We’re about two weeks into the new look, which I hope all you regulars enjoy, so I thought I’d share some random stuff on here like how the site came about. It really started off as a result of being frustrated with crappy dog sites, while Shannon and I were looking for a puppy online. Browsing through tons of Web sites, which looked like they had all been created through MS Word, the online magazine/blog format looked very promising. The mission: Create something interesting that doesn’t have a blinding horrible 90s layout, awful flashing letters (ie. <blink>insert annoying text here</blink>) and boring clip art galore. Barf. Besides, Dustin, Shannon and I had all worked for the same newspaper at one point in our lives, so what the hell, right?

Well, when Shannon and I got a little Westie, Beary White, the frustration with finding basic dog training tips (I really should say “terrier” not “dog,” because terriers are more… um, picky?) online only grew. I wound up doing the next-best thing and called Dustin, another stay-at-home dog daddy whose sound advice helped me the first month of puppyhood, which was relatively agonizing for an impatient person like myself. What followed was a brief discussion of throwing all this dog advice on the web, adding some dog diaries to the mix and topping it off with a few neat pictures, which others like you *might* find entertaining — turns out, you do! =D

Our first rendition of the site looked relatively elementary, in retrospect, but we all thoroughly drove it to the ground like a Toyota Corolla maxed out at the 250K mile mark. And now that we are starting to cater to 1300+ cities worldwide, the photoshoppin’ couldn’t have come at a better time. What followed were layers upon layers of dogs (Pom Pom, Casper, Beary White and a few of our submissions) to create the backdrop you’re looking at…. lots of time spent during the wee hours of the early morning and late night. Then, there was that one god-awful time my Dell froze right in the middle of photoshoppin, when I wished I could’ve demanded poop straight from Beary’s butt, so that I could smash it into the keyboard and ship the stupid laptop back to Dell… but I digress.  At any rate, it’s all just a creative outlet for all of us dog owners, and it’s just really exciting to see that ya’ll care about our *lovely* dog tales. So have an awesome weekend and see ya Munday!