Yes we love to try out new products. We think it is fun to get to work with so many companies, brands, and small business owners. Unfortunately many times we are put into a very bad position that could be totally avoided or a slight change could have allowed us to review your item and not put into the donation pile. Yes, the majority of items we receive are donated to various charities after we have used them long enough to write the Review.
We are Two Little Cavaliers and as the name implies there are two of them and they are small dogs.
Davinia and Indiana weigh between 14 and 15lbs each. Please send us size appropriate products, treats, clothing, etc.
Davinia is 7 her Birthday is in April and Indiana is 6 her Birthday is in September.
Davinia will not eat anything made from Lamb and therefore I don’t give it to Indiana either just isn’t fair if I know she will not be interested. We also do not do pork products.
Just because we received a product in the mail does not mean we will talk about it on our Blog. There is a reason for that. Either we are getting to it and have not had time yet to post about it or the product did not work for us and therefore you would receive a negative review.
We do not return Review items. Unless the item you are asking us to Review is a Car, Hotel Room, Kennel stay, airplane flight or similar and we have agreed beforehand as to the time period you would like us to check things out for please do not ask for the product to be returned.
We will not talk about a product for free (meaning no review, giveaway, or compensation) just because it benefits a Rescue or Shelter we received dozen’s of other requests this week. We might read your email and decide we want to post about it
We do not Review sample bags of food. We will consider working with your food brand if you are interested in becoming an official Sponsor of our Blog.
Since we do get so many requests for product reviews we have started looking for some extra Reviewers whose dogs are willing and able to Review the products we cannot.
We are now have a writer based in Australia that would love to discuss working with your company if you are based over there. More US based Product Reviewers will be joining the team soon.
If forced to we will write a negative review about a product.
We do not send back products that do not work for us. I just choose not to write a review on that product. Here is my reasoning: If we recommend a product that doesn’t work for us and say how brilliant the product is or how much the girls liked it and someone goes out and buys the item and their dog gets hurt or sick then we obviously didn’t do our job. Especially if we had the same negative experience but said it was great just to have something to write about or get more page views.
Davinia and Indiana love to cuddle in soft beds and blankets they really like pillows too. They are always looking for new fun collars. They love to travel by car and plane and have their very own International Passports since they were puppies. They think Hotels are fun places to go and explore. They love the mountains. They enjoy playing in the snow when they get the chance. They are not huge fans of deep pools but seem to like doggy pools and lakes and part of our neighbors pool.
Could you explain why you don’t do negative reviews? Wouldn’t it be helpful for your readers to know what products to avoid?
We do agree that our readers should be able to read about a product we don’t like just as much as a product we do like. The problem is the company that sends the product get very upset and asks for the post to be removed, slams the post telling us we are stupid because we didn’t use the product correctly, or goes around telling others not to let us review their products because we don’t play nicely. As seen in this post https://twolittlecavaliers.com/2011/12/review-leashlocket.html
I happen to agree with Robert. A “review” is just that…a “review”….people who review books, movies, TV Shows, albums, etc, etc aren’t worried about whether a review is negative or not.
In my opinion someone who doesn’t always post a positive review is far more credible than someone who sees sunshine and roses in every review they post. That’s not real.
When a company sends a product for “review” that is the risk that they take. It is your choice if you wish to notify the company ahead of time and alert them that they will not be getting a great review. That is the risk that they take.
My dog only eats a certain brand of dog food and my cat has allergies. When I am contacted by companies who my pets do not use, I am honest about that. I tell them I will do a “feature” instead of a “review”. A feature doesn’t state my opinion it simply explains the product.
I am grateful for the products we have received to test/review, if some aren’t “right” for my pets, I will also donate or hold a give-away.
I read a wonderful blog post this week about “How To Write A Negative Review” the name of the site slips my mind right now but it was fabulous.
I think it was on Social Dialect? (or whatever it is called) it was FABULOUS.
BTW, don’t most people contact you FIRST before the mail you the products? The only unsolicited products I have ever received were books for review…I didn’t scour your blog to see if your address is posted or not…if you just post your email address you will also avoid receiving unwanted items because you will have to communicate with them via email first where you can iron out whatever issues you need to iron out ahead of time.
I have done that with my dog and cat and explained ahead of time what they can and cannot eat, etc.
When you take care of that ahead of time you are opening yourself up to a more positive experience.
Most companies do understand and will send the treat flavors that I think my dogs will like and not upset their stomach. They will send products that are the proper size for them once I tell them their weight. They will send double so that one of the girls isn’t left out and if someone packing the box messes up and doesn’t send two they get the second one out to us right away. The reason I had to post our policy is because of something I have been dealing with all week. The person approached me and asked if I wanted to review the item I said I would and told her specifically how much the girls weigh and that there are two of them. She would only send 1 product for Review – fine maybe I would be so wowed by the product that it would be ok. But then we were sent a one size fits all for small dogs – weighing up to 55lbs. 55lbs is not a small dog even products made for dogs 30lbs and under tend to be a bit bit for us. We work around that and in our reviews will say it is probably best for a dog slightly larger then the girls. Obviously this product is going to be too big to work for my dogs properly how then could there be a positive review of the product.
Only our email is listed on our blog. But sometimes companies want their product on our Blog they don’t listen to what I am saying or don’t take it to heart. I give them our address thinking they understand our restrictions etc and open the box to find they didn’t listen to what was said. Generally they don’t push me to write something if I don’t but in this case I was told to either write something or ship the item back.
Because I was dealing with the backlash from writing a negative review I did not have time to post a Giveaway for a product I am in love with. So our readers now did not get to know about a product we love, have the chance to win it, and the company that actually sent us the right size item looses out and has to wait even longer.