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5 Reasons the Puppy Bowl is Better than the Super Bowl

 dogs, designer dogs, Yorkipoo, yorkie poo, cheerleader, Puppy Bowl, tongue out
The big game is this weekend and most Americans are ready for some football. But in some households there may be a debate about which football players are better to watch. In my opinion the answer is simple – the puppies! The Puppy Bowl wins hands down over the Super Bowl at my house?

Here are my top five reasons why the Puppy Bowl is better than the Super Bowl:

Cuteness!!!

Who can watch five minutes of the Puppy Bowl without smiling or exclaiming Awwww? The Puppy Bowl players are a wide variety of dog breeds, sizes, and personalities that ensure all viewers find their ideal cuteness. No human football is guaranteed to provide so many smiles. In fact, many find the Super Bowl to be very stressful, worrying about who scores and whether the referees are being fair. Many even place bets and have to be concerned about losing money based on the game. But the Puppy Bowl with its frolicking puppies provides the perfect stress relief from all the tension associated with American football.

Your dog can watch and enjoy with you!

During the Super Bowl, your dog may sit on the couch or wander around your party hoping for snacks, but he or she couldn’t care less about the actual game. But with the Puppy Bowl, your dog can get exited when the action happens in the game because exciting moments in the Puppy Bowl usually involve barking and the squeaking of toys. Many dogs may also be bothered by the yelling at the TV and arguing with friends and family that sometimes occur when watching the Super Bowl. Your dog doesn’t have to worry about yelling or arguing with the Puppy Bowl on the screen.

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Family friendly

Unlike the Super Bowl, the Puppy Bowl has no emphasis on alcohol or scantily clad women. The Puppy Bowl is a truly family friendly event. All ages can safely watch and enjoy the action of the Puppy Bowl. The Super Bowl is not always appropriate for younger family members, with constant alcohol consumption, potential wardrobe malfunctions, and commercials for little blue pills. And the Puppy Bowl doesn’t require you to stay up late to find out what happens. In fact you can have a nice family friendly party watching the Puppy Bowl with the kids and the dogs and then send them to bed so the adults can have their own Super Bowl party.

No rivalries

It doesn’t matter which team you support, everyone is a winner with the Puppy Bowl! You don’t have to worry about offending someone by rooting for the other team or worry about being made fun of for cheering for the underdog. In the Puppy Bowl, they’re all underdogs as all the puppies are rescue pups from animal shelters.

Cuteness!!!

Yes, my list begins and ends with cuteness because I can’t emphasize enough the immense levels of cuteness you find at the Puppy Bowl. Some people enjoy the eye candy of certain football players or cheerleaders during the Super Bowl, but you can’t say that it appeals to everyone. But with the Puppy Bowl, there is typically some cuteness everyone can enjoy. Adorable puppies, cute kittens at halftime, plus surprise appearances by birds, hamsters, bunnies, and more bring joy and smiles to everyone at home.

 

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This post is part of the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday blog hop.

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Feeling Tall

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For the Pet Photography Challenge this week the task was to take photos from a lower perspective. This is a technique I use all the time in taking photos of Sadie. It makes Sadie feel like a strong focal point in our photos and also helps to show off tall objects or buildings in the background. I really feel that the closer you are to your pets’ level, the more authentic the photos look. You wouldn’t take a portrait of a person from above them, so why take pictures of your pets that way?

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 But Sadie is a particularly short dog and I am a particularly short person. So getting photos from a lower angle is always a challenge for us. A typical photo shoot at a park or other outdoor location almost always ends in dirt and grass stains all over my clothing as I try to get low enough to photograph Sadie.

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That’s why I love scenarios like in the photos in this blog post. All of these photos were taken last Summer in the Berkshires at the highest point in the state of Massachusetts. Leading up to the monument was a big platform with stairs climbing up to it. I was able to place Sadie on the platform above me and take photos of her from below, enabling me to get both Sadie and the full monument in the photos.

