the 5 stages of getting a barkbox in the mail

sooo...i've been a little grumpy lately.

giving my human the stink eye...'cus i CAN. hmph.

i wasn't too happy about leaving the grandhumans and flying back home. 

...to BORING-VILLE. hmph (again).

i mean, no one likes vacation to end, but this is a little ridiculous.

so today, when the mail-lady delivered a package for ME (yes, me!!!), it couldn't have come at a better time. 

i mean, i was kind of starting to become a grumpy gills. 

and no one likes a grumpy gills.

so, anyways...

the human picked up the package and said it was my june barkbox!!!

stage 1 of getting a barkbox in the mail:
i don't know how to read, but i'm pretty sure it says "for mr. rambo" on this box!

barkboxes are like magic, because when you're grumpy, getting one in the mail makes you feel loads better.

stage 2 of getting a barkbox in the mail:
grumpy? who, me? no way. now open this box....um, please.

they make your tail wag just a little bit faster, and your smile just a little bit bigger.

stage 3 of getting a barkbox in the mail:
can we open it? can we open it now? how about now? come on what are we waiting for?!

after a hundred bazillion years, the human finally opened the box.

and inside i found an eiffel tower! and a rope toy! and cordon bleu treats! 

...i'm not really sure what a cordon bleu is, but it sounds fancy, so i'll give 'em a try.

stage 4 of getting a barkbox in the mail:
YAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

after tasting the yummy treats and playing with my new toys, i did what i always do after opening a barkbox. 

i sat in it, of course. 

'cus it's comfy, that's why.

stage 5 of getting a barkbox in the mail:if i fits, i sits.
(barkboxes are the perfect size to rest a puppy-bum...especially after a long afternoon of playing with all my new toys!)

...and ta-da! goodbye mr. grumpy gills, hello happy puppy! :)

- rambo 

p.s. wanna get a barkbox pup-scription for your own dog? use my fancy-schmancy code "RAMBO" at checkout to save 10%! 

p.p.s...or just click this link :) 

i just got an ifetch!

the mail lady delivered a package to our door today!

i love getting packages, even when they're not for me.

but this one was for me - it even had my name on it!

i love getting stuff in the mail!

the human said that the people at iFetch sent me a product to review and share with my Facebook fans.

i had never heard of an ifetch before, but since playing fetch is one of my favorite things, it sounded like something i'd be interested in.

can we open it? please please please?!

the human went to find some scissors to open the box, but it took her too long, so i decided to do it myself.

sooner or later i'll get this thing open, just you wait...but feel free to jump in with some scissors if you find them.

when we finally got the box open, i found three small tennis balls and a weird looking round thing inside.

i have no idea what this is, but i have a feeling that it's awesome. trust me on this.

before plugging it in, the human showed me how to drop one of the balls in the top of the iFetch, which i like to call "loading the cannon."

it was kind of hard at first, since i'm not used to dropping toys on a specific spot. 

uhhh...where did the ball go?
(turns out i dropped the ball on the floor and it rolled out of view. this happened a LOT at first).

luckily, iFetch posted a "how to teach your pup to use an iFetch" video on their youtube channel (if you want to watch it, click here). 

we watched the video, and i learned a lot of great tips for improving my technique. the human learned how she can help me get used to being around the funny round contraption (it kind of does look like an alien, after all).

just...a little bit...closer....*plunk*...i did it!

finally, after about a gagillion attempts, i finally got the ball into the mouth of the iFetch!

the human rewarded me with a few extra bacon treats for my accomplishment. which, i guess, wouldn't be that big of a deal to a human, but it is to a little puppy without any thumbs!

i'm still learning how to drop a ball in the iFetch. even though i make it in about 6 times out of 10, the instructions say it should be 10 times out of 10 before we turn it on.

if we turn it on before i'm ready, i might be startled or scared when the ball shoots out of the other side of the iFetch (or so the human says...i beg to differ!). 

until then, i'm just going to work on my ball-dropping skills and hopefully i'll make it 10 times out of 10 soon!

i can't wait 'til we can turn this thing on and see what it does!

stay tuned for an update on how i'm doing with my iFetch! once i get the hang of it, i'll upload some videos of me playing with it so you can see me in action :) 

- rambo 

my trip to asheville, north carolina

i just got home from a mini vacation with the human and the grandhumans in asheville, north carolina! 

i'm not very good at geography and i'd never heard of asheville before, but i'm not the type of pup to turn down a road trip. 

