Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Secret has "made it!" :o)

Secret found a stick on our walk today. It made her sublimely happy.

Do you recall the photo shoot we went to in July for "Chuckle Pup" leashes & collars? I am a "fan" of CP on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/ChucklePup?ref=ts ) and have been keeping an eye out to see if anything ever came of the photo shoot, but I was starting to think she had decided to pursue other options or something.

This morning Adrienne posted that her web site was up. It is very bare-bones right now and doesn't really have any content -- BUT, it has a front page. And just LOOK who made the front page!!

www.chucklepup.com

How neat is that? Secret's picture got chosen! I admittedly find it a little odd that they used not only a picture that doesn't have any of her product in it, but also a shot that wasn't even taken as part of the shoot. The "beauty shots" were supposed to be a perk to those of us who came, since it wasn't a paying gig and all.

But who cares?! I think it's awesome.

I've more or less given up on the whole animal actor gig, mostly because I have never seen Barbara post Secret (or Kaiser) as an "option" for any of her clients. I have absolutely no idea what to think about that, and I've stopped really caring. There seems to be a core little group that she consistently pulls from, and there isn't much I can do about it (I doubt throwing a hissy fit and being a classic "stage mom" would do me any favors). Secret's picture got picked from the 100's of photos taken that day, and I'm just tickled.

Max is still with us. The home visit we did last Wednesday didn't pan out, as they just aren't ready or able to bring in another dog while their old, ailing, debilitated dog is still around. The dog is pretty much on his last leg and will likely not live all that much longer, but there is no way I would ever suggest to have one dog put down just to bring in another (the wife is leaning that way, but I had to side with the husband on that one).

He's doing well with my crew. Max & Secret still go crazy playing with each other -- That is, when Kaiser doesn't step in to stop the action (at which point I generally have to step in and remove Kaiser...). Max has even went so far as to try to initiate play with Luke, which is HUGE!

I need to get a bio typed up and posted to the local agility lists to see if there is any interest. I have to admit to taking my time getting around to it, as I really don't mind having him around. Secret sure seems to like it.

One thing Secret probably really likes is that she is no longer crated when I leave. Max has taken over the wire crate in the living room, which happens to be the only Border Collie-sized wire crate in the house. I do have multiple soft crates, but I always hesitate to leave a dog unsupervised in one of those. I'm sure Secret would be fine, but I just haven't bothered. Instead, I decided to take the leap and just leave her out all day. It was the next logical step after graduating from her half-days of freedom, which she has handled well.

The only real issue is with the Kongs. We did lose another Walmart knock-off last Thursday, which I replaced with a real Kong -- the super-tough black variety. I'll replace the Walmart versions as needed and hopefully she can't destroy the Kongs. She was fine on Sunday, so fingers crossed! I'm working the late shift at the Humane Society tonight, so the dogs will get Kongs to tide them over until I get home to make dinner. I spoiled them and stuffed them half full with chicken in addition to the canned food & peanut butter. My dogs are spoiled rotten, it's no wonder Max thinks he's in heaven....

But he still sleeps in a crate next to the bed at night, so don't go thinking he's mine or anything! ;o)

3 comments:

  1. Hooray for Secret - I love that picture of her! And I love the way her ears are standing up, she's so cute. Too bad the animal acting thing isn't working out. Do you have any other pet agencies nearby that you could try out? Your dogs are so cute - they should all be models :)

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  2. This one isn't even nearby -- It's based out of Minneapolis (about three hours away). The photographer only lives about 1 1/2 hours from me, though. She always says, "I don't want you to drive all that way," and I tell her I expect it if I want to get my foot in the door. I expect that's the main reason for her not thinking of us more. I really thought Kaiser might be a hit since she doesn't have any other AKK, but many of her clients are very breed-specific and it's hard to ask for a breed you've never heard of. He came along to one of Secret's Target auditions and they wouldn't even look at him because his breed wasn't "on the list." :o(

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  3. Wow - that is pretty far!

    I think sometimes AKK can be kind of difficult for product pictures. Some people think they are a full size husky if there isn't anything to use for a size reference. Starbuck went to a photo shoot for PetSafe and she looked kind of like a husky with a huge training collar on so I'm assuming they won't be using any of her photos. It was still fun to show up to the shoot.

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