The Press Pack is getting kitted out for a new investigation

We're getting our kit together for a trip across the water. Extra lead work is underway and a tent is called for. Holidays with dogs is the brief, reckon that will come easily to us.

Daisy is going to have her first run out as a member of the Press Pack, look sharp girl, got some stories to sniff out.

Terrier Racing at Dogs Unleashed, Newark, just for @goldencaesar

Well this was something we hadn't seen before and the Cesky Terrier stand was right next to it, so we got a grandstand view.

These two hadn't done it before either but they were keen to have a go. 

Now, what exactly is that human doing with the furry thing on the end of a line... 

.



you mean I'm allowed to chase it.......




are you sure...? 

whee heeeeee.......

 move over for the professional...

this how it's done  ..

But its great to have a cool down after, 

I think we've earned it.

I wasn't....

allowed to have a go

 as I'm learning NOT to chase things.

Dogs Unleashed Part 1: What a scorcher

We all really enjoyed our visit to Dogs Unleashed at Newark Showground, after a long trip down we managed to park in the shade so we could chill out when things got too hot. Wish we'd known about the re-launch of  Driving with Dogs. They list over 400 dog walks that you can choose close to your route as well as dog-friendly pups & cafe's close  (within 5 miles) of motorway exits. As they include walks all over the country I think we will have to check them out next time we go on a trip.

We took lots of water, sun cream, a collapsible water bowl, a special toy for when Lilly got bored and a Kong (you can see later why that came in handy). Lilly's Press Pack jacket only came out occasionally  so she didn't get too hot.

As soon as we could we found the Cesky stall to meet up with our twitter pals and to give Palma her new coat. 

We also managed to meet up with our other twitterpal PaulineMM and her fourlegged crew, Mickey (13) & Mitzi (14) who were enjoying the sights. Pauline is part of the team on the #banpuppyfarming campaign trail, having been involved in dog rescue organisations including Hope Rescue and Greyhound Gap, she knows why banning puppy farming is so important.  Have a watch of this little puppy puppet telling his story and Ridley Ramblings explaining why not all pups are as lucky as Luther.

Back to the show, Lilly soon sniffed out a good deal and we bought some new dog beds from Gary at Handmade Dog Beds who gave Lilly the inside story on how they are made. They are made out of the same material as rucksacs, very hard wearing & hose down when they get muddy.

Dufec's owner Sally had a good sign in her car window that I thought we might make a version of ourselves in case we had an accident.

This is Sparky who was learning about the world by going around the show with his owners, he was taking it all in his stride as he already goes to puppy classes and knows how to show respect to other dogs, Isn't he a cuty. 

This big chap definitely had his eye on the main chance but he gave us an idea and so we put our Kong to good use...we filled Lilly's Kong with ice-cream and she woolfed it down before it melted in the heat.

We had a really busy day, too much to put into one blog, so coming soon...Lilly finds out more about some treats at Daisy's Dog Bakery, there's terrier racing, flyball and Lilly tries out a Fiat van for size. 

Remember to follow @wellbalancedpup on the campaign trail on twitter, keep adding #banpuppyfarms onto your tweets, send friends links to the videos posted by @banpuppyfarmsuk and check out the Puppy Farm Awareness Day on the 19th September being organised by @marcthevet

Lets get Viral: Moving on the #banpuppyfarming twitter campaign

@tottielimejuice has tweeted about how best to turn a twitter hashtag into a trending topic and the answer has come back....... from @robineccles

that we need to each send a tweet to  (at least) 5 friends and ask them to send to 

5 friends & to add the #banpuppyfarming at the end, with a link to a blog about the issue. 

So I am blogging briefly and hoping that you have come to this blog to find out what 

it is all about.

To find out more about why we are running this campaign look at the 

last couple of entries in this blog and follow some of the links.

I hope to see some of your tweets when I search the hash tag #banpuppyfarming , 

thanks for joining in.

Rose, Archie, Lilly & Daisy

From Hawaii to Huddersfield people are tweeting and retweeting across the world about banning puppy farms.

People are really getting busy with their tweet and blogs to help to #banpuppyfarms and remember this is why...how many dogs are spending this summer in conditions like this?

If you have a blog please research puppy farms on the web yourself and blog about it, join twitter and tweet about it too. It all helps, from Hawaii to Huddersfield there are people who care and people who can help to make a difference.

Have a listen to Ronnie from banpuppyfarmsuk interviewed by Chrissie from Dog World online.

Please always remember to use  #banpuppyfarms or #banpuppymills hash tags if you are tweeting about this campaign.

