However, I knew it was time for an upgrade after I sat on the couch last week, lifted up my foot, and noticed a huge mound of fur sticking to the bottom of it.

Simply delicious.

After reading some online reviews, we decided on the Bissell Pet Hair Eraser. People who bought this thing raved about it–and with good reason. I could not BELIEVE how much fur it picked up from the carpet…and we’ve only been in our new apartment for two weeks!

Basically, the vacuum is specially designed to push hair up out of the carpet, and then it gets sucked up. It also comes with a bunch of cool little attachments that suck up hair on stairs and furniture.

We paid about $140 for it, so I’m guessing it’s roughly in the medium price-range as far as vacuums go.  The downside: The thing is a freakin tank. Make sure you have some room in the closet to stash this thing, or else find a way to make it fit in with your furniture scheme.

Pros: Gets up just about every bit of pet hair from your carpet. Handy attachments.

Cons: Really, really big.

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

I’m sure we’ve all seen cars that have shades suctioned on their backseat windows to hide their babies from the sun. Well, dog owners can also partake in this activity, on behalf of the sun shades by Bamboo.

As far as I can see, nothing about this particular item is made of bamboo (a bit misleading, right?!), but it does still include some nifty functions, such as an indicator that lets you know when it’s too hot in the car for your dog to get in, and of course, sun-blocking abilities.

The red indicator turns white to let you know that the temperature inside the car is too hot for your dog, and boy, does it turn white fast!

Even when you start out your drive with the indicator at its normal red, it’ll turn white after driving a little bit in the sun.

I guess it just shows you how fast it can get too hot for your pets in the car…so please, fellow dog owners, DON’T LEAVE YOUR DOGS IN THE CAR WHILE YOU’RE OUT!

Okay, ranting aside, the shades are also nice because you can pull them down to whichever length you want them to go, so if your dog wants to look out the window you can still pull it down halfway to get the best of both worlds.

Some downsides to the shades are that they suction onto the window, which isn’t always dependable - when it gets too hot the suctions don’t work as well, and seeing as how these are made to be used in the sun, this can be problematic.  Also, they are fairly narrow so it may not cover as well on larger, wider windows.

From personal experience, I would say that we have not used these shades as much as I originally envisioned we would when we made the purchase.  A big reason is that Pom Pom refuses to sit in the backseat, and while I have used them when my cat is in his carrier in the back, I have stopped because he enjoys looking out the window (it’s about the only thing he enjoys about car rides).

It has been a while since we’ve needed to use these shades - you just don’t see much sun driving from Oregon to Northen California in the holiday season - but I still keep them handy in the car just in case we come across the need for them.

The shades may not be used often, but are definitely useful to have around for the moments in life you find them necessary.  For about 10 bucks or so, why not keep them around?

Pros: Affordable, functional and practical.

Cons: Doesn’t always stay on window, more useful depending on where you live (e.g. Phoenix vs. Seattle).

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

This review’s long overdue mainly because I wanted to write about Veggie Life’s Chicken & Apple treats… but then Beary ate them all. Then, I bought another Veggie Life Chicken & Apple bag, but I ran out of that, too, before I could post the review. So here we are at bag #3 – Chicken & BANANA this time – with some treats left to show you roughly how tasty they look like. They don’t last very long around the house, obviously, but if there’s one drawback to them, it’d be that they cost seven bucks a bag – not exactly breaking the bank, but they’re getting up there for the little 5-ounce bag. What does throw me off about these treats is the name – Veggie Life. Meat-wrapped fruit = Veggie Life? Close enough? Sure, sounds like a plan!

Unlike the Bully Stix, which are still hanging around on my living room floor, the Flossie is not as thick, which means that it disappeared within a day of bringing it home to the dogs.  But its spirals are supposed to serve a good dental cleaning purpose, and it holds a nice challenge for the dogs while chewing.

For $2.50 per Flossie, it’s well worth it to bring one home for your dog’s enjoyment, even if it doesn’t last as long as the Bully Stix.  It’s also worth the price to have your dog chew on something that is NOT rawhide.

All in all, a worthy chew stick!

Pros: Affordable, longer-lasting, natural.

Cons: Will probably not last longer than a day or two.

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Something about the long, skinny body of a Loofa Dog toy gets dogs crazy excited.  When I brought home a large, pink Loofa Dog for Pom Pom and Casper, it was snatched out of my hand as soon as I took it out of my bag–proving that my dogs are no different than the little Dachshund in the PetSmart commercial playing with his BoBo.

The Loofa Dog is truly a great toy: It squeaks, makes a crunchy noise, and has plenty of square “plushage” for chewing and thrashing around.

Unfortunately, the Loofa Dog seems to be less durable than even other plush squeaky toys…we’ve had ours for about two weeks and it is already spewing its insides and will require immediate surgery.

For 10 bucks (ours is the Breast Cancer edition), I just don’t know if I can justify buying more, especially when other squeaky toys like our bushy-tailed squirrels have held up much longer and with more aggressive play!

To summarize, the Loofa Dog is a more costly, yet high doggie enjoyment toy.  I guess every dog should experience a BoBo in their lifetime though….

Pros:  Dogs love them, they make fun sounds, you can play tug-a-war with it.

Cons: Not durable, price.

