Air Pollution Dog Blog — Dog Pollution Mask

Thanks to Samantha Randall at Top Dog Tips for reviewing the K9 Mask. Although she lives in Maine and doesn't have any immediate needs for an air pollution mask for her dogs she understands the needs in areas of the country like California, and the Northwest, where in recent years wildfire smoke has made it difficult for everyone to breathe clean air. 

Her review at Top Dog Tips for the K9 Mask show a video she made talking about the K9 Mask, an informational article about why dogs need air pollution masks in certain environments, and pictures about some of the K9 Mask features. 

If you want to learn more about K9 Masks go check out her review and video. They will help you understand more about protecting your pet from air pollution.

BY SPECTRUM NEWS STAFF AUSTIN
PUBLISHED 8:27 AM CT NOV. 19, 2019

AUSTIN, Texas – It's a unique solution to a unique problem. While there are countless air pollution masks available for man, Kirby Holmes realized there wasn't one for man's best friend.

• Mask production funded through Kickstarter campaign
• Idea came after seeing fashionable pollution masks for humans
• Many masks are being bought by customers in wildfire heavy regions

"We looked all over the world to find out, does this product exist? - and it didn't," said Holmes.

Holmes, a Houston native and current Austin resident, got the idea for a pollution mask for dogs after seeing air pollution masks being marketed to humans as a fashion item – masks with designs and patterns.

"As everybody rushes to get air pollution masks to protect themselves, nobody's thought that my dog is breathing the same air I am," Holmes said.

Trying to gauge interest, Holmes created a website with articles surrounding the concept of a canine pollution mask. It was when wildfires caused massive amounts of smoke along the west coast last year that the site started getting a bunch of hits.

"We got over a thousand email addresses within a couple of weeks," said Holmes.

Tapping his cousin for help, the two developed a prototype for the K9 Mask, launching a Kickstarter campaign to get funding for mass production.

"We worked through a lot of iterations, came up with a lot of design ideas and finally came down with something that we believe does work and works really well," said Holmes.

According to Holmes and the K9 Mask website, the product claims to protect against smoke, smog, emissions, mold, allergies, chemicals, bacteria and other airborne toxins. The mask has a "panting vent" to allow dogs to breathe air out, but the incoming air passes through N95 and PM2.5 air filters that are inserted into the mask.

While the product may work, getting Rover or Fido to put the mask on is another matter altogether. Holmes tells customers to put a treat inside the muzzle of the mask to get to get their snout inside.

However, Holmes said the mask isn't for everyday use.

"If you're in your garage and you're doing woodworking and you want to protect yourself, and you love having your dog sit with you and be with you - that might be a situation where you want them to wear that," said Holmes. "There's a lot of dust."

After securing Kickstarter funding in April, according to the website, Holmes has already fulfilled 750 orders around the country and across the world.

Many of the masks, Holmes said, have recently been shipped to California where dog owners are looking to protect their pets from the smoke generated by this year's massive wildfires. Holmes said he's also received several orders from China.

"This week we just shipped a box of these masks top Hong Kong where there's rioting and there's tension and there's a lot of tear gas in the city," said Holmes. "We've got a lot of dog owners in Hong Kong saying, 'Would this product help me protect my pet against tear gas?'"

The mask comes in five different sizes to help fit dogs of all snout sizes. Holmes said they have yet to develop a mask that would be able to fit a flat-faced canine.

Much of California in the United States was on high alert on Friday as wind-driven wildfires tore through the state's south, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and destroying multiple structures and homes. 

Fire officials said an 89-year-old woman died in Calimesa, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles, when fire swept through a trailer park overnight after the driver of a dust cart that caught fire dumped his burning load nearby. 

Another man in his 50s died on Thursday night from cardiac arrest as he spoke with firefighters battling the so-called Saddleridge brush fire in the San Fernando Valley, about 32km (20 miles) north of downtown Los Angeles, fire officials said. 

That fire grew rapidly, prompting evacuation orders for more than 100,000 people. Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Ralph Terrazas said the blaze that started late on Thursday in the city of Sylmar was being fueled by dry conditions and high winds known as the Santa Ana winds. 

