Ribsy would like to offer a few tips on how to be a good dog on Twitter:

1) Be open to other species. At first Ribsy had a no-cat rule. But what the heck, some cats can be pretty darn intelligent. As @officecat stated, “Decided to follow lots of dogs…all will like me but I like to keep friends close and enemies closer.” Ribsy even follows a squirrel – talk about the barriers breaking down.

2) Go ahead and drool. There are rock stars in the dog world. Down boy. Don’t expect a direct connection to the stars. @cesarmillan might not follow you back. Neither might @AnimalPlanet nor @snoopdogg. (@guykawasaki – woof out to Guy! – is pretty good at following you back though. So is @BarackObama if you want some Twitter dog cred.) On the upside, you may be the first to hear about their latest thoughts and not-so-news, no matter how trivial or insignificant they may seem. And isn’t that what celebrity worship is all about? (Speaking of which, look at all the celebrites who Twitter!)

3) Take naps. No dog should deprive themselves of their 19-hour a day beauty sleep for the sake of Twitter. Download a client such as Twhirl or Tweetdeck to make sorting through all the messages easier.

4) Try not to whine when you lose followers. It’s not the way your butt smells. Dogs follow and unfollow all the time. Recall the last time that you were at the park. When you first arrived, a lot of dogs were probably circling you, in your face, checking you out. After a while, they know what you’re all about. And frankly, you’re just not their running style. So they stopped paying attention to you. That’s how it goes on Twitter.

5) Sniff out answers. If another dog is looking for help with issues on training their human, or for help on the best doggy Internet websites, throw them a helpful bone if you can. Dogs have to stick together, even on Twitter.

6) Be friendly. Try talking to other dogs you follow, by @ replying to them. It’s like giving them a virtual tail wag to let them know you’re listening, and as a fellow dog, you understand their plights about being left alone or getting shooed off the bed.

7) Don’t bark incessantly. You hear about some major dog news from one of your followers. You decide to rebark (retweet) it your followers. Problem is, that news was like two hours ago. Which in Twitter time, means it’s yesterday’s discarded chew toy. Try doing a quick search or visit a site like Tweetmeme to see if’s already been barked loud and clear over the Twittersphere.

See the entire post here: http://bit.ly/good-dog