I love my dog to death. She is my baby, but she frustrates me to tears when she completely ignores me. I am afraid she might get away from me and get hit by a car or get lost. What can I do?

You are right. You may love your dog to death when she gets hit by a car. She also has too many legs and is way too fast to be your baby. Stop treating her like a baby and give her a little direction and guidance just as you, hopefully, would a child. Come to our training classes. Kris, our instructor, has a degree in Psychology from the University of Arkansas, and she can help. I have trained dogs and trainers since 1970. All dogs are very social creatures and they expect somebody to be the leader. Without leadership and organization you have anarchy and chaos, and runaway dogs. Do not leave food down and put her toys in a toy box. Put the retractable leash away and get a six foot training leash until she learns to listen to you and stops pulling. Do not let her jump on your furniture and your lap without invitation and make her wait for permission to go out the door. Reward her for behavior you want. She will start listening. When pets have access to everything they want, and no controls over their food, they have no reason to listen to you. In that last sentence, try substituting the words "politician" for /pets/ and "corporate America" for /their food/.

It's RAZORBACK FOOTBALL TIME!

Time to celebrate the greatest of all southern traditions, SEC football. And this morning, yorkie Phoebe got her weekly bath and fluff, and a very special bow!

Today was a great day in daycare, with lots of friends meeting to play. I added a handful of pictures to the Large Dog Daycare album. As you can tell, lots of fun was had by all.

Also, look at this lovely girl. Prissy loves her pretty princess bows and we have a great time picking out the colors for this lovely girl. Prissy is definitely a gem!

Don't forget, puppy kindergarten classes are in progress now, so sign up to get your puppy started right.

We are quite pleased to let you know that the Natura line has finally arrived at Happy Tails. We are now carrying Innova for dogs and cats, Evo for dogs and cats, and currently we have the California Natural's Herring formula for dogs. Because we are slowly adding varieties, if we don't have it at the moment, we will!

Natura is a wonderful company with a strong and honest commitment to quality. It was first introduced in 1995 as the first true holistic pet food, and it is the most copied food on the market. Their Evo line is grain free, and it has the lowest carbohydrate count on the market at only 10%. Cat formulas are even lower at 7%.

Please come in and ask us about this wonderful, healthy food and pick up a few samples while you're at it. Your pets will thank you.

Photo Gallery! In addition to new food, we have also added a photo gallery to our site. Now we can share with you all the fun, adorable, funny and exciting things that happen here almost every day. From pictures of the daycare to some of the cutest haircuts we've done, there's tons to look at. Also, attention obedience class attendees or graduates - we'd love to have the pictures you've taken added to the gallery. If you have pictures you've taken at a class given by Happy Tails, please send them in .jpg form to kris@luvhappytails.com

Don't Forget... we are starting a mailing list to email offers, news and newsletters. Just send an email to subscribe@luvhappytails.com to join.

There's a lot of exciting stuff going on here at Happy Tails these days! We are very close to re-opening the Zero Street location, for daycare/training and supplies. In addition, we are working hard at building a newsletter as well as an email list. If you're interested in receiving email updates, news, information, and sales coupons you can subscribe by sending an email to subscribe@luvhappytails.com. We hope to have the mailing list up and running soon.

If you're in the area of our Rogers store, stop by and say hello to new grooming manager, Sabrena Shelton. Sabrena came to us from San Angelo, TX where she owned her own grooming shop. We're very lucky to have her!

Also, attention puppy owners! We are changing our requirements for Puppy Kindergarten classes, and they will now be open for puppies from 8 to 20 weeks old. So please don't wait and get your new baby started on the most important training of its young life. Puppy Kindergarten classes run on Tuesday evenings from 6:15 to 7:00pm.

This year we are happy to be sponsoring the website for the Sebastian County Humane Society. If you are looking to add a new four-legged member to your family, please don't forget the dogs and cats at the SCHS. They need homes too!

And finally, the newest member of the Happy Tails Puppy staff, demo dog Kismet has joined the group! Kismet is a 4 month old standard poodle puppy and right now he is helping out in kindergarten classes. Bonaparte is very excited to share his brother with you. :)

For those of you waiting for the fall trainining schedule, we haven't forgotten you! Dates for the fall training classes are being finalized as we near the opening of our training/daycare center on Zero Street. Look for the schedule to make its debut in about two weeks right here at luvhappytails.com. Bonaparte, new addition Kismet & I look forward to seeing you soon!

In the meantime, if you have any questions about our group classes, private instruction, daycare, or the very important puppy kindergarten, don't hesitate to call me, Kris, at (479) 452-3235. You can also email me at kris@luvhappytails.com.

And just to let you know, Puppy Kindergarten classes are going right now, so if you have a puppy 8 - 16 weeks call and get yourself signed up!

Just to let everyone know, our location in Van Buren is now open! Grooming and supplies are available, so stop by and visit with Dana, Charlotte, Paula and Kim and let them help you out!

For appointments or questions, call (479) 262-6870.

The weather is warming up. Trees are budding. We can actually go outside and play! It might even be safe to say (knock wood!) that we've passed the worst of the winter and we're on our way into Spring. Of course we can always have a freak ice storm next week, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for "no".

Thanks to all the weird weather, classes had to be postponed and moved around, so I'm posting the newly updated obedience class schedule through to May. This schedule should stay pretty accurate, unless we have more unexpected weather.

Spring 2008 Schedule

Please call us at (479)452 - 3235 if you have any questions about dates or classes you've signed up for, or classes you might want to sign up for in the future.