This is my Best Buddy Akiva. He turned 10 years old today. He had a very nice day.

Akiva says: Read my Birthday story from Today and see the pictures below…

Hi Everybody;

I’m Akiva!

This is me and Dad taken this evening for my Birthday:

Check out this slick Bandanns that Mom made me just for my Birthday, I wore it all day:

I got to go out for a ride in my stroller this afternoon for a couple miles, I did well.

Up Next Desert!

Mmm… This is some Good Cake that mom baked up fresh for me, it’s event got peanutbutter in it:

http://youtu.be/39ay-J0s1CA

I’m waiting……

Hey; where exactly are my presents?

Here you go Akiva; These are your Presents:

I’m in Love! Please, oh Please let me eat them!!!!!!

Yummy!! That’s my new Vennison from Stella & Chewys:

Good Night Everyone. Thanks so much for the wonderful Birthday!

Breaking News:

Due to a brand new Virus / Malware threat; I strongly encourage everyone with a Windows based computer to download and run the virus scanner listed below. It is completely free of charge and is compatible with other virus scanners on your system.

Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.

http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/virus-removal-tool/download-now.aspx

“Sophie is the newest member to our family. Sophie has 2 sisters, Bailey a Yorkie mix, Little Bit, a Shih Tzu and a big brother, Rudy, who is a Pit/Boxer mix. Sophie is quickly becoming our Alpha dog, so much personality.”

“I have had Houston since last Nov. He is blessed my life so much! He is fun loving and enjoys long walks and playing with his toys! Houston snores louder than an old man but to me there is no sweeter sound! I love dressing him up and having photo shoots. He seems to love the camera as well!”

Social Media Dimensions Quick Reference

The following is a handy quick reference chart for the dimensions and placement for your graphics on various social networks including; facebook, Twitter, Google +, LinkedIN, Pintrest, Instagram and YouTube.  This handy infographic was created by the great folks over at Tent Social.  They have granted permission for others to share this graphic on their web site or blog.  You can see the original post by clicking here.

Facebook Dimensions

Facebook Cover photo: 851 x 315

Facebook Profile photo: 180 x 180
Twitter Dimensions

Twitter Header image: 520 x 260

Twitter Profile image: 81 x 81
Google+ Dimensions

Google+ Cover photo: 890 x 180

Google+ Profile photo: 250 x 250
LinkedIN Dimensions

LinkedIN Cover photo: 646 x 220

LinkedIN Profile photo: 100 x 60
Pinterest Dimensions

Pinterest Profile Photo: 160 x 165
Instagram Dimensions

Instagram Profile Photo: 110 x 110
YouTube Dimensions

YouTube Header Image: 970 x 150

YouTube Avatar: 55 x 55

Click Here to download the PDF Version.

Shared with us from: Jeannine Sroka Harczuk

Rey in his Christmas PJ’s

Missy in her Christmas PJ’s

Oscar in his Christmas PJ’s

The dog on the right is Shadow, he is 5 months old, beside him is Diamond, she is almost 2. They are two of our 4 babies. Thank you for letting us share our babies with you. Kim

11/22/2012
8:01 p.m. cst

Hello;

Just reaching out with a brief note during this Thanksgiving holiday.  We had a pleasant day with family and our pets; I hope you did as well.

I’d like to say Thank You not only for being a part of PawDogs Online Community but for being a special part of our lives.  It’s been an extremely busy year for us with many changes.  2012 is going to be over in just a blink of an eye.

There have been challenges in our lives this year, especially in recent months.  Even so, there are many reasons to Give Thanks for all that we have.  We are extremely grateful for all that we are blessed with, especially you; our members, fans, customers and friends.

Again; Thank You for everything, we very much value and appreciate our relationship with you.

Written 10/11/2012
5:00p.m. cst

I heard that facebook was trying out a “Promote” option on personal posts for a small fee back several months ago (on personal accounts, not fan pages). At that time it was $5, but was not being offered in the US.

This previous week on October, 3rd 2012, facebook guru; Mari Smith made this post* about the feature now being available in the US (at a cost of $7). I’ve had mixed feelings about how this Promote feature would be received by the general public, but none the less decided to give it a try once it was offered to me (option became available to me on the evening of 10/10/12).

I had just made a blog post and put up our new video about our Shih Tzu song (a custom written and performed song that we made to promte and engage our community). Just after I had made that post was when I noticed the Promote button was available for my account.

I wanted to show off the new video I made and many of my 833 friends (and about 100 subscribers) are also small dog owners. The video wasn’t directly promotional and was unlikely to be seen as SPAM by any of my friends, so I decided it was a good post to show all my friends with the Promote post feature.

