Join Us At Tail Blazers!

We are very excited to be a part of Tail Blazers' Customer Appreciation Day! When is it you ask? Why it's tomorrow, Saturday, May 1st!

Twice a year the folks at Tail Blazers Health Food Store For Pets host a customer appreciation day where they show their true appreciation for their patrons. There are so many great things a person who visits Tail Blazers on this day can take advantage of.

Awesome deals, great prizes and fantastic giveaways!

Not only that, yours truly, Big Nate will be at the Tail Blazers Copperfield location from Noon to 2:00 p.m. handing out Poooh Busters flyers and fridge magnets.

We have also offered up some of our own coupons for the Tail Blazers grab bags. These little gems will be handed out to first 30 customers that arrive at each of their seven locations. We are offering 50% off our 12 week package. So if you show up early, you'll get a bag with our coupon and many other great deals inside!

Also if you sign up for Tail Blazer's e-Newsletter, you'll automatically be entered in their prize draw for many great prizes too. Poooh Busters is giving away 12 weeks service free to one lucky winner!

If you want full details, be sure to visit the Tail Blazers Events Page

See you tomorrow at the Copperfield Tail Blazers!

Dog Friendly Gardens

Guest blogger Cheryl S. Smith enjoys beautiful dogs AND a beautiful garden. You can, too, if you know what to do.

Poooh Busters, Poooh Busters, how does your garden grow? If you’re like many dog owners, it might not grow at all, thanks to a certain furry best friend who uses the lawn or garden for a urinal or a digging pit. But there’s hope! Dog writer Cheryl S. Smith, author of Dog Friendly Gardens, Garden Friendly Dogs, is here to help you with some of the most-common questions and concerns of people who have dogs and gardens. The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. You just have to have some of her wisdom — or her book — in your pocket.

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Dog-Friendly Garden Tips
By Cheryl S. Smith
When dog people talk about dogs and gardens, a few topics usually arise. Though my book Dog Friendly Gardens, Garden Friendly Dogs covers garden design with dogs in mind, breed considerations, fencing, training, products to use, plants to avoid, and more, when I’m out speaking, these are the most-asked questions.

Q: How can I keep my dog from making brown spots in my lawn?

A: This one often comes combined with a variety of myths, such as it’s only girl-dogs because their urine is more acidic or if I feed my dog tomato juice (or baking soda or other ill-advised items), it will neutralize the acid.

So, first, the culprit isn’t “acid,” it’s nitrogen. A high concentration of nitrogen, as is found in normal urine, burns the patch of lawn. Because female dogs tend to pee in one place and male dogs tend to mark, and thus spread their urine out more, females may have a greater impact.
In lesser quantities, nitrogen is an excellent fertilizer. So one thing you could do is apply water wherever your dog urinates. The end result will be that the patches of lawn that have been peed on and watered may actually be greener than the rest of the lawn. A researcher actually looked into this and determined that you could apply water as much as 6 or 8 hours after the fact and still effectively dilute the nitrogen.

Of course, that means you either need to know where the dog urinated or you have to water the entire lawn each day. A more practical solution may be to train your dog to use a specific potty area. If you’re starting with a new puppy, it just means going to the same location every time you take the puppy out to do his or her business, rather than wandering around the yard. If your dog is already housetrained, it would require the additional work of re-training to your chosen spot.
Also note that those brown spots may not be your dog’s fault at all. There is a fungal disease called fairy ring that looks amazingly similar to canine urine-created brown spots.

Q: I’ve hard that snail and slug bait shouldn’t be used around dogs, but I’m losing all my plantings to those slimy little creatures. What can I do?

A: Take heart, there is help. Traditional snail/slug baits include metaldehyde, which is extremely toxic. Hundreds of dogs die from metaldehyde poisoning every year. These products should never be used in any area accessible to dogs.

Several years ago a marvelous new product arrived. Based on iron phosphate, the product has no toxic effects on mammals or birds, even if eaten. But snails and slugs are attracted to it, and sicken and die once they consume it. The original manufacturer and product are Monterey Lawn and Garden Products and SluggoTM. Other companies now produce similar products, but I remain loyal to Sluggo in appreciation for Monterey Lawn and Garden bringing this life-saving product to us. You can’t have a more slug-friendly environment than a shady garden in the Pacific Northwest, and Sluggo has proven to be very effective.

You can find a variety of nontoxic products if you look for them. Insecticidal soaps and neem can be effective against insect pests. Lots of natural fertilizers are available. Check out Monterey Lawn and Garden, Sterling International, and Naturally Scientific, or ask your local nurseryperson for nontoxic solutions to your garden needs.


Q: I don’t mind a few brown spots on the lawn, but my dog is digging craters all over my landscape. Help!

A: Some breeds – terriers and Dachshunds – were designed to dig. At one time it was their job to find and kill vermin who often lived underground. Other dogs dig as a recreational activity, or to create a cool spot to lie down. Trying to stop the digging is extremely frustrating for both the human and the dog, and can lead to even less acceptable activities, such as barking constantly. Most digging problems can be resolved by providing your dog with an approved digging location. A digging pit for diggy dogs can save your garden.

You can just choose a patch of ground to let your dog dig, or you can create an actual digging pit. The one in the photograph was created out of leftover decking lumber. It is filled with a mix of sand and dirt, to keep it lose and well-drained.

