Wednesday, February 29, 2012

PuppyTweets, By Mattel. Sweet Tweet?



Struttin’ though Ollie’s (the discount store) would hardly be worth the trip if I didn’t take the time to check out the pet aisle!  Boy oh boy, I am so glad I did! I found a treasure trove of Oster products that I have yet to test, but I also came upon an item called PuppyTweets put out by Mattel. Intrigued, I had to take a closer look. Further intrigued I had to shell out the $7.99 for it. From what I have found on the internet this product sells for $12.99 and up.



What is a Puppy Tweet?

 If you have a twitter account you will recognize the word tweet, if not then you will have to open a twitter account. If you already have a twitter account I strongly suggest you log off of that account and create a new one with your dog’s name. It’s easier to upload the instructions and get started as well as manage the tweets from the dog.  



Instructions

The instructions were easy and were specific as to what not to do until the program was downloaded to your computer, such as do not put the battery in the collar receiver until the program was installed.

I looked all over the package to see if the product could be used in different types of weather but I found no such information on the package or inside the instructions. If you let your pup out in the rain is it ruined? Who knows?



The puppy tweet works with~ PC: windows xp, windows vista, & windows 7

Macintosh: MacX10.5   



If you are not familiar with twitter, it is similar to other social media pages. Twitter is a status update for all your pals that just have to know your every move throughout the day and night. Unlike Face Book, another social media, you only have a certain number characters you can use to formulate what you want to tweet about. If you go over the allotted character number Twitter won’t post it and you have to become more creative to get your status out there.  Personally, I think people just like to say the words twitter and tweet!



 The PuppyTweets collar tweets you every time your dog moves or barks so you can see how active the dog is while you are away. You’ll have to keep checking your twitter account if you are really curious about you dog's movements. Should your nerves get frayed after reading multiple tweets, unless you can quickly excuse yourself to go home, it basically does you no good.  It is a fun toy to play with but if you really want to know what your dog is doing while you’re away look at the couch  when you arrive home.  Is it wet? Is it torn? Are there holes?  Is it still there? That’s a good indicator of trouble!
 

 The puppy tweet does not tell you what your dog is doing, only that the dog is moving so if you want to know for sure what’s going on, install a camera! 
 

Enter into Sally's world and you may find another possible use for PuppyTweets!

I put the PuppyTweets on my Golden Retriever Casey as he too old to care but is active enough to the point of getting up and down for meals, potty, and the occasional let me see where everyone is drill, but he is not so curious that he would try to figure out what this little blue ball was dangling from his collar and try to eat it. 

 Although all the comedic tweets I got were amusing, there is another use that I bet Mattel did not even think about when they made this product.  This use would only come to the mind of a pooch’s mother who worries about him.



 I have to admit, when I put this on Casey at around 6:30 pm, I was more interested in seeing it work through twitter and what the tweets would say, more of an amusing piece. I assumed that eventually the tweets would start to repeat themselves and not be as entertaining.  As the night progressed and I kept a close eye on the time line of tweets as it coincided with Casey’s movement. That is when this other use for PuppyTweets came to my mind. 


Casey was diagnosed with having a neurological problem when he began getting seizures about a year ago. Getting seizures at an old age for a dog is not usually a good sign. So when Casey went on medication for this, the seizures basically stopped for a couple of weeks at a time that I could see, but there were occasions he would have a seizure in the middle of night. The violent thrashing and thumping of his seizure activity in the bedroom were enough to wake even me, a very sound sleeper with only one good ear which is usually plugged up by my finger! This finger trick I learned when I had my first child, my non movement of rushing to the baby’s side when he cried in the middle of the night sent my hubby in to do the bottle feeding! (Sorry Jason, I know I scarred you for life with that one!) 



Once I saw the tweet timeline I thought I’d keep this on him during the night and see if there was any activity. If he is awake surely it will tweet and if there is a seizure, they are violent enough to trigger the PuppyTweet. So off to bed for me at 11 PM and I did not wake till I unplugged my ear at about 7 AM Sunday morning.


