I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the weather is starting to get pretty nice these days (random snow storms aside — hey, it’s April. That’s just what April does, okay?). After spending a winter cooped up, it’s time to get up and get outside with your dog! We’ve rounded up some of our favorite get-up-and-go products from Fun Time Dog Shop that will encourage even the most devoted couch surfer to get active.

1. ComfortFlex Sport Harness 2. EZ Steps Low-Impact Leash 3. Nite Dawg LED Collar Cover 4. Leash Luggage 5. Outward Hound Hipster 6. Outward Hound Treat ‘n’ Ball Bag 7. Pack-n-Go Dog Pack 8. ComfortFlex Limited Slip Collar

Fun Time Dog Shop is a fundraising store that donates 100% of the profits of each sale to non-profit dog rescue groups and canine cancer research. Select your charity at checkout! Happy spring!

Shaving designs into hair isn’t a new idea, but applying the technique to dogs? Now that’s something I’ve never seen before! According to groomers Jessica Allegri and Amanda Marshall, who came up with the idea during a quiet day at their shop Groomers on the Green, these temporary “tattoos” or “pooch patches” do not hurt (except your dog’s pride, maybe). The whole process — shaving the design with clippers — takes about an hour and lasts up to 14 weeks. Of course, this leads us to our Bark Out Loud question this month:

Would you give your dog a “pooch patch” or temporary hair tattoo? If yes, what design would you choose?

[via Daily Mail -- thanks to Jen for the heads up!]

Poop happens. Doo-ing the right thing and picking up after Fido just got easier with the LOOP waste bag dispenser from Loft312. LOOP keeps you in control of your roll with patent-pending technology and splashy, fashion-forward colors.

To use, simple loop a leash, bag, belt, etc. through the ends. LOOP opens and closes with the twist of a cap, dispensing one bag at a time. Twist back into place to grip the rest for safekeeping. Brilliant!

While each LOOP dispenser is designed to hold most standard size rolls, Loft312 also offers their own super-strong, bio-degradable and landfill degradable bags. Their GreenLine bags are available in packs of 4, 8, or 24 to suit all your poo-picking-up needs. On top of all this, each LOOP bag holder is made right here in the USA.

Learn more and see all the options from Loft312.com!

I’m excited to share a very special Dog-I-Y with you today! Natalya Zahn, a brilliant illustrator and mom to a handsome dog named Oscar, is here sharing a very clever (and easy!) DIY project that any doggy parent will appreciate and be able to make. Read on!

After a particularly muddy, spring-day walk with the Beast, Natalya turned to a trusty old hand towel in the hall closet to wipe the dirt and muck off Oscar’s paws — a reasonable but not ideal solution which still left an awful lot of grit on the floor. At that moment, she wondered if there might be a better idea. Perhaps a little pocket-shaped towel that could do double-duty: mopping up the wet and catching the dry (leaving cleaner dog feet and hallways)? And what if said item could hang neatly on a doorknob or hook (rather than draping like gym shorts in a sad corner by the door…)??

Turns out, this isn’t a terribly difficult thing to accomplish and you, dear reader, probably have all the materials you need to make your own right now! Curious? Meet the “Mud Puppy Mitten”! DIY instructions and photos below!

DIY Mud Puppy Mittens

Materials:

• hand towel or dish towel
• ribbon
• sewing machine
• scissors
• pins

Directions:

1. Take a hand towel (or dish towel) and fold it in half — “hamburger style” rather than “hot dog style”.
2. Find and mark the center then pin down the middle.
3. Stitch along the center mark (where you pinned), then cut/trim off one half.
4. Take the half with the stitching and turn it inside out. Cut a length of ribbon and create a loop, pinning it to the upper/open corner.
5. Sew the ribbon in place, stitching along the open side a few inches. That’s it! You now have yourself a fancy new mud puppy mitten!

To clean your dog’s paws, simply pull their feet into the mitten and rub the muck off — one dirty paw at a time! The dirt and grit will stay inside the mitten.

**We opted for a DARK towel, because let’s face it, anything lighter would just look gnarly in an instant…

Natalya Zahn is a Boston-based illustrator and designer, and the creative agent behind the blog, www.oscaratemymuffin.com - a fully illustrated online adventure following the charmed life of her Rhodesian Ridgeback, Oscar, via stories, recipes, tutorials, and ridiculous paper hats for every occasion.