"This is a very dynamic fire, Terrazas told a news conference. "Do not wait to leave," he urged residents. "If we ask you to evacuate, please evacuate." He said some 1,000 firefighters were fighting the blaze that was 13 percent contained by early afternoon and had forced the shutdown of several major highways. The metro line in the area was also shut as were schools and businesses. 

Red flag warnings At least 25 buildings have been destroyed by the blaze, the cause of which has not been determined. "We've calculated that the fire is moving at a rate of 800 acres [325 hectares] per hour," Terrazas said, adding that it would probably take days to get it under control.

Some 200 firefighters, water-dropping helicopters and firefighting airplanes were meanwhile battling several blazes, including the one that tore through the trailer park in Riverside County.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, but authorities ordered some homes in the area be evacuated. The National Weather Service said it expects the high winds fanning the flames to subside, making it easier for firefighters to get the situation under control. 

A red flag warning - which indicates ripe conditions for wildfires - remains in effect through Saturday. "That seems to be the new normal in California," lamented Sylmar resident Oscar Mancillas, as he helplessly watched the flames spread in the hillside near his home. 

"I mean the vegetation is so dry ... but we're kind of lucky because it didn't grow back from the last fire," he told AFP news agency. "In California, you have to be earthquake ready and you have to be fire ready ... and for those of us who have a family, it's a little daunting sometimes." 

The wildfires in the south erupted as California's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), implemented rolling power blackouts that affected some two million people in northern California this week.

About 312,000 customers remained in the dark on Friday as a result of the shutoffs designed to reduce the threat of wildfire that can be sparked by lines downed in strong winds. 

Many schools and universities were also closed in northern parts of the state as people stocked up on gasoline, water, batteries and other basics, with frustration mounting at the blackouts condemned by some as "third world".

"We're seeing a scale and scope of something that no state in the 21st century should experience," Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday, blaming decades of what he called neglect and mismanagement by PG&E. 

"This is not, from my perspective, a climate change story as much as a story about greed and mismanagement over the course of decades," Newsom said. "Neglect, a desire to advance not public safety but profits." 

PG&E has defended the outages as necessary for safety reasons and has said it will take days before power is restored to all customers as inspections must be conducted on all power lines and equipment before the lights can be turned back on. "This is not how we want to serve you but blackouts can happen again," Bill Johnson, the CEO of the company said on Thursday. 

Last November, PG&E's faulty power lines were determined to have sparked the deadliest wildfire in the state's modern history, which killed 86 and destroyed the town of Paradise.

Amazon affiliate marketing is available to anyone wanting to earn money promoting pet products and the K9 Mask on their website, blog, or internet channel. Sign up to create your Amazon Affiliate Account. Using your unique Amazon Affiliate links you will be able to earn money promoting K9 Masks on your website or internet channel. Promote healthy choices for dog owners while earning money.

You will be able to create shopping links to K9 Mask products like these and earn money every time someone clicks on your link to buy products on Amazon.

Examples of K9 Mask Amazon Affiliate Links:

Two Keys to Make Money as an Amazon Affiliate

1. Generate consistent traffic to your blog, website, or internet channel.
2. People just need to CLICK on your affiliate links or posts and buy something even if it is NOT the item to which you linked.

Being a valued resource to your readers and potential followers are all important elements to gain and maintain website, blog, or internet channel traffic. When someone clicks through your affiliate link to make a purchase on Amazon you will receive a commission. 

Earn Money with Amazon

Most people know the term “Amazon Affiliate,” but there are numerous ways to make make money with Amazon.

