Paws of Austin and Highland Lakes SPCA Fundraisers!

We've got two fabulous events coming up. Paws of Austin is hosting an event at Fleming's Steakhouse (June 23th, Tuesday 7-10 pm), and Highland Lakes SPCA is hosting an event at Angel's Ice House (June 27th, Saturday 6:30-10:30). Listed below is event information and link to each group. Happy fund raising!

PAWS website - This event is held at Flemings @the Domain. It will feature wine, hors d'oeuvers, a silent auction, puppy picture swap, and a presentation. Sorry, no puppies allowed at this event.
PAWS Event flyer (PDF)

Highland Lakes
"PAWS AND CLAWS"

Join us and our furry friends for a night of great music, dancing, and fabulous auction items benefiting HIGHLAND LAKES SPCA, a NO KILL SHELTER, serving Burnet, Llano, Travis, Blanco, Williamson, and surrounding counties.

SATURDAY, JUNE 27TH
6:30 TO 10:30 p.m.
ANGEL'S ICEHOUSE
21815 HWY. 71 WEST IN SPICEWOOD

FEATURING TWO BANDS:

THE UNPLAYABLE LIES
followed by:
KEN DAVIDSON AND THE FABULOUS GTOS

Don't miss out on our many great silent auction items. You won't want to miss your chance to bid on 2 fabulous trips during our live auction:

5 nights/6 days stay at Thunder Ranch just north of Las Vegas, New Mexico and 1 hour from Santa Fe
2 night stay at Pedernales River Ranch and Farm in Fredericksburg

We will be raffling off an incredible 5 nights/6 days stay at the Byblos Hotel and Resort in Costa Rica. Raffle tickets are $25 each and can be purchased on site or in advance at the Backstage Steakhouse in Spicewood or by contacting HLSPCA at 830- 596-2717. You do not have to be present to win.

Admission is free
Fajita Buffet available for $10
You might want to bring your lawn chairs as seating is limited

Dog Day Party on the Patio At Cool River Cafe June 13th

Happy 7th Birthday to Keep Austin Dog Friendly and Mouse!

A Dog and his Swanky Bucket

It has been seven long years since the inception of Keep Austin Dog Friendly. We started as a little rinky dink website hosted for free on Yahoo. The first hard copy list went out at Groovy Dog's first location on Mopac and 2222 (now closed). In after a year, I decided that it was time to buy a domain name, and the Austin Dog Friendly list was transferred to www.rrgsmd.com (still up for the time being). Just over two years ago, rrgsmd.com was replaced with romanreign.com which is were the Keep Austin Dog Friendly list is hosted. You can reach the list by visiting austindogfriendly.com or Keepaustindogfriendly.com.

I CAN HAZ BUCKET!

Over the years we have grown, added google maps, added a blog, and a Twitter. Now I can update event information easily, and make that information available to readers in a timely fashion. Thanks, Austin. Thanks for Keeping it Dog Friendly!

In celebration of Keep Austin Dog Friendly's Birthday, Rio Grande Austin will be having Yappy Hour all day today with 1/2 price appetizers and drink specials.

Fried Soft Shell Crab at Paggi House

It is also the 7th Birthday of my baby Mouse. Now that he's seven years old, he'll be showing in the veterans class at conformation shows. *Sigh* The time really does fly. His week of birthday celebrations started out with a Keep Austin Dog Friendly Social where he met Fenway, practiced some obedience, and had some cookies. On Tuesday night, I took him to one of the swankiest dog friendly joints in Austin - Paggi House. Paggi House rocks our world. One of my other hobbies is food blogging, and here's my review of Paggi House. The service, the food, and the view at Paggi House is to die for. This is where you take your future in-laws to impress. This is where you take your million dollar clients. This is where you take your beloved pets to celebrate milestone birthdays.

King Salmon Carpaccio at Paggi House

Upon our arrival at Paggi House, the staff greeted Mouse with Happy Birthday! Not only did he get spoiled by the staff, he also got to drink out of super posh bucket. Yes, indeed, Mouse will have a very Happy Birthday! BTW, someone needs to bring me here for MY birthday. I want a swanky bucket too! Thank you to the wonderful staff at Paggi House. We finished up Mouse's 7th birthday food tour at Max's Wine Dive.

I've been to Max's Wine Dive several times, and well, I love it too. Here's my review of Max's wine dive, and here's the link to additional food pictures. Scroll to previous pictures on the photo stream. Brunch there is absolutely fabulous!

Also, new additions to the list since last posting: North by Northwest, Cissi's Wine Bar, Crepes Mille, Mansion on Judges' Hill, Lustre Pearl Bar, Key Bar Austin, The Tiniest Bar in Texas, Max's Wine Dive, Music Cafe, Zax's Pints and Plates, Foodheads, County Line on the Lake, and Salvation Pizza.

