What's for supper?

The ongoing pet food recall in North America is amazing in size and scope. Now the recall has extended to dry foods as well as wet foods. For complete details click here. I find it truly frightening that one manufacturer makes almost all the commercial pet foods available in Canada.

You can rest assured that all Barking Biscuit dog biscuits are made with ONLY human grade ingredients made in Canada. Our biscuits are all made by hand in a bakery that is inspected by the health department. Our baking process satisfies ALL human requirements. Our bakery bakes only 2 products....oatmeal cookies and Barking Biscuits.

It has always been my commitment to use human quality ingredients. We do not add any food colouring or preservatives. All natural. Made by hand. That's it, nice and simple.

I am often asked what I feed my dogs. I believe in a natural diet. My bible has been a book called "Keep Your Dog Healthy the Natural Way" by Pat Lazarus. (also available is "Keep Your Cat Healthy the Natural Way" by the same author). Our Giant Schnauzer Cinder came to us as a puppy with a multitude of health problems. I truly believe that her natural diet is why she's still with us (and going strong!) today at age 11. Hmmmm...methinks my dogs eat better than I do!

PAWS for Charity button pins

Aren't these the cutest little buttons? You can have one!

We're selling our PAWS for Charity buttons to raise money for breast cancer research. Like all of our PAWS for Charity items, proceeds are donated to the Canadian Cancer Society - Breast Cancer Research. You can read more about our project at our PAWS for Charity blog.

You can have one of our 1 inch buttons! (or more if you want)

You can order buttons on our order form if you're ordering dog biscuits at the same time. Or...if you just want a button...all you have to do is send me an email, and I'll send you payment instructions. Buttons are $3 each (including taxes and postage) If you want more than one button, each additional button is $2.

Absolute Agility

We're really excited because Absolute Agility will be using our Barking Biscuit t-shirts and dog biscuits as prizes in their upcoming events!
Agility is a great sport for owners & their dogs. I love to watch the joy on the dogs' faces as they race around the course.
Check out Absolute Agility's website to read all about them and their upcoming events.

Spring Fever

A little bit of spring fever hit our "girls" today. Just watching them play makes me feel good!
Mulligan (a mixed breed rescue from BARK) and Cinder (our 11 year old Giant Schnauzer) are having a ball.

In Search of Good Peoples #2

For those who have been anxiously waiting, here's something to start your week off right.

Pay-It-Forward. A fun project that started with Mary Contrary and then went to Allyson Hill, next to Beebee Mod, and now here at Barking Biscuit.
Read the original story here.

This is how it works:
1. Leave a comment if you want to participate (only one lucky person) and I will e-mail you back asking for your address, favorite colors, and any other hints into what you might like. Give me a little time and I'll mail you this Good Peoples card along with a little gift from me.

2. Continue the PIF on your own blog. That's it! Fun.

Buttons, Buttons, Everywhere Buttons

I'm really excited about our new Barking Biscuit button pins. I don't know why, but I really love these little things.

I'm going to use these as little fundraisers for my favourite charities when I go out to various events (more on that later).

Since my first event is not until April, I'd like to do some button trading with anyone...anywhere....who is interested in trading button pins.

It's simple! If you have a one inch button you want to trade, mail it to me with your return address. I'll mail you one of our buttons in trade. Don't worry, I won't share your personal information with anyone, or any business. And I promise I won't use your mailing info ever again (ie, you won't receive any annoying stuff in the mail that you didn't ask for!)

Here's our mailing address: The Barking Biscuit, 3 Spruce Circle RR#5, Kemptville, Ontario Canada K0G 1J0

After all, isn't it fun to get something in the mail that isn't a bill? :>)

Pencil Drawings by Miriam Mas

This lovely pencil drawing was done by Miriam Mas.
I met Miriam several years ago through the Ottawa charity Canines with a Cause (Miriam is the founder). In addition to her involvement with CWAC, Miriam paints gorgeous oil paintings and produces fantastic pencil drawings.
Bailey, our Siberian Husky and inspiration for The Barking Biscuit, passed away in September 2005. I commissioned Miriam to do a pencil drawing to give to my husband (she used a photo taken by our daughter in law Kelly for her inspiration). I asked Miriam to sell prints of her drawing to raise money for Canines with a Cause (a favourite charity of mine). You can purchase notecards with Bailey's drawing from CWAC. All proceeds go to CWAC. They have other cards available as well. (but I'm a little partial to Bailey's drawing)

Cool Cats Wanted

This is our cat Phantom. You can't tell, but he's on our couch beside our Giant Schnauzer Cinder. (Cinder is very black and tends to blend into the black couch). The two of them (and our other dog Mulligan) are buds even though the dogs tend to chase Phantom around sometimes.
Why am I talking about our cat? It's cuz we're looking for your cat photos. Yes, cat photos! A dog biscuit company looking for cat photos? I wonder what we're up to. You'll just have to wait and find out.
Here's what we need: 1. Photo of your cat in high resolution (300 dpi or more). 2. Preferably a photo of a "happy" or "frisky" cat. 3. We can't use a photo with "green eye", so set your camera on red eye reduction mode. That's it! If your photo makes our top ten, I'll send you an email to ask you to sign a release form. End date for our search is April 30, 2007.

