Pet Expo was a success!

The Expo was a fantastic two days! We met a ton new people, made some great friends and became aware of a lot of great pet rescue foundations.

I think the thing I learned most about attending the Expo this year was the fact that there are so many resuce societys out there. They all are doing their best to make life a little better for som e very unfortunate dogs and cats out there.

There were so many specialized rescues. They specifically resuce certain breeds. There was one for pugs, one for greyhounds, one for pitbulls, one for Beagles and even one for Ferrets! But my favourite one is the Little Mutts Rescue. They specialize in dogs under 30 lbs.

Mrs. Big Nate almost brought home a little dog named Les. We would have picked him up but we felt we need a female dog to add to our pack, we already have two males. Mrs. Big Nate is overwhelmed by boys!

To do our part in helping this organization, we are going to feature one of their rescue's each month in our monthly newsletter. We might even feature Les in the April issue.

So I'll stop beating around the bush and get to what most people want to know. How was the winner of our draw for 26 weeks of free service

Drum roll please...

Our lucky winner is:

Michelle Conkin and family of Whitehorn in NE Calgary! Biscuit is one lucky dog who get to have his yard serviced once a week for six whole months! Congrats to Michelle, family and to Biscuit. Biscuit will be featured as April 2010's Poooper of the Month. Be sure to check out our website to see the lucky winner!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth and entered our draw. For those of you who added a valid email address to their ballots, we would to like send you a show special rate to say thanks for entering.

Until next year, that's it for another Calgary Pet Expo. It was a blast!!

Calgary Pet Expo Coupons

Good day everyone!

Hope you are all enjoying this beautiful weather. Poooh Busters thanks the snow melting gods. We couldn't be busier. I guess it goes to show that dog owners just don't like venturing out into the backyard in the winter to take care of all that doogie pooop!


That's okay, we'll take care of that for you. And if you hire us for weekly service all year round, you won't have to worry about next year's melt.


Anyway, the real reason for this post is to provide everyone with a coupon for the 10th Annual Calgary Pet Expo. It happen next weekend down at the Big Four. We are counting down the days. Actually we have been so busy, we found it's creeping up on us quicker than expected! But we're still ready for it.


See this picture? You all you have to do is "click the pic", when it opens in it's large size on screen, just go "File - Print" or "Ctrl+P". Print that sucker off and get 2 for 1 admission right off the bat!

































Courtesy of Poooh Busters and Big Nate...











with much love...

See you there!

10th Annual Calgary Pet Expo

Well here we are again. We always know Spring is coming when the Calgary Pet Expo arrives in our fair city. This is always an exciting time for all pet owners and for Poooh Busters!

We just love attending this show and participating as an exhibitor of the Expo. We relish getting out there and meeting everyone face to face. We mingle with our fellow pet industry peers, shake hands with some new friends and meet up with some of our current clients.

The Calgary Pet Expo is now in it's nineth year here. It seems to keep growing with each new show. The venue and booths get bigger, the workshops and presentations increase in value and quality and the attendance certainly grows as well. We've seen it first hand, this will be our fourth year in a row as an exhibitor.

The Pet Expo is a 2-day consumer tradeshow that is open to the public. At the show you will find hundreds of pets, pet products, service providers, entertainers, clubs and organizations that cater to pets.

The show strives to include all types of pets, anything from dogs & cats, to reptiles and other small caged exotics. All of these animals can be seen on-site during the show for you to interact with!

Participate at our Show & Tell Theatre as well as learn about your pet's needs in our Seminar & Lecture theatre. Ongoing throughout the show these areas will be sure to entertain, enlighten and educate you and your whole family! Pet Expo is a consumer show. That means that it is created for the public (that means you!). The retailers, breeders, associations and service providers are there specifically to meet you and answer your questions.

Check out their website for more information. www.petexpos.com

So... When and Where:
Calgary Stampede , Big Four Building, Lower Level
Saturday, March 27, 2010 - 10:00am-6:00pm
Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 11:00am-5:00pm

Be sure to come by and drop your name in our draw. You could win one of three prize draws for 12 weeks free weekly service.