Ribs and Slider at Max's Wine Dive

French Toast at Max's Wine Dive Brunch

Pet Relocation Party Pics and Windsurfing Dogs

My brain is still on Memorial Day Vacation so here's some entertaining pictures. Keep Austin Dog Friendly attending the PetRelocation party last week. Along with the yummy eats from Dagar catering (build your own sliders, spinach dip, queso, fruit with chocolate sauce, and hummus), I also scored some snazzy tee-shirts. Oh, did I mention the ice sculpture? See pic? :o) PetRelocation.com offers support services when moving your beloved pet across the state or across the world. Moving can be difficult on everyone, but PetRelocation makes it easy for your furry (or scaly) creatures. Here's Rachel from PetRelocation.com and myself.



Here's some pics of Mouse and Basil wind surfing. Fun Fun!

Picnic with your pooch event at Chandler Park, Georgetown, TX

from the promoters

Picnic with your Pooch
http://files.georgetown.org/files/2009/05/picnic-with-pooch.pdf
Benefiting Georgetown Bark Park
Saturday June 6th 4pm-7pm
Chandler Park(Across fromm Georgetown Country Club- 108 Spring Valley Road)
Georgetown , Texas
This one of the most beautiful parks in Central Texas!!

• Free Barbeque
• Bring your own beverages, chairs
• Music by the Post Hole Diggers
• Come with or without your leashed best friend
• Microchipping and registration will be offered for only $20.00
• Canine contests show quality ribbons awarded to Best Kisser and Best Tail Wagger

$20.00 donation per family would be greatly appreciated 100% of dontation goes to bark park fund

Dog Training Goals for Mouse and Basil

I had my first private lesson with Judy Ramsey @ Dogwood Dog Training in Houston today. We've been going to competitive classes with Judy and Debbie, but now my schedule only permits private lessons now. Boy are we glad to be back with Dogwood.

A few things for my kiddos to work on:
Basil: needs to be taught precise heel position. Many dogs guess at where heel position is, but we're going to teach Basil exactly where it is. When in a sit position, her neck should be lined up to my left pant seam. The exercises to do this follow:

1. With Basil in sitting position, say "sit", I step right and say "close", and Basil should follow ending up in perfect heel position.
2. With Basil in sitting position, I will say "heel" and move my left foot forward and to the right. My foot should land to the right of my right foot. Basil should move with my left foot and end of in heel position next to my left foot. The purpose of this exercise is to teach her to follow my foot, and not just move forward. This will teach her to heel close, instead of out wide. Heeling wide is a common small dog habit.
3. With Basil in sitting position, I will say "heel", and step forward with my left foot. She should follow my left foot. After she has mastered a single step, then we'll move onto two, three, and four steps. This is to teach her where heel position is whether or not my left foot is moving.
4. Right Pivots: With Basil in sitting position, I will say "heel", and step clockwise (to the right) with my left leg. She should move to the right with my left leg. This will teach her to hug close and tight to my left even when I am moving right. If I keep repeating this pattern, I will eventually make a hexagon shape with my foot pattern.


Additionally, I'll use rulers or pvc to keep her from heeling wide. With the rules or pvc to the left of both of us, it will encourage her to keep from going wide and sticking close to me as we move. Dogs will naturally stay further away from random things on the floor, unless they are attracted to them of course. To do the right pivots with pipe, I can place pipe in a hexagon shape and work my dog inside the hexagon. Over time, the dog will continue to stay close to me even if we are far away from the rulers or pvc. Then we can fade out the rulers or pvc. I also need to be really low key with Basil as she is easily excitable. I used to let her bounce around, but now there will be no more bouncing. No bouncing in the show ring!

Mouse: Need to build drive and motivation for heeling. From now on, we will not heel from a sitting position. We'll do 80% from standing, and 20% from a sitting position. We will also never heel "Slow". We will always heel fast and reward Mouse in the forging position. The final goal is to get him to heel at least 100 ft at a fast without lagging. Also, I will start incorporating 270 degree right turns into the heel pattern with "get-its" immediately out of the turn. Then a very short heel (15 feet) then another 270 degree right turn. Over time, I should start doing variable rewards after the turn. More jackpot rewards for Mouse.

KADF Social Event @ South Austin Trailer Park May 31st

Next Keep Austin Dog Friendly Social Event will be at South Austin's Trailer Park on May 31st, Sunday, 6-8 pm. The food trailers are Torchy's Tacos, Shuggie's, and La-dee-dah. Additionally, this event is BYOB! So bring the 4 legged, some drinks, and having a good time meeting other dog owners.

New Additions to Keep Austin Dog Friendly are: Lofty Dog, Thai Fresh, Rio Grande, Taco Deli, Taverna, , Perla's, Frugal Media, El Arroyo, Cuatro's, North by Northwest, and Zocalo's. Additionally, more guidelines on dog ettiquette are posted at www.austindogfriendly.com.