Call for Posts: Eleventh Assistance Dog Blog Carnival (#ADBC)

Assistance Dog Blog Carnival banner with purple dog silhouette

Welcome, service dog enthusiasts!  Thank you so much to Sharon Wachsler of After Gadget, who created the Assistance Dog Blog Carnival (ADBC), for the opportunity to host.  The Assistance Dog Blog Carnival is a great way to find writers who are kindred spirits, to explore creative ideas and solutions, and to enable people to find your own blog.  You can find more information about what a carnival is and read past entries at the ADBC information page.  We also have another giveway this month (below). 

The Details

Theme:                        

The theme for this carnival is Resources and Tools.  Sharon inspired me to create this topic because of her generosity in sharing her ideas with others through her videos, her explanations and links to Sue Ailsby’s and others’ dog training work, and a small miracle she gave our family by recommending particular grooming tools to us that have saved us hours of laborious work.  I’ve really learned since embarking on this journey how crucial it is that we share information with one another and ask questions. 

Feel free to be as creative as you like with the theme.  Some possible ideas for this topic include:

• links to dog training sites, books, and videos that have been really helpful
• a piece about the kinds of people and allies who are helpful to you as a team;
• a description of how you solved a difficult problem or two;
• different avenues for service dog training/application;
• lists of physical tools such as grooming equipment, leashes (I love leashes), dog foods, etiquette or ADA cards, treat bags, etc. that make your life easier; or
• a combination of these.

The goal of this carnival is to provide all of us with some enriching ideas that will benefit working partners and trainers now and that also can serve as a resource and reference to newbies/future service dog owners or to us when we have a new need.

Deadline:

April 28 by midnight your time

Posts will be compiled and listed April 30. (I will include any that are submitted late, but in the spirit of offering a rich resource that people may visit then, please strive to submit your posts on time.)

Who may submit:      

Anyone who would like may submit a post: trainers, service dog owners, puppy trainers or other volunteers, veterinarians, prospective owners who are mulling over the possibility of owning a service dog.  We have many people who train their own service dogs (owner training).  Since posts will include products this time, please, if you sell a product, do not make your post purely commercial—the focus should not be on advertising or self-promotion, but on life with a service dog or the training and supports for one.  

Please help us spread the word:

Let other people know about the Assistance Dog Blog Carnival via email, Twitter (use the #ADBC tag), Facebook, and other social media, and invite individuals who may be interested to contribute a piece.  We’d like as many people as possible to benefit from the community and camaraderie of service dog bloggers as well as from the wealth of ideas and information shared.

Submitting Your Work

After you’ve written your post, please follow these short steps to submit your work:

1. Please include a link to the Blog Carnival (you can link to the call for posts initially, then change it to the carnival piece when it’s collected/collated on April 30).  A link to the ADBC homepage is also appreciated.
2. If you like and are able to, please include the ADBC badge/image, the one with the purple doggy above that says, “Assistance Dog Blog Carnival.”  You can copy and paste it.
3. Important: to comply with the new law about product reviews, if you write about particular products, please write a note on the end of your blog post that says you have received nothing in exchange for the review, or that you have received the product for free to review.  (If you’ve been paid to review, that’s commercial, and the blog carnival is not commercial.)

4. Accessibility (from Sharon Wachsler’s previous blog carnivals):  

-For the sake of people with seizures and migraines, which can result in critical medical emergency, please remove anything on your blog that flashes or moves (snow falling, gifs that move, graemlins, etc.) or music that automatically plays when someone enters your blog, until two weeks after the carnival goes live.  OR please include a head’s up that you have this feature in your entry below so we can make informed decisions in taking care of our health and safety.  
-Making your posts as accessible as possible to readers with a wide range of disabilities will be greatly appreciated for all participants.  Examples of ways to make your blog more accessible include providing a description of visual images or a transcript of videos and turning off Captcha (word verification) for comments, and making link text relevant.  Here are five easy steps to making your blog more accessible. For further info, here's Sharon's cheat sheet on accessible blogging.

5. To submit your post, comment below with your name (as you’d like it to appear), the name of your blog, the name of your post, and the URL for your post. OR, if you prefer, tweet me the same info to @fridawrites or email me at fridawrites@gmail.com.  (Some people have had problems commenting on Blogger—it may be easier to type your name and URL in than to log in, or again, you may email.)  Please let me know if you have problems commenting.

Giveaway

Because of the theme of this month’s post and inspired by the giveaway Sharon did for the tenth carnival, I’m offering a drawing for two items I particularly like—this is not a new requirement for the carnival!  The two winners will be randomly selected from writers who submit posts.

The first item is a Partner Link leash from Cody’s Creations in the color of your choice.  

Photo of happy woman with dog on Partner Link leash

I love leashes and have found it necessary to have a variety for different purposes.  The Partner Link leash is a wonderful short leash that can make navigating in tight crowds much easier; it can be extended to make a longer leash for rest.  If you are not a wheelchair user, I can order one of her cool treat bags for you.

The second item is a custom collar from Terri at Day Dog Designs.  Terri uses adorable European ribbons to fashion her collars.  I’ll include one of her convenient tag changers that allows you to move tags between collars easily (how’s that for accessible design?). She has dozens and dozens of prints from which to choose--you will select the style and size for your dog (note that you can place the 5/8" or 3/4" ribbons on a wider collar). 

Photo of collar with blue and pink paisley ribbon on pale blue nylon

I look forward to reading your posts!  Please contact me if you have any questions or to let me know if there’s anything I’ve overlooked.