See you there!

Poooh Busters Team at the 2009 Calgary Pet Expo.

Left to right: Sue, Roland, Erin and Big Nate

Sad Day at Poooh Busters

We truly love our job! We can really say that our hearts are in this, our job. I guess it's easy when you love dogs and all pets as much as we do. There is nothing better than being greeted weekly by some of the friendliest and happy-go-lucky mutts on our routes.

But probably the hardest part of getting to know the dogs in our daily travels is when we hear that these dear friends pass away.

It is with a heavy heart that we are sad to report, one of our very first customers and certainly one of our most favourite dogs since the beginning has crossed over the Rainbow Bridge.

Jack the Jack Russell Terrier was suddenly taken away from his family the morning of Thursday, March 11, 2010. Jack was seven years old and will be sorrowly missed by his Mom and Dad and certainly by the Poooh Busters team.

Our thoughts are with them in this very hard time. We wish them nothing but peace during this very sorrow-filled time.

Steal the Deal!

We want you to Steal our Deal!

Poooh Busters is excited to announce that we have joined up with a new website and business marketing concept in Canada called StealtheDeal.com.

Basically, they advertise a Calgary based business for 24 hours who is offering a wicked, awesome deal to anyone who wants to take advantage of it. Usually the deal involves getting a service or product for half price! Yes HALF price!!

Poooh Busters is being feature tomorrow, Saturday, March 6th. We are offering our 12 week service for $50! Normally our 12 week service for one dog is $108. So for anyone wanting to take advantage of this deal, they will save slightly more than 50% of the normal already discounted price!

Please note that this deal is only available to new customers who are signing up for service for the first time. This offer is not available to our existing customers. But we encourage our existing clients to tell their friends and family about the deal and we'll consider that a referral. All existing customers who provide a referral get four weeks service for free! So even though our current clientelle can't take advantage of the Steal the Deal promotion, they can get some free service for referring others to the deal.

We encourage anyone who wants to take advantage of any deals Calgary businesses have to offer, to be sure to visit this site every day and get 50% off of almost anything. Check out the past deals and you'll see the kind of stuff you can save money on.

Be sure to visit StealtheDeal.com tomorrow, Saturday, March 6th to see the Poooh Busters' deal featured.

So what are you waiting for? Visit the site, set up an account and start saving!

We already have!!

Can dogs relax to music?

I just had to blog this when I saw it! Music created just for dogs to relax by. What will they think of next? Actually after reading the article and watching the video, I'm considering it!

Lisa Spector, concert pianist and graduate of The Juilliard School is co-founder of BioAcoustic Research & Development, where she presided over the groundbreaking music and canine research conducted with 150 dogs. She is the pianist on the Through a Dog’s Ear music series. If you have a dog who could use a little calming at home or in the car, these CDs are for you.

Lisa has won first prizes in prestigious national piano competitions and performs concert tours internationally, so dogs and people lucky enough to hear her music are in for a treat. Click here for a few free downloads and samples of her calming music for dogs.

With her challenging puppy, she started to notice that when she played certain types of classical music, arranged with the same principles that calmed her human students, he would often curl up and take a nap near the piano. This triggered her curiosity – Would the same concepts that were so effective with people also work on dogs? It was 2003 that she first approached Joshua Leeds, a world renowned sound researcher with this idea.

The book Through a Dog’s Ear, written by Joshua Leeds and veterinary neurologist Susan Wagner, states that the process of hearing is the same in humans and dogs, but there are also important differences. Humans hear sounds between 20-20,000 Hz. Dogs hear a much wider frequency range, especially in the higher pitches. Estimates vary from 40,000 Hz all the way up to 55,000 Hz – depending on the breed. Sound is so important to dogs that their ears move constantly, like a radar dish, tuning in to sounds that we can’t even perceive.

