DoggyStyle: Dog Walking for All the Single Ladies

Back when Miss M and I were bachelorettes, we were always meeting people during our daily walks. Of course, it really helps that Miss M is such an amazing pick-up artist and 'wing-woman', but all of a sudden we were talking to all kinds of guys. The funny thing was I always wished I wasn't wearing my 'dog-walking uniform' of sweats and sneakers. At the time I could never find a shoe that was comfortable for walking, but still looked nice.
Flash forward a couple of years, we're no longer bachelorettes, but I have finally found the perfect dog-walking shoe:

I discovered Gap's city flats; they look like nice flats, but they feel like slippers. They're comfortable enough to wear for dog walks, but now I can wear something besides sweats and gym clothes:

The best part is that they actually come like this:

 They fold in half and come in their own little pouch for easy storage; I started keeping an extra pair in my purse and I'm excited to wear them on the plane for an upcoming trip. Gap has been having these amazing sales that run every few weeks, and you can get them for 30% off. I had to get them a 1/2 size larger than I normally wear. And they come in tons of colors.I have them in black and metallic.

I have heard they don't hold up well in rain, so my other go-to shoe is Merrell's Spire Peak Waterproof boot. They feel like sneakers, but they look classy enough to carry you through the a terrible Chicago winter.

Pooches: Daily Walk w/ Pig in 10 Pictures 11.17.10

This past Sunday marked the death of Mr. B's beloved pink piglet toy. The walk started off for A and Ms. M like any other peaceful weekend walk, but for Mr. B and me it started off with a lot of stress. Mr. B would not leave his piglet behind and kept insisting on taking it with him on the walk, eventually I conceded and we were off on our walk.

For some reason, Mr. B was crazier than usual. He was running around and jumping every second, but  we attributed his crazy behavior to the weather.

The moment we got the grassy ledge at the high school by us, Mr. B was out of control. He was throwing the piglet up and down the ledge and he kept jumping up and down after it. 

This riled Ms. M up and now she wanted to be part of the action. Before we knew it, they were both going after the piglet.

There were some amazing acrobatic movies and A tried as hard as she could to get the piglet before they destroyed it.

However, it was too late. Our two genius pooches were both tugging at poor Mr. B's piglet and now the piglet has been laid to rest, well until we can sew it back together. Soon it was time for the Bears game. Go Bears!

Pooches: Dogs Off Leash

It seems that many of our neighbors have recently purchased or adopted new dogs. Though it is nice for the landscape of our neighborhood, many have not bothered to follow simple rules or even the law. There is a lot going on in our neighborhood with 2 busy streets and plenty of pedestrians and other dogs, yet we have two neighbors that insist on walking their dogs through the sidewalks of Chicago off leash, despite the fact that the city has leash laws and signs posted everywhere reminding dog owners of this law.

This is especially dangerous because leashed dogs will feel threatened by unleashed dogs who rush them.This can be really dangerous for the dogs and the people walking them. Even though several of us have confronted these dog owners about having their dogs off leash, they always have the remark that dogs were not meant to be on leash.

We have become good friends with our beat cops, because they have dogs and have had bad experiences with dogs off leash. However, we know there is a lot going on in the city and that dogs off leash has the lowest priority. Lucky for us, we've been able to avoid them since we can hear our neighbors several blocks away because they are always yelling after their dogs. We think talking to the police may have worked, because for awhile they were using a leash; it was actually quite comical because I saw the guy running and I couldn't figure out why. Then I saw he couldn't control his dog on leash. So now they're back to walking off-leash again where their dogs are nearly 1/2 block ahead of them. We even witnessed a scare, when one of the neighbor's dog ran after another random dog off leash right into traffic. After that we thought that it would change their ways, but they still walk their dogs off leash without any control, which can be quite burdensome since we have to cross the street or wait behind the fence to avoid them. What are your experiences with dogs off leash?

Chicagoing: The Dog-walking Dessert Tour

I recently found out our neighborhood has become an official tourist destination. While most tourists don't venture far from the downtown area, with several nationally recognized restaurants right on our block, we've noticed many tourists making the 2 mile trek--mostly via cab.They also just named the Michelin Awards, which is supposed to be a really big deal for restaurants. They actually sneak out in the night and spray paint a stencil of the Michelin man to let them know they won.
Since we are always out walking the pooches, we've gotten to know some of the most efficient routes for sampling the best wares on our street, plus, I love reading tour books' one day itinerary, so here is our version of a dog-walking dessert tour in Chicago.
We start at Black Dog Gelato.