Here in the mountains we’ve had what I fondly refer to as The Rot over the past few days: rain, rain, and more rain. If you’re a dog owner, you know that means mud, mud, and more mud. Aggravating, yes, but also a perfect time for Mingus and Dottie to try out the Soggy Doggy Super Shammy and Doormat. Did the shammy and mat hold up to The Rot? Check out our review (and grab a special discount code) below!

The Soggy Doggy Super Shammy, a super-absorbent, quick-drying towel-ish thing, was selected as a Dog Fancy Editors’ Choice Winner in 2012 and is billed as “exceptionally durable yet velvety soft.” Vastly more absorbent than a regular cotton towel, the Super Shammy is made of woven microfiber chenille. Here’s the magic: its millions of textured, woven strands increase the Shammy’s surface area, meaning it can absorb more water — as in, seven times its weight in water. At the same time, it’s really, really soft, like rub-it-on-your-cheek and wish-you-had-some-socks-made-from-it soft.

So, how does it hold up against soaked, muddy paws, you ask? I answer: fairly excellently. As advertised, the Super Shammy is really absorbent and soaks up water quickly. What really impressed me, though, was the number it did on dirt. The little chenille “noodles” do a much better job than your average towel at getting up into the nooks and crannies of the paw and loosening (and absorbing) that infuriating mud. Meanwhile, the whole de-mudding process was made much easier as Mingus and Dottie weren’t constantly struggling against my efforts. Since the Super Shammy is so soft, paw-wiping apparently was a much more comfortable process for the dogs. The Shammy also works well to wipe up errant paw prints from the floor after cleaning off the paws, and its absorbent fibers hold onto the removed dirt so it doesn’t fall out and onto the floor, as happens with an ordinary towel.

Due to its ultra-absorbency, the Super Shammy is quite useful in “Extreme Wetness Situations”, such as at bathtime or after swimming. Not wanting to slouch in our review process, we put the Super Shammy to the ultimate test: a post-bath Dottie. Dottie’s skin/coat has this strange quality that makes it really — and I mean really — soak up water. After a bath, you can literally grab her skin and wring it out like a sponge. (She LOVES that, B-T-dubs. She also loves baths. Can’t you tell?)

Anyway, to cut to the chase, the Super Shammy performed quite well. Dottie’s post-bath dry-off, which usually takes about 3 towels, was accomplished with just the Super Shammy alone. That means 3 fewer towels I have to wash. Thumbs up.

(Oh, and yes! The Super Shammy can be machine washed and dried.)

Made from the same material as the Super Shammy (and, actually, the first manifestation of Soggy Doggy’s microfiber-chenille “technology”), the Soggy Doggy Doormat is just what it sounds like — it’s a doormat — but (you guessed it!) ultra-absorbent. Available in a variety of colors and sizes, the Soggy Doggy Doormat (see top photo) is like a big, soft force field against muddy doggy paws. It’s really thick, which was actually a bit of a problem for me — my door wouldn’t open over it. I was able to place it just beyond the door, though, between our mudroom and kitchen, and it easily removed the water and light dirt from Mingus and Dottie’s quick trips in and out. They’d come in with damp, dirty paws, walk over the Doormat, and boom — no trail of pawprints into the rest of the house. While the design and bulkiness of the Doormat doesn’t really suit my tastes for everyday use, it’s great to have on hand to throw down when the weather turns bad.

So, there you have it: The Soggy Doggy Doormat and Super Shammy, as promised, make quick, easy work of cleaning up wet, muddy dogs.

Want to try one yourself? Visit Soggy Doggy and enter the discount code DOGMILK15 for 15% off your order from now through March 31st, 2013!

[Disclosure: Mingus and Dottie were sent a Doormat and Super Shammy by Soggy Doggy to try. All views and opinions are our own.]

Snow, ice, and winter salt are things that Wrigley’s paws come in contact with on a daily basis from November through early April. The rest of the year, our super dry, high-desert climate picks up where winter left off. As you can imagine, all these harsh elements take a toll on sensitive doggy paws! Enter the Pawstick from FouFou Dog, an easy-to-use balm and moisturizer. Needless to say, we were excited to give this product a whirl — check out our review below!

