Pet Expo is a great event not only for pet retailers. It is also a good educational event for pet owners and pet bloggers to attend. It’s an opportunity to learn new pet products and gather the latest pet resource information. Last March, I attended Global Pet Expo which is the pet industry’s largest annual trade show featuring the newest and most innovative pet products on the market. This past weekend, I attended Backer’s Total Pet Expo. Since it was held in Chicago, Sugar was able to come with me.
3 Reasons To Attend A Pet Expo
1) Gathering of Brands
As a blogger, it is great to meet the people behind the brand/product and an opportunity to see the latest pet products in the market.
a) Meeting Who is Behind our Favorite Brands
Golden Happy to finally meet Stephen Longo the inventor/owner of The Fifth Paw. Check out the new color and packaging of The Fifth Paw. We will share more about it in the coming months.
The team from PawZ knew Sugar arrived at the show as their customers alerted them. Golden Delight chatting and sharing stories with the PawZ team. Golden Thanks for supplying Sugar’s PawZ dog boots.
Soggy Doogy’s Super Shammy is Sugar’s favorite dog towel. It was a pleasure to finally meet the founder Joanna Rein of Soggy Doggy. Coming soon we will review another Soggy Doggy product.
Clear Conscience Pet is one of the brand sponsors of Total Pet Expo. So sweet to meet Amanda who showered Sugar with Delish treats. We recently reviewed several CCPet products. Sugar’s favorite is the Super Gravy.
b) Keeping In-Touch with Brands Sugar Currently Uses
- Jax & Bones staff are always thrilled to see Sugar. One of Sugar’s bed is a Jax & Bones, click here to check our review post.
- PAWsome to visit Jones Natural Chews and see Flea with her bag full of treats. Sugar almost unwrapped a big bone from the shelf.
- Sugar and I checked out Thunderworks MLB Thundershirts. They currently have a limited MLB teams available. Check out our post, ThunderShirt Natural Remedy To Alleviate Dog’s Anxiety.
- Sugar, The Best Dog Ever, had to stop and say hello at Merrick Food Pet Care.
- Delca is known for their tasty alligator treats. They came up with new soft chew snacks such as Peanut Butter and Sweet Potato. Sugar is going to taste test it soon and will share it on a review post.
- Golden SMILES visiting Himalayan Dog Chew treats and Tropiclean, products we got to know from being a PetBox’s spokesdoggy.
- Woofs to KONG! Sugar found a tasty toy on the shelf. The classic KONG dog toy is Sugar’s favorite. Click here to check out our visit to KONG facility in Golden, CO.
- Had to visit and thank EarthRated who has been a wonderful supporter of our #ScoopThatPoop campaign.
- We always get compliments on our quality leashes and thank Auburn leather crafters. We will soon share our experience with their leashes.
c) Getting To Know New Brands & Products
- Golden Woofs is honored to be given a Star Walk by Dogtra. Sugar wore it during the event and has been testing it for the past weeks. Coming soon we will post a review on this dog activity tracker.
- For being 13 years old, Sugar received many compliment. We were invited to pass by Heiro‘s booth and met Dr. Riley. As a Golden Retriever owner, he provided us good insights in regards to allergies. We were given Heiro supplements to try and will definitely share the results soon.
- Kinn is a new brand for us and they came up with a uniquely designed no-wash pet food bowl. Golden Excited to test this product soon.
- Sleepypod understands the importance of pet safety. They created an award winning ClickIt Utility Dog Harness. We invite you to check out their site and watch several videos on rigorous testing for this dog safety harness.
- Neater Pet Brands are known for their Neater Feeder. They branch out to the cats and created an awesome Neater Scooper. Since we’ve been featuring Sugar’s BFF cat Winston and Maynard, they’ve sent us a Neater Scooper. Soon we will share Winston’s and Maynard, cat parent experience with the Neather Scooper.
- Bravo pet food is known for their raw food and recently launched a line of crunchy delight oven baked treats. At their booth, Sugar loved the duck recipe. We will soon review this tasty treat.