This nondescript storefront has bright green benches, but loads of amazing gelato flavors. From Goat Cheese Cashew Caramel, Sesame Fig Chocolate Chip, Mexican Hot Chocolate, and Whiskey Bacon. Or amazing sorbets like Cucumber Rosewater Sorbet (my favorite!), cranberry, and lychee. 
When we had Wilma in the summer, we came here nearly every day. Here are the pooches waiting patiently while I get our order:

 Walk with your dog east down Iowa street. This is a residential street where the neighbors work together to grow flowers and mini-gardens in the sidewalk areas.

This will lead you to Hoosier Mama Pie Company.

They're this tiny little shop that serves amazing pie. They're so good they've been featured in Bon Appetit; plus, they have 'flights of pie slices' each Friday. Our all time favorite is the peanut butter pie with gingersnap crust and the chocolate creme pie.

Walk down Chicago Avenue to Manee Thai to pick up a freshly blended bubble tea. Keep walking down Chicago Avenue until you get to La Farine Bakery. 

The owner has immersed himself in the art of bread baking and supplies bread for some of the top restaurants in Chicago. We get their ciabatta rolls on a nearly weekly basis, plus they have all these pastries:

You can even head across the street to Eckert Park to picnic and eat your wares. The one caveat for this tour is to make sure you have another human with you to actually go in and pick up the food. For several reasons, we will never leave our dogs tied up outside or unattended, if only for a minute. People don't realize how many dog thefts there are in the city; plus, there was this terrible story of a an older dog stolen from his locked kennel in the suburbs. I guess the only reason I don't weigh a million pounds is because I don't always have someone walking with me to watch the dogs while I go in to get the food.

Pooches: Miss M the Pick-up Artist

The best part of having a dog is meeting more people. But little did I realize when I first adopted Miss M that she was an amazing pick-up artist; I was the lucky bachelorette who had the best "wing-women" on the block. Miss M loves people, and despite her muggish grin, she has an amazing way of hypnotizing them into coming to talk to her:

She is kind of like that really fun person you meet who is the life of the party, and you can't believe that they have their full attention focused on hearing what you have to say:

She gives her total, overattention, staring with bulging eyes, and swaying her entire body in a wiggle, and curling her lips back into her version of a smile, until the person is lured into coming to meet her:

It is hard to capture her charisma in photos, but you can definitely see her allure in this video. On every walk she can't just walk with us, but she has to check out the crowd and see if there is anyone worth meeting:

She has to do the complete head-swivel guilting them if they pass her by:

Of course, this can be alarming to some people who aren't prepared for a pit bull staring at them with curled back lips.
She definitely introduced me to a ton of people, especially guys. See, I think Miss M's first owner was a big guy because she would always get even more excited when she saw big guys pass her on the street. And she would get to the point where she would even try sitting on their lap and going home with them:

And while it was great to meet more people as a single gal, the only drawback was Miss M didn't have a filter; she just wanted to meet anyone. So often times I was forced into conversations with weirdos because Miss M loved the attention and just didn't want to leave.Anyone else have a dog keeping you awkward situations?

Schwang Manor: Creating a Dog "Bedroom"

Dogs are natural den animals and they love being in their own private, enclosed spaces. We know crates are really good for dogs, but when you're living in a 2-bedroom condo with 2 big dogs space is at a premium; it's hard having crates without them taking over our living space. Plus, we have an open floor plan which was perfect for E's b-boy battles, but leaves everything else exposed:

In my last apartment I had no choice but to keep her crate in the middle of my living room. Here, I thought we could create some furniture partitions to keep a comfortable living area while having a separate space for the pooches. We pulled the couch up a bit and got an Ikea console to set up behind it

Then we had some space behind the couch to keep the dog crates and their toy box. We eventually traded out Mr. B's crate for a tepee which looks cooler than the metal crate and he likes just as well.

So when we walk in we can see this:

With much of the dog area hidden:

 

We still have Miss M's wire crate which is tucked to the side. What types of arrangements does everyone else use for their dog areas?

Pooches: Mr. B & Ms. M in 10 Costumes

With winter fast approaching, we can look forward to a lot of pictures of the pooches wearing their winter coats. It is pretty hard looking back all the pictures from this past summer and realizing that we have several more months before we can hang out all day in the great outdoors. Even Halloween was too short, Mr. B never got to show off his new Headless Horseman costume.

It was nice that we had a few Sundays that we could lay out on the porch in our jerseys and watch the game.

It was also nice that I didn't have to wear a coat or even a jacket to bike to work. Even now, I only put on a sweater at most to bike to work.

Though my ears get cold and I have started to wear my winter biking cap

 and a scarf, as modeled by the handsome Mr. B.

Soon enough, I will be biking in my winter coat and

the pooches will be wearing their matching sweaters or

Ms. M will don her hoodie.