Purina Helps Us Donate To Our Local Dog Shelter!

We've had the good fortune to work with Purina on several occasions and were honored to help spread the good word about bonding with your dog—whether through engaging your dog's natural instincts with a rousing game of fetch, or simply taking long walks with your favorite canine by your side. As part of our work with Purina, we received coupons for 10 free bags of Purina One SmartBlend or Beyond formula dry dog food, and decided to donate that much-needed food to our local shelter.

Parental Unit finally used the coupons to purchase the food and took the drive to the Franklin County Dog Shelter to deliver it just before the new year. We're happy to say that the shelter was bustling with potential adopters: the staff barely had time to pose for a picture!

                    But this lovely volunteer helped us out! 

A hearty thank you to our friends at Purina for your generous gift of the coupons—those 10 coupons totalled about 120 pounds of  dog food that will go directly to feed shelter dogs in much need of high quality, nutritious food. Kudos to Purina for giving us this opportunity!

Share

Enter To Win The Purina Pro-Plan Challenge!

The Incredible Dog Challenge Western Regionals—You might be there in 2015!

We just learned that the good folks at Purina are sponsoring an incredible giveaway to get you and a friend to Huntington Beach, California, for the 2015 Incredible Dog Challenge Western Regionals. You've got till the end of this year to enter the The Purina Pro Plan Incredible Challenge Sweepstakes!

Just complete a simple registration to enter to win two round trip tickets to the Incredible Dog Challenge, along with a two night, three day hotel stay, ground transportation and spending money, too. But wait, there's more! A $500 PetsMart gift card is thrown into the package to help you celebrate your dog! Don't delay—enter now!

P.S. Stay tuned for Purina's #GreatDog2014 Photo Contest coming soon...

Share

And The Winner Of The Zuke's Z-Bones Dental Chews Is...

In the spirit of tonight's Oscars, we're thrilled to announce the winner of one  8 Pack of  Zuke's Z-Bones Edible Dental Chews! The envelope please...

But instead of Price Waterhouse, we're going with our usual Random Sequence Generator to choose the winner. We plugged in the numbers 1-20 because there were 20 comments. And here's what came up:

Random Sequence Generator

Here is your sequence:

13
 1
15
12
 6
17
18
16
 4
 3
14
 2
11
10
 7
 8
20
 9
19
 5

Timestamp: 2014-03-02 22:05:19 UTC

The lucky 13th comment is from Katie, who appears to have several blogs, including "Life of A Beagle". Let's all put our paws together in a round of applause for Katie! And a hearty thank-you to all who took the time to enter—many thanks for your support!

P.S. We've postponed our next review and giveaway just one day...so please check back tomorrow to find out all about the new pet food, "I and Love and You", and to have an opportunity to win a very generous gift pack! 

Share

And The Winner Of The Purina Prizes Giveaway Is...!

We're excited to announce the winner of this super trio of prizes, courtesy of our friends at Purina. The winner will receive the hardback book, Maddie on Things by Theron Humphrey, a really cool Moleskine dog journal, and 10 coupons for $1 off three cans of Purina One R SmartBlend R dog food.  Remember that you and your dog balance each other by playing and learning together each day!

Once again, we trusted our fortunes to Random.org and its spooky Random Sequence Generator. We plugged in the numbers 2-15. There were 15 comments, but the number one comment was from our friends across the pond, Molly the Wally, and they were not eligible to participate (they realized this and just left a friendly comment!). We also deleted several comments made by entrants who left more than one comment. We kept one comment from the entrant and deleted the rest. Remember please: only one comment per person is necessary and others will be deleted by Parental Unit.

So...when we entered the numbers 2-15 in the Random Sequence Generator, here's what came up:

Random Sequence Generator

Here is your sequence:

10
 2
 8
 7
 6
12
11
15
 4
 9
14
 3
 5
13

Timestamp: 2013-10-22 02:31:37 UTC

The number 10 comment belongs to Rachel H.!  Congrats! Let's all put our paws together in a round of applause for our lucky winner! We would appreciate it if Rachel H could please send her mailing address to Parental Unit at: jdemarti@columbus.rr.com at her earliest convenience. Thanks! 

And many thanks to Purina and to all those who entered this contest!

Share

Sunday's "Living With Your Pet" Tips: The Ten Top Dog Sports

      Fabulous photo of me by John Clark of Clark Creative

Wanna get active with your dog? Thanks to the good folks at Better Homes and Gardens for providing this description of the 10 top dog sports that both you and your pet will enjoy. The list includes the usual suspects, like agility, dock diving and sheep dog trials for the herding breeds, but includes some activities we've not heard of: obedience competition, flying disc, earthdog and terrier trials, to name a few. Why not check out these sports to see if they're a good fit for you and your pooch? What we particularly like is that each of these competitions is both mentally and physically stimulating-a daily necessity for all dogs, but particularly for high energy and powerful breeds-and even for us mutts!

Today for example, Parental Unit and I are going to walk (about a block or two down the street) and watch the marathoners run by-woo hoo! That's mental and physical stimulation for ya!

P.S. Don't forget that tomorrow (at 8:00 pm EST) is the last day to enter to win a trio of fabulous prizes from Purina! We'll be announcing the lucky winner at sometime after 8:00 tomorrow evening. Good luck to all!

Share

Purina Giveaway: Do You And Your Dog Bring Balance To Each Other's Lives?

