

1. Like Doully Tales on Facebook.
2. While you’re there, why don’t you show Shaggy Dog Stories some love?
3. Come on back to the blog and tell us: Which dog story is your favorite? It doesn’t have to be a work of non-fiction — we love our fictional dog stories, too.
4. Remember to comment on the blog to enter the drawing. We love our Facebook comments — really! — but they don’t count as entries.

As usual, the lucky winnah is chosen at random by comment number, using a number-picking script. If you win, you’ll get a shiny new email in your inbox. If you’re a Facebook friend, you might also receive a FB message. Whatever your communication preference, please respond to something within a week — or someone else will get your prize. You snooze, you lose.

Entries close on Friday, May 11.

One thing we can say about our friend Mr. Chewy: He never stops searching for great products to share with his fans. A little while ago, Mr. Chewy contacted us about trying a brandy-new treat that the company had just started offering on the website. Would we check it out? Do Beardies Bounce? Does a bear… well, you know…?

You might have heard of the Nootie company already — or of their lines of natural pet shampoos and grooming products. Apparently they’ve branched out into the realm of high-quality natural dog treats with the YumZies brand of all-chicken dog treats.

Despite the desperately silly name (I can just hear my mom talking to one of our cats: “Does hims wantum little YumZies?” This from the woman who steadfastly refused to speak gibberish to her children.), YumZies treats are made of chicken with added flavors, including peanut butter, cheese, and so on. The treats come in two sizes, regular and mini. We selected a bag of the peanut butter mini treats for our trial, since their size was better suited to training treats. It’s a bummer that Nootie doesn’t make the cheese flavored treats in mini size, or we’d have chosen that flavor to try, too.

No sooner did I click OK on the order than the box appeared on my doorstep. You have to be impressed by the sheer speed with which Mr. Chewy dispatches those orders. The company is way the heck down in Florida, and still, orders arrive up here in the freakin’ Arctic overnight. For people like me who are congenitally unable to plan for online orders to arrive before (not after) the supplies run out, Mr. Chewy’s speedy service could really save the day — or at least the next doggie mealtime.

Back to the YumZies treats. I decided to bring them along to Badger’s weekly nosework practice. Although Badger would eat just about any treat with gusto, he’s come to recognize the stakes at nosework class. Even though we no longer need to pair the odor samples with treats to get him to find them, he does a much better job on nights when I have really good treats in my pocket.

Badger could find a peanut butter treat anywhere!

Here’s an absolute first for me: the YumZies mini peanut butter treats actually smell like real peanut butter! Even choosy moms would recognize the scent! Except for homemade peanut butter treats where I have personally added peanut butter to the mix my very own self, I have never so much as caught a passing whiff of peanut butter from any commercially prepared peanut butter dog treat. Dogs have much more sensitive noses than we do, and they experience taste differently than we do, so I can buy the idea that dog treats can be made with flavors in intensities more suited to a dog’s nose and palate than to a human’s — but peanut butter is honest-to-goodness people food. Whatever they do about toning down the peanut butter flavor in other treats, they don’t do it for YumZies.

Badger makes a big show of begging for the treats in my pocket during our waiting times in class. He knows where his rewards are coming from. When I opened the bag of YumZies, he practically climbed inside. During the searches, he worked very hard and did very well — and snarfed his rewards as quickly as I could transfer them from pocket to palm. I think I can safely speak for him when I say that the YumZies peanut butter treats deserve four paws up — and a big blue snoot, too.

You can try YumZies for yourself at Mr. Chewy’s product order page. While you’re there, why not order enough stuff so your order totals $49? That way, you can take advantage of free shipping.

Better Still… Want to Win Some?

If you’d like to win a package of YumZies treats, just follow the Wicked Simple Rules below:

1. Visit the YumZies page at MrChewy.com and check out the treats.
2. Come on back to the blog and leave a comment telling me which flavor you’d like to try
3. If you haven’t already done so, visit Mr. Chewy’s Facebook page and give ‘em a Like.
4. While you’re over there, show Shaggy Dog Stories some Facebook love, too!
5. If you’re a winnah, answer your email! Otherwise, Badger will eat your prize.

Facebook really ruined things for blog fan pages with Timeline. No matter what I do, it seems that the posts are always jumbled so that they’re out of chronological order. You might have to scroll down to see all the latest news. Thanks a heap, Facebook, I owe ya one.

Anyway, the lucky winnah will be chosen at random by comment number. Get your comments in before entries close on Tuesday, May 1.

Remember the fun you had as a kid, making Pillsbury cookies by slicing the roll of dough and then decorating the sugar cookies with stencils and colored sugar? Even if you’ve long since graduated to making cookies from scratch, with boutique-class decorations straight from Martha Stewart Living (or straight from the local bakery) — you have to admit, that was pretty fun.

That memory came bouncing right back to me when Freshpet® sent me two packages of their new ready-to-bake dog cookies. The cookies contain only natural ingredients such as oatmeal, eggs, crunchy peanut butter, and cranberries. Like Freshpet’s lines of fresh dog foods, they contain no preservatives and need to be stored in the fridge until you bake them.

Nobody does an evaluation package quite like Freshpet. The packages of cookies arrived, amid a number of ice packs, in this fabulous little cooler-cum-lunchbox…

Really, how cool is this?!

…along with a folder of information on the new product and a coordinating emerald-green apron embroidered with the Freshpet logo. If I hadn’t been at home alone while I was baking, I’d have put my hair up and had my picture taken while sporting the apron and my pair of emerald-green oven mitts… Just Because. You’ll just have to imagine it.

