Puppy Bowl VI - Behind the Scenes

My foster puppy Bear was a part of the Puppy Bowl VI which aired on Animal Planet on Sunday.  Filming took place last October, and he was adopted shortly after that into a wonderful new home.  I spoke with his new mom and she says that he is doing great, and that he enjoyed watching the Puppy Bowl, and seeing all of his new friends on TV.  Here are some pictures from the filming last October. 

Puppies get to visit and sniff each other in the green room prior to the game. 

Bear makes friends with a crew member while Tonka observes. 

Bear poses for his Starting Lineup photo:

Food was provided for all the puppies to give them plenty of energy for the big game:

Bear's friend Yums prepares to take the field.

Then it is Bear's turn in the spotlight.   

Bear on the field, looking for a familiar face:

Bear spots his friends Sunny and Nutmeg and heads straight for them!

After the game, the puppies are tired!

Congratulations to Bear for being part of the Puppy Bowl!

You can read about Bear's adventure in the Puppy Bowl from his point of view in the following posts:

Puppy Bowl trip - Part 1

Puppy Bowl trip - Part 2

Video clip of Bear

Administrative Stuff

First, I've changed the location of my blog to http://www.dogfostermom.com/.  This doesn't really matter to you, since you can keep going to the original location and it will redirect you automatically to the new location.  But it matters to me, because during the transition it somehow removed all of your opinion button results.  I love reading what you think of each post, whether in the comments or in the opinion buttons.  So I'm sad that the opinion buttons have all been reset to zero.  Would you mind going back through my blog and filling in the opinion buttons for my old posts?  There are only 340 posts - is that too much to ask?

Okay, fine.  I can live without validation.  Probably.  Let's move on. 

The second order of business is Mango Minster 2010.  I've made many new friends through Mango's dog show, and many more thanks to Amy and the House of Cats.  Most of these friends are cats and dogs with their very own blogs.  My dogs Remi and Noelle have to share this blog with all their foster siblings, and my cat Merlin never gets to post.  But Remi and Noelle did get to enter Mango Minster 2010, and in the next couple of days the voting will be conducted in each of their categories.  Remi is entered in the Hard Workers category (here's why), and Noelle is entered in the Bad Sports category (for these reasons).  Stop by Mango Minster and check out the show! 

Mango Minster has various officially sanctioned events, and Remi also entered Tucker's SitStay Competition.  Tucker is a Harlequin Great Dane just like Remi - that's Tucker in the picture, not Remi!  Tucker has to put up with cats at his house just like Remi.  He's also petitioning his parents to get him a pibble like Noelle (well maybe not JUST like Noelle).  I wonder if Remi is Tucker's role model?!  There are a lot of great entries in Tucker's competition, so make sure to visit when you have a few minutes!

And finally, the biggest news of all.  Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl VI is only a few days away, and my previous foster puppy Bear is the star player!  Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration.  But he is in the starting lineup!   You can read how Bear ended up in the Puppy Bowl here.  The Puppy Bowl VI will air this Sunday, Feb 7th, at 3pm e/p on Animal Planet.  Next week I'll finally be able to share with you the pictures I took during filming - if I can find them!

Bear-Bear

I thought Bear would be ready for adoption weeks ago.  One thing came up, then another.  Today he went in to be neutered and he was supposed to go home to his new family on Saturday.  However the vet called and said Bear has a runny nose.  So they're going to hold off on neutering him one more week.  Poor guy seems to be stuck with me.  He's so smart - he's pretty much house-trained now, and he knows his name, and how to sit on command.  He loves to play with Lizzy and tries to play with the other dogs, but Lizzy is the only one who really plays with him. 

This picture is Bear hanging out in a tree during a rest stop on our way back from Maryland.  Why was he in a tree, you ask?  I'm not quite sure, actually.  Maybe Bear is having an identity crisis and thinks he's really a bear and therefore should occasionally climb a tree.  Or it could have had something to do with my mom picking him up and putting him there.  Either way, it made for a cute picture.

This is Bear in the car on the way back from our trip.  On the way there, he slept the entire time in his crate.  I guess on the way back he was tired of the crate, because he slept on the seat, on our pillows, and on the floor with his foot hanging in the water bowl.  Pretty much everywhere except his crate.

This is what Bear did when I tried to put him in the car after our first rest break following the taping of the Puppy Bowl.  I'm pretty sure he thought I was taking him back to that scary football field.

Puppy Bowl Trip - Part 2

The following post is written by my foster puppy Bear (really!) about his trip to the Puppy Bowl last weekend.

On Sunday morning we got to Discovery Studios where lots of people wanted to pet me.  My mommy had to fill out some forms and then we went and met a veterinarian.  She did some poking and prodding and took my temperature and then said I could play football!  I remembered how when we played football at home, mommy and Aunt Bernice gave me a little stuffed football with peanut butter on it, and I carried it all over the room.  It was a lot of fun.  So I was excited to play football again!

