Animal Planet's Portable Pet Bed with Zipper

Last week, Stella and I went on an outing to just get out of the house! We BOTH needed to get out. I took her to the store HomeGoods. I've found that stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ross, and other discount stores have awesome pet supply sections. It can be a total hit or miss!

When we went, HomeGoods had an AWESOME variety of pet products. Our particular store had a ton of these Animal Planet Portable Beds for $5.

Today, Overstock.com selling the same bed for $27.49.  So we got a good deal for sure! The design is shaped like a briefcase. In order to get the full 20" x 27" bed, you must unzip the bed and lay it out flat. So basically it folds up in half and is secured with a zipper. It has 2 handles so it can easily be transported-just like a lightweight handbag. For the outside cover, it comes in a baby blue with stripes and a brown with swirls. I chose the brown with the swirl design because the outside covering is what touches the floor. I figured the brown would show less dirt. The part that the dog lays on is fleece and is washable.

I suppose the bed is for smaller dogs (like the one pictured on the packaging). However, it is just enough for Stella to lay her chest and head on the soft mat. I would not want to carry anything bigger, as this is the perfect size and weight for me to carry around in the cases where a mat would be appropriate.

As a service dog, Stella is frequently laying on floors in public. Movie theatre floors give me the creeps! So, that would be a situation where I'd want a mat/portable bed for Stella to lay on.

Stella does like the bed :-) and before I opened the box for her to try it out...

I am very happy with this bargain find and so is the doodle!

Virbac's Preventic Collar

This is one of those products that keeps Stella healthy, so she can continue to be her happy and healthy self. The Prevntic collar works exceptionally well for us. No matter what part of the state we are in, Stella is tick free. The collar comes in an 18" for dogs up t0 60 lbs and a 25" for dogs over 60 lbs. If your dog's neck is smaller than 18" you can cut the collar so that it fits appropriately. I would recommend you leave an inch or two extra for adjustment purposes. Also, if you have a small dog, you could cut the collar in half and have 90 days of prevention for each piece. The second 90 days you'd have to figure out another way to attach the collar since it only comes with one buckle. You could use anything to attach the collar w/o the buckle part. It surely isn't rocket science.

I purchase them for Stella at www.healthypets.com because they have the best prices I've found. They also sell them in bulk, which allows me to save a little additional amount of money. They come to approx $10 to $12 depending on the size or if you buy in bulk.

The collar is supposed to last up to 90 days. I find this to be an accurate time frame. The collar is NOT supposed to get wet. If it does get wet, you probably will need to replace the collar. A wet collar will loose its effectiveness.

I have found this collar to be well worth it. Having a dog with a full coat means I need to be extra careful watching out for  ticks on her. Some peple do not like the idea of the chemicals associated with a tick collar. I however, find that I need to have a Preventic Collar on Stella at all times while she is outside. The ONE time she didn't have a collar on, right after she had a bath- she came in with a tick that just started attaching to the inside of her ear.

The collar is very easy to put on and take off. It has a simple attachment mechanism that works effectively. (See the pic of the attachment part of the collar below.)

This product is very overall wonderful and provides 90 days of tick prevention. My only reservations would be for multi dog households where the dogs like to chew eachother's collars. There could potentially be a problem if a dog ingested the collar.