Thanks in Big Part to Dogsters’ Support, Tugg Will Star in His Video Series!

Dogster power! That’s what was behind 20 percent of the donations in a Kickstarter project to help Tugg star in a wonderful Internet video series. Without the support of Dogsters, Tugg would probably not be able to bring his story of hope and “woofing it forward” to the world.

You can read all about Tugg and the project in our interview with Blake Ovard, who, with wife Kim, took in Tugg when he was pretty  much given up as a goner because of terrible neglect/abuse.

Ovard is thrilled, and so grateful to Dogster readers. I asked him to let us know how the victory for Tugg’s video series funding unfolded in those last days, and if he contributed anything. Here he is:

We are so happy to be part of the Dogster family! Dogster really came through for the project! One of the neat things we can see on the control panel for the project, in addition to the amounts pledged, how many backers there are, and some cool graphs and charts, is where each backer found the project from. Dogster folks — the ones coming directly to the kickstarter project page from Dogster — made up nearly 20% of the dollars donated! That’s about $1,500! And, out of the 161 backers, 40 of them came directly from Dogster!

It came close to the wire, but we believe in Tugg’s message, so we knew we would get there! We actually came in slightly over the goal — 104% — at $8,329. Which is good because, our goal was the bare minimum we knew we would need for the whole process of creating the web series. I think we crossed over the goal line with slightly more than 24 hours to go.

Because Kickstarter is set up through Amazon payments, which processes all pledges as credit card purchases, by law, we were not able to pledge to the project. Just like if you have a shop, you aren’t allowed to buy something from yourself with your own credit card. We knew that from the beginning, so we did take that into account when we set up the project — that’s why the goal on Kickstarter was $8,000. Our actual budget is $10,000, but we decided that if we could get to $8,000, we would cover the additional expense ourselves. So, the whole time the Kickstarter project was running we were setting back part of each paycheck in anticipation for making it!

I think what helped at the end — and by end, I mean the last couple of days — is people started telling all of their friends about the project and encouraging them to get involved.

We received a lot of encouraging e-mails telling us how much everyone wuffed the idea of the web series, how much they want to be part of it, and how excited they were to know that there will be a web series with a positive message that everyone can enjoy. Plus Tugg and Dogster have some of the best fans in the world, and many of them e-mailed in the last 48 hours saying not to worry, it would happen!

It’s almost surreal for us at this point in time, since we just made our goal. While it is really exciting, it also a little intimidating … here we are with Tugg, who we do pupdates for every day, but now we have the honor of getting to share him on an even bigger scale, with more of the world. That means other creative people get to come on board with the project too.

So, soon we’ll have a whole set of people while we are filming, and a whole studio of animators animating, for a dog who is, well, our dog! Sure we’ve done little videos, but this is an almost overwhelming undertaking — but one we’ll be doing with huge smiles on our faces the whole time!

We should begin filming in the first and middle part of March, and hope to wrap by the beginning to mid-April. That leaves us about a month of postproduction. As for animation, it will start as soon as I send all the character sketches and the animation scripts to the animation studio. That should be in the next two weeks. We hope to have the first episode air by the end of May or first week in June. And the season will run for 15 weeks, maybe 16 if we decide to throw in a “blooper” episode.

Tugg is superexcited about the project — which is good, since he’s a superhero! He walked around all day clacking the clacker and yelling, “Roll ‘em!” and, “Cut!” Then he would sit in his director’s chair and act  like he was on the set of Ellen, talking to her about the series and his motivations for a particular scene.

Thank you, Dogster, for helping make this a reality!

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Hit Stores That Support Puppy Mills Where It Hurts: Their Wallets

Hi, all. Maria is out collecting stories for her upcoming book on Soldier Dogs and I thought I’d pop in to tell you about an important campaign the ASPCA has started that people who truly love dogs should care about.

I don’t have to tell you about the horrors of puppy mills. We cover them regularly on this very blog, our readers howl back about them in the comments section of any given post and our community has fierce discussions in the Dogster forums about rescued mill pups they’ve helped rehabilitate. It’s sick and sad from every angle you look at it and it infuriates and offends me, personally, when I meet otherwise intelligent people who somehow thought it was OK at one point or another to exchange cash* for a puppy at a pet store.

But apparently there is a huge disconnect in a staggering number of people’s heads when it comes to puppy mills and pet stores. Many are aware of the harsh conditions at the puppy plants but don’t realize they wind up turning into the cogs in the mill machine when they pay for that cute puppy in the window. It’s only later, when they run into the typical genetic or behavioral/socialization problems that they realize their mistake. (Please note: I am aware that not ALL mill dogs display these issues, but that does not excuse the conditions under which they were born and raised, etc.)

A few days ago, the ASPCA released the results of a poll they’d commissioned Lake Research Partners to conduct on their behalf. From it, these two eye-widening numbers emerged: apparently 78% of consumers don’t know that most pet store puppies come from puppy mills. The poll also found that 80 percent of consumers would not purchase a puppy if they knew the animal came from a mill.

Putting two and two together, the ASPCA has launched the No Pet Store Puppies campaign. At the heart of it is a pledge — and whether you’re a dog, cat, chinchilla or iguana parent, I urge you to take it along with me and encourage friends and family to do the same. The pledge is simple, here’s what mine looked like:

Add your voice and take the pledge over here. After you’ve done so, please leave a comment below to let us know you’re with us on this.

Thanks for reading,

Janine Kahn
Managing Editor, Dogster and Catster

*P.S. Please also note that stores that host adoption days for rescues/shelters are different from stores that SELL puppies.

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