10 Fast Facts About Amazon Affiliates

1. Please ensure when sharing Amazon affiliate links in your blog posts or website that they do not appear in your newsletter or RSS feed. This is a great reason to switch your blog posts from read-in-full to click-for-more option. Be sure that if you do include affiliate links in your post that they appear below the read more links. Also, you cannot use Amazon affiliate links in ebooks or PDFs. You can link in ebooks and PDFs to your blog posts that contain Amazon Affiliate links (again, with proper disclosure in the posts).
2. While you can share links freely to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram please be aware that Amazon Affiliate program policy is a little less clear on sharing to Pinterest. To that end, we recommend not sharing to Pinterest until terms of service change. Links shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter must have proper disclosure.
3. When sharing to your blog and social media, please remember to fully disclose.
4. You have the options of being paid via gift card or direct deposit. Either way, you will receive payment on a minimum of $10 earnings. If that takes one month or six months, the payment will accumulate in your account. If you prefer to receive a check be aware that payout on check does not occur until you have accumulated $100 in payment.
5. A strong Call to Action is essential in any blog post, especially with affiliate links.
6. Regarding the handshake tool on Facebook, as of this writing you are not to tag Amazon. You should tag a brand in the post that you are promoting. You also need to properly disclose.
7. When sharing an affiliate link on your blog, it must be a nofollow link.
8. Watch for promotions and bounties in your Amazon Affiliate dashboard. Promotions expire, but in most cases, bounties do not.  If you plan to use these sort of affiliate opportunities with Amazon, you can either start a spreadsheet to track expiring promotions and/or you can choose the “set it and forget” option.
9. Give your readers options: If you show them a K9 Mask you use, give them a variety of mask sizes and air filters using ads within blog posts. Or you can hyperlink your text using a unique affiliate account like saying something like, “The perfect air pollution solution for your dog.” 
10. If you build it, they will come. Personally, I set my top 10 posts up as Amazon affiliate posts with proper disclosure because Google Analytics tells me they are the most trafficked posts on my blog. In doing so, I have seen a direct conversion of those products recommended and related ones. Remember, as long as someone clicks through and buys something from you on Amazon from that clicked link within 24 hours, you will get the commission.

Bonus Amazon Affiliate Tip

Check your dashboard from time to time. I check my dashboard weekly, but I know folks who check in daily. By following what people are purchasing and related products, you can even build content that makes sense around this data. Check out the clicks and ordered items within your affiliate dashboard and to track sales and revenue. You are a business owner, so work this facet of your business like a boss!

Don’t Get Kicked Out

There are many ways to get kicked out of the Amazon Affiliate program. You need to work the program so that folks are actually clicking on your links. Amazon won’t keep affiliates on who are not contributing to their bottom line: Sales.

Amazon Program Policies

Always check your Amazon Affiliate terms of service for any changes and/or updates.

1. Pet products receive an eight percent standard fee. This means that whatever you share that falls under pet products you will receive eight percent on the sale.
2. Be careful when sharing Amazon Affiliate links to free Kindle books. If you share too many links or that is all your readers are clicking on and “purchasing,” you can be locked out of your affiliate and bounty payments for that month. Regular Kindle books or Kindle books that are discounted but not down to free are fine to share and would not make you fall into this category.
3. If you currently have multiple Amazon Affiliate accounts so that you can take advantage of visitors from the UK and Canada you can now take advantage of the OneLink feature. Basically it links your accounts and you can use one code for everyone. The OneLink code takes your visitor to their local Amazon Store to purchase the item you are featuring. 

Start earning money today by signing up for an Amazon Affiliate Account. Put your content about dog's to work for you. 

People aren't the only ones who can suffer ill effects from exposure to air pollution. Many pet owners have concerns about the effects of air pollution on their animals, and scientists are beginning to study the potential risks for pets that have exposure to air pollution.

Research has confirmed the dangers of air pollution for humans. People who are exposed to excessive air pollution have an increased risk of developing respiratory issues such as wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. Cardiovascular disease is another potential health issue connected to exposure to air pollution. Those with pre-existing cardiovascular disease as well as elderly people and young children may even be at risk for premature death from pollution exposure.

Sources of Air Pollution

Air pollution originates from many different sources. Fumes from wildfire smoke, vehicle traffic, power plants, construction, the burning of coal and gasoline. Homes can be filled with pollution from sources such as wood-burning stoves and fireplaces, tobacco smoke, and cooking. Pets living in urban areas have a higher exposure to and risk from smog and exhaust pollutants, while animals living in rural areas may be exposed to chemicals due to the spraying of herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides.

