Product Review: The Walky-Dog

Ok, so I'm reviewing a product that I love. It gives me something to blog about right?

The Walky-Dog is an amazing tool. I love this thing! Essentially it is a shock absorber so your dog can run along next to you while you ride the bike. Its super easy to install to the bike and easy to hook the dog up to!
I have an Alaskan Malamute, and not only is she big, she LOVES to pull, go figure. I could never take her with me because her pulling was disruptive and down right dangerous if the leash was on my arm or in my hands. The Walky-Dog works wonders for this. She still pulls but her forward pulling actually helps pull the bike forward. It is easier for me to get up hills with her attached, and she gets some extra work out too!
When she does yank out to the side, three heavy-duty springs inside absorb a lot of the shock and, while I can feel it pull on the bike, it is not hard to continue riding. Its sort of like running into a small rock and having your bike tire slip around it.

The three springs inside can be removed and by removing a spring it lengthens the cord that is available to the dog. Big dogs that can pull harder and are also closer to the Walky-Dog get three springs and less leash. Smaller dogs, like my Sid (pitbull mix) get two springs, and even smaller dogs can get the one. Thus, giving them enough leash so the Walky-Dog isn't lifting up on the tracheas.

Positives-

• Keeps your dog at a safe distance from the bike for the most part
• Its adjustable to use on different sized dogs!
• It really does absorb the shock of the dog pulling
• Easy to install on the bike
• The arm comes off so you can unattach your dog from the bike but hang on to it for a temporary stop.
• No training necessary
  
• Dog can't accidentally detach and run around in the road
• It's light
• Doesn't get in the way
• It keeps my hands free!!
  

Negatives

• When I said "for the most part" about the safe distance, I had one instance where Dakota managed to almost get her paw run over by the back tire. But only when I was turning to the right (which is the side I have her on).
• When the dog pulls harder the seat on the bike can turn a little bit. My bike is obviously partially to blame for this but the fact that it attaches under the seat can cause this problem. Depending on your bike you may be able to attache it to a different bar. I can't because of the thickness of the bars on my bike and also, I can't attach it much lower as Dakota isn't a short dog! But, I'll play with it and hopefully fix this problem
• Its a little difficult to remove springs and put them back in.

Overall I think this product is worth getting if you want a way that you and your dog can exercise together.

An Amigurumi and some wreckage from high winds last night.

This was my hay storage shed, and because it only had three walls the wind was quite capable of picking up the staked in shed and flipping it over. Also, busting up the whole shed.

Secondly, I made this little amigurumi octopus. He'll be in my artfire shop soon. when its less gloomy out, I'll get better pics of him. I also made an owl that is already in my artfire, but I'll post pics of him later :).

In the meantime, I'm a little sickly. Its either my allergies or a cold.

My review of Artfire

Artfire is a new up and coming site to rival Etsy.

Here are some lists of pros and cons as I see it-

• Pros
• STATS! Oh my gosh, you know where your shop visitors have come from! this is a feature for a verified account
• Verified accounts are $7.00 a month if you're one of the 1st 5000 to sign up, depending on how much you list this can be cheaper than Etsy.
  
• Oh, I didn't mention that Artfire doesn't take any final value fees or listing fees. $7.00 a month is it if you're verified and if you're free, then its well...free!
  
• Listing is simple, one page!
• So far they've been listening to bug complaints and fixing things relatively quickly.
• They are doing quite a lot of advertising!

• Cons
• They're still a baby website...this is kind of a big con. There are a lot of bugs, there are a lot of problems, but luckily as I said earlier, they seem to fix things pretty quickly and listen to the sellers!
• It isn't quite as pretty as Etsy, the layout is a bit less polished.
  
  Overall though, I LOVE Artfire and I'm positive it will be up there competing with Etsy soon.
  

The artfire mini viewer (like the Etsy mini) for your shop is cute, its a window! You can pick which items you want to go into it, not just your most recent (although you can have your most recent if you want). This is a cool feature. Right now you can only show 4 items but they will work on different customizations of the window.

I've never really liked any of the other Etsy alternatives, this one on the other hand, I am a fan of. I think though, you either need to have the patience to deal with the beta testing, or wait until later to join up.

If you're going to register please use the following link as I get benefits for referrals. I may do a give away for those of you that sign up under my referral. :) I'll post about that tomorrow!

Register on ArtFire.com

Etsy finds: TwilightKnits

I have to pimp this wonderful woman and her beautiful handmade yarn! I purchased a skein of yarn from her to make my first pair of socks! Not only is the yarn BEAUTIFUL it is absolutely soft and will make amazing socks!
Seriously, if you want a caring and helpful seller with excellent yarn, check out Twilight Knits on Etsy!

I don't usually show off the sellers I buy from, but I can't help it when everything is so awesome! She does custom yarn too! Just ask!

Both photos are from Twilight Knit's shop.

Here's the yarn I purchased
I'm going to try to blog more, I know I keep saying this, but I have stuff to blog about, sellers to feature, and more! SO, with material should come more typing! I also really need to make another vlog, but I'm SUCH a chicken.

Check out my artfire! I just started it and will be listing my crochet and knitted objects there rather than Etsy.

Twitter!

I got twitter a while ago, but I didn't really start using it until today. Its so much fun! Plus people say its a great way to advertise sales to your followers!

Advice: Don't just post links to your Etsy shop and talk about sales. Talk about your life! Its like mini-blogging! Its really annoying when people ONLY advertise, and I don't follow those people.

My link is http://twitter.com/goneriding24_7
I'd love to have some new followers!

Obligatory baby horse pic! Sorry for the quality, its from my phone.