Sharing Some Blog Love – Oh My Dog!

I am fairly new to the blogging world.  I just started this new blog back in the fall, my first.  As I do with anything, I had to research what writing a blog was all about, since I was barely familiar with the concept.  One of the tips my research brought forth was the suggestion to spend time reading and commenting on other blogs, in order to learn what it’s all about, and later, promote your own blog.  So I started searching for other pet blogs.  Honestly, I had trouble finding any I really liked that were the type of blog I wanted to write.

In my typical impatience, I jumped in with writing first, while continuing to search for other pet blogs.  Eventually I began to find some I liked and one led to another.  Then I discovered that bloggers don’t really compete with each other as I thought it would be.  Rather, they HELP each other and SHARE each other’s work.  How wonderful is this?  They have “blog hops”, where they directly provide links to each other’s blogs.  And anyone can play!  It took me a bit, but I figured out how it all worked, and was thrilled when I was able to join in, and other bloggers came over and commented on my posts.

When Pamela from Something Wagging This Way Comes put forth the idea of the pet bloggers gift exchange, I was excited to be able to join in the fun.  I would either get paired up with a blog I already loved, or get a chance to meet someone new.  It turned out to be the latter, and I am thrilled that I was paired with Maggie at Oh My Dog!.

I couldn’t wait to start reading and getting to know her work.  The first thing I had to do was to see what she had for pets.  I was immediately impressed that she had three dogs; two adopted, and one “failed foster”.  It seems that when you take in a foster, it is only supposed to be temporary, so when you decide to keep and adopt the dog, that is considered a “failure”.  Indeed, Maggie is quite the failure, as Cooper went from fostered to adopted in less than 3 weeks.  That is just the first thing I love about her.  By the way, how cute are these guys?

One of the pages on her site is called “Positively Pit Bull”.  It is a collection of stories and photos of pit bulls (& mixes) from across the country.  In these days as we are fighting Breed Specific Legislation, pit bulls need all the support they can get.  What a great idea, Maggie.

Maggie’s posts are a wonderful blend of sound advice (Do You Have a Pet Care Emergency Plan?), training tips (How to Introduce a New Adopted Dog to Existing Dogs), animal welfare issues (Unexpected Ways to Help Animals Get Adopted), and personal stories (My Date With Emmett) and photos of her own sweet dogs (Let Sleeping Dogs Lie). She also does some giveaways and product reviews.  She is a freelance writer and guest blogger on other sites, and also encourages others to guest blog on her site.  She recently wrote a book called Positively Dog Training. Oh My Dog! won 2012 Best Dog Blog by Dogtime Media.

What impresses me most about Maggie?  It looks like she’s been blogging for over three years.  About a year ago, she was diagnosed with cancer.  Throughout her treatment, she has kept her blog going.  Maybe she posted less often, but she also had her husband fill in for her at times, giving updates on her condition, as well as how their dogs were dealing with it all.  I just had hand surgery and have barely been keeping up….so I especially admire her strength and perseverance.  Maggie, I hope you are almost done with all that, and that your recovery is complete.

This quote from her own “About Me” page sums up for me what Maggie is all about:  “My dogs are the funniest, sweetest creatures I’ve ever known. They teach and inspire me every single day. Hopefully, through this site, I can share what I’ve learned and gather even more inspiration from the vibrant online community of dog lovers!”

With that quote, I think she captures the true reason that most of us write our blogs.  I encourage you to read Oh My Dog!, see more photos of Maggie’s adorable dogs, and also take a look at and “like” her facebook page.  Enjoy!