We are getting really fed up with the slow pace of life here on the seaside coast – no, we are not tired of the place, but the speed of our internet connection is terribly slow. Everything Mum tries to do online today is taking three times longer with that horrible message ‘problem loading page’ appearing nearly every time we try to write a post. While we were trying to fix this problem we noticed that my Blog was taking a long time to load. We have removed some widgets from the page to try and speed things up, and I wanted to apologise to any readers who have had this trouble with my blog. If it is still loading slowly please leave me a comment and I will try to fix it.

My good friend, the lovely Mihaela, tagged me to pass the love on to four other dog lovers. Mig wrote a good story about how powerful dog images can be in website promotion, and to prove it I have included a picture of the Lycos dog. Here in the UK we are used to seeing the image of Lucky, the dog who advertises insurance and causes havoc in the family car. Lucky is a Jack Russell and Mum says that after she saw him on TV day after day she decided that she wanted to get a dog of her own. Who am I going to tag? Here is the list:
BearBear the Fearsome Rottie
Oscar the Airedale
Butchy and Snickers
Maggie the Airedale

They are four cool dogs and you will enjoy visiting their blogs, I am sure.

I have got an award! My lovely blogging mate Oscar the Airedale, who also lives in England, received the Rockin’ Guy Blogger award and he passed on three mini versions to his best friends – like me! Oscar is a lovely young dog with a cheeky expression but he has been working hard at dog agility classes. Recently he completed his gold award and you can see him posing proudly in the picture. Wow – he sat still and he looked at the camera! My Dad wishes I was that good …..

I have been tagged by my friend Silken to play a new meme game.

The Rules: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write their own blog post with their 7 things as well as these rules. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. Remember to leave a comment for them letting them know they have been tagged and to read your blog.

This is a good tagging game because I think all the other players so far have been humans. That means I can find seven other dogs with blogs quite easily and they haven’t been tagged before.
Here is my list:
1. I like having a bath, and I actually preen myself when I am getting bathed
2. I do not chase sticks or balls, and if they ask me to I adopt my haughty look
3. I love beaches but I don’t like swimming and I get scared if the water goes above my paws
4. I never sit on furniture and I don’t like being picked up
5. When I was in the rescue home they didn’t see my collar (with a name on it) for three days cos I am so hairy.
6. I enjoy being tucked up in bed at night
7. I don’t chase cats – and I don’t take any notice when they start arching their backs and hissing at me.

This is who I am going to tag:
Hana the Eskie, Bear Bear the Fearsome Rottie, Onion, Jazz and Sparkey, Oscar the Airedale, Loui Butch and Snickers. They all have great blogs, so make sure you pay them a visit.

I am keeping very busy with my blog lately since Mum found a new site that pays good bloggers, including dogs with blogs. It is called Bloggerwave and we sent my blog details in for approval. We went out for a walk and when we came back I found that my blog had already been accepted. They obviously recognise a good blog when they see one, so here I am blogging again. This is another useful way for me to earn extra cash, since we expect some more hefty vet’s bills again soon.

Here we go, I will need to go to a health farm after this stressful adventure. We moved this blog on to my own domain, www.top-dog-tips.com, a couple of months ago, we are still using a blogger template but we wanted to host the blog on the servers at our web host. Every time Mum tries to move it the blog ‘cannot be found’. Then yesterday the blog went down completely for over three hours, just at the time that someone was checking that one of our reviews was being displayed. Two years ago I didn’t know what a laptop was – now I am a veteran dog with a blog.