oh boy oh boy oh boy! i love riding in the car! i don't even care where we go! let's go let's go let's gooooo!

when we arrived in asheville, we checked into a dog-friendly hotel called aloft asheville downtown. this was my first time staying in a hotel, and i was really excited.

do i even get to sleep in own queen-sized bed?!

after we checked into the hotel, we went outside to explore. right away i found a warm patch of grass to roll around in...because, obviously, no day is complete without a good wiggle in the grass.

ahhhhh, nothing better than a warm patch of grass to roll around and get dirty in :)

it was almost dinner time, so we decided to take a walk downtown to find a restaurant with a patio where we could eat outside. 

on our way there, i smelled all sorts of new smells and saw a lot of things i'd never seen before...

i'm not sure what that is, and i'm not sure what those humans are doing, but if they have bacon, i'd like to hop on!

after a long, long time discussing where to eat, the human and the grandhumans finally picked a restaurant. we sat down on the patio, and i even got my own chair at the table.

dog-friendly restaurants that hand out treats to pups are the best!

since we had such a long day, we decided to go to bed early. which was fine by me; i needed my energy to get up and go to a big fancy house in the morning! 

...i didn't know why we were going to a big fancy house, but as long as there were smells to smell, people to meet, and squirrels to chase, i knew i would have fun.

the next day, we woke up early and drove to the big fancy house, which the humans called the biltmore. 

before we got out of the car, i made sure to put on my nature's recipe petcam so i could take pictures of all the cool things i see.

i'm more excited about rolling around in all this grass than i am about seeing some big fancy house. but do you blame me?

since the mansion is really old, they don't let pups inside, so i walked around outside with my human while the grandhumans went on a tour.

how many times are you going to ask me to sit and smile for the camera? i've got things to do!

...and by "walked around," i mean the human took a lot of silly pictures of me sitting in front of the mansion. 

it was really warm out, and i started getting thirsty. luckily, the human brought my collapsible barkbox bowl so i could have a drink.

i don't think the humans at barkbox have ever been to the biltmore before, so i took this pic for them :) it's the least i could do, since they send me a surprise box of delicious toys and treats every month!

sometimes when i have to sit for pictures, i ponder the meaning of life. and think about bacon treats. 

yep, pretty sure that bacon is the one thing that makes the world go 'round.

finally the human said, "let's go!" and we went for a walk on the grounds of the mansion.

sun on my face, wind blowing through my fluff...ahhh yes, today is a good day!

there were a lot of dogs and humans walking around outside. i made a lot of new friends, but i really liked a pup named louis. he was half my size and had a lot of energy. we had fun chasing each other around until we couldn't chase anymore.

smaller and faster than me? i think i've finally met my match!

after saying "woof" ( or "goodbye" in english) to my new friend, the human and i decided to explore the gardens. i was tired from chasing after louis, so i found a nice patch of grass to take a nap on.

me? sleeping? no, i'm just, uh, resting my eyes. yep.

but i didn't rest for long - there were too many interesting smelling smells to sniff out and dirt patches to roll in!

you think i'm posing for the camera, but i'm actually scoping out my next move.

i decided right then and there that i would like to move into the mansion so i could spend time in the gardens every day.

how could they say no to a face like this?

after we walked through the garden, we went back to wait for the grandhumans. 

seriously, how many benches are you going to make me sit on so you can take my picture?

while they were finishing the tour, i imagined that i was a king and the mansion was my a palace. 

my kingdom would be called doglandia, and i would eat bacon for every meal. all the dogs in doglandia would get a free barkbox subscription, and all the pups in shelters would find homes with kind humans.

yep, i think i would be a really great king. where do i sign up?

once the grandhumans came out of the mansion, we decided to go find a good spot to have a picnic.

on our way, i stopped to make a new friend. even though he didn't say much, he was a great listener. 

i'm not sure what this is, but i think i like it! or him. or her. whatever it is.

all in all, it was a great day. who knew a pup could have so much fun visiting an old mansion in the mountains?

so...when can i move in?

