Interview with "fetch" THE PAPER

Last month I was asked if I'd like to be interviewed by Fetch to chat about my favorite website Dogster.com. I just discovered the article online the other night... Click the title to read "Social Networking Not Just For Humans Anymore."

In the article I assured people who are shy or are intimidated about joining an online community the cool thing about Dogster is that you're completely anonymous. For instance here's the group photo where a bunch of us got together this past summer to meet offline as real human beings. We had to catch ourselves at times not to call each other by our dog's names since that's how we've all known each other for the past few years.

Click to view this picture enlarged. It's hilarious!

I also talked about the Kansas Puppy Rescue where along with the help of some truly heroic friends on Dogster we collectively pitched in and saved not just 6 puppies but ended up saving 8 pups from Kansas. We just couldn't bear to see them become tragic statistics in our countries pet over population euthanasia totals. This is a picture of the first 6 girl puppies we managed to save... You can CLICK HERE to read their saga.

I also talked about how I now have a local friend who I see on an almost weekly basis since becoming friends on Dogster. That's her pup visiting with Kitai at a local mall.

And this little pup actually attended my wedding along with her owners as did 2 other friends from Dogster who flew into town just to help my hubby and I celebrate our big day...

Being part of an online community has helped me tremendously to become a more effective communicator. When I first joined the forums on Dogster I would often write what I meant assuming that people would understand my meaning and intentions. It didn't take long before I realized that you literally have to write out exactly what you mean or people will make assumptions to fill in the blanks. Sometimes they guess right, often they don't. It becomes very clear, very quickly, that in our day to day lives being too vague can create a lot of misunderstandings.

There is an online/forum etiquette to be learned so my advice to anyone when joining a new forum would be to sign up then sit back for a few days and simply read what others are posting. You'll soon learn how things work and where the boundaries are when it comes to what you post, permissible language and the overall tone of a site.

So all in all there is a lot to be gained by joining a forum or social networking site including but not limited to: Making new friends, receiving invaluable information, improving your spelling skills, learning proper punctuation, honing your grammar skills, gaining an expanded vocabulary and learning more effective social skills in general. It's really a win win for everyone and on Dogster you'll learn so much great information about being a better pet owner that your dog ends up a winner too.