Dogs in Weddings

Posted on 10. Mar, 2010 by Annvi in Barkin' Doggie Bloggie, Fun Tidbits, Weddings

“Are you marrying the dog or me?” ~ Tobiah

We got Rocky in Feb 2008.  We got engaged in April 2008.  I would say that Rocky certainly served as the catalyst to our engagement.  Watching Tobiah pull out a raw hide from Rocky’s mouth out of fear that our Roo would choke to death or how he handled Rocky throwing up everywhere because Rocky got into something melted my heart.  I didn’t know that my lover boy could be so caring…so sensitive.  Rocky sealed the deal.

When I morphed into bridezilla, I had one requirement:  ROCKY WAS GOING TO BE THERE.  I didn’t care what else happened that day as long as my best bud, Rocky, was there.  I was ecstatic when I found a venue that would allow our pup to join in the festivities.  Having him there made a world of difference.  I was a nervous wreck that day- my make-up lady was 2 hours late, which got me all off schedule.  Seeing Rocky with my cute hubby-to-be allayed all my anxiety. Plus, I just have to say…look at how much happier Rocky is when I come in the picture. LOL.  I am Rocky’s favorite, I know.  Now that wedding season is approaching, I thought it would be a good time to do a post on having your cutie pie in your wedding.  I think it is a great idea!  Here are some tips that I learned from my own wedding:

1.  Have one of your friends or family members be in charge of the dog.  Someone your pup trusts and listens to well so that you can hand over the dog when you have more important things to take care of- like getting married. 

2.  Bring a water bowl for your pup.  As you can see from the picture, Rocky’s tongue is hanging way out of his mouth.  Great pic, but he was so thirsty!  Poor guy.  I think someone ended up giving him some ice cubes.

3.  We got married in Georgia at the end of May.  Although, getting Rocky to wear one of those dog tuxedo costumes would have been super cute, Rocky would have been uber uncomfortable and hot.  He is not used to wearing clothes, unless Tobiah isn’t around…

I got a friend to stitch a collar for him and tie on a bow tie.  I am sure you could get a tailor in your area to custom make some sort of attire for your pup.  I don’t think it would be too expensive since it is such a small amount of material.

4.  Choose a  wedding photographer that is comfortable taking pictures of pets.  I’d find out if they have pets because it was important to me that my photographer likes and understands pets.  Photographing pets is difficult especially on a day where photographing a pet is not the main focus.  Your photographers have to get a few good shots fast so they can move on to other parts of the event.  Ask to see pictures your photographers  have taken of pets in other weddings to get a better idea if your photographer is up for the task!

5.  Take your pup to the venue a few times before the event to ensure that your pet is familiar/comfortable with the area.

6.  Let your guests know there will be a dog at your wedding so that they are not unexpectedly surprised.  Some people are allergic/afraid/ do not approve of dogs in weddings.  People react much better when they are prepared.  A few of our guests were worried about having Rocky at the wedding.  I told them he would be on a leash the entire time and would have someone in charge on him at all times.

7.  Know your dog’s limitations.  Rocky is great with loud noises, big crowds, unfamiliar situations- as long as there is no food.  He has been known to jump up on tables at dinner parties and devour whatever is in sight.  This meant I had to get him in and out before any food was available.

8.  Make some time before the ceremony to exercise with your pup!  Have some fun!  I wanted Rocky to be as calm as possible and have no “accidents” during our ceremony.

9.  I knew that if I went to a wedding and saw a pup, it would have made me miss my own pup dearly.  We had many guests traveling from out of town to celebrate with us.  We set up a “Rocky table”  with treats for our guests from Rocky to take to their own dogs.  We hadn’t created barkin’ doggie biscuits yet.

I can’t think of anything else from my wedding.  Rocky got a lot of attention and had a ton of fun.  Neither of us regret having him there.  If you have any questions/comments- bark at us!  Plus, if you’d like to have some barkin’ doggie treats at your wedding- let us know!  We’d love to make that happen for you!

Cheers and Happy Barkin’!

Annvi and Tobiah

Barkin’ Doggie Biscuit Hunt

Posted on 18. Jan, 2010 by Annvi in Barkin' Doggie Bloggie, Fun Tidbits, Interesting Dog Tidbits

I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren’t certain we knew better.  They fight for honor at the first challenge, make love with no moral restraint, and they do not for all their marvelous instincts appear to know about death.  Being such wonderfully uncomplicated beings, they need us to do their worrying.  ~George Bird Evans, Troubles with Bird Dogs

Tobiah taught me this really fun game to do with dog treats- but it only works with Barkin’ Doggie Biscuits, of course. 