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

When we noticed that Casper’s skin was bright red all over, we decided it was time to have a doggie spa day at our house.

I grabbed some Harry Barker Oatmeal shampoo and conditioner from work on the recommendation of my groomer. Not only does it smell fantastic, it worked like a miracle - Casper’s skin has turned back to normal coloring and he hasn’t scratched since, and both the dogs’ hair are so soft and, well, voluminous! More impressively, the conditioner really did some magic by preventing tangles from forming, which made brushing a breeze.

An added bonus was the fun I had while bathing the dogs - the whole process of bathing, drying, and brushing and blow drying was a great Mommy-Doggie bonding time…plus, it was a fun activity for Dustin and I to do on a Saturday morning (seriously!).

Beauty does not come cheap though…each bottle of Harry Barker-ing goodness costs $14, for a whopping total of $28 for the set. But if you’re looking for something that smells good, soothes your baby’s irritated skin, and will give you some quality time with your dogs, this is definitely worth the money.

Pros: Scent, quality, bonding time with dogs.

Cons: Price, separate bottles for shampoo and conditioner = more time.

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

I can’t remember the last time when I’ve sat in front of a foul-mouthed dog, spewing expletives after expletives, all while I’m trying not explode out of laughter – and, no, it wasn’t Beary complaining about his Sweet Potato & Fish Formula Treats. Allow me to set the premise for a play: Sylvia, a Lab/Poodle mix acted by a human, is disrupting “the delicate balance of [Greg and Kate’s] marriage and becomes a rival for Greg’s affection.” Essentially, what you’re watching is Sylvia’s wonderful canine world translated into the human language with a profane and yet clever script of what it’s like to be a dog.

I knew I’d love this play as soon as Sylvia, acted by Tate Hanyok, started “barking,” which translated into a loud “Hey! Hey! Hey!” Hanyok displayed all the mannerisms of your average dog dead-on, from the prissiness after a fresh groom to the hormonally-crazed teenage behavior when she was “in heat.”  The four-person cast also includes Jamies Jones, Michael Stevenson and David Pierini who has several roles in the comedic play. I don’t want to give too much away, so suffice to say that if you live the Sacramento area, you need to check out the play before August 3 at the B Street Theatre! It’ll probably the best two hours spent throughout your work week.

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

In the past, Cindy and I used to give Casper and Pom Pom those rawhide chew sticks that come in packs of 100 at Target–they were cheap, and they kept the dogs occupied during the day or at bedtime.Big surprise: Those rawhide sticks aren’t so good for dogs (not very awesome for a dog’s digestive system).

As a result, I now have 85 stinky little white sticks and no idea what to do with them (still leaning towards using them to build a mini-model of a human skeleton and donating it to a local elementary school science class).

So in our search for a rawhide alternative, we came across Bully Sticks. These sticks are apparently lower in fat and easier to digest than the rawhide variety.

OK, so I should probably mention that Bully Sticks are made from…bull penises…actually, they ARE dried bull penises. There, I said it…now I need a shower.

I know, it’s weird, but these things really are a much healthier alternative to rawhide, and they last much longer, too. As you can see by their mangled appearance in the picture above, Casper and Pom are obsessed with the sticks–Casper takes his stick everywhere…including on our bed.

Pros: Natural, long-lasting, decent price (we paid about $2 per stick).

Cons: There’s no way around it…it’s a dried bulls penis, so that’s kind of weird. Like most chew sticks, they don’t smell all that great.

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Since we enrolled Casper (and ourselves) in doggie behavioral classes, we’ve been getting the required class items, such as tasty training treats and a training pack that can hold the treats. While I’m not a fan of the 80’s fanny pack look, I have to admit that I am quite a fan of this training pack.

The pack fastens around your waist, and the opening can be opened to however large you want it to be. During training sessions, it’s extremely convenient to have the pack opened and just reach into the bag for treats. Even the “around-the-waist” look has grown on me…I feel sporty when I’m wearing it!

Pros: Convenient (for training and for outtings too), easy to use, looks better than a fanny pack.

Cons: May not always go well with your outfit…although the pack does comes in black, which should really be a pro; price (you are paying $12 for a fancy pack when you know you could easily go get a cheapie fanny pack).

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

The only thing Casper and Pom Pom like more than a dog treat is a NEW dog treat. We like to mix things up as much as possible for them, and since we recently started taking Casper to obedience training classes, it was time to get the dogs some treats they’d never had before.

When I first picked up a pack of Zuke’s Peanut Butter Dog Treats, I noticed they already had a couple things going for them: It said “Perfect for training” and “Moist and Healthy” on the bag–and you know if they said it on the bag, it must be true.

As with just about any treat we first buy, Pom and Casper ate them up without hardly chewing them. However, the treats weren’t as highly regarded during our first training class session with Casper–I’ll chalk that up somewhat to his very high inability to focus on anything but the other dogs in the class.

Distracting doggies aside, I have noticed that the dogs are less interested in these treats. We have some other treats that we buy on a regular basis for them, and they’ve actually seemed more interested in those ol’ standbys than our friend Zuke’s treats.

Pros: Small and soft makes for a great “training treat.” Decently priced at about 5 bucks.

Cons: Dogs got bored of the treats quickly.

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.