Sure enough the PuppyTweet had sent tweets at about 1 AM, till 2:30 AM then there was a rest period and it started again at around 4 AM to about 6 AM.   

Since I was sleeping how did I know the timing of the tweets were correct? Easy, hubby is not a sound sleeper so for him going to bed early and getting two or three hours of sleep means he will be up the rest of the evening playing poker on the computer! Surely not good for him, but good for me as I was able to ask him if he saw Casey while he was up and if the timeline coincided with Casey’s activity.

The timeline coincided but as hubby said, “Casey did not have a seizure, but he did his, I want to rub my itchy face all over your carpet because you gave me crappy food and now I have allergies!”  He squirmed several times during that time frame.
 

So if hubby had not been up to see all this activity and I received the tweets through the night but did not see Casey for myself  how  would I  really know if there was any activity or if  it  was a malfunction of the PuppyTweet, let alone know if Casey had a seizure?
 
 Well obviously I would not be 100% sure however if I saw several tweets in a row as I did the night that Casey and hubby were up together it would prompt me to take a closer look at Casey’s face for wetness (from foaming at the mouth) before rushing through my AM work routine and I might, as disgusting as it sounds, give a good sniff around him as sometimes with these seizures he wets himself.

            Surely this is not a fool proof way to dictate whether or not a seizure occurred, but when you have an old dog that normally sleeps through the night when no one is up, it might make you more aware of the possibility and look for the signs I mentioned above. 

Another good use that I am sure Mattel did not think about is if you have more than one dog and you are waking to a mess in the morning such as a pile of poop or torn up socks, the one wearing the PuppyTweets might just be the culprit!   

In conclusion, the premise of the PuppyTweets is cute and may entertain you, but at this time I see more cons than pros, unless of course you are inventive like me and find other uses for it!  Hmm, is your hubby wandering in the middle of the night? There’s a tweet!
 

Pros:
          1) It’s a fun device for entertainment and does what it suggests it will do which is to send a cute little tweet when the dog moves, however it may also send a tweet or two when you take it off and lay it on the counter.

          2) The timeline of the tweets were pretty accurate.



Cons:
           1) may not work out of 100 foot range from computer

          2)  Given the name of the product, I suspect it is made or geared toward puppies and if left on a puppy who is alone all day it may become dangerous.

          3) I found that the clip that goes on the dog’s collar is not sturdy which would further the chances of the device breaking free from the collar and being chewed, thus you have to worry about burns in the mouth and other internal organs if the puppy takes a bite out of the battery, or worse swallows the small round lithium battery.

          4) On the Mattel website under FAQ, a customer asked “Is PuppyTweets safe for my puppy?”  Mattel’s answer, “Yes.”   I would disagree with that blanket statement and I would not leave it on a rambunctious puppy or an over exuberant adult dog for the reasons stated above from the battery, or a obstruction of the bowel if the plastic casing is swallowed.  There should be a warning somewhere on the package of these hazards, but there is none that I saw.   The only warning I could find was proper disposal of the lithium battery.  The item is made in China, so maybe that is part of the problem as they may not be as strict as the US is regarding safety.  But still when you think Mattel, you think safety. 

            5) There is no mention of it being weather proof 

            6) There were two tweets while Casey was asleep near me so unless I missed him rolling over to his side, I am not sure why it went through.

           7) When you have a twitter account for your dog, you don’t know who will end up following the account. In one full day’s time, Casey had 6 twitter followers; some were a bit too explicit for a child’s eyes.   I actually had to block one person for sexual content! 



 I would love to give the PuppyTweets  at least two paws up for the entertainment value, but it is just too dangerous for the owner who uses it for entertainment and forgets to take it off a rambunctious dog. Since  the name suggests it is made for a puppy I can see big problems.   I might think about hooking it to my preschooler though! Or for others, maybe you suspect your hubby of sneaking out at night to cheat on you. Wow! Imagine what those tweets would say!