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While photos from this angle look awesome and make Sadie look confident and tall, there is one slight problem. You may notice a hand in the photo above. My family, especially Sadie’s uncle, absolutely hates when I place Sadie on a higher level to get a good angle for photos. When we’re on a family vacation, like in these photos, it is almost impossible for me to take photos of Sadie without their constant concern and interruption. Obviously Sadie’s safety is my number one concern. I won’t put her somewhere she can fall. She always has a harness on and I always hold onto the leash, even if it gets in the way of my photos. And Sadie is probably the least jumpy dog you’ve ever met – she refuses to jump onto the couch or the bed, so why in the world does my family think she will randomly jump off of a wall? Regardless of my family’s unnecessary concerns, I think that placing your pet safely at a higher vantage point is the perfect way to achieve great photos from a lower perspective.

dogs, designer dogs, Yorkipoo, yorkie poo, monument, Mount Greylock, dog smiling

dogs, designer dogs, Yorkipoo, yorkie poo, monument, Mount Greylock, dog smiling

This post is part of the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday blog hop.

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2017 Pet Blogger Challenge

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Once again Sadie and I are participating in the Pet Blogger Challenge. It’s a great way to think about what worked and didn’t work in the world of pet blogging over the last year and come up with ideas and changes for the year to come. Each year these thought provoking questions are posed by the blog at GoPetFriendly.com and I thank them for bringing all of us pet bloggers together to share ideas.


1. When did you start your blog and, for anyone who is just seeing it for first time, please provide a description of your site. Would you say your blog focuses more on sharing stories with your readers, or providing a resource for your audience?
I began my blog, The YourDesignerDog Blog, in February of 2014. I blog about the adventures of life with my little Yorkipoo named Sadie. I base about 75% of my blog posts around photographs of Sadie, because for me the most fun part of blogging is being able to share all of my Sadie photos. I try to make the other 25% of my blog posts informational, with tips and advice about caring for a dog / living with a dog / shopping for a dog.

2. What was your proudest blogging moment of 2016?
Like the majority of people seem to agree, 2016 wasn’t the best year. But I would have to say my proudest blogging moment was finally being chosen for a BlogPaws sponsored campaign.

3. Which of your blog posts was your favorite this year and why? (Please include a link.)
My favorite blog post this year is actually a series of pages I added to the blog showing off Halloween costume ideas. (Click here to see the Halloween costume ideas). I had so much fun coming up with costume ideas and taking photos of Sadie in all the different outfits. Unfortunately it didn’t get much traffic this year, but honestly I spent way more time adding to it than publicizing it. When the time comes in 2017, I need to make sure I focus more on sharing my creation a lot more.

4. Year after year, one goal that we all seem to share is that we want to reach more people. What one tool did you use or action did you take this year that had the most impact on increasing traffic to your blog?
This year I signed up for an automated pinning service for Pinterest. It really helps to keep my boards fresh and my pins are scheduled throughout the day, giving them a better chance of being seen by more people. This has given me a definite increase in traffic from Pinterest.

5. Which of your blog posts got the most traffic this year? (Please include a link.) Have you noticed any themes across your most popular posts?
This year a post I wrote in 2015 had the most traffic – my guide to a dog friendly Nashville, Tennessee. This tells me that dog friendly travel is a popular theme that I need to utilize more often.

6. What blog do you find most inspirational and how has it influenced your blog? (Please include a link.)
It’s always difficult to single out one specific blog when there are so many awesome bloggers out there. Honestly this year I’ve been exploring quite a few cat blogs. I mostly read other dog blogs my first couple years of blogging to help learn the ins and outs and get inspiration. But this year I decided to join some of the cat blogger hosted blog hops like Caturday Art hosted by Athena Cat Goddess and Sunday Selfies hosted by The Cat on My Head. I’ve been really inspired by the creativity, cuteness, and community of cat blogs.

7. What is one thing your readers don’t know about you or your pets that would surprise them?
My readers may find it surprising that when at home Sadie is a very independent dog. When we’re out in public, she sticks to my like glue. But at home she will go sleep in a room by herself for an hour or two and will often refuse when I ask her to come up on the bed or the couch with me. Sometimes I’ll hear squeaking from another room and find out that Sadie has started playing with a ball all on her own and I have to ask her if I can play too, lol.

8. What is something you’ve learned this year that could help other bloggers?
Don’t delete your photos, even the bad ones. You never know when you’ll need a blooper photo. Or maybe you deleted photos of your pet looking away from the camera and then came up with a blog post idea about how to get your pet’s attention. My point is that you can easily get a portable storage device big enough to hold all of your photos, so you might as well just save them all. Personally I save the photos I think I’ll use in one folder and the rest in another folder so that I won’t have to look through them all unless I want to.

