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Happy Almost Summer!
Look at the whole newsletter and get a treat!
Thank you so much to all of you that participated in our various Earth Day events that helped us to raise funds for Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition. All that week and during our Earth Day Sale we were selling raffle tickets. We had so many amazing donations from local businesses and our product vendors, we were shocked to learn that we had enough prizes, big and small, that every single person that entered received some sort of goodie! Wow. It pays to buy raffle tickets at Green Dog!
Our second annual Fun Run sure was fun! In partnership with Foot Traffic, (and with the help of Doggy Business who set up a fun agility course for dogs that were running past the park), runners ran 3K and ended at the store for free doggy ice creams. We were lucky to have gorgeous weather. If any of you that ran have suggestions for how to make next year's run even better, we'd love to hear them.
We also sold treats at the counter for a dollar or two each to benefit the cause. All of this together added up to a check for $775! Oregon Shores is doing great work to preserve the natural communities, ecosystems, and landscapes of the Oregon coast while conserving the public's access - we couldn't have done it without you!
Pro Tip: Oregon Shores has fun, easy and interesting ways to learn about the ecosystems of our coastline and to volunteer for projects that they need help with. It would be a great day trip opportunity for families to go check out one of their free tide pool clinics and learn all about the incredible diversity of species you can find in a tide pool from an expert. (Note from Christine: Did you see my Earth Day blog post about ecotravel? It's a subject very close to my heart.)
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| $20 Nail Trims on Wednesday!
Wednesday May 23rd from 4-6pm we’ll be hosting a Nail Trims session for dogs at Green Dog! These are brought to you by Trailblazing Tails, an amazing business here in town providing dog running, dog walking, pet sitting, dog training, mobile vet tech care, dog bite prevention classes for kids, pet first aid classes and more. Their aim is to be the leaders of the use and training of safe, positive, force-free handling.
Their two lead trainers will be there with Peggianne, their licensed vet tech, and all three of them aim to make the procedure as gentle and fear-free as possible. We would like to make it clear that dogs will not be forced into anything - if it appears to be too stressful, they will not proceed. TBT will also be bringing muzzles along to show to owners and teach you how to desensitize your dogs to wearing them to make future nail trims safer and easier. We will do these trims in the storage area of our back room, so even dog-reactive dogs can have a private entrance and a closed door to make the experience easier. If you’re worried about your dog associating the “happy fun and treats store” with less fun nail trims, we encourage you to enter through the side door on NE 44th. We will be equipped with Nuggets brand frozen treats for all dogs that participate to distract and reward them!
These will be
15-20 minute sessions with a certified vet tech and positive reinforcement dog trainer.
email tricia@trailblazingtails.com for early sign-up, or use the online portal to sign up and pay. Peggianne the vet tech will call you to touch base about what to expect and what to bring, as well as answer any questions. There will be a wait list at the door for walk-ins.
We hope to do this again in the future!
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Dash to Donuts is back!
Green Dog is proud to sponsor Dash to Doughnuts, a 3k run and obstacle course through our lovely Beaumont Village. This is a fun event for the whole family: participating businesses each set up unique obstacles in front of their stores (we always do a mini dog agility course for humans) and it has a new delicious finish this year: Free Pip’s Donuts at Foot Traffic! We'd love to see you there on June 3!
Tickets and info here
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Crate Mats from P.L.A.Y.
Oooh - Pretty!
These new crate pads are comfy but light, durable even for those dogs that dig at their beds, and completely washable. They’re stuffed with PlanetFill® polyfiber made from recycled water bottles. They use hypo allergenic upholstery grade fabrics that have received OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 certification which tests for over 100 harmful substances like carcinogenic colorants, formaldehyde and allergenic dyes. With this certification, the product is tested out to the very last strand of thread, which means that P.L.A.Y.’s customers can sleep easy knowing that this textile is 100% non-toxic, 100% certified safe, and 100% quality assured. We love P.L.A.Y. as they are a certified B Corp company, which means B Corps meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability, and aspire to use the power of markets to solve social and environmental problems. Collectively, B Corps lead a growing global movement of people using business as a force for good (which is how we roll here at Green Dog). They’re Gold Certified by Green America's Green Business Certification program. They have various give-back programs such as their "Warm Bellies" Initiative, donating pet beds to shelter animals, and a revenue sharing program with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
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| | Kurgo Travel Bowl
We
all know that it is important to keep your dog hydrated while on the
road, but sometimes it’s just not convenient to stop. Kurgo’s Splash
Free Wander Bowl’s
unique wedge design (one side is higher to make up for the slant of a car seat) ensures that it lies flat on the seat and its high
sides ensure that water will not spill out of the bowl while moving. Our manager Sarah just recently drove out to Montana and back with her dog and raved about how great this bowl was!
