Following Up on My Two Biggest Posts of the Year (so far)
I don’t expect to do this often, but today, I’m participating in the Follow Up Friday blog hop sponsored by Heart Like a Dog. Though I am following up on posts from a couple of weeks ago, not from this week, but I still think this is really the best way to do it.
Pet Blogger Challenge 2013– My Advice
I saw a lot of people ask this year to share time management secrets, wanting to know how people did it all. I’m not certain I have the answers for everyone, but I thought I’d share what I do, considering I run three regularly updated blogs in different areas of the blogosphere.
Secret 1- I don’t try to be perfect. While my blogs are mostly supposed to run at specific times on specific days of the week, if something comes up, I try not to stress about it. A trip to the dog park is more important that making my 4:30pm(Pacific) publishing time on Dog Ate My Wallet. Getting the grocery shopping done takes priority over getting Saturday’s blog round-up posted. And if I skip a day on 100 Words On, then I skip a day.
Secret 2- I don’t try to do everything. Both Life by Pets and Dog Ate My Wallet have pretty long blog rolls, if you go to the Complete Blogroll and Links pages. I tried reading every single one of those blogs on a regular basis, and I couldn’t do it. Instead, you’ll notice on the sidebar, the blogroll there only have 15 blogs listed at a time. The widget displays them randomly, so I have no control over what blogs are on there at any given time. My goal is to read the 15 blogs that are listed on that sidebar twice a week for each of my blogs. Mondays & Wednesdays I read personal finance blogs. Tuesdays & Thursdays I read pet blogs. That’s 60 blogs a week. If some of my favorite blogs don’t show up on the blogrolls on those days, on Fridays, I’ll go read those. Still, I’m at less than 70 blogs a week.
Secret 3- I only comment when I have something to say. I probably should comment more. I know I love it when I get comments. At the same time, I am busy. I am the sole breadwinner. I run three regular blogs and a 4th “when the inspiration strikes” blog. I write fiction. I have three dogs that need to be taken care. And sometimes, I’d like to just spend some time hanging out with C. So I don’t force myself to comment if I don’t have anything to say. I hope that means that when I do comment, I am adding to the conversation, or at least expressing my sincere thoughts/reactions.
Blog the Change: Thank You, Cesar Milan– From Cesar Himself
First, I want to thank everyone for the great response I had to that post. And then I wanted to share this Huffington post from yesterday, written by Cesar himself- It Isn’t Always About the Dog. The basic point of this post is that we have to take responsibility for the dogs we bring into our lives. Sometimes our dog’s behavioral issues have very little to do with them, and much to do with us.
We were not the right family for Moree. I wouldn’t have traded him for anything in the world, but we weren’t the right family for him. He needed someone to give him a job. We never did. I have a hard time even saying he had behavioral issues. He was an Australian Shepherd without enough to keep his mind engaged and his body tired. He was simply being what he was. It looked like he had problems to the outside world, but it wasn’t him. It was us.
When we got Larry, I wrote about how we knew we were going to have to make changes to our lives. We made the decision to bring him into our lives. We had to make the decision to then make the changes necessary so that we could all be happy.
In the article, Cesar posts questions you should ask before bringing a new dog into your life. They very closely mirror the ones I ask people who talk to me about wanting a dog. For me, there are 4 basic categories- family makeup (single, small kids, elderly), physical space (house w/ yard, apartment), home alone & exercise plan (crate training, left in yard, walks, dog park), and expectations of the dog (protector, snuggle buddy, jogging partner). If you are honest with yourself about those 4 categories, then it’s really easy to get the right dog for your life.
But if you don’t think about those things in advance, or pretend that you’re going to be different than you are, you’ll end up with a dog and problems. But the problems won’t be with the dog. They will be with you.
Again, Cesar can be a polarizing figure. But some advice is good advice, no matter who it’s coming from.