9. What would you like to accomplish on your blog in 2017?
I would like to have my blog posts planned out more in advance. I often write a few blog posts at a time and then only schedule one or two. So I have a whole list of drafts that I wrote but I can’t seem to decide the right time to schedule them. But this week for instance, I had all my posts scheduled and ready to go and it was such a satisfying feeling to know I didn’t have to rush to finish what I wanted to post. I would love to have that feeling of accomplishment more often.

10. Now it’s your turn! You have the attention of the pet blogging community – is there a question you’d like answered, or an aspect of your blog that you’d like input on?

I have a hard time with titles for posts. Sometimes I have cute photos and a story to go with them, but I never write the draft because the first thing you need to start with is a title. For instance, I’m doing the Pet Photography Challenge (check out the Facebook group here) and I like to post each challenge on my blog. This week is the rule of thirds. I feel like I’m taking the easy way out if I just call my blog post The Rule of Thirds. But if I let myself I’ll just agonize over the title all week and never end up getting the post done. So is it OK to take the easy route with blog post titles sometimes, as long as it’s not all the time?

 

 

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This post is part of the 2017 Pet Blogger Challenge hosted by GoPetFriendly.com.

Join the Pet Blogger Challenge Jan 7th, 8th and 9th

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The Get It Off Me Game

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Whenever Sadie and I are leaving the house, I signal to her that we are going out by getting her collar. I typically put on her collar and jacket or harness dress and then go get my jacket and shoes on. Sadie has invented a game during that brief window of time that she finds very amusing. It’s not very funny to me, especially when we’re running late. I call it her “Get It Off Me” game.

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The Get It Off Me Game begins when I close the last Velcro strap, buckle, or zipper of Sadie’s jacket or harness dress. She doesn’t start the game when her collar goes on – that would be too soon. But as soon as that jacket or harness is on, Sadie runs to one of a variety of cushioned objects. Sometime she runs to the couch, sometimes it’s my bed, sometimes it’s her dog house, or just a dog bed. Regardless of which she chooses, Sadie runs full speed and then leaps onto the convenient cushion. Then she rolls around trying to get the jacket or harness off of her. Sometimes she is able to undo the Velcro against the side of the couch or bed. Sometimes she gets one leg or her head out of her outfit. She’s even ripped off buttons and decorative flowers from her dresses or jackets during this game.

dogs, designer dogs, yorkipoo, yorkie poo, dog jacket, dog harness, get it off me game

All of this occurs only in the time it takes me to get my shoes and jacket on. If I’m ready to leave and open the door, then I’ve won the game and Sadie happily accepts her defeat and heads down the stairs. If she doesn’t come to me when I open the door, then I’ve lost the game. Sadie has won by at least partially removing her outerwear. I then have to put down my purse and whatever else I’m inevitably carrying and resecure Sadie’s jacket or harness so we can safely leave the house.

 

This post is part of the Pet Parade blog hop hosted by Rascal and Rocco, Bionic Basil, Love Is Being Owned By a Husky, and M.K. Clinton.



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Reindeer Games

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This holiday season I’ve decided to switch out Sadie’s living room dog bed with a more festive reindeer dog bed. At first Sadie wasn’t sure she liked her new reindeer bed. She didn’t really want to sleep in it or lay in it. But one day as she was looking for a good place to bury a treat, she discovered a much better use for her new dog bed. Between the side bumpers and the bottom cushion of the bed is a little space that is perfect for hiding things! Thankfully Sadie is not the kind of dog that likes to hide other people’s belongings, so aside from her treats, Sadie had only one item in mind for her new hiding spot – her little squeaky soccer balls.
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It’s now become a daily game for Sadie and I to play, which I call the reindeer game. When Sadie gets in the mood to play, she squeaks her ball for a while and then runs and places it in her reindeer bed. If I’m not paying attention, she then whines until I come over to do my part. I stuff the ball firmly in the crevice of the reindeer bed and then flip the bed over. Sadie immediately starts digging into the underside of the bed. She knows she has to get her reindeer flipped back over to get the ball out, but sometimes she just enjoys the digging for a bit. Then she head butts the bed until she gets the right leverage to flip it. Once the reindeer is right side up again, Sadie can then dig her ball out and start all over again. Take a look at the videos below to see the reindeer game in action!

dogs, designer dogs, Yorkipoo, yorkie poo, reindeer, dog bed, dog hat, dog smiling
This post is part of the Pet Parade blog hop hosted by Rascal and Rocco, Bionic Basil, Love Is Being Owned By a Husky, and M.K. Clinton.