I'm excited to announce that The Mutt Puddle is now open for service in Allen TX!! It's located at the Village at Allen right next to the Canine Commons dog park. They offer a self-service dog wash as well as professional grooming services. I haven't personally tried out The Mutt Puddle yet, but I've tried others like it and really liked my experience. It made it much easier for me to bathe Ginger without the mess in my own bathroom or stress of the water hose in the backyard.  My favorite part is the dryers! They work great on my lab's thick coat. When I bathe her at home, it takes hours for her to dry and she's constantly licking her fur and she smells like wet dog. I also like the ease of bathing her without bending over.

The price of self-service dog washing starts at $13, and they provide everything you'll need to clean your dog. If you don't want to do the washing yourself, they will do it for you for an additional charge.  Come check it out!!

I don't typically support hunting of most types of animals (sorry, I love them all!!), but for those of you that do like to hunt for sport, I won't hold it against you. Many people take their dogs along with them and even train them to participate in the sport. Hunting dogs love the activity for obvious reasons! My only concern is the dog getting lost or end up missing while trekking through deep forests and swampy areas. I found a cool product that will keep track of your dog at all times while they are sniffing out your latest kill.

It's a tracking collar made by Garmin (the GPS company). It's definitely not cheap, but hey, neither is the hunting equipment right? And our dogs are priceless to us anyway. We wouldn't want to risk losing them.

A little description of how the product works:

This rugged, all-weather collar combines a high-sensitivity GPS receiver and VHF antenna into an all-in-one transmitter that works with the Astro® 220 to safeguard against your dog getting lost. Astro DC 40 sports a durable one-inch orange polyurethane collar that fits most e-collar receivers — eliminating the need to put two separate collars on a dog. Plus, Collar Lock uses a four-digit PIN number that helps prevent others from seeing your dog’s whereabouts.

Attach Collar and Go

When teamed up with the Astro™ 220, this system will have you hunting in no time. The DC 40, in combination with the Astro 220 pinpoints your dog’s position every 5 seconds. An innovative charging connection with a flashing LED-charging indicator lets you know when the battery is ready to go. You can extend the battery life of the DC 40 by changing the position transmit rate from 5 to 10, 30, or 120 seconds, enabling the DC 40 to work up to 17-48 hours in the field on one charge. You will know if your dog is pointing, sitting, moving or treeing. Where your dog is. Where it’s been. How fast it’s moving and how far it’s gone.

I highly recommend it for hunting purposes, but why not use it for other situations as well! Camping, off-leash walks, even while unsupervised while in the backyard. You have no idea how many lost dogs we find that have escaped from their backyard while their owner was away. If you have a persistent dog that likes to escape, this product may really help you keep track of him and keep you aware of his escapes.

If you don't use such a product, please at least have your pet Microchipped and keep id on his/her collar when the dog is outside. It makes it so much easier to find the dog's owner and get them home safely.

There are a few neighborhoods around the Allen, TX area that we have several pet sitting & dog walking clients that live there, yet none of those clients found us from each other. That's totally fine, but I wanted to let my clients know where we have a good established client base and that we work with several of their neighbors already.

One of those neighborhoods is StarCreek in Allen, TX. StarCreek is located off Stacy Road between 75 and 121. The neighborhood is fairly new and still being developed. Great family neighborhood! We have several established clients in that neighborhood and continue to get more, and all found Select Pet Care in different ways besides word of mouth in the neighborhood.

Well, I want that to change! I want people to know that you aren't the only one considering our services to take care of your pet. I want you to ask if we've worked in your area before, and I want you to know that we have clients that are willing to be used as a reference to answer any questions or concerns that you might have as well.

Next time you are looking for a local pet sitter or dog walker, you might just ask a couple of your neighbors who they use. I love that we are consistently growing our client base in neighborhoods such as StarCreek and look forward to making Select Pet Care your preferred pet sitting company!!

Please feel free to call me with any questions! (469) 233-7335

If you haven't done so already, join Select Pet Care's Facebook page. We are constantly posting new blogs and comments about the pet sitting world and local events. Select Pet Care's employees have also been posting some adorable photos of our awesome and furry clients for others to see and comment on. It's also a great way for existing clients to keep in touch with Select Pet Care and keep dibs on how their animals are doing while they are away. Our clients love to see cute photos of their pets having a good time with their sitter, and it gives them some peace of mind that their animals are being well-taken care of and are getting lots of love and affection as well as coping well without having their owners around. You can always contact us through phone or email if you have any questions or concerns,but using Facebook is another way to communicate and chat with other pet owners like yourself. Hope to see you out there!!!

To join our page, click here.

I thought this was the coolest thing!! This kitty is indoor/outdoor and his parents thought it would be neat to see life through his eyes. Cooper wears a small, lightweight digital camera on his collar once a week and it takes a picture automatically every 2 minutes. You can see the adventures he gets into as he roams the neighborhood and perimeter of his house. He even meets and takes pictures of some of his furry friends. I'd actually consider trying this out on Pippi, my more adventurous cat, but all those pictures would be taken from a bird's eye view instead of a cat's because she'd be in the tree in front of my house the entire time!

