The answer might surprise you! Find out at Hammertown Great Barrington on Sunday, May 8th from 12-1:30pm. Bring your dog into the store and let Good Dog Executive trainer, Susan Fireman, evaluate and see if your canine qualifies for the program. (Our dear Abby, who left us last June, made the cut ! See her story by clicking here)

Visit with Susan and other Good Dog Volunteer teams and then donate a little something to this great cause.

HOW IT WORKS: After evaluation, the dog and handler may attend a training program and go on to join more than 950 other Good Dog volunteer teams who offer animal-assisted therapy to health care, social service, educational and community facilities in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey.

WHO: Any dog and handler pair who is interested in becoming a Good Dog volunteer team may attend. Dogs must be at least six months old. The handler needs only to have the desire and availability for volunteering with one or more facilities or programs.

MORE INFO: For more information call The Good Dog Foundation office at 718-788-2988. A pre-screen form may be completed in advance to expedite the process. 

*First come, first served. There may be a short wait depending on the number of dogs in attendance.

The Good Dog Foundation is one of our favorite not-for-profit organizations. Visit them at www.thegooddogfoundation.org to learn more about all the good work these good dogs do!

Camp Unleashed is a camp in the Berkshires (Becket, MA) where people who love their dogs and love spending time with them can go together to learn more about each other and to spend time with other people who feel the same way about their dogs.

Here’s what Camp Unleashed Founder, Annie Brody, says inspired her to start this camp:

Camp Unleashed is dedicated to honoring and respecting the spirit of dogs in the community of like-minded souls, both human and canine.

I founded Camp Unleashed completely out of my love for dogs and the joy that I experience by their presence in my life. I also believe that people who are drawn deeply to dogs are participating in an incredibly rich journey of discovery that is pioneering a path toward more inter-species communication and partnership.

Camp Unleashed is a retreat in the countryside where people who feel this extraordinary kinship with dogs can come to experience and celebrate their relationship to the fullest, while deepening their understanding of the canine nature and having a lot of fun, too!

With that purpose in mind, I have brought together a team of outstanding and devoted dog professionals to lead us in a weekend of absolute enjoyment. You will be amazed at the elevation of spirit that comes from being in nature with a pack of wildly happy dogs and their people.

Rachel Ray recently featured Camp Unleashed on her program:

The next Camp Unleashed session is in September so you’ll want to check out their website now to make sure you get a spot!

Click here for Camp Unleashed Website

I work at the Barn with some really wonderful young Moms.  They often talk about what’s going on with their kids and families and now and then I hear something that really piques my interest.  Michele McCarthy, one of our Barn co-Managers (who has worked for me for 10 years) told me about a project her husband, Mike, and her son, Cody are involved with this summer: raising chickens!  It sounded like a great idea as well as something that would be fun for our readers (and their kids) to follow so Auntie M sat down with Cody and Michele to learn all about Cody’s new venture.  – Joan

[click photos to enlarge]

Q: So who decided you should get chickens?

Cody: My dad did.  He thought it could be something we could do together and that it would be fun.

Michele: We had been talking about getting chickens because I want to know where our food comes from.  You really don’t know even if things are labeled “organic”.  When you raise chickens yourself, you know exactly what you’re feeding them and that they’re being treated humanely.

Q: Where are you getting your chickens?

Cody: We got them online from Murray McMurray Hatchery.  We got them Monday…they came in the mail.

Q: What…they mailed them?  Really?

Cody: Yeah…they called and said “your chicks are here”

Michele: Cody’s Uncle Scott picked them up at the post office for us and brought them home.

Q: How many are there?

Cody: There’s 25 meat chickens – they’re yellow and bigger and 25 others.

Q: So you got 50 chicks.  The other chicks…are they for laying eggs?

Cody: Yes.  And one of them is “exotic”.

Michele: When you get 50 chicks they give you one free exotic breed but they don’t tell you what breed it is.

