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Big News Be-the-Change Fans!

The “Never Shock a Puppy” (or any dog) campaign officially hit the blog-o-sphere today. I’m truly honored to be a part of it. I’ll give you the details and tell you how you can participate in a moment, but first a little background.

Roxanne Hawn, my buddy over at Champion of My Heart was inspired by the galvanizing experience of the first ever BlogPaws conference last April, as were many of us, to BE THE CHANGE for animals. The energy unleashed at that conference on behalf of the welfare of animals…well, it still brings tears to my eyes when I recall being there.

So Roxanne is spearheading an effort with the support of a cadre of pet bloggers to get shock collars—and choke and pinch collars—off the necks of dogs, and replace them with humane training tools instead. The campaign will officially begin Wednesday, September 1, 2010, and run for 8 weeks. And, I want to make this perfectly clear–It’s because of Roxanne’s untiring persistence that Never Shock a Puppy was born.

Thank you Roxanne and your girls at Champion of My Heart!

Here are the nuts and bolts:

Blogging

Beginning Wednesday, September 1, 2010, and for the following 7 Wednesdays, we will post new content on the Never Shock A Puppy blog site. We’ll be blogging about, among other related topics, the 5 top reasons people turn to shock collars and the training methods we recommend instead.

Giveaways

Five of the 8 Wednesdays there will be giveaways of cool dog stuff. So far we have received donations of the following snazzy schwag:

If you would like to donate cool stuf for the cause contact Roxanne.

No Choke Challenge Fundraising

Just as great minds think alike, big hearts beat together. Never Shock a Puppy is teaming up with the Humane Society of Boulder Valley (no connection to the HSUS) to help them raise money for their No Choke Challenge. Although their campaign kicks off November 1, we are going to help them jump-start it. Never Shock a Puppy is committed to raising $2500 for the No Choke Challenge during our 8 week campaign that begins September 1.

The No Choke Challenge is a huge effort involving lots of education and events to get the word out about humane training methods. Hopefully the funds Never Shock a Puppy raises will go toward purchasing 165 humane collars/harnesses that the BVHS will give to people who turn in their choke, shock, prong, and other inhumane training devices. No questions asked.

Do you want to get involved?

1. Post the Never Shock a Puppy badge on your site linking it to the Never Shock a Puppy blog site. Like I did above. Or, by using a widget. Here’s the code for the Never Shock a Puppy badge widget:

<a href=”http://www.nevershockapuppy.com” target=”_blank”><img border=”0″ alt=”Never Shock a Puppy badge big” src=” http://nevershockapuppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Never-Shock-a-Puppy-Badge.jpg “></a>

If you need a smaller badge for your side bar, try this code:

<a href=”http://www.nevershockapuppy.com” target=”_blank”><img border=”0″ alt=”Never Shock a Puppy badge big” src=” http://nevershockapuppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Never-Shock-a-Puppy-Badge-small.jpg”></a>

2. Post the “First Giving” donation widget for the Humane Society of Boulder Valley on your blog. (I have yet to figure out how to do this, but IT CAN BE DONE!) I did it – with lots of help from Roxanne! Here’s the widget code:

<object type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowScriptAccess=”always” allowNetworking=”all” height=”230″ width=”150″ align=”middle” data=”http://www.firstgiving.com/widgets/fgwidget.swf” flashvars=”EggId=1320619″><param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always” /><param name=”allowNetworking” value=”all” /><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.firstgiving.com/widgets/fgwidget.swf” /><param name=”quality” value=”high” /><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent” /><param name=”flashvars” value=”EggId=1320619″ /><param name=”bgcolor” value=”#ffffff” /></object> </a>

FYI-This widget code works when I insert the widget into my right sidebar, not if I insert it into text.

3. Blog about the Never Shock a Puppy campaign and link to the Never Shock a Puppy blog.

4. Share Never Shock a Puppy links on Twitter and Facebook,

5. Join the conversation via comments on Never Shock a Puppy blog posts.

6. Buy stuff in the Never Shock a Puppy department of Cafe Press!

I’m sure there will be even MORE ways to participate. Stay tuned!



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8 Responses to “Never Shock a Puppy! ‘Bark’ the Change!”

  1. Kim Clune says:

    Wow, you are FAST! Great cause…

    Makes me sick to think of teaching any living being through pain stimulus. That, in fact, teaches nothing but fear. I’m so happy Roxanne has taken this on! Big hugs to her for the huge effort and to you for promoting it!

  2. Thanks, Deborah, for the mention and for your participation in our Never Shock a Puppy Coalition.

    I’m still trying to work out the glitches with the code I posted. Here I thought I had all that figured out.

  3. If anyone has trouble taking the code from here, please try the master code inside special code boxes (thanks to Kim Clune) on the main site. It took about a day and a 1/2 to get those code boxes working right, but they should be good to go now.

    http://nevershockapuppy.com/badge-donation-widget/

    • Thanks Roxanne and Kim Clune! I corrected the the badge code in the post and added the “small badge” code.

      Also, As I note in the post, the master code for the First Giving scrolling badge works when I insert it into my sidebar, but not when I past it into the body of a post.

      The badge code works in the side bar and in the body of a post.

      Thanks again!

  4. I really like puppies. I just got a single a week ago and it has not been trained yet and has bitten me a handful of times but its absolutely nothing to be concerned about, i can train it nicely. I hope 🙂

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