- Sugar is all SMILES with Look Who’s HAPPY treats. Look Who’s Happy is going to be our Treat Sponsor for our World SMILE Day blog Hop, October 3rd, Friday. Check out our post, for more information. Hope you can join us.
2) Network, Network, Network
Going to a pet expo is an excellent event to network and an opportunity to socialize. It was great meeting folks in the pet industry and being able to understand the expectations of a social media blast from a blogger’s perspective.
Many local brands, buyers and business owners unexpectedly recognized Sugar. It was wonderful to hear compliments about our blog, the creative topics we do and our logo. Golden Excited to connect and hopeful to establish a partnership with these local groups, business owners and entrepreneurs.
3) It’s FUN attending a Pet Expo
Golden FUN to finally meet Momo from Play Play
Have you attended a Pet Expo? Love to know your experience, share it on the comment.
PAWTASTIC POST Sugar!! We ARE SOOOOOOOOOOOO WITH YA about Pet Expos!!! Mom is going to one in Ft.Lauderdale this November and she is super excited! She is also going to one in Detroit in November as well. We couldn’t agree with you more!
Great post!
Love those expos and all the info available
Snorts
Lily & Edward
This kind of expo looks like something I’d love to attend. You are right, it’s very different from the one that I went to. I think it’s awesome that you got to finally meet some of the people behind the products you love and share. So cool!
WE have gone to Many Pet Expos… Twice in Pencil Vane E Ah…. One of Those was Super the OTHER not so much… We love the one in Columbus…
We are NOT one BIT SURPRISED to hear that like 87 folks Recognized you… You are S U G A R… the ONE and ONLY Sweet SUGAR and YOU are Famous.
we never have anything like that around us 🙁
I’ve never been to a pet expo but that sure does look like fun. Sugar was busy getting her picture taken with all those people
We would LOVE LOVE LOVE to go to a pet expo. If only there was one near to us!!
Your Pals,
Murphy & Stanley
We have the same problem as the Doods, living in a small town 3 hours away from a medium sized town, it’s hard to find an expo where I can take any of the pack. That doesn’t excuse me though, and I think I will but this on my goals for next year!!
Pet Expo’s are paswsome, I’ve got to start traveling out of the area and attend more. Thanks for the great post and the inspiration.
Oh Sugar…I wish I lived in Chicago so we could’ve gone to Backer Total Pet Expo together since our moms went to Global Pet expo without us! You got to see a LOT of our FAVORITE brands there like Jones Chews, Merrick, Bravo, PAWZ, ThunderWorks, earthrated…oh, the list goes on and on. So jealous you got to see everyone again but glad you had a Golden GREAT time.
Cairn cuddles,
Oz
What a great post – sure looks like Sugar cleaned out the joint! 🙂
Hey Sugar!
Wow, what a pawesome Expo! I totally agree that they are great. I love it when my peeps go to an Expo because they have such fun and come home with lots of goodies. New items and unusual things for pets and they always see great vendors. EVERYONE SHOULD LOOK FOR THESE IN THEIR AREA! 🙂
Grr and Woof,
Sarge, Pol Comm
We would love to attend a Pet Expo. Hopefully, we will be able to make one in the near future. It looks like Chicago held an awesome event.
Guess what Sugar, Flea came to our house yesterday on her way home to Tulsa and stayed all night wif us. She brought us a boatload of treats.
stella rose
Quite a haul you got there, Sugar! But your golden self probably loved all the pettings and kisses more than anything!
That’s so pawsome, Sugar! I wish I had gone. Chicago is only 5 hours or so away, so perhaps I’ll try to go next year. Are dog visitors allowed at the expo? I attended a pet expo in Kansas City one year and only dogs up for adoption and competing dogs for the dock diving and agility were allowed. Even though I had a table for our pet auto safety stuff, it was not enough for them to allow me to bring Maya.
That looks like so much fun! And what great reasons to attend too-looks like there are so many amazing companies. Hopefully we’ll be attending an Expo near us and will have to add Total Pet Expo to our list of places to visit in the future 🙂