- rambo

St. Patrick's Day Bloopers

sooo....i promised you guys more st. patrick's day photos, except...i wasn't very cooperative when it came to taking the pictures. 

who, me?

but just because i wasn't thrilled with my st. patrick's day props doesn't mean i'm not going to share the pictures with you.

this picture is ok, what do you mean they didn't turn out great?

so instead of sharing only the best pictures, i thought you might want to see some funny bloopers!

bloopers? ha! that's a funny word. see, i'm already laughing! 

here's a picture of me getting excited about my st. patrick's day photo shoot.

whoooooo hooooo! st.patrick's day! yea!

but i wasn't thrilled the whole time. nope, not at all.

i'm a wee bit irish? nope. how about...IRISH YOU WOULD TAKE THIS STUFF OFF OF ME SO I COULD GO PLAY.

yeah, i mustered up a good smile a few times, but all in all, i just wasn't feeling it.

i am only smiling because you said the word "bacon."

most of the time, i felt pretty embarrassed. the human got a good laugh out of it though.

why is this bow on my head? why?

my irish hat just didn't fit, and my bow tie was clearly too big. 

i don't understand why this looks "irish." i think it just looks stupid.

in the end, i decided to take a nap. that's my signal to the human that the photo shoot is officially over.

see this yawn? that mean this is OVER. DONE. FINITO.
...what does finito mean?

see? i told you these bloopers were pretty silly :)

- rambo

follow my nature's recipe for moments adventures!

i have an exciting announcement to make! 

i was one of the lucky pups selected to be part of the nature's recipe for moments campaign!

this sounds great! but what does it mean?

i wasn't really sure what this meant at first, so my human had to explain.

she told me that the nice humans at nature's recipe would be sending me a petcam, which is a camera that i attach to my collar! how cool is that?

but will it look as stylish as my favorite red bandanna? hmmm...

i finally got my collar cam in the mail the day before christmas, and i've been having fun learning how to use it. it's been a few months, so now i'm ready to share some of my petcam pics with you!

this is the first day i ever tried my collar cam. i wasn't so sure about it, but i was willing to give it a try.

first, you have to promise not to judge my photography skills. i'm a dog, not a human, and i don't have thumbs! some of the pictures are a little blurry, and a lot of them have a little bit of my beard in the top half. i can't help it, i just have such a long, flowing mane...

so are you ready to see my petcam pictures?!

even though they're blurry and beard-y, i think they're awesome! how many dogs can say they've taken a photo before? 

alright, so here's a preview of some of the photos in my online scrapbook, which you can see HERE on the nature's recipe for moments website :)

one of the first pictures i ever took with my petcam was this one of my grandhumans' christmas tree on christmas day.

i will never, ever, ever understand why humans bring a live tree into the house, put lights and sparkly things on it, and REFUSE to let me tinkle on it. what gives?

then, it was time for a walk in the snow. i spent some time peering and sniffing around the grandhumans' yard. 

is this what it feels like to be in jail? for some reason, i don't think so...

then, the human, grand humans, and i went for a walk in the snow. 

yep, that's my dog beard. a lot of my pictures turn out beard-y, but i think it makes them look...unique.

we met another human and dog on our walk! here's a picture i took of the other pup wanting to play with me. 

"hold that pose for juuuussstttt another second...wait for it...wait for it....*click* ok let's play!"

if you want to see more pictures from my snowy walk with my grandhumans, view my scrapbook HERE and scroll all the way to the bottom:)

last month, the human and i went for a walk in the park. well, we go for lots of walks, but this time i brought my petcam. it was still snowy, but not as snowy as my walk on christmas day.

i see puddles. puddles mean water, and water means wet. i hate wet. oh dear, this is going to be rough.

i meet a lot of other dogs on our walks. here's one of them, i think his name was digby. he was a very wet, very happy schnauzer. 

oh hello there, may i smell your bum? you can smell mine!

this month we went back to the park, and i met a lot of miniature humans. i like miniature humans - for the most part. 

oh hello mini human! do you have any crumbs on your shirt i can eat or sticky hands i can lick? 

then, we went to a shopping center to eat some lunch. they had these really colorful, weird looking things sticking out of the tables. i wasn't sure about them, or if they were evil or not, so i made sure to keep an eye on them.

what ARE these things? UFOs? 

after lunch, the human treated me to some frozen yogurt!

it feels like springtime already!

once i finished eating my small bowl of plain frozen yogurt, i watched the human eat hers. and begged. a little. ok, i begged a lot.

are you really going to eat all of that? 

...and that's all, for now! if you want to see the rest of my petcam pictures, visit my scrapbook on the nature's recipe website! 

i think i'm starting to get a hang of this whole petcam thing! 

i'll be adding more pictures to my scrapbook soon :) 

- rambo