 Casey's opinion of the product, his tweets, and a sample of what the product looks like can be found on line in this youtube video.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3kr-6lMxbk

Properly guided entertainment value : one  paw up.

Overall safety: Three paws and a tail down.



Here are just a few of the tweets you’ll see with this product: Feel free to tweet Casey!




Casey:  Please come home - using the table leg to scratch behind the ears is just not the same.




Casey  :Cujo wasn't bad, really. Just misunderstood. That, and the whole rabies thing.




Casey: Don't think of "Wet Dog Smell" as an assault on your senses, think of it as a acute test of your loyalty.




Casey:  Puppy Advice: Don't think of your new throw pillows as destroyed so much as shabby chic.




Casey:That's one more delivery guy who's now seriously considering going back to college and finishing his degree. My work is done.






Saturday, February 11, 2012

Finally Published

My baby and best buddy, Chance  

Well, it’s been a long time coming for me. I wrote this manuscript quite a few years back, well actually I wrote many manuscripts, but one in particular called “Paws for a Cause” was sent to a traditional publisher.  They liked it, edited it, and made some suggestions for me in the way of changes, but in the end much to my dismay they went with another author’s book to publish.


 For those of you who do not deal with traditional publishers here’s how they operate. They may pick only one or two titles a year to put out, and many larger outfits will express that they do not take new authors at all, or they don’t deal with the author, only agents.  Very difficult to say the least. It feels like you, as the author, are stuck in that large recycle receptacle that loops round and round.   When you submit a manuscript to a publishing company it can take up to 6 weeks or more before you ever hear back from them, and most do not get back to you unless you send a self addressed, stamped envelope to which they can send you their rejection letter in!  Let’s face it, if they really want you, they call or email you. Nothing says rejection faster then a self addressed stamped envelope! Many traditional publishers do not allow multiple submissions either so you are stuck having to wait for that rejection letter before you submit your manuscript to another publisher!   

Fast Forward:
It is now years later, late 2011, and this same publisher has gotten back in touch with me and asked if I had changed the manuscript at all, and although I had started to change it previously when first asked, life got busy and I put the manuscript on hold, then forgot about it.  Sometimes you can only read and reread your own manuscript so many times before your eyes pop out of their sockets and you need a break!  Truth be told, it is suggested that once you write something you should put it aside for a day or two and then come back and reread it aloud, then start making your corrections.  My wise instructor from the Institute of Children’s Literature suggested this to me also. Sadly I don’t always listen to people!

So, when this publishing company contacted me again recently, I quickly put some chapters together with only what they wanted to see in the book. Omitted were the chapters of picking the perfect puppy or dog for therapy work, the dog/puppy training, the supplies needed for your dog/puppy, training a deaf dog, training human sign language, and a multitude of other chapters which to me made the book a complete guide for any dog owner! To the publisher however, I was seen as unfocused!  So in the book went  exactly what the publisher wanted and after all was said and done, the  publisher came back and said with the economy the way it was today, the book was too short for traditional publishing!  OMG! I thought. You told me what you wanted!
  Yep, rejected again! But the publisher did suggest Amazon Kindle would be a good fit! Something I never even knew existed as far as publishing goes.

Sometimes I just want to shout..
 HELLO! ARE YOU IN THERE? I DID WHAT YOU WANTED ME TO DO!  But I digress.

Pick yer boot straps up ..move up and move on!