To entice a dog to dig where you choose, bury some toys and treats. Go outside with your dog, run to the digging pit, dig up a treat yourself, and give it to the dog. Scratch in the dirt and encourage the dog to join in. Play with a toy after digging it up.

Keep this up for a couple of weeks. Don’t let your dog out in the yard unsupervised (this isn’t a good idea anyway). If he or she starts to dig anywhere else, run to the digging pit and entice the dog to you. Reward with a treat or play with a toy. After repetition, the dog will get the idea that this is the most rewarding place to dig, and will start making the correct choice.

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Cheryl S. Smith is an award-winning writer widely known for her dog books and articles. Click here to learn more about Cheryl, her projects, and her dogs. She also has a blog, Dogs in Society, and is an Examiner who writes about travel and events for Washington’s Olympic Peninsula visitors with dogs.

Tail Blazers Customer Appreciation Day

We are very excited to support and be a part of a local business' effort to show appreciation to the very people who made them successful. Their customers!

Tail Blazers Health Food Store for Pets is hosting their Customer Appreciation Day on May 1, 2010. It will last all day and holds many fun events and prizes for anyone who pops in throughout the day to any of their stores.

In fact, Poooh Busters has made a few contributions to help make their day a success. We have provided 50% off coupons for the first 30 customers to arrive at any of their Calgary stores. If you are one of the first 30 to show up that day, Poooh Busters will provide 12 weeks of service for half price! It doesn't get much cheaper than that to start in on a weekly service of pet waste removal!

Also we have provided a draw prize of 12 weeks free service to one lucky person who wins the draw. In order to be in the draw, you have to sign up for Tail Blazers' e-Newsletter. If you sign up on or efore May 1st, you're entered to win many, many prizes including our 12 weeks free!

In order to get up close and personal with all the fun activities, I will be at the Copperfield location from Noon - 2:00pm handing our brochures and fridge magnets. So be sure to come on down and say hi. I'd love to meet your dogs too!

So, please keep on supporting local, small business in this wonderful pet industry of ours. Nothing says you care more about pets than supporting local business and pet suppliers that don't make it their business to sell animals raised in puppy mills for pure profit!

See you on May 1st!

Who Is Really Responsible For Puppy Mills?

I apologize in advance for the intensity of this rant...

As dog lovers, we must all, surely, feel a massive twang of pity and regret when we think of those puppies who have been bred for profit by breeders who are interested only in how to produce maximum volume of ’stock’ with scant regard for the welfare, health or temperament of the animals they churn out month by month, year by year.

Puppy mills and backyard breeders are alive kicking. But how? Buy why?

Pet stores, the internet and the people who buy from them!

Puppy farmers aren't the ONLY ones to blame for misery. The people who willingly dig in to their pockets and get their wallets out to hand over cash to the cynical puppies-for-profit breeders. Puppy mills and the pet stores that buy from them couldn’t care less about the fundamental principles of breeding good, healthy, and well balanced dogs.

The puppy farmer only exists because people keep giving them money. In all the coverage given to the puppy farming debate, have we missed the most obvious of points! If people simply stopped fuelling this trade, we might actually get somewhere. We can’t legitimately call ourselves a nation of animal lovers while we allow this to happen.

But the fact is, these puppy mills would be a thing of the past if:
1) People refused to buy puppies from pet stores

2) People refused to buy the puppies they see advertised in the free classified ads, newspapers or websites (this mean you Kijiji and Craig's List).

3) People took the time to educate themselves on the responsible way of obtaining a new pet from rescue societies and reputable breeders.

Seriously, if those three things happened – the puppy farmer is left with no business. No trade. No customers. No money. No motivation to keep producing puppies.

So why do people do it? Some of them are misguided, misinformed. OK, I accept that. But even so, in this year, in this day in age with ALL of the wealth of information that exists about how to obtain a dog responsibly, is it REALLY a valid excuse anymore? And for everyone who accidentally, unintentionally winds up putting money in to the pocket of puppy farmers, there’s certainly more folk who do it and who couldn’t really care less either way.


It is an ongoing disgrace that puppy mills are allowed to thrive and prosper in a country where laws, legislation and enforcement of such establishments have never really been properly crafted to a point where they have been forced out of business, whilst the demand exists – the puppy farmer will thrive. If puppy farming is to be defeated, the first point of action needs to be in changing the attitude and behaviour of the people who are buying their puppies pet stores and off the internet.


How can we change this? How do we push for a culture change? It’s going to be hard and I feel it’s going to take something big. Before considering buying a puppy from anywhere but a rescue foundation or a reputable breeder, just remember these things:

• just because a litter of puppies is advertised in a ‘legitimate’ publication, it doesn’t mean the puppy has been bred responsibly


• just because a litter of puppies is for sale in a pet shop with a licence, it doesn’t mean the puppy has been bred responsibly


• just because a litter of puppies has been bred by a ‘licenced breeder’ it doesn’t mean the puppy has been bred responsibly

If we really want to tackle the blight of puppy farming, puppies produced in dank, squalid conditions with profit as the only motive, then we – all of us honest, caring dog owners – need to speak up, speak out and repeat the following mantra:

“If you buy from a pet store, you’re as guilty as the puppy mill. If you don’t have the knowledge to avoid a puppy farmed dog, then you’re not yet ready to own a dog.”