diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index fa3cf11..2145e38 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -21,3 +21,17 @@ If you'd like to run the test suite, fix a bug or add a feature, please follow t
 * Make sure to add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
 * Please try not to mess with the `Rakefile`, version, or history.
   If you want to have your own version, or is otherwise necessary, that is fine, but please isolate to its own commit so I can cherry-pick around it.
+
+
+## Building and using local snapshots
+
+Sometimes you need to test chef-handler-datadog before a fix is merged.  In this case you need to:
+
+* Set the version in `lib/chef_handler_datadog.rb`
+  If the current version is `0.11.0` then you should bump to `0.11.1.pre`.
+  This way when the next version is released it will take precedence over your snapshot.
+* Run `rake build`, this will create the .gem file in the `pkg/` dir
+* Copy the .gem file to your own gem server
+* When you include `datadog::dd-handler` in your Chef runlist set `node.override['datadog']['gem_server']` to your gem server URL and `node.override['datadog']['chef_handler_version']` to your `.pre` version.
+* Chef will install your version of the gem
+* Don't forget to unset `gem_server` and `chef_handler_version` once the handler has been released with your changes
diff --git a/lib/chef/handler/datadog.rb b/lib/chef/handler/datadog.rb
index 31fe2c3..c283e1b 100644
--- a/lib/chef/handler/datadog.rb
+++ b/lib/chef/handler/datadog.rb
@@ -78,9 +78,9 @@ def send_report_to_datadog(dog)
         @metrics.emit_to_datadog dog
         @event.emit_to_datadog dog
         @tags.send_update_to_datadog dog
-      rescue Errno::ECONNREFUSED, Errno::ETIMEDOUT => e
-        Chef::Log.error("Could not connect to Datadog. Connection error:\n" + e)
-        Chef::Log.error('Data to be submitted was:')
+      rescue => e
+        Chef::Log.error("Could not send/emit to Datadog:\n" + e)
+        Chef::Log.error('Event data to be submitted was:')
         Chef::Log.error(@event.event_title)
         Chef::Log.error(@event.event_body)
         Chef::Log.error('Tags to be set for this run:')
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ def prepare_the_pack
                       app_key,
                       nil,   # host
                       nil,   # device
-                      true,  # silent
+                      false, # silent
                       nil,   # timeout
                       url
           ))