Here is a picture of Cooper wearing his camera:

And here is a picture that Cooper took of his cat friend:

To see the rest of the pictures that Cooper has taken recently, click here.

I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to blog about this one, because I think it's so neat! As I find information on the Internet about what is going on in the pet world, I'm mostly finding information on how to keep your pets cool this summer. I've already blogged recently about how to do such and how to prevent heat stroke in your pets as well. But, today I came across a couple really neat dog products for your dog to wear when they are outdoors or going on a walk. I'm actually thinking of purchasing these for my business and using them on my clients' dogs during the hotter months.

The first product is a cooling bandana made by Doctors Foster & Smith. It's really inexpensive and the testimonials are great. You soak the bandana in cold water for a good 30 minutes prior to the dog wearing it, and the material soaks up the water and holds on to it for a good while (long enough to take them on a walk).

If you really want to keep them cool, they also offer a Cooling Vest that wraps around the dog like a harness. It works the same way as the bandana, but obviously holds more of the cold water and cools their entire belly area.

VKR pets has similar products as well.

The Swamp Cooler is another vest type product to keep your dog cool. It sits on the top of the dog unlike the other vest that goes underneath. They also sell booties that you can put on your dog's feet to protect them from getting burned from the hot sidewalk, but I don't know very many dogs that are willing to wear booties on their feet at all!

Lastly, Kool Collars is another great product to keep your dog comfortable while outside in the heat. It works kind of like those ice packs you put in your lunch bag to keep your food from spoiling. It's a collar that has an ice pack style insert that keeps your dog's neck cool.

I'm so buying one of these products for my dog and will keep you all posted on how it works!

I found a really informative article on what to do if you get threatened by an aggressive dog and how to approach dogs in general to avoid such from happening.

First things first, why might a dog seem threatened or unsure about a person approaching them? For many reasons… such as they are unsocialized, have been abused by humans in the past, protecting their young, get surprised, etc. Most of the time it's because the dog hasn't been socialized correctly. In the case of pet sitting, we always do an initial consultation to meet the dog before having the pet sitter in the home with the dog by themselves. The initial meeting helps ease the dog, but we still have to be careful on how we approach the dog when the owner isn't around. Too many times the dog will act differently when the owner is not there, so you should always approach with caution.

How to approach an unfamiliar dog:
1) Hold out your hand, fingers closed, palm down, slowly toward the dog. Allow the dog to approach your hand and sniff it.
2) Wait for the dog's "OK." If he wants your affection, he will lower his head, perk ears, or even come closer to you. If the dogs puts his ears back, flat on his head, or growls, or cowers, don't pet him!
3) Pat the dog on the top of his head, or along his back. Avoid touching his belly, tail, ears, or feet.

Also, avoid direct eye contact with the dog during the initial meeting and stay calm. The dog can sense your nervousness if you are unsure about approaching him. Don't ever walk up behind a dog because you are likely to startle him. Don't get down on his level and get close to his face immediately. Give the dog time to invite you in to love on him. Just hanging around the dog without talking or touching or making eye contact for a while will help ease the dog and let him know that you are not a threat to him.

The article also goes on about how to treat a dog bite in case you do get bitten and how to keep your own dog free from any aggression towards people and other dogs. Hope this information is helpful to other pet sitters out there.

Read the full article here.

I wanted to write about SPCA of Texas' Foster Program for a second because I haven't been able to fully participate in fostering very much at all lately, and at least want to get the word out about the program and how you could help.

So the idea behind the program is to have volunteers willing to take animals into their homes for a period of time because it is not safe for those animals to be in the shelter during that time. Examples of why an animal needs to be fostered are: too young/small for spay/neuter surgery, recovering from a surgery or illness, heartworm treatment, nursing moms and babies, socialization, etc. The amount of time in foster care can be days, weeks, or months, depending on the situation; however, you (the volunteer) are allowed to pick and choose what cases you'd like to take on. The SPCA provides any and all supplies you need for the fostering, but it is helpful if you want to provide some of those supplies yourself.

There isn't a whole lot involved in becoming qualified for fostering, and if you go to their website you can fill out an application and they will get back to you.

I will admit that sometimes fostering can be a bit stressful, but after doing it a few times, you get the hang of it. Fostering has given me a lot of experience in dealing with tough cases with animals and has helped in diagnosing my own animals as well as clients. The benefits far out weigh the negative.

I hope you all could consider becoming a foster because it is so rewarding! The love and affection you get from these animals is so awesome, and then seeing them find homes is an even better feeling.

If you'd like more information on becoming a foster, please feel free to call/email me with any questions. All the information you'll need you can also find on the SPCA of Texas' website.