Their psychoacoustically-designed classical music has helped dogs with separation anxiety, sound phobias (thunderstorms, fireworks, etc.) nervousness, fear, excitement with visitors, pre- and post-surgery, and even assisted in euthanasia. It is best to first start playing Music to Calm your Canine Companion when your dog is already calm and relaxed. Playing it at bedtime for a few nights is a good idea (and it will also help people fall asleep). Your dog will start associating the music with a sense of calm. If the music can be combined with something the dog already associates as relaxing, such as a massage, or gentle petting, that also helps. Then start playing the music before the anxiety issue is present. If it’s played for separation anxiety, make sure that the music is played at various times when you are home relaxing with your dog, so that he doesn’t learn that the music is always a predictor of you leaving. Then play the music for about 20 minutes before you leave the house and put it on repeat play. Graduating the amount of time that you are gone also helps.

The research on Through a Dog’s Ear, conducted on over 150 dogs, showed that 70% of shelter dogs and 80% of dogs in home environments calmed to the music and lay down. However, since our products have been on the market, even Lisa has been amazed at the stories people share about how helpful the music is and how quickly it works. They donate free CD’s to shelters. Currently 90 shelters in three countries are enrolled. They hear from so many of them how successfully it is working to calm dogs. In addition, trainers leading classes of shy and reactive dogs have been commenting on its effectiveness of calming the dogs and handlers and keeping everyone more focused.

Watch the video, it's really quite amazing!

OMG! This is actually real?

I've Tweeted a few stories lately about people getting violent when owners don’t clean up their dogs’ poop. There was the California man who shot and killed his neighbor’s dog for using his lawn as a toilet one too many times. And the man who rubbed poop all over a woman’s head because she didn’t clean up after her dog.

I’m sure that the people behind this "PooTrap" product would love to claim that if the dogs’ owners been using PooTrap, none of this would have happened. This video above — a must-watch — is a real-deal commercial. I thought this had to be something from Saturday Night Live, or a YouTube joke, but apparently the number 888-POO-TRAP is confirmed and this is a real product.

If Mojo or Oscar were to wear one of these contraptions, I have no doubt they would spend their entire walk trying to get it off. If they ran across their dog friends, they would surely be humiliated. They would not be a good candidates for the commercial’s “and your pets will love it, too…makes your walking experience fun!” angle.

It’s amazing that some dogs will tolerate this thing dangling from their hindquarters. (One yellow Lab in the commercial appears well equipped to pass his tolerant genes to the next generation…)

I love the PooTrap FAQs on the company’s site. I think maybe the PooTrap people should revisit this page with a good marketing person at their side. FAQs are meant to educate, and to promote a product, not to make people fall out of their chairs with laughter. Here are a few (all grammar and syntax taken directly from the site):

• “Why it’s not as easy as your instruction video to put the PooTrap on my dog?” (Now there’s a big surprise! The commercial does promise “It’s easy to install on your dog.” I’ve never “installed” anything on my dog. I install things on my computer or on my walls, but not on my dog.) Partial answer, because the rest of the answer makes little sense: “…if they have any uncomfortable feelings, usually the uncomfortable feelings will be eased after 5 to 10 minutes.”
• “I would rather like to pick up poop by myself?” (They provide no answer for this one. Huh.)
• “Do you think PooTrap humiliates your dog when wearing the product?” Answer: “Babies wear diapers and they are truly loved by their parents, hence same applied to the dog owners who use our PooTrap do actually truly love their dogs.”
• “Can the dog owner use the PooTrap on the dog at all times when walking them out?” (Oh, please say no! Please say take it off as soon as your dog poops! Please?) Answer: “It is not a problem to keep the PooTrap strapped onto your dog during the entire duration of your walk. It will not bother the dog. When a dog is having diarrhea, or if the owner just doesn’t feel like taking the PooTrap off the dog, feel free to keep the PooTrap on the dog.”

I like the ingenuity and the inspiration behind the contraption (never leave even a smear of poop on your lawn or in the park again) is commendable.

But the implementation is enough to have your dog pinching himself and praying he’ll wake up soon.

What do you think? Would you buy one for your dog?