Look out #BARKWORLD, here we come!! ;)

I have GREAT NEWS!!!  Jasmine has a sponsor for BarkWorld next month!  Well, two actually!!
Petco and Natural Balance are going to sponsor our trip to Atlanta next month!  YAY!!!  I'm so excited!!  

For those of you who are unfamiliar with BarkWorld, it's a pet social media convention.  There are great classes and tons of networking opportunities.



We went last year for our first time.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!  My friend Lauren (and her trick dog Paige) met us out there.  Together we gave a presentation on "How To Make Your Dog a YouTube Rockstar!" (and of course Jasmine and Paige did a trick dog demo!) It was so incredibly fun! We learned tons, and met a lot of new friends!

Networking within the pet industry is the biggest perk of BarkWorld!   Jasmine got a chance to be on the Anderson Cooper show because of a contact I made at BarkWorld last year.  People from the show emailed Denise (the founder of BarkWorld) asking for some video recommendations for a show about pet parents.   Denise emailed a bunch of us, and I wrote back and sent in Jasmine's video.  They liked it, and voila- Jasmine's trick video aired on Anderson Cooper.  :)  How cool is that?



I absolutely cannot wait to go back this year!!  :)   THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to Petco and Natural Balance for making this dream come true!!

And FYI- a little background info about us- this is our first sponsorship to BarkWorld.  Last year, we didn't have a sponsor. (not for lack of trying!)  I probably emailed 35 different companies, but no one knew who I was back then.  (and a lot of my emails went to generic email addresses I got off websites, such as info@______ rather than a specific rep.)   Jasmine had been on TV a lot (mostly news), but I didn't have any contacts with pet-related companies.  BarkWorld changed all that!  :)  Now I know quite a few!

One last little funny story-  last year, I was sitting in the lobby our hotel with Jasmine and Paige.   (Lauren was talking with some friends over in the restaurant, so I was watching both dogs.)   The lounge connected to a bar/restaurant.  (Which had a live jazz band in the background.)  Very nice ambiance.   This guy and his girlfriend walk by and notice the dogs.  The guy asks if he could pet them.  I said yes.  Both dogs love the attention... and I probably talked to this guy and his girlfriend for about 5 minutes.  We talked about their breeds, BarkWorld, where I was from, etc...  And the guy tells me about his dog, and how much he likes border collies.  He was a very nice guy. I didn't think much of it.  Everywhere Lauren and I went, strangers were talking to us, and wanting to pet our dogs.  

After they left, the guy on the couch behind me turned around and said, "Do you know who that was?!??"   "No", I admitted.  
He said "that was Malcolm Jamal Warner!!"  I was still trying to figure out how I knew that name... and so he clarified.... "You know... THEO?  From the Cosby Show??"  "And that's Diana Ross' daughter".  

Ooooh!!!!  LOL.  It's a good thing I have people to tell me these things, otherwise I would have never known!!  
 This created quite a buzz among our BarkWorld friends who joined us later.  (and yes, it was for sure Malcolm and Tracee.  We saw them later in the lobby leaving the restaurant.)  So Jasmine and Paige got to meet a few celebrities while in Atlanta.
 This just goes to show you that I don't get "starstruck" very easily.  They're just regular people.  (And it's really cool when they just act like regular people and don't let it go to their heads.)  I can tell you firsthand that Malcolm and Tracee are both very nice people to talk to.  And both dog-lovers. :)