We went to this big room they called the green room, but mommy said it wasn't really green.  There were a lot of other puppies there!  My mommy took lots of pictures to show you, but the studio said she can't show you any of them until the show airs in February, so I will just have to tell you what I saw instead.  There were lots of puppy pens with puppies inside, and mommy let me go in and meet the other puppies who were also there to play football.  Some of the puppies were really nice, but a few of them were big and kind of scary.  I visited with them for awhile and then they called me to get a head shot.  That sounded a little scary, but all it meant was they took me someplace and set me on a table and took a bunch of pictures of me.  I was used to mommy taking my picture so it wasn't too bad.  Then they let me go back to mommy and we went back to the green room to wait.  Finally, it was my turn for football.  The set was very small so only puppies were allowed in - no foster mommies or daddies.  So they took me away from mommy and put me on this field with a bunch of other puppies and a bunch of toys.  It was very bright, with a lot of lights, and people I didn't know standing around, and other puppies running and playing.  There was no peanut butter in sight.  A guy in a white and black striped shirt picked me up and introduced me to the camera, and then put me right into the big field full of puppies!  I was a little bit scared, until I saw two of my friends that I had met in the green room earlier.  Sunny and Nutmeg were just my size, and they were very fluffy like me.  They had driven in from Georgia the night before, and then stayed up all night playing so they were sleepy.  And I think they were a little scared of the bigger puppies also, so they had curled up by the end zone under the goal post and took a nap!!  That looked like a safe place, so I decided to join them.  So I laid there and watched the other puppies play.  One time I got up and got a drink of water, but then I went back to where it was safe by my new friends.  I stayed there the whole time, until they finally decided to let me go back to mommy in the green room.  Then I felt much better. 

Mommy and I watched some TV screens in the green room and saw the other puppies playing football.  One of the puppies is named Tonka, and he looks a lot like me!  On the field there was a water bowl with a camera underneath, and one time they took out the water bowl to refill it, and a puppy fell into the hole!  Mommy thought that was very funny.  I was just glad it wasn't me.  I knew that football field was dangerous.  After awhile, they finished with the rest of the puppies and asked us to line up to go out onto the field one at a time for a starting lineup shot.  They put each puppy in a tunnel and wanted them to run across the field while they had spotlights shining on them for their introduction.  I watched a few other puppies do it, then it was my turn.  But when they put me in the tunnel I got really scared and refused to move.  Then they gave me a little push onto the field, and the lights were so bright so I just stood there while people called me and I didn't move.  After a few tries, they asked mommy to take me and try again later.  So we waited awhile, and then mommy took me back in.  This time they let her get on the field and call me, because she said then I wouldn't be scared and I would run right to her.  So they put me in the tunnel, and mommy called me from the other side of the field, and I was still scared so I looked at her and then I just sat down where I was.  Then one of the other people in the room said she wasn't really my mommy, and everyone laughed.  But I still wouldn't move because it was too scary!  Finally I walked over to her and they said that was good enough, so I was happy because I didn't have to go back on the field anymore.  And then they gave Mommy and Grandma each a t-shirt and we got to go home! 

So that was my Puppy Bowl trip.  It will be on TV in February, the day of the Super Bowl.  Mommy says she isn't sure if I will be on TV or not, but it will be fun to watch and see.  And once it gets here she can share some pictures with you from the event.

Puppy Bowl Trip - Part 1

Today and tomorrow we will have a special guest blogger - my foster puppy Bear!

Hi, this is Bear. We got back last night from the taping of the Puppy Bowl VI at Discovery Studios in Silver Spring, Maryland, and my mommy says I get to tell you all about our trip. Mommy and Grandma Sue and I left on Saturday morning at 6:00 AM. I was determined to make sure my mommy didn't oversleep so I started barking by 5:00 AM to make sure she woke up on time!! We left on time, and it was a 14 hour drive, but I slept almost the entire way to Maryland! Mommy was very proud of me - she said I was perfect in the car. I didn't need to stop very often, and I never whined or barked. I just hung out in my puppy crate and napped a lot.

Saturday night we got to our hotel and checked in. Discovery Studios had left a package for Mommy and Grandma, and they were excited to get some goodies from the studio, like mousepads and t-shirts. They didn't leave anything for me. We went for a walk and then went inside and I explored the hotel room. I had a lot of fun, until I discovered another puppy in the room with us!!

At first I just stopped and stared. Had the studio left some goodies for me and this dog ate them before I got there??? I looked suspiciously at this other dog... and then I walked toward him, and he walked toward me. I tried to sniff him, but something kept blocking me. I was very confused, so I pawed at him and he pawed back at me.

Then I did a play bow, and he did too, so I thought maybe we could be friends! But something like a glass wall kept blocking me from getting to him - it was very frustrating. Mommy kept taking pictures of me and laughing at me, and she called my grandma to come see the other puppy too. Then mommy said it was just a mirror and there was no other puppy, but I could see him there right in front of me! Pretty soon my grandma distracted me with a toy and I forgot all about the other puppy. We played a little bit and then I went to sleep. My mommy let me sleep in bed with her!! She said this was so I would be quiet and not disturb the other hotel guests. I wish we stayed in a hotel every night.

I woke up at 2:00 AM and mommy took me outside, and then we came back in and she wanted to go back to sleep but I was ready to play! So I played with my toys until mommy finally got up, and she said it was time for the Puppy Bowl!  Here is a picture of me practicing. 

I have to go now - Mommy said she has work to do now, but I can tell you the rest of the story tomorrow.

Puppy Bowl VI

The Puppy Bowl, aired each year on Animal Planet, is shown the afternoon of the Super Bowl and features puppies at play in a model football stadium.  If you've never seen it, it's a lot of fun to watch.  And next year, my foster puppy Bear may be one of the puppy football players!  We'll be traveling in a couple of weeks to Silver Spring, Maryland, for the taping of Puppy Bowl VI, which will be aired in February 2010.  And if Bear can manage to stay awake and active enough during the taping, he'll get to be on the show!  It's a long shot, because Bear is the most laid-back, quiet puppy I've had.  A few people who have met him have even asked if he is sick, because he is so non-active.  He's not sick, just lazy.  But I'm hoping after a day in the car, driving 14 hours to Maryland, he will have stored up enough energy to go out and play some puppy football!  Now does anyone know where I can get a tiny stuffed football to start teaching him how to score touchdowns?