Scientific Studies about Air Pollution

Studies have shown that pets living in homes with cigarette-smokers have increased health risks, perhaps even greater than those for humans living in the same homes. This is because pets spent more time near the floor, where smoke concentrations are higher. Cats exposed to secondhand smoke have been shown to have reduced lung function when compared to felines living in smoke-free homes, according to scientific research. Scientists are also exploring links between common indoor activities such as smoking and the use of cleaning products and certain cancers in dogs.

Pets are also at risk from outdoor air pollution. In a recent study of dogs in Mexico City, scientists examined the brains of local dogs to compare them with the brains of dogs in cities with less pollution. The brains of dogs living in Mexico City showed inflammation, amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles, which are associated with Alzheimer's disease in humans.

Another study conducted by the University of Massachusetts and the Tufts University Cummings School of Medicine involved 700 dog owners and their use of pesticides. The results showed that about a third of the dogs had canine malignant lymphoma, a type of cancer. The study also showed that the dogs had a 70 percent higher chance of developing lymphoma if the owners used pesticides in their yards.

Cats have also been found to be more likely to develop asthma when exposed to indoor or outdoor pollutants. Felines living in homes where a wood-burning fireplace is in use or smoking occurs are often found to have a marked decrease in lung function.

Taking Steps to Reduce Pets' Exposure to Air Pollution

Because many pets spend the majority of their time indoors or in their yard, it's important for owners to take steps to minimize exposure to air pollution both inside and out.

• Change air filters often.
• Vacuum frequently to remove hair and other pollutants.
• Avoid smoking indoors.
• Choose chemical-free cleaning products when possible.
• Reduce carbon emissions when possible by carpooling, taking a bus, or biking.
• Choose areas for outdoor exercise of pets where the air is cleaner (away from highways).
• Use chemical-free products in the yard whenever possible.

Dog Air Pollution Filter Mask

More About Pets and Air Pollution:

• Protecting Your Dog From Wildfire Smoke and Poor Air Quality: When outdoor air quality is poor, keep pets inside as much as possible and don't open windows.
• Indoor Air Pollution and Pets: The Dangers: Pets may experience irritation of the eyes and sinuses from short-term exposure to indoor air pollution.
• Protecting Your Pet From Indoor Air Pollution: Volatile organic compounds can be present in cleaning products, air fresheners, and pesticides, which can cause harm to pets.
• How to Save Your Pets from Air Pollution: Domestic pets can develop asthma when they are exposed to air pollution consistently.
• Fire Air Quality: Health Tips for You and Your Pets (video): Keep pets indoors when outdoor air quality is compromised by wildfires.
• I Smell Smoke Outside: Is it Safe for My Dog to Be Outdoors? Consult the air quality index to know if it's safe to have your pet outdoors.
• Wildfire Smoke and Animals: Smoke in the air from wildfires can cause health issues for animals, too.
• Indoor Air Pollution and Respiratory Disease in Pets: Tobacco smoke, incense, cleaning chemicals, and other irritants can pose hazards to pets as they can for humans.
• Wildlife and Pets Are Affected by Air Pollution: Because many pets rarely venture outdoors, they often have even higher exposure to indoor air pollutants than people do.
• How Does Air Pollution Affect Your Pets? Indoor air pollution such as smoke and chemicals in cleaning products can affect pets.
• Seven Harmful Effects of Air Pollution on Your Beloved Pets: Smog in the air can affect animals similarly to how it affects humans.
• Keep Your Pets Indoors During Air Quality Alerts: Older pets and pets with respiratory health issues are especially susceptible to harm from contaminants in the air.
• Air Pollution Is Dangerous for Pets, Too: Animals often have the same vulnerabilities to pollutants that people have, and in some cases, pollution can be even more dangerous for animals.
• Love Is in the Air: Make Sure it's Clean: Keep indoor air clean to preserve both human and animal health.