1.  Put your Barkin’ Doggie in another room or somewhere s/he cannot see you.

2.  Grab your freshly baked bag of barkin’ doggie biscuits.

3.  Open the bag and take a sniff. (Think about how you wish you could have one of these, but you must save them all for your very sweet pup.)

4.  Scatter 4-5 of the gourmet yummy treats all over a room that is easy to cleanup (but we are sure there will not be anything left to cleanup).  If your pup has already had too many of our treats, break up a couple into smaller treats.

5.  Your pup has already inhaled the sweet aroma of the best dog treat on the planet.  S/he is wagging its tail, jumping up and down, and perhaps barkin’ in excitement.

6.  Let your dog out and see what happens.  It is so much fun to watch them sniff out those all-natural dog cookies.

Once you have played this game a few times- the next time, have your dog(s) sit in the corner of the room and not move until you have hidden all the treats.  This will help in teaching your dog how to sit patiently until you say “come” or “go.” And an obedient, tummy-filled doggie is definitely a barkin’ doggie in the making.

Have some fun.  If you can take some pictures- please send them our way.  We love barkin’ excited doggies.

Cheers and Happy Barkin’!

Annvi and Tobiah

The Gourmet behind Barkin’ Doggie Biscuits

Posted on 14. Jan, 2010 by Annvi in Barkin' Doggie Bloggie, Fun Tidbits

“In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn’t merely try to train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.” ~Edward Hoagland

Ok, so I have told you about how we came up with the ingredients (See Dog Cookie Recipe… Where Did It Come From?), but I haven’t gone into much detail about the gourmet baking. It is funny how life prepares you for what’s next when you aren’t really paying attention.  Let me be clear, I can bake a great cake if I have to, but I am no baker and no gourmet baker at that.  This begs the question, what the heck am I doing baking dog biscuits all day???

When Tobiah and I were dating in law school, guess who was cooking all our dinner meals?  TOBIAH.  And, did I mention that his mom is amazing baker?  Oh, and what about Tobiah’s brother?  He is a CHEF.

Is this all starting to make sense now? 

I am the one who is like oh, you are making a quesadilla? Add some spinach to that! or having a bowl of lucky charms? why don’t you balance that out with some shredded wheat in the bowl!

And Tobiah, he’s the one who is cooking up something like white chocolate croissant bread pudding.  

Tobiah put all our dog treat recipes together and I was the one who was like add a little bit of this or that.  In fact, I didn’t even pay attention to the recipes.  I figured we’d be baking all these dog cookies together, the love birds that we are.  I forgot the fact that Tobiah has a real job so that we can pursue this dream of ours.  Big oops on my part.  My first day of baking was not very fun.  In fact, I would say it was a disaster.   I’ll do us both a favor and spare you all the details. 

Despite ruining very many batches of biscuits, Tobiah and my MIL (mother-in-law) taught me some basic baking rules,  like how to measure “semi-liquid ingredients.”  Our all-natural peanut butter used in our Go Nuts! dog biscuits would be in this category of ingredients.  Supposedly, you should measure this in the dry measuring cups and not the liquid measuring cups because they are too thick to level off in the liquid measuring cups.  If you use the wrong measuring cup, you could end up with the wrong amount of ingredient.

I have come a long way to say the least.  We have gotten some killer reviews on our dog treats- and I did bake all those doggie biscuits.  Funny how this has all worked out.  I married into a family of gourmet cooking and baking superbness. Just the right mix of human ingredients to create the best dog cookie, dog treat, and dog biscuit out there!  BARKIN’ DOGGIE BISCUITS! 

And now you have the complete story behind our top secret dog biscuits recipes.

Cheers and Happy Barkin’!

Annvi and Tobiah

Dog Cookie Recipe… Where Did It Come From?

Posted on 05. Jan, 2010 by Annvi in Barkin' Doggie Bloggie, Fun Tidbits

“Not Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and Astor together could have raised money enough to buy a quarter share in my little dog”~ Ernest Thompson Secton

Whenever I tell anyone what my new gig is…baking doggie biscuits so that I can give one away for every one I sell… here’s how the conversation goes:

Friend/Dog Lover: Where do you get your dog treats from?

Me: We bake them.

Friend/Dog Lover: Whaaaaaat.  How do you know how to make those?  How did you come up with the recipe?