Hmm, I thought. I knew nothing about putting a book on Kindle!  A Kindle book was way out of my league and far too intimidating to try on my own so I enlisted the help of covearesrus, paid their fee to make my book’s cover and for another fee (separate from the cover fee)  they would  format my book to fit kindle. The traditional way you send a manuscript to a publisher which is double spaced, indents, yadda, yadda, is very different than how kindle would format it. This company also helped me with the upload to kindle. I was very pleased with all of their help and the continuous contact that was kept with me.  Some say it is easy to upload a book to kindle, but I suspect they are of  today’s computer generation, not the, I still have my old typewriter sitting on my desk, generation!
 Tap, tap tap, slide. Tap, tap, tap, slide. Tap, tap tap, slide, ding!   For you youngin’s that’s the sound of an old typewriter!

              Once the book is uploaded, Kindle tells you that the book is under review and they will let you know within 24 hours if they approve it.  Keep in mind that the time the book was uploaded it was late at night and staying up late the following night as well anticipating its arrival like one would the birth of a new born baby, was out of the question for me! I figured I’d find out eventually come moon or sun.  Hey, I don’t function well in late night for anything more than drinking and dancing!

            Before Kindle had a chance to  notify me,  I opened my email and there was an email from Brian at ‘coversrus’ telling me the book was published and ready for purchase!
  “The sneak peek will take another few days” Brian wrote.
 The sneak peek is when Kindle will show you a few pages for free! So I hope if you get there you like what you see! 
            Had I known that this was all possible I may have revamped my old manuscript with all the other teachings in it and submitted that to Kindle. But, as they say live and learn.  The original publisher was probably right, I needed to focus more on how to train one’s own dog for therapy work and not lose focus by adding all the other stuff, but as you can tell I have the gift of gab and my mind wanders!

Below is the Kindle link if you would like to download the book at the very reasonable cost of $7.99 and I am thrilled to say I sold at least one copy the same day it was listed! Hopefully it will be a trend that will continue!  Inside the book you will find what basics you need to train you dog to become a therapy dog team, reasons why as an evaluator that I fail as many therapy teams as I do, reasons which cause immediate dismissal, (meaning when you and your dog walk through that door for testing my eyes are on you before you even take the test to see the teams actions), as well as a few tips to try and make it easier on you when you are going to be tested. Also listed are several groups you may want to consider joining not all are the same and have the same requirements.
If you know me, sometimes you might think I can be a bit blunt. Generally when I test dogs I test with one of my very dear friends and co trainers Marjean, who is a bit more easy going, has more patience, is more relaxed, and definitely has more tact than I do!  She and I are often called  to test one particular training group and I can just hear the whispers as soon as we enter the room,  “Better hope that the blonde one does your test, she’s nicer!”
And for those that know me as a friend, a therapy dog handler, Chance’s mom, or who are members of the Susquehanna Trail Dog Training Club, you know to whom I owe my gratitude to and it is put forth in the dedication. 
Link  to book

Don’t own a Kindle?
If you do not own a Kindle, don’t fret! You can download free kindle apps for your computer, mac, Iphone, Ipad, BlackBerry and Android here!  Wow, the way of the future! What will happen to all the bookmarks of the world?

Covers are Us
And lastly, for authors who are tired of waiting for the USPS to deliver that letter in the self addressed stamped envelope and who may want to try the kindle route, check out the sites below. I was very satisfied with both of their services and the time they dedicated to answering my questions daily! Thanks Brian! 

Until next time, happy training! 


Thursday, February 2, 2012

food recall



Quoted  From Missourian

"THAYER — A Missouri-based company is recalling three dry dog food products because of high levels of the fungus aflatoxin.
Advanced Animal Nutrition of Thayer on Friday voluntarily recalled 50-pound bags each of Dog Power Adult Maintenance Formula 21-12, Dog Power Hunters Formula 27-14 and Dog Power Hi-Pro Performance Formula 26-18.
The company says no illnesses have been reported. The products were distributed in Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. Consumers can return the products to the place of purchase for a full refund.
The recall applies to products with the packaging codes K0004 through K1322.
Aflatoxin is a naturally occurring chemical that comes from a fungus sometimes found on corn and in other crops. It can cause severe liver damage and in rare cases death."