Totally random dog decisions (winners!)

This is the first time I think I’ve had a giveaway that involved more than one winner.  Single-winner contests are easy.  I go to the Random Number Generator and let it pick a number.  But this time I had five winners to pick!  We’re getting into the fancy-pants ranks now!

So, you know how sometimes radio stations will let shelter dogs pick the winner of the Super Bowl, or who gets voted off on Survivor or American Idol or something?  As a way to promote the dog to potential adopters and to show that dogs have an uncanny sense of predicting the future?  I thought I would do that!  It turns out to be a lot harder than I thought.

First, since I wanted to do this outside (better light, plus, you can excuse pieces of dirt and such in the photos) I had to close off the doggy door.  Then, when I dashed out to grab the little-dog-who-is-not-paying-rent, I stepped on a rock.  I had this idea of attaching each comment (printed out) to a treat and letting Cassie (because she’s my baby and this is a supposed Mother’s Day giveaway) pick five.  But, I didn’t know how I would get the comment part back from once she ate the treat.  I thought about using the comment numbers, letting her take away five and then figuring out which ones they were by looking at the numbers left.  That sounded like a lot of work.  I ended up using the numbers assigned to the comments (do they show up in the regular post? I can see them when I look at the post from my admin-end.) and writing them on scraps of paper.

this was still a lot of work

I ended up using the numbers assigned to the comments (do they show up in the regular post? I can see them when I look at the post from my admin-end.) and writing them on scraps of paper.

my comment numbers

Then, because I commented on a couple of the comments, those had numbers assigned to them.  So, I took those out of the pile.

bits of treats, random layout

I put the pieces of paper on the ground and a treat on top of each piece of paper, so neither I or Cassie could see the number.  I had to do this one at a time, because if you just put a piece of paper on the ground, the breeze blows it away and if you turn your back on dog treat, the dog starts eating them before the official picking has started.

Cassie was the picker instead of Lexi, because I thought if I used Lexi she would eat all the treats instead of just one at a time.  But, the other dogs were barking at her through the screen door (they could see the treats and didn’t understand why they couldn’t get to them).  This, combined with Cassie not being very command-oriented, turned out to be a little hiccup.  Instead, I had to command her to sit, tell her “okay”, then turn my back so she wouldn’t be intimidated.  She’s a slow eater, so periodically I would look over my shoulder and when she got to Pick No. Five, I had her stop.  I picked up the five pieces of paper and put them in my pocket.  Then I gathered up the untouched treats (hey, 20 treats is a lot for one dog to eat! Plus, they’re expensive!) and put them back in the bag.  I picked up the pieces of paper and brought everything back inside (it was getting really warm out there).  And then I photographed the pieces of paper in my pocket.

Winners! Finally!

In retrospect, this is not completely transparent, but it’s the best I can do.  I couldn’t very well switch methods halfway through the process, could I?  Fortunately, I don’t do these kinds of giveaways often, so I think I’ll just go back to the random number thing.

So, Congratulations to DonnaB, Jenny, Marci, Deanna G, and CoolJerk!  I’ll be contacting you individually to get your address and send your gift cards out to you!

Whew!