Happy Birthday Pup: Planning a Dog Birthday Party

I will admit that I treat my dog like my child, and I don't think I'm alone in that. My hound/lab mix Roxy will be turning 5 this week and I want to plan something to celebrate! The number of owners wanting to throw a birthday party for their four legged friends is growing every year! Here are a few tips and ideas to help you put together a great dog birthday party!

Invite some friends. You will probably want to invite dogs that have met before or that usually socialize well. Nothing will ruin a dog party quicker than a dog with an attitude problem, keep this in mind when inviting guests. 

Plan the menu. If it were up to Roxy she would just have a plate full of sausage or something, but to get an adorable birthday picture a pupcake might work better. There are a lot of dog bakeries popping up that make special pupcakes and other yummy pet friendly treats but if you don't have a dog bakery near you pupcakes are pretty easy to make. This site has a lot of good pupcake recipes your dog is sure to love!

Just have fun! Having extra party hats or other costumes available for all your dog guests will add to the fun! You could plan some dog games based on human games to get all of your guests involved. Some great dog/human games are:

Simon Says - Each dog pairs with their human and each team spreads out to have enough room to move around. You announce a command, which must be preceded by "Simon Says" Says. Each team must follow your instruction. Any team who does not perform the right command, does not perform at all or performs a command without the preceding "Simon Says" phrase is out. The team left standing is the winner. 

Toss Up - Each dog is paired with their human and stand facing each other. The dog humans toss treats one at a time to their dog, each treat their dog catches counts as a point. The dog who catches the most treats in a certain amount of time if the winner. 

Bobbing for Treats - Fill up a kiddie pool with water, then place your treat of choice into the pool. Some great treat ideas include: apples, carrots, kibble, cut up pieces of hot dog, popcorn or whatever your dog's favorite treat is. Dogs can take turns at the pool bobbing for the different treats. 

10 Adorable Pictures Of Animals In Love For Valentine's Day

Animal lovers know that animals experience feelings and emotions just like us humans do, including the emotion of the day: LOVE. To celebrate Valentine's Day, we give you this photo gallery of animals in love!

New Year's Eve Party Animals

These pets are ready to ring in the New Year, how about you? 

Happy New Year's, everyone!

Animals Love Fall Leaves

Much how animals enjoy trips to the pumpkin patch as much as humans do, they also enjoy the beautiful fall foliage like we do as well. We might not run and jump in piles of leaves as often or as freely as they do, but maybe it's time for us humans to change that...

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! We here at the Jungle Store just wanted to take a minute to tell you what we're thankful for: YOU, our wonderful readers and customers. We're so happy to share our love of animals, children and toys with you and we're hopeful you feel the same way. From our family to yours, here's to a wonderful holiday weekend!

Animals In The Pumpkin Patch

Did you know that going to the pumpkin patch was a Fall tradition that animals love as much as humans? We didn't, until we saw these sweet pictures.

The jury is still out on whether animals enjoy fall hay rack rides and hot apple cider as much as humans do, though...

Scary Pictures Of Cute Animals

All animals are cute, in some way or another. Even those that are typically put in the "not cute, cuddly or adorable" category have their moments. But even the cutest, fluffiest animals have bad days. Mean days. Days when you wouldn't want to pet them, hold them or even see them on the other side of a bullet-proof zoo enclosure window. We present to you Scary Pictures Of Cute Animals!

Let's start with the husky. They're proud dogs; pretty dogs known for their piercing blue eyes. Here's a fun shot of a husky giving a sassy pose for the camera:

And here's a husky frolicking in the snow, isn't he adorable?

 And here's a husky that's plotting to murder you in your car.

Aack! Hope you have some treats in your car to soothe this angry dog.

 Now we move on to the koala bear, arguably the cutest "bear" there is.

Aww, here's a sleeping koala bear! Seriously, how sweet is that?

And, oh sweet Jesus, this koala bear is angry at the world and wants to rip your heart out of your chest! 

 Run. Run far and run fast.

Moving on to the ostrich. Not your typically "cute" animal, but look! Here's one peering inquisitively at the camera, isn't that fun?

And here's an ostrich smiling for the camera, how nice.

And here's an ostrich that... is coming straight at you with its devil teeth! Duck and cover! 

This is the stuff nightmares are made of, are we right?

Whew, OK, moving on. Here's another animal that's not often thought of as cute: the possum. But look how sweet this one peeping out of a tree is!

 And look, this one's climbing on a pumpkin! Doesn't he seem to be saying "Take me home! I'm lovable!"?

And this possum.... wants to chew your face off and leave you for dead.

Oh possum, we were so close to helping you win over peoples' hearts. Sigh. 

Tumblr Tuesday - Halloween Animals

We've been sharing a lot of spooky (and some silly) Halloween-themed photos on our Tumblr page, and decided it was time to share them with our blog readers too!