We wrote a post not too long ago about the canine instinct with a little help from our friends at Purina. They were kind enough to send us another box of goodies focused on the idea of "Balance" for you and your dog. This time, we're going to share some of the goodies from that box with you! Take a gander at our latest box of treats that included: Four cans of Purina One SmartBlendR canned food, a Moleskine diary specifically designed to log your daily pet adventures, a fabulous book: Maddie On Things, a 100% recyclable rubber toy from West Paw Design, plus 10 coupons for $1 off three cans of Purina SmartBlend canned dog food. The box also included lots of information from Purina's experts on how you and your dog can lead a more balanced life...together! Please note that the opinions that follow are 100% our own!

One lucky winner will receive three of the gifts from this box, described below. See descriptions of the prizes and directions to enter at the end of this post.

But first, let's chat a bit about balance and how to balance the dog/person equation: What can humans do for dogs and what can dogs do for humans? There's so much! We all know that having a dog, for most of  you humans, means more exercise, but did you know that dog owners get a whopping 54% more exercise than people without pets? And dogs actually make your lives less stressful, because they are "balance personified"-they always welcome us with a wagging tail and an open heart, and are instantly ready to forgive and forget human transgressions.

And play is a big part of our repertoire and should be part of yours, too! Here I am playing with my new "Bumi" rubber toy by West Paw Design, right in my own backyard.

                                           Got it!

In the other direction, you humans can make sure that your pooches get lots of physical and mental stimulation each day, both indoors and outdoors. To wind down, you might try Doga (yoga that includes your canine companions), for example. You can also try aromatherapy: Lavender and chamomile oils have been shown to produce relaxation in dogs. And don't forget to give your dog a brief massage as often as you can fit it in-your dog will love the extra hands on attention, and petting a dog has been shown to lower your blood pressure and decrease the production of cortisol, a stress hormone. Any way you look at it, you and your dog balance and compliment each other-that's why humans and dogs have been companions for thousands of years-right? So how do you and your dog balance each other? We'd love to know!

Now on to the giveaway! One lucky reader will win the following three prizes:
Note: Giveaway open to only residents of the continental U.S.

__ The charming hardback book, Maddie On Things by Theron Humphrey,

__ A super-cool, Moleskine dog diary, and

__ Ten coupons, each for $1 off the purchase of three cans of Purina One SmartBlend canned dog food.

Here are the requirements to enter: No anonymous comments, please!

1. "Like" our Facebook page: See top of right sidebar or click here: www.facebook.com/pages/Boccis-Beefs/190090017696328?ref=stream

2. Follow Bocci's Beefs on Google Friends Connect on right sidebar, right under "Join the Fun"!

3. You must give this giveaway a shout-out on your Twitter or Facebook page by using the buttons below this post-easy!

4. Comment on this post and indicate in your ONE comment that you'd like to enter this giveaway.

This contest will run from today, Monday, October 7, 2013 through Monday, October 21, 2013 at 8:00 EST.

                                   

                                       Good Luck!

Share

The Canine Instinct: Fetch, Play...And Eat!

"Instinct is Everything" according to our friends at Purina, and we couldn't agree more! Check out this box of goodies we received a few weeks ago that is all about my instincts: Our Purina Kit included a red rubber fetching stick (more on that below), a bag of Purina's latest food, Purina One Smartblend True Instinct R , a foraging bowl, so I have to work for my food, which is another instinctual behavior, and ten coupons, each for one free bag of Purina One Smartblend dog food. The Kit also contained lots of great information on canine instincts and how you humans can tap into those instincts for a happier, healthier dog. Although we received this kit courtesy of Purina, the opinions that follow are 100% our own.

Before we show you all the fun I had with my new red fetching stick, we wanted to talk a bit about canine instincts. We here at Bocci's Beefs have long preached the idea of learning about your dog's instinctual behaviors and honoring those instincts as one way to bond with your furry best friend. And we all want to bond with our dogs, right? Well, the more you humans understand a dog's natural instincts, the easier it is for you to indulge them on a daily basis.

Making sure that your pooch has lots of physical and mental exercise everyday, including a walk with you, is one of the best ways to bond with your dog. Canines are, in fact, traveling animals and need at least one long, daily walk.

But wait, there's more! We learned from the experts at Purina that "fetching" is an instinctual behavior for dogs, too. "It's more than a game. It's instinct. When dogs see an object being thrown, the motion triggers their prey drive and natural desire to chase. When they retrieve it, they are sharing their prey with you." So that's why I love to fetch anything Parental Unit throws! (Although sometimes, I don't always "share" right away).

Here's my "Aunt" Catherine getting ready to throw my new fetching stick.

                             
                            Fetching my stick, 'er, prey...

                                           Got it!

   I think I'll play around a little before I share this fine, red prey!

                       O.K. let's play a game of "tug", too!

       Might as well give up and throw it again, Parental Unit...

One of Purina's pet care experts shared another fascinating bit of science behind the fetching instinct: “Because puppies are not mobile for the first several weeks and cannot participate in hunting/scavenging for the first several months, the parents have to bring the food to them. It is believed, in the human-dog bond context, fetching is based on that same ‘instinct.’”

- Francois Martin, Purina

We hope you enjoyed this information about canine instincts from Purina and me, and we sincerely hope that every pooch out there gets to play fetch today! By the way...about those ten coupons for Purina One Smartblend...stay tuned to learn about our donation! 

And don't forget to share your opinions about canine instincts and/or doggie nutrition matters on the Purina's Facebook page and Twitter feed.  

Share