- Made with food-grade silicone
- Dishwasher safe
- Holds 24 oz (710 ml)
- Lightweight
- Can be used for food or water
- Tapered lip reduces splashing and contains kibble for dogs who push their food out of the bowl
- For best results with liquid, only fill halfway
Pro Tip: Use ice cubes to further minimize splashing and keep your water cool
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| | Open Farm has “Cans”!
We love Open Farm for their sourcing of certified humanely raised meats and sustainable fish populations as well as their policy of us being able to recycle your empty pet food and dog treat bags for you through Terracycle We’re also excited to tell you that they have come out with wet foods for dogs and cats, and instead of putting them in cans, they’re using BPA free Tetra pak boxes to package it. There is no such thing in the American pet food industry as entirely BPA free cans. BPA is an endocrine disruptor and we should be doing what we can to avoid it. It occurs in many applications besides food packaging, such as industrial floors, airplane tickets, road and bridge deck toppings, receipt paper, structural adhesives, grouts, coatings, varnishes, adhesives, plastics, water pipes, dental sealants, hair care products, makeup, lotions, toothpaste and in the category of if it's not one flippin' thing it's another, recycled toilet paper (from newspaper ink, receipt papers, etc). Small pet food cans have less than big cans as they're stamped from one piece of metal, but big cans apparently need an epoxy containing something like BPA to protect the food from the welded parts. Even cans in the human food industry that say they are free of BPA are likely using another plasticizer such as BPS or BPF. Unfortunately, studies show their potency to be in the same order of magnitude and of similar action as BPA. If your canned pet food company claims to use BPA free cans, they are likely wrong about that. Most good companies will admit that no American pet food cans can claim to be entirely free of these troublesome chemicals. How to avoid it in canned pet foods? One company, Weruva, has independent certification that the cans that are made for their foods are free of all endocrine disruptors (not manufactured in US). For humans, Eden Organic is the only brand that I know of that is using a plant based resin to line their cans (everything but their tomatoes, which are still BPA). The other neat solution for humans (and now increasingly in pet food) are Tetra Pak boxes. You’re probably familiar with Pacific Foods' broth and other products in these sorts of boxes - they’re still lined with a plastic, but it’s polyethelene which is described as non-leaching and nontoxic. More and more companies are using these boxes for a variety of foods and beverages. They also take up much less room and are 60% lighter to transport (fewer fossil fuels used) and recyclable in our curbside bins. We already carry CARU stews for dogs in these great boxes, and soon will be bringing in the Stella and Chewy’s wet food in Tetra Paks. Open farm wet foods for dogs and for cats are available on our shelves now! My favorite part of using these boxes for canned foods is that they open easily, and if you only want to scoop out a little, the top just folds back up again so you can pop it back in the fridge. No lids or saran wrap needed.
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| | Earth Animal Flea and Tick Collar
Traditional flea & tick collars contain chemical pesticides that can be harmful to your pet and family, but Earth Animal has created a more natural flea and tick collar for dogs and cats containing Virginia Cedarwood, Peppermint, and Almond Oil that can be another layer of defense in our fight against those tenacious pests.
Fleas and ticks can be prevented using natural methods, especially when the owner is diligent in their applications. When a full blown infestation has already occurred in the household, sometimes the big guns have to come out (for example our indoor Himalayan cat Otis got just a bite or two and developed his first case of horrifying flea allergy dermatitis in 15 years, tearing himself to scabby bits and removing big patches of his thick beautiful coat. Our topical products couldn’t help him as his coat is several inches thick and we felt like dousing him in any product would be too much for him. I turned to a product called Cheristin that I had to get from our vet (Two Rivers) We then treated all of our carpets with Fleabusters and vacuumed our hardwoods and furniture like crazy. (It's been two years and the Fleabusters has protected him nicely without using anything else.)