Let’s start with ingredients. I’m always hesitant to use products that include weird chemicals or ambiguous ingredients, so I was thrilled to see that the Pawstick is made from a short list of all-natural ingredients:

• Beeswax
• Coconut Oil
• Mango Seed Butter
• Castor Seed Oil
• Apricot Kernel Oil
• Tea Tree Leaf Oil
• Peppermint Oil

That’s it! The peppermint oil imparts a really nice, minty scent that’s not overwhelming or irritating to sensitive noses. In fact, the smell is quite therapeutic and relaxing.

So, plus 10 points for a pleasant scent and safe ingredients! Now to see what it does for dry paws…

Before trying the Pawstick on Wrigley, I rubbed a small amount on the back of my hand and immediately noticed a difference in my own dry (and super sad) winter skin. A good sign! Depending on how your dog feels about having their paws touched and held, the application process is pretty painless. The twist tube design is easy to use: holding Wrigley’s paw in my hand, I went over each foot pad and toe in a gentle, circular motion. The Pawstick is soft enough that you only have to use the slightest pressure — I was worried that it might be too hard and thus difficult to apply, which was not the case at all. After applying a small amount to each foot, I rubbed it in until it was completely absorbed. Wrigley actually started falling asleep during this! It’s pretty fast-absorbing so, unfortunately for Wrigley, the “foot massage” portion of the process didn’t last very long.

So, what did the Pawstick do for his dry, cracked winter paws? I’ll show you! Here’s a before:

Dry. Cracked. Kinda scaly and gray. All in all, totally sad.

After one application: a noticeable increase in softness and suppleness, plus a nice minty freshness. WIN!

It was immediately apparent that the Pawstick has some serious moisturizing properties. Wrigley’s paws stayed looking and feeling soft for quite a while afterwards. I imagine that with daily use, this would work wonders for dry doggy paws. Wrigley seemed to like it, too:

Initial smell test…

Approval!

You can snag a Pawstick for $4.99, a very fair price in my humble opinion, directly from FouFou Dog.

Have you tried the Pawstick? Tell us your thoughts below!

[Disclosure: FouFou Dog sent me a Pawstick for review. All views and opinions are my own.]

We’re big fans of Wildebeest here at Dog Milk, so when I saw that they had recently launched an entire new product line, I got REALLY SUPER EXCITED. You may be familiar with their Meadow Rugs and Bandana Collars already. They’ve taken the same playful, design conscious approach and applied it to their new series of colorful collars, leashes, bowls, and waste bag carriers, called the Funston Collection.

You can purchase each item individually (in 7 color options), but what really drew my attention were their “Starter Kits” for dogs. These bundled packages contain each item from the Funston Collection, as well as tennis balls, poo bags, a Wildebeest sticker, and an original “fun facts” poster — all for $70. Wouldn’t this be an awesome gift for a first-time doggy parent (or any doggy parent, for that matter)?? Sign me up!

If you were to make a list of my 10 most favorite things, receiving packages in the mail would probably rank somewhere right around 3 or 4. And if the package is a surprise? EXTRA POINTS. Bugsy’s Box, a monthly subscription service, is a new, fun way to receive a monthly special surprise for you and your dog delivered right to your front door.

[Disclosure: Bugsy's Box sent us a sample box to check out.]

Each month the folks at Bugsy’s Box hand-pick a collection of cool specialty dog products — treats, toys, care items, coupons, you name it — and send it to you for your dog to enjoy. The boxes include a variety of products, from trusted classics to exclusive boutique items that most of us can’t find in our local pet stores, and the selection is curated to fit your dog’s size. With plans starting at $17 a month, Bugsy’s Box creator (the owner of Bugsy the pug) sees it as a great way to try new, vetted products, keeping your dog stimulated and entertained, without spending the time or frustration shopping for yourself.

Sound like fun? Just sign up on the Bugsy’s Box site, select your plan, and then start stalking your mail carrier every day in anticipation for your monthly treat. (Actually, Bugsy’s Boxes are shipped out around the first of every month.)

BONUS: When you sign up, be sure to enter “DOGMILK” at checkout to receive 50% off your first month!