I really had fun giving folks on local Sacramento TV some tips on pet travel when PETCO sent me to the West coast recently. If only they had asked me something like pet grooming when traveling – I was thinking that while the nice hotels give out sample shampoo and conditioners, it would be so cool if the pet friendly hotels gave out little bottles of Halo’s Cloud Nine Herbal Shampoo!

It is an absolute favorite in our house where all three of my gigantic dogs gets a bath at least twice a month and truly no shampoo comes close to Halo’s for easy rinse-ability, soft skin, and cleaning without being harsh.

Maybe one of the nicer hotel chains like the Four Seasons – which puts out bowls and beds and leashes for their traveling dog guests – could also pop some Cloud Nine Herbal Shampoo in there and people could take advantage of the nice low edges on hotel bathtubs to give their travelling four-leggeds a little bubble bath?

Here’s me, sent to Sacramento by Petco to chat about pet travel issues. You can see it’s pretty fun! Sacramento & Company TV Appearance.

Tracie Hotchner, author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible, guest blogs here every Thursday on healthy, natural choices for pets.

House-training a puppy means house-training you, too. If you follow my simple rules, you’ll have your puppy going where he’s supposed to, and not on the carpet, in no time.

Tracie Hotchner, author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible, guest blogs here every Thursday on healthy, natural choices for pets.

Watch my video hand selected by the Vodpod community.

by: Mimi Ausland

I’m really excited to tell you that Freekibble has now donated over 3.5 million meals to shelters, rescues and food banks! Everyday, over 55,000 people are going to www.freekibble.com and www.freekibblekat.com, to play the trivia… and we are generating kibble to feed many thousands of homeless animals everyday.

This week we launched a promotion called Letters for Pets. It’s a campaign that asks people to email a pre-written letter to The President asking for an official Proclamation for April 30th to be National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day! It’s a chance to get a whole day for adopting and celebrating shelter animals. AND, with every email letter sent, Halo Pets is donating a nutritious meal to Freekibble to help feed shelter dogs and cats – up to 50,000 meals! There are so many shelter dogs and cats in need of good, nutritious, food and this is another fun way to help feed them!

We’re partnering with Tails Magazine and Halo, Purely for Pets to get the proclamation and I’m the Spokesperson for the campaign. People can send the letter every day and we’re trying to get 100,000 letters emailed to the White House, but we’re hoping that we can get more than that – we’ve already had 28,000 letters emailed in the first 2 days! It’s great because we are raising awareness and kibble.

We’re very excited about getting a Proclamation and have kicked it off with a full week of Presidential Pets Trivia on both sites, as a way to get people excited about sending the letter to the President… and Adopt a Shelter Pet Day!

To help us get a Proclamation and feed more dogs & cats, click on www.freekibble.com/lettersforpets and e-mail the letter to the President.

If we can all work together to get a National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day, I truly think it could help homeless animals for years to come.

MIMI

I received a letter recently from a pet sitter and here is my reply:

Dear Toni: I am trying to recover from my dismay at this veterinarian spouting his own misinformed version of true garbage …

There is no dispute in nutrition for either people or pets that we “are what we eat” and REAL meat or other wholesome protein ingredients and other healthy components of a pet food are key to the wellness of our beloved pets. HALO is completely different from other commercial dry foods. …

Click over to my original blog on “Halo is WAY Different than Other Kibble! (Update)” for the whole story!

Tracie Hotchner, author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible, guest blogs here every Thursday on healthy, natural choices for pets.

I got a comment on one of my daily tips on DOGSTER.COM and wanted to share it with you here…

It’s certainly true that lower quality dog foods can cause adverse skin reactions in dogs, but it isn’t just about an allergy to wheat (which is actually pretty rare in dogs). It’s more likely a reaction to the artificial colors, flavors, chemical preservatives, and generally dubious quality even of the protein source in the food. So you want to switch to a truly natural food free of all that artificial stuff and with the word of the named protein source as the first ingredient (chicken, beef, salmon).

While there are many premium dog foods, I have chosen HALO Purely for Pets kibble for the dry portion of my own dogs’ meals. I have confidence in the integrity of the company and Halo’s commitment to using the highest quality protein sources for their kibble, while avoiding all the cheap fillers and nasty additives present in so many dog foods. .

Click over to my original blog on “Better Quality Dog Food but Flea Prevention, Too” for the whole story!

Tracie Hotchner, author of The Dog Bible and The Cat Bible, guest blogs here every Thursday on healthy, natural choices for pets.