Q: It’s a surprise?

Cody: Yeah.  We already named him –”Carlos” – even though we’re not sure which one it is.

Q: But it’s not one of the meat chickens.

Cody: No.

Q: So…the meat chickens…that means they’re for eating.  Are you okay with that?  Won’t that make you sad?

Cody: Yeah…but I’m not going to look.

Q: Do you have a chicken coop for them?

Cody: Not yet.  They’re in a tub right now with a heating lamp to keep them warm.  It has to be 90 degrees.

Q: Are you going to do all the work taking care of them…like feeding them.

Cody: Yeah.  I’ll feed them, and clean them and everything.

Q: How old are they now?

Michele: They were a day old when they were sent and we got them Monday so they’re now 3 days old.

Cody: My uncle showed us how to teach them to drink.  You dip them in the water so they learn where the water is…otherwise they won’t drink.

Q: What do you feed them?

Cody: It’s a mash.

Q: Made out of corn and stuff?

Cody: Yeah.  The meat birds eat a lot.  More than the laying birds.

Michele: They’re really aggressive about their food.

Q: How long will they stay in their tub.

Michele: Just a couple more weeks.  We need to have the coop finished by then.  Mike is going to make a fenced area for them around 30′ x 30′ that we’ll be able to move around so they’re not in the same spot all the time.

I thanked Cody for his time and asked him to send me pictures and let me know what’s going on with the chicks every couple of weeks.  Next time we hope we’ll have some pictures of Cody’s Chicken Coop!

]]> http://www.hammertown.com/2010/05/codys-coop-a-great-father-son-project-for-the-summer/feed/ 4 http://www.hammertown.com/2009/12/pet-holiday-recipe-healthy-dog-biscuits/ http://www.hammertown.com/2009/12/pet-holiday-recipe-healthy-dog-biscuits/#comments Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:11:35 +0000 Joan http://www.hammertown.com/?p=13762 A GREAT WAY to treat your pet is to bake your own dog biscuits and treats while you’re making your yearly holiday cookies or desserts.   And, wouldn’t  homemade dog biscuits make a fun gift for your dog-owning friends and relatives?  (Not to mention your own pet’s doggie buddies!)

This recipe comes to us from Perfect Pets Rescue...the folks who gave me one of the best gifts I ever got…Etta!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 3 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine applesauce, egg, peanut butter, vanilla and water.  Mix well. Add flours, corn meal, oats and mix well to form a dough.
3. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until thoroughly mixed together.
4. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut out shapes.
5. Place on greased baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes until lightly browned. Cool on rack.

Makes 30 cookies.

We got this adorable picture from one of our human customers.

They bought this fantastic kilim rug ottoman as a gift for their lucky Jack Russells!  Looks like they’re enjoying it.

We LOVE seeing your four-legged friends enjoying their gifts from Hammertown.

Send us your photos (to joan@hammertown.com) and we’ll post them right here!

She looked so happy and at ease and it reminded me of how different she was the first day Brooke and Gregg introduced her to me.  Though she was affectionate, she was nervous and a little tentative.  Now she rough-houses with Abby, goes to work with me every day and knows how to sit before she gets a treat.

A couple of days after I took this picture, I  got an email newsletter from Perfect Pets Rescue — where my dear sweet Etta came from!  There at the bottom of the email was Etta’s name before we shortened it…Henrietta!

This is such a wonderful organization and they’re doing such important work to save the lives of forgotten, abandoned, injured and unwanted pets.

There was a link to a video in the newsletter that is so heartbreaking…showing all the dogs at the very same kill shelter in Georgia where Etta came from.  How do you choose? It must be so hard.  I’m just grateful they chose her.

PLEASE if you are thinking about getting a dog or cat as a gift for someone this holiday season or if you just have some extra space in your home or your heart, contact Perfect Pets Rescue or another animal shelter in our area.  The gift will be to you.

