Commitment

A New Commitment!
To write on the Blog at least twice a week. There are lots of exciting things going on with Rad Dog as well as with our friends and customers and I want to share those things with everyone. So here's to the first entry related to that commitment as well as to the continued posting of many exciting and informational posts.

New Collars - Ready

Picked up the new Release N Run's from our sewer today, they look great. Now we have a great stock of collars to provide to everyone that wants one. Check out the website. www.myraddog.com to view the collars. Also we are planning to phase out Purple and Digital Camo so if you want one of the those colors get them while they are still available. Now I have to package and label them.

Found dog- How to find your dogs if they get lost.

Today I was on a great run in the Chuckanuts here in Bellingham, and towards the end of the run my running partner, Hilary, and I found a dog just wandering around. We ran past him, and as we looked back he was following us; we urged him to go back, but he kept following. We backtracked a bit, but there was no one around. We also stood still for awhile, hoping he'd catch a scent of his owners and go find them. Yet, he followed us all the way to the car. There was no one to be found in the lot, and when I put the tailgate down, he immediately hopped into the bed of the truck. We called the humane society to see if someone had reported a losing a dog, but they were closed and their message said to call 911 on the weekends. 911 contacted the person on call from the humane society and sent someone over to pick the dog up. We hope that his owner gets in touch with them, soon!

So what should you do if you lose your dog or find a dog?

1. Before your dog is ever lost make sure that he/she has ID tags; this dog had tags but the name and number were worn off and not legible.
2. Consider getting your dog "chipped." Then if your dog loses their tags, or for whatever reason they were not wearing them, the humane society will know right away who the dog belongs to.
3. If your dog is lost, call the humane society and/or animal control ASAP.
4. Tell people in the area that you lost your dog and ask them if they have seen him/her.
   
5. Place an ad on craigslist. Many people check there to see if someone may have lost a dog.
6. Place signs with a photo up around the area where they became lost and maybe also post signs around the city.
7. If you lost your dog in a neighborhood or city, tell the local postal, FedEx, and UPS person that you lost your dog.
   
8. Let all of your friends know, maybe they know someone that knows someone...
9. Place an ad in the paper or call the local radio station or news station and see if they can help.
10. Go back with friends to where you lost the dog and search the area. Bring a toy that they like, especially one that makes noise.
11. Last but not least, don't give up; often it takes time. And, some dogs eventually find their own way home.

This is not an exhaustive list. There are many different ways to find or return a lost dog, but these are just a few ideas to get you headed in the right direction. If you have additional ways to help others locate or return a lost dog, please let everyone know.

A Little Help

Thanks to all of our great friends and customers Rad Dog has come a long way in the last two years. Now we need a little help with the sewing, so today I took 200 or so retractors and the collar materials to a local sewer. She will sew all the red, black, and blue collars giving us a lot more time to do other things related to Rad Dog. Its a big help and I'm sure she will do a quality job. We still have to package them so we will be able to make sure everything is up to par before we sell them. Hopefully this will give us more time to focus on the customers.

A Day at Stevens Pass With the Avalanche Dogs

Spent a great afternoon up at Stevens Pass with 15+ avalanche dogs and their ski patrol owners. Stevens Pass Ski Patrol flew in from Switzerland two highly skilled avalanche dog experts and hosted a week long avalanche clinic for resorts around the west. There were over 15 dogs and owners in attendance running through drills and all the various skills that make for a great search dog and owner. They worked with the two Swiss instructors and further advanced there skills and knowledge about how to best search for avalanche victims. I also to meet Corey the and his dog Niva, the two that originally contacted us about our new product the Release N Run.

This picture is of the attendees, which made the trip from all over the west. We were happy to be there and meet these great life saving dogs and people. We were able to hand out gear to all the attendees that came form such places as, Mt Bachelor, Alpine Meadows, Solitude, Sundance, Alyeska, Mt Hood, Heavenly, Sierra at Tahoe, as well as some local Search and rescue groups with the WA state DOT and King County SAR. We are happy to have the gear on these dogs and hope they can put the gear to great use.











Here is Osso and Niva playing around in the snow after the class was over. It sounds like the dogs had a great week and all the attendees were very impressed with the information they received. Thanks for inviting me up to witness the class, meet the owners and their dogs and pass some new gear. What a great!

Photo Shoot - Amazing Day!

It was a great day in Bellingham for some Pictures with the DOGS!

We started out early Saturday morning with our bikes and gear to get some photos for the new website that Katy, our Graphics designer, is working on. We left the Samish parking lot at 6 am so as to catch the sunrise up on Galbraith mountain, and what a great sunrise and day it turned out to be, as you can tell by the pictures!

We started out from the lot in the dark, headed to the pipeline trail, and worked our way towards Mullet and the top of Oly for the main part of our shoot. We met our friend Nicola, co-owner of Trailhead Athletics, and her two dogs, Sonic and Roxy, part way up the mountain. Anders snapped photos the entire way up; the dogs loved it. We rode and jogged around with all three dogs zigzagging around the bikes and people.

After a few hours with Nicola and her dogs, they traded out duties with our friend Ruth and her dog Fiona. We took more pictures, gave the dogs more treats, and let the dogs get even dirtier; they loved it!



All the dogs played and enjoyed being out so early in the day. Oh, and of course they loved the treats that we bribed them with. Jake, Roxy, and Sonic are all showing the focus of a Rad Dog!






In the afternoon Anders set out to the saltwater flats with some of his friends for some more great pictures. He had three more dogs join him in the fun as they had a great time playing in the sand and water.












All in all, it was a great day on the mountain and at the beach. Anders did a great job with the shoot and all the dogs and humans alike had a great time! Thanks to our friends Nicola and Ruth for their help, and a big thanks to all six dogs that did all the HARD work looking good and sporting Rad Dog gear, like the Release N Run.