This and That

A few bits and bites today...
This is a photo of me (in the yellow vest) at last year's K9 Spring Fling fundraiser. I sold our Barking Biscuits, tshirts, and pooch pouches and donated half my sales to A Chance Animal Rescue. I'm excited to say that they'll be having their 2nd annual fundraiser on Saturday April 28th, and The Barking Biscuit will be there. Please come out and see me there! (I'll post more details later). There will be lots of goodies, and photographer Natalie Heath of Heath Photo will be taking dog photos with proceeds going to Bullies in Need.
It's been very exciting around the office today...I finally (FINALLY!) have high speed. I've been like a kid in a candy shop going all over net. Best of all, now I can receive your dog photos without waiting half an hour for one email to arrive!
I received an email today from Miriam Mas (founder of Canines with a Cause). They had a fund raiser last Saturday night (we supplied some of the prizes) and they raised $2,773.04! Congratulations to all the CWAC volunteers.
That's it for now!

In Search Of Good Peoples #1

I had a fun start to the week. Since I'm new to blogging, I've been spending some time poking around other blogs. In the past week, I discovered Etsy.com (a wonderful site filled with hand made items from many, many great artists). I purchased a really cool car bag from Allyson Hill and discovered Pay-It-Forward on Allyson's blog.
This fun little project started with Mary Contrary, went to Allyson Hill, and then to Beebee Mod, and now me. Read the original story here.
I'm currently waiting for the "In Search of Good Peoples" tag from Beebee Mod. Once that arrives, you'll see In Search Of Good Peoples #2 on my blog. Then it will be someone else's chance to Pay-It-Forward. Fun!

Featuring Your Photos

These are some of the photos we featured on the first print run of our new look late last year. Now that I have a blog, I'll be posting the featured photos every once in a while with a blurb about the pictures. I have such fun going through all the photos, the only problem is I can't choose all of them! (cause I love dogs of EVERY shape and size). My original idea was to have very small print runs of each tag, so that I could change my tags frequently. However, that plan didn't work out! (too big a price tag for this little company). But, I'll be printing 12 more photos shortly, so all in all I'll have over 30 different tags in circulation for a while. Hope you enjoy them! (coming soon)

Postcard Preview

This is just a snippet of our new promotional postcards. We use these cards for many purposes. Our new cards were designed by Monster Pilot (the same designers that revamped our dog biscuit tags last year). The great photo was taken by Suzanne Bird (www.photobysuebird.com or check out her blog www.photobysuebird.blogspot.com ).
The funny thing about this photo is that we put it on our card, and just found out that the dog in the photo is Indiana...a member of Kim R's family. I met Kim last year while doing a fundraiser for A Chance Animal Rescue. Kim is a dynamo who helps out many, many charities and fundraisers. It's definitely a small world!
We'll be picking up our new cards from the printer soon. You'll see them in your Barking Biscuit orders, and in many giveaway bags at fundraisers.

Barking Biscuit Button Teaser

Just a teaser...we have some buttons coming soon (apparently people in Britain call them badges). Why is a dog biscuit company selling buttons? We're planning to use most of them to help raise funds for our favourite charities. Details coming soon.

CWAC Trivia Night

One of my favourite local charities is Canines with a Cause (CWAC). They are a registered charity based in Ottawa, Ontario. They are dedicated to acquire, train and place assistance dogs for people in the community affected by several disabilities (other than blindness). CWAC is run exclusively by volunteers.
CWAC is hosting a "Trivia Night" on Saturday March 10th to raise some funds. Please check out the details on their website at www.caninesforacause.org
We're proud to have donated our Barking Biscuit tshirts for all the winners!
Go have some fun, and help raise funds for this great organization.

Dog Photos

We received some great photos from Natalie Heath recently in our ongoing search for new photos to use on our Barking Biscuit tags. Check out Natalie's web site at www.heathphoto.ca
Remember, we need your photos this week in order to consider them for our next print run of Barking Biscuit tags.

Crunch for a Cure 2007

We are very proud to introduce you to Triona and Riley, who are featured on our newest release of Crunch for a Cure dog biscuits. The beautiful photos (front and back of the tag) were captured by Suzanne Bird. (check out Sue's blog: www.photobysuebird.blogspot.com )
Sue is putting together a collection of portraits showing the bond between dogs and their owners who have survived or are battling cancer. Triona agreed to let us feature a couple of her photos on our package. We think she and Riley are beautiful! Last year's Crunch for a Cure campaign was such a success (we sold out in 3 months) that we doubled our printing order. Please help us sell twice as many bags this year! Twenty five per cent of Barking Biscuit proceeds will be donated to The Canadian Cancer Society - Breast Cancer Research. Crunch for a Cure dog biscuits can be purchased at many retail locations, or you can order them online at http://www.barkingbiscuit.com/
This project is very special for me...my mom died of breast cancer 25 years ago.
I want to thank all our customers for helping me to make a difference in the fight against breast cancer. Keep those canines crunching!