Embrace Pet Insurance Blog

If you are a dog lover in NY or visiting with your pooch...

 

...then check out Urbanhound. I just got their newsletter and they were focusing on their newly updated site.

The overhaul of urbanhound.com continues. If you've missed the many changes and updates and improvements, stop by and take a look. Our Guide to Pet Health Insurance is all new. Our Hound Talk message board is new too. So are: our collection of Great Hound Getaways, our favorite Canine Swimming Spots, our Guide To Air Travel, and our comprehensive list of the city's Dog Runs.

They also have a great listing of doggie events in the newsletter that are worth checking out.

Coffee Bark
Saturday, July 9, 7 AM to 9 AM
Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Because of the July 4 long weekend, Prospect Park's monthly Coffee Bark has been has been re-scheduled from its usual date on the first Saturday of the month. Held in rain or in shine, in the park's Long Meadow, behind the Picnic House (enter at Prospect Park West and 4th Street, then go left around Picnic House), Coffee Bark include muffins for humans and dog biscuits for hounds. This long-standing social is sponsored by Brooklyn's FIDO, officially known as the Fellowship In the Interest of Dog Owners

Astro's Community Dog Run Summer Cleanup and Cook Out
Saturday, July 9, 10 AM to 4 PM
39th Street and 10th Avenue, Manhattan
This Fort Hell's Kitchen dog run is maintained, funded and managed by its members (not the Parks Department). For a fee of $25, and evidence that your dog is vaccinated, anyone can become a member--but in the spirit of this run, members are expected to help keep the place in shape. This weekend's Summer Cleanup and Cookout will include cleaning, planting, and carpentry jobs (please bring tools if you have them), and, yes, great grilled foods prepared by someone called Mike.

First Annual Dog Fitness Fair
Thursday, July 21, 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
The Dog Run, 136 Ninth Ave between 18th and 19th Streets, Manhattan
Sponsored by a bunch of companies that cater to New York City dogs (Blue Sky Dogs, Running Paws, Who's Walking Who Dog Training, and Jen Greenberg Photography), this Fitness Fair promises to offer free canine fitness assessments, canine nutritional counseling, tips on hiking and traveling with dogs, and even canine massages. For more information, contact Blue Sky Dogs at 212-531-3647.

The Seventh Annual Broadway Barks!
Saturday, July 30, 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM
Shubert Alley, west of Broadway between 44th and 45th Streets, Manhattan
This annual fundraiser and pet adopt-athon, hosted as always by Bernadette Peters and Mary Tyler Moore, usually draws thousands of theater fans, pet lovers, and a whole bunch of animal-friendly Broadway stars. Best of all, the event raises money for all the city's animal shelters and helps out lots of homeless pets. Details on this year's Broadway Barks are still vague, but we expect the event's website will soon inclue plenty of information.

If there's an event you'd like us to mention in the next NewsHound, please email us.

Let me know if you go to any...

Barking up the wrong tree...

Well, this one is pretty obvious how we'd use is as we often find ourselves "barking up the wrong tree".

When you are starting a new business, there are no rules and no guidelines so we try as many different things as we can manage, knowing we are likely to be going in the wrong direction many times. If you try many things, something is bound to work out aka kissing many frogs to find a prince (but I like frogs!!!).

Smooch!

(picture by http://www.noiam.com)

I love new puppies

John, Ellie and I went up to my sister's place in Gravenhurst, Ontario for the long weekend. It was an extended weekend with Canada Day (July 1) on Friday and Independence Day (July 4) on Monday. We started our drive Friday afternoon, stopping at some friends in Toronto, and then headed up to Gravenhurst, neatly by-passing the Live 8 concert in Barrie (the highway was closed at times because of the congestion) and threading ourselves into cottage country.

We had a lovely weekend with the family and got to meet Jake, the family's 4-month old golden retriever. He's very energetic and chewy and loves the big back yard to gallumph around in chasing all sorts of things he can find - chipmunks, remote-controlled monster trucks, badminton birdies flying around, and of course, nothing in particular, just sunshine and air.

Ellie was quite afraid of Jake at the start because he's a little erratic in his behavior and Ellie never knew what he was going to do. That and the fact that he's taller and stronger and likes to chew and lick everything in sight didn't help either. By the end of the weekend though, they got on quite well, making me think that anything's possible when it comes to Ellie.

Deb did tell me one story about her local vets' place that's making her rethink her choice of vet. She and the boys (aged nearly 3 and 5) and Jake went to the vet for their 5:00pm appointment. She took the boys because she wanted them to participate in looking after the family dog. Unfortunately, the vet was held up by another dog for over an hour and by the time she saw them, it was 6:15pm, past everyone's dinner times and patience threshold. The grumpy nurse told the boys not to touch the medical tools that were laid out on the edge of the counter or else... (goodness knows what she was implying) after Deb had already told the boys not to touch and only look. At the end of the examination, the vet then suggested Deb not bring the boys next time... not something a mom trying to do the right thing wants to hear. It would be better if the patrons didn't take out the books from the library from the librarian's perspective, but isn't that why they are there?!

Deb was not impressed with this attitude, especially as she wants the boys to be part of Jake's care and now she's rethinking her choice of vet from this family-unfriendly and most technologically advanced one, to the other one in town, more of a traditional old-school vet. Perhaps he won't mind families coming to his practice?! I'll bet not.

What do you think about this when it comes to choosing a vet? Knowledge is one thing, bed-side manner is definitely another.

Picture above: L to R back: Greg (my brother-in-law - he works at the fire college), my mom Anne, John my husband. L to R front: Jake (surprisingly not chewing anyone at that moment!), my sister Deb with her youngest boy, Lucas, me with Ellie, and Thomas, Deb and Greg's eldest boy.