I didn’t realize how peculiar it sounds that someone who is accustomed to making her living while sitting in a cubicle could transition into awesome dog chef until I started getting all these questions about the recipes.  LOL.  Makes me laugh now that I think about it…but since I get asked this question all the time.  I thought I might as well do a blog entry on the topic especially since our opening is just around the corner!

Looking back at how my momma raised me, it makes complete sense that I would become advocate for all-natural, no preservatives doggie treat deliciousness.  My mom is a dietitian.  I grew up eating home cooked meals made from scratch every night that were 100% balanced.- the right amount of protein, carbs, sugars, fats, etc.  Lucky me, eh?  I definitely didn’t feel that way when she went through her soybean phase.  Soybeans in lasagna, sure, why not? And what about in stirfry and soup? Yums.  Mom was always up to date on healthy foods and tried her best to incorporate them as creatively as possible in all of our meals.  And she’ll be the first to tell you, did her kids ever have to go to the doctor? Nope. Or did they have acne? Nope.  Needless to say, when I got my own babies, Rocky and Zeus, I was all about researching human foods that were good for them.

Some people don’t believe in feeding their dogs human food because their dogs can’t handle it and/or this type of feeding can lead to begging.  However, I grew up in a household where variety was key to getting all your nutrients.  This is probably why I am all about feeding my pups wholesome foods plus I don’t like the idea that all they get is dry food. Besides, it is just fun.  HOWEVER, please do your research before you decide to give your dog human foods.  There are some foods that are intolerable to dogs. Check this MSNBC article out for some good/bad people foods.

Basically, when we decided we wanted to enter the pet treat industry, I had already had 1.5 years of research under my belt on good human foods for dogs.  I knew the ingredients that I liked and what worked for dogs.  For instance, Rocky is always getting into something he shouldn’t; and so, he was either constipated or had diarrhea almost every month.  (It took us about a year to remember not to leave any food on the counters and watch him like a hawk on our walks.)  I discovered that pure pumpkin really soothes dogs’ bellies and helps them with both constipation and diarrhea.  Needless to say, our pantry is always stocked with a can of pumpkin.  This is pretty much how we got all our ingredients.  Once we had the ingredients that were a must, we experimented and baked for a couple of months until we got the perfect treat for our cause. 

And that is how we got our dog biscuit recipes.

Cheers and Happy Barkin’!

Annvi and Tobiah

Foxes jumping on a trampoline!

Posted on 14. Dec, 2009 by Annvi in Barkin' Doggie Bloggie, Fun Tidbits

Today is a super productive day, can ya tell?

This is so funny:

Cheers and Happy Barkin’!

Annvi and Tobiah

Which one is a better pet: Cat or Dog?

Posted on 14. Dec, 2009 by Annvi in Barkin' Doggie Bloggie, Fun Tidbits

“The world is divided into ‘dog people’ and ‘cat people’, each passionately believing that their preferred pet is superior.”

Researchers have been studying canine behavior for decades now, but have just recently began studying the world of felines.  Inevitably, these two pets would be compared.   New Scientist published an article comparing the two types of animals on eleven criteria:

- Brain

- Shared History

- Bonding

- Popularity (More people in the world own cats than dogs, can you believe it?!)

- Understanding

- Problem Solving

- Vocalisation

- Tractability

- Super Senses

- Eco-Friendliness

- Utility

Click here for the article to see which pet is better.  I’ll just say this, would I post this if my favorite pet wasn’t the winner? hehe.

Cheers and Happy Barkin’!

Annvi and Tobiah

The policeman and the kitten

Posted on 09. Dec, 2009 by Annvi in Barkin' Doggie Bloggie, Fun Tidbits

“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”~ Robert A. Heinlein

Need a laugh? This is too freaking funny/cute.  Enjoy! Only a minute and a half of your day.

Cheers and Happy Barkin’!

Annvi and Tobiah

Amazing Animals!

Posted on 14. Sep, 2009 by Annvi in Barkin' Doggie Bloggie, Fun Tidbits

“All of the animals except for man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it.” ~ Samuel Butler

These bears are playing on a playground!  Can you imagine waking up to this? HA!

Cheers and Happy Barkin’!

Annvi and Tobiah

How Dogs Think Like Us

Posted on 14. Sep, 2009 by Annvi in Barkin' Doggie Bloggie, Fun Tidbits

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” ~ Anatole France

Interesting research happening at Duke University.  Here is an article that explains the research as well.  Apparently, dogs can learn the names of up to TWO HUNDRED toys, balls, etc.  Check it out!

Cheers and Happy Barkin’!

Annvi and Tobiah