One of the things that has shocked me is the numbers of breeding bitches and litters that are on some of these farms, I can't see how it is possible to be licensed to breed from such a large number of dogs. It surely must be straight forward to limit the numbers of litters bred a year by the total number of bitches kept and then the numbers checked by local authorities. Perhaps that sounds naiive but I dont think it is an unreasonable request.

As soon as there are large numbers of bitches kept on a single site I can't see how it is possible to give them a quality of life that is a basic legal right. How many staff would you need to be able to clean, feed & exercise this number of dogs. Surely that's a simple check that should be a reasonable one for inspectors to do. One couple can't look after thirty plus dogs and as many litters.

If a puppy farm has multiple litters at one time there is no way they are going to be handled and given the real life experiences they need to become well adjusted adult dogs. It is quite clear that the puppies being brought up in a small kennel like those shown in some of these videos will be missing out on these absolutely crucial early experiences and they will never be able to make up for these, even if they can recover from the health issues that come hand in hand with puppy farming.

We will all be celebrating Puppy Mill Awareness Day on the 19th September 2009 joining in with the American puppy mill campaigners. 

Marc Abrahams is inviting everyone to The Worlds Largest Puppy Party to take place at Brighton racecourse on 19th Sept in aid of Puppy Farm Awareness Day.

More news on this as we hear more details. Please come along, it would be great to see you there.

If you need to understand what we are up against, have a look at the Puppy Love website run by @banpuppyfarmsuk or watch one of the videos they have on their site.

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." - Ghandi

Rose, Archie, Lilly & Daisy

Follow us at @wellbalancedpup on twitter

More suggestions coming in about how to #banpuppyfarms & #banpuppymills

Right, moving on from this morning...

within 30 minutes of sending the first #woofwednesday tweet asking @petplan if they will help us #banpuppyfarms , I got a tweet saying we were in the top three rt'd tweets at the moment, globally, great. 

So, take heart friends, this is a good way of working, through our own individual networks and linking in to #woofwednesday and #followfriday. 

So lets wing this, with as many different suggestions as possible, lets do them all, pass them around by tweet and blog MAKE SURE YOU HASH TAG YOUR TWEETS by adding #banpuppyfarms or #banpuppymills . Maybe we can agree on a single one so we can consolidate the numbers of people hashtagging. 

This is a global issue and dog owners are supposed to be a steady market in these difficult times, but we also want to buy from ethical companies, we want companies to make sure that they are not promoting or supporting the puppy farming business by insuring, vetting, feeding, whatever? The Cooperative in the UK has shown there is a strong and growing ethical market and they have won awards for their corporate responsibility, they dont hide behind mealy words they make sure their policies work. 

 So what shall we do...

• tweet celebs and anipals and ask for support, include lots of mentions of friends in each tweet, and remember to hashtag with #banpuppymills and #banpuppyfarms 

This is a marathon not a sprint, so keep coming back and encouraging each other and lets make it happen.

From Archie, Lilly, Daisy and Rose

(Reporting for the Press Pack)

If you need to understand what we are up against, have a look at the Puppy Love website run by @banpuppyfarmsuk or watch one of the videos they have on their site.

How can we use twitter to ban puppy farms for once and for all

The Twitterverse and Bloggerverse helped to score a hit in the campaign to Ban puppy farms/mills yesterday when the Interpups site that was selling puppies online was taken down to remove the petplan logo from their site. 

But where do we go from here....

I'm sure between us we have lots of ideas, that we can circulate using twitter and our blogs, to explain to companies like Petplan that if they committed to support the campaign we can all work together to make it happen..and they will be the "Good Guys" and we will love them and recommend them and all the rest. 

But if people don't come out with solid ways in which they make sure they as companies don't make money out of the trade in puppies, then we know that they must be the bad guys and we can make bad press for them.

So I am starting a twitter campaign today to see if we can communicate to some of the big companies in the dog world that  they can help us BAN puppy farms/ mills FOR GOOD, starting with Petplan. 

In the summer it is a slow time for news generally, particularly in August, so there is more chance for us to make the news worldwide with a twitter campaign. The press is really interested in it at the moment after the #iranelection .

So what do you think people, if we all ask all of our followers  to tweet @petplan & email them and ask them to confirm they don't support puppy farms/mills and how are they going to make sure that they dont get caught supporting them again... and how are they going to help us with the UK and US September,19th Puppy Farm Awareness Day...?

What do you reckon, got to rush got to be somewhere else see you soon. 

Bark you later!

Sorry no photo in a rush