Please spread the word about adoptions, and consider making a donation as a gift to a fellow animal-lover or to honor your own special pet.
Perfect Pets Rescue is run entirely by volunteers and every dollar you give, directly helps bring another Perfect Pet safely to his new home.
All donations are tax deductible and every dollar directly helps save a life.

Lola loved Alexa

At Hammertown, dogs rule. They are Hammertown’s official greeters, furniture testers and spokes-models…and that’s just their day job. After hours they help maintain the physical and emotional well being of their caretakers, reminding us of the importance of good food, frequent walks, love and affection.  And, to top it off, they look really good on all of our furniture. What more could you ask for?

When Lola (our beautiful Laborador) passed away last year, I took my time in deciding whether or not to get a new dog to keep Abby (our second Golden Retriever) company in her duties at Hammertown.  However, with regular visits from Foxy and Snooker – world champion shop dogs in their own right – I thought perhaps there was little we could do to improve our doggy lot.  So, I waited.

But then came Etta…

Etta's profile at Perfect Pets

As it turns out, my son’s girlfriend, Brooke, had been advocating a pet rescue for some time. They’d considered surprising me at various points over the past year, yet for fear of a poor fit and stressing me out, Gregg always pulled the plug on the idea.  But when Gregg mentioned to Brooke how I had said I would love a dog just like Foxy, she went searching online and found Etta who happened to be en route from a kill-shelter Georgia to Red Hook at that very moment.  From her picture and picture-perfect description (a Pug-mix, 20lbs, affectionate, smart, 1 year), they were convinced they had found the dog for me.  They contacted Perfect Pets Rescue (more on this wonderful organization below) through their website and arranged for our introduction over in Red Hook.

I admit it, I was nervous, maybe even skeptical that it would work out.  When I met Etta, it was obvious that she was adorable and smart, but did I really have enough time to spend training a new dog right now?  It didn’t take long though.  Within a week, Etta had won me, Abby, Gregg, Brooke and everyone at the Barn over with a charm offensive that would impress even Bill Clinton.  As our vet, Tina Aiken, said during Etta’s first visit – “she’s a keeper”.

If you have any interest in getting a dog, you really should consider Perfect Pets Rescue (www.perfectpetsrescue.org). They are a non-profit organization that rescues dogs from high-kill shelters in Georgia.  After giving the dogs a proper “vetting” (i.e. healthcare), Perfect Pets transports these unlucky-lucky dogs to Red Hook, New York in search of good homes. 

Etta at work answering the phone.

Once they arrive, the dogs go to foster homes throughout the area until suitable homes are found for them.  There is a modest adoption fee to help cover the costs of the program, including transport of the dogs and the necessary care needed to ensure the dogs are healthy and ready to share someone’s home with them.

As you can tell by a quick look at their dog listing, there are a lot of cute dogs in need of a good home.  Each dog has a helpful description and picture to go along with it, so you can find the right match before you visit.

Etta’s story has a happy ending…and I have a new adorable friend that Abby just loves!

CALLING ALL PET-LOVERS!
We love our pets here at Hammertown (and we know you love yours too).  So, we’re asking you, our readers and customers, to share your stories (AND PICTURES) of that wonderful furry (or not furry) friend of yours who loves you unconditionally, always listens and sometimes even makes you laugh. 
Send stories and pictures to: joan@hammertown.com.

No fillers, pesticides, preservatives, yellow number whatever, or any of that yucky artificial stuff.   Just honest, fresh, human-grade ingredients like the kind you would find in your own kitchen.  They hand-bake these simple ingredients into a biscuit that screamed out “eat me!”   And since they had created a dog treat that demanded attention, they figured their packaging should too.   That’s why each package of A Dog’s Life celebrates one of their  happy customers.

Big dogs, little dogs-everyone deserves 15 minutes of fame!

$9.00 for a 8 oz. bag

We carry Peanut Butter & Honey and Steak Frites