We just are not fans of using products like Advantage/Frontline/Comfortis, etc regularly for prevention - why expose our pets to toxins with potential side effects when more natural methods can work so well to prevent an infestation to begin with? We do have some powerful tools for prevention, such as the Fleabusters powder I mentioned above - when applied to carpets it can remain effective for killing eggs, larvae, pupae and adult fleas for up to a year with regular vacuuming! Topical sprays and oils such as Mad About Organics (for dogs and cats) and Wondercide (not recommended by us for cats) can also be very effective tools in prevention. Sometimes we forget to apply them though, and so something like this new flea collar can help us keep our pets safe - think if it as another layer of defense. They’re still very new to us, but our manager Sarah has been using it for the past week or so on her Aussie, and she’s impressed so far. It smells nice, and after a few days that light smell had effectively traveled over her dog’s whole coat - the oils have spread themselves nicely, providing more whole body deterrence. He does have sensitive skin and some food allergy issues, so we were happy to see he wasn’t irritated by these ingredients. We look forward to hearing your feedback on this new tool. Do we think that this flea collar is the magic bullet that will protect them completely? Probably not - all flea treatment and prevention requires a multi-pronged approach, no matter what product you use.
Want to know more about how to protect your yard, pet and home from fleas? Check out our blog post with lots of great tips.
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| | Green Tip: You can recycle some unusual things!
Attention Weruva cat food pouch feeders, Britta filter users, granola bar eaters, contact wearers, guitar players that change their strings, and smokers: you can recycle these things and many more entirely for free with Terracycle! No kidding - they have a variety of programs, some free and some paid, the strangest (but pretty awesome) ones being used gum and cigarette butts. The cigarette butt recycling is free - It’s someone’s job to separate filters and cellophane wrappers from paper and tobacco. The paper and tobacco are composted, the cellophane recycled, and the filters are used in the making of plastic pallets! They even offer free collection bins for businesses to put in smoking areas.Check it all out here.
Open Farm Pet Food bags and treat bags can be brought to us at Green Dog for recycling. Weruva pouch feeders (and Earthborn Holistic feeders) can send their packaging for free using the above link. |
| | Welcome Emily!
We're so lucky to have found a fantastic crew of new people that have all come to us with great experience and enthusiasm, and Emily is no exception! She was born and raised right down the road, and has a Bachelors degree with honors from Western Washington University. She worked at Mud Bay for the past four years and at the Zoom Room Dog Gym before that, so has a good foundation of knowledge about what we do here. She's enjoying bringing home fun new products to try with her corgi, Sophie.
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| | Neighborhood News:
May is Bike month! Bike to Books Coloring Contest: Open to students from Pre-K to 12th grade. Their design could be installed on Portland's streets! Coloring contest here. Learn all about the Bike to Books programs here
The former Than Thao Grocery in the Roseway neighborhood at NE 65th and Sandy will be converted into a new children’s activity center. Interior walls have been demolished and new walls framed to create rooms for crafts, yoga, play and café areas.
Thrive Sauce and Bowls restaurant on NE Fremont is now open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights for dinner! Thrive's website
Rurun Resale store's new location on NE Sandy is now open on the weekends and will be open weekdays pretty soon. Rerun
Prince Coffee - We are officially addicted to Stroopwaffles and coffee at Prince. You have been warned.
Are You On Next Door? We'd love it if you'd give us a shout out in their recommendations section so more people in the neighborhood find out about us!
Unfortunately we didn't make the Willamette Week's Reader Poll finals, (hopefully someday!) but please vote for our friends at Meat or The Filling Station for best Pet Supply Store, for Roar up on Alberta as Best Specialty Shop, For Fetch Eyewear because the proceeds go to the Pixie Project, Beaumont Best Hardware in Beaumont Village (because they are the best!), Garden Fever Nursery right up the street, and especially for Dr. Keith Weingardt at Animal Healing Arts of Portland - the world's greatest holistic veterinarian!
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| | Yay! Thanks for checking out our newsletter. We try to make it full of interesting and educational info.
Here's Your Treat: Mention the newsletter next time you're in, and take 20% of one full priced item that's not pet food!
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| | | | Located in Beaumont Village 4327 NE Fremont Street, Portland, Oregon 97213
Telephone: 503-528-1800
© 2007 - 2015 Green Dog Pet Supply. Green Dog Pet Supply® is a Registered Trademark. |
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