Below is a screen shot of the post* at the time that I promoted it, it had 9 likes at that time.

Results:

Just 18 hours later I’m told that my post has been seen by 2.9X as many people because I promoted it, with 34 % being “Regular Views” and 66 % being Paid Views.

At this point in time (taken the same time as the above screen shot, early afternoon on 10/11/12), my post had a total of 22 likes.

I should also note that late morning (just a couple hours prior to when the promote post was finished, I re-shared the photo without promoting it, it gained 9 likes as of the time of this writing (5 hours later).

 
Summary:

In summary, the post I promoted gathered  more views but only about the same number of likes as my typical post of this nature gets. Of course I realize this statement is very subjective and it would take a lot of analysis across a wide sampling to know how true this is.

In the end, what are my thoughts on this? Based on this initial trial, I’m a little disappointed in the response I got. To explain; it is very common for photos I post on my personal account to receive 30 to 50 likes, so in fact the number of likes on this Sponsored post are a little below average for me. I suspect there may be an explanation for that; people may have clicked the link to view the video without clicking Like on this post.

The page that the link in the Sponsored post went to has 175 likes at the time of this writing, which tells us very little since the same link was also shared via my fan (business) page. If I try this again in a similar fashion, I will make sure to use a tracking URL for the post I Sponsor.

At this point, I would say that further experiments are necessary before I can determine if this feature is worth it or not. For users that are less engaging or for messages that are more promotional in nature, this “might” be of more value, though I can easily see users who abuse this for commercial purposes lose friends over it.

*= denotes a link that goes directly to a facebook post which was public at the time of this posting, you may still need to sign into facebook to view some posts even though they are public.

Akiva’s Chin Rest.

This is the main clippers I use for grooming our Shih Tzu:

Purchase here: –> http://pawdogs.com/s/andis-acg2

I will use a 10 blade if I need to cut them really short, this is shorter than most people ever want to cut the body (easily cuts off all but the worst mats):

Purchase here: –> http://pawdogs.com/s/andis-10

This is a 7 Finish Cut Blade:

Purchase here: –> http://pawdogs.com/s/andis-7fc

This is a 4 Finish Cut Blade; most people will want to use between a 4 and 7 for their Shih Tzu for a short “puppy cut” style. Most people likely will want closer to a 4, the smaller the number, the longer it leaves the hair. However, leaving the hair longer also means there is more of a combing action that takes place when your clipping, so the dog needs to be combed out and free of knots and mats to use a blade that leaves the coat longer (like a 4 or 7).

Purchase here: –> http://pawdogs.com/s/andis-4fc

This is a spray coolant / lubricant, you don’t really want to breathe this stuff, but can be very handy. Even well maintained blades on a fast clipper will warm up and you have to cool them down so you don’t burn the dog. You can stop and wait, switch blades or you can use some of this stuff. I go outside or in a different room to use it.

Purchase here: –> http://pawdogs.com/s/kool-lube

This is blade oil; everyone with a clipper needs some of this;

Purchase here: –> http://pawdogs.com/s/blade-lube

Blade wash works very well, like nothing else. It cleans much better than cool lube. I’ve soaked my blades in this and seen them work like new again afterwards;

Purchase here: –> http://pawdogs.com/s/blade-wash

Fixing a Leak, how to…

Found several small pin holes in the Hot Tub that we got for Akiva (bottom inflates and was leaking) After 2 failed attempts to patch it with a vinyl patch kit (which peeled right off — I can only assume that there was something about the type of PVC used on this hot tub floor that it could not bond to, as the surface was clean and prepped properly), I went to Walmart Neenah to look for something else.

Ended with with some J-B Weld 2 part epoxy. I mixed it up and did 3 coats of it over the area with the small holes. I have it filled back up with air and have water in it now and it seems to be holding just fine.

When all else fails, try epoxy, it sets with a chemical reaction and depending on the version, will set quickly and can cure to full strength in just a few hours (Stuff I used sets in 4 to 6 minutes and cures in about 4 to 6 hours) — note: use disposable gloves when working with any of these and keep them well away from pets. Also Polyurethane products are extreme strong, but most take much longer to dry and cure.

My favorite Poly Glue (needs to be kept in a caulk gun, but lasts forever, you can just break the tip back open if it starts to dry): http://pawdogs.com/s/pl-poly-glue

The JB-Weld Kwik that I used to fix the Hot Tub leak: http://pawdogs.com/s/jb-weld-kwik

One last one I will mention, it is a little more effort to work with because you need to have the surface moist and it needs clamp time on more surfaces is Gorilla Glue, it is a Polyurethane based product and is very very strong when cured: http://pawdogs.com/s/gorilla-glue