We received samples of the Dog Joy™ Peanut Butter & Oatmeal Recipe cookies and the Dog Nation™ Oatmeal & Cranberry Recipe cookies. Each package contains 18 cookies. The beauty of this approach is that you can remove just one cookie (or a few) at a time and return the package to the fridge. (Just make sure you cook them all within a week after opening.) If you only have a toaster oven, or if you have only one small dog, you won’t have to bake up the entire lot at once, clean up all the mess, and then try to keep the cookies fresh. The cookies do keep for 14 days in an airtight container, if you can keep them that long at all. Unopened packages will keep in the fridge for several months — just check the expiration date on the box.

Here’s the Before picture of what the Dog Nation Oatmeal & Cranberry cookies looked like on the cookie sheet (yes, I took them outside for better light).

The instructions say to place them about 2" apart, but they really don't expand that much in cooking. You can get them all onto one cookie sheet.

And here’s the After picture 14 minutes and 350° F later…

While they were baking, the cookies filled the kitchen with a wonderful aroma that both humans and dogs appreciated. Old Charlie even came in from his important excavation project outdoors to drink in the smell. — or maybe to witness the spectacle of me actually cooking something in the kitchen for a change.

Here’s what we ended up with once both batches were done…

The lighter ones are the Peanut Butter and Oatmeal. The darker ones are the Oatmeal and Cranberry.

As expected, the Gang of Four approved heartily of both formulas, and would be delighted to approve any additional samples at any time. Greg tried one of the cookies and pronounced them a bit bland for human taste buds. “All the more for us, sucker!” thought the dogs. It’s a safe bet that we won’t have to worry about keeping these treats past 2 weeks.

You can find Freshpet Ready-to-Bake cookies wherever you find Freshpet fresh dog foods. The Dog Joy Peanut Butter & Oatmeal cookies are available in grocery and mass-market stores. The DogNation Oatmeal & Cranberry cookies can be found in pet specialty stores. MSRP is $4.99 – $6.99.

Now… who said there are no second chances in life? The last couple of giveaways have turned into second-chance wins for a few lucky commenters…

Amanda Sanchez is the second-chance winnah of the StowAway2 cargo carrier gift certificate! Amanda said she’d like to go to Florida with all her gear packed in style, and now she can!

Another major woohoo goes out to Peggy Frezon and Kelly, second-chance winnahs of byNature dog biscuits. Our other byNature winnah has not yet responded to emails or Facebook messages, so there might yet be a second chance drawing there, too!

As always, winnahs are drawn by a random number selecting program. Some blogs will just publish your name if you win and rely on you to come back and check up on your entry after closing. I try to notify winnahs by email. Failing that, I’ll resort to a FB message. If you live near me, I’ll even bring the prize to your door next time I visit. Don’t make me beg! If there’s no response after a week, then I reserve the right to invoke the “you snooze, you lose” clause.

So… if you entered a Shaggy Dog Stories giveaway recently, check your inbox, and do it before someone else gets your prize!

Today’s post is a team effort between the nice folks at Nature’s Logic and myself. We’ve wanted to work together again for some time now — and you could benefit! We’re giving away free pet food. Even though this is a dog blog, cat owners are just as welcome to check out Nature’s Logic’s lines of feline products and enter to win some.

(Horse owners: There’s a big Coming Soon on a website page for equine products. Something good is on the horizon for you!)

Are you ready? Let’s begin.

Nature’s Logic Giveaway! Winner Will Receive Nature’s Logic Food

Nature’s Logic pet foods are unique. The company has created the first and only full-line of dry kibble, canned, and raw frozen pet food in the world with no chemically-synthesized vitamins or minerals. All nutrients in Nature’s Logic formulas are derived from whole foods and 100% natural ingredients.

“Our foods are not developed to capitalize upon the latest market trend, or to grab more shelf space with as many variations as possible, or to increase profit margins,” says founder Scott Freeman. “Instead, we try to closely match the nutritional make-up of the prey dogs and cats would naturally eat in the wild.”

Nature’s Logic foods are formulated to put the health and safety of pets first:

• No Synthetic Vitamins or Minerals
• High-quality Animal Protein
• High-Protein/Low Carbohydrate
• Carnivore-appropriate Starch, Millet

High Marks From the Gang of Four

Thanks to our kind friends at Nature’s Logic, we’ve been trying out the canned varieties — samples of each kind of canned dog food formula that the company makes.

My dogs don’t exactly have reputations for being picky eaters, so it can’t really come as much of a surprise to hear that they vacuumed up the food from their dishes and went looking for more. I thought they were equal-opportunity gourmands, but the far-and-away favorite formula turned out to be the Sardine Dinner Fare. I’d enthusiastically feed them any formula, but particularly that one. Sardines are great for them, both as a source of protein and as a source of fish oil.

He likes it! Hey, Seamus!

So How About You? Want to Win Some?

We’re giving some Nature’s Logic foods away! To enter this giveaway, just follow the Wicked Simple Rules…

Wicked Simple Rules

1. Visit Nature’s Logic (www.natureslogic.com) and peruse the selection of wonderful, natural, import-free food for your dog.
2. Choose from a) one 4.4-lb bag dry kibble, or b) one 3-lb bag raw frozen or c) five 13.2-oz cans.
3. Come on back to this blog and leave a comment. Tell us which food type and formula you’d like to win. Remember that comments left on Facebook, while always appreciated, don’t count as entries.
4. For extra chances, Like Nature’s Logic on Facebook and follow Nature’s Logic on Twitter at @NaturesLogic. Come back to the blog and tell us about it in additional comments.
5. The lucky winnah gets chosen by comment number by a random number-picking script.

The winner will receive a Free Food Voucher to be redeemed at any Nature’s Logic retailer.

Sounds good? Well, get going! Entries for this drawing close on Monday, April 9.



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