Mr. B the Documentarian

While A has been getting used to her new camera and lenses, Mr. B has also been honing his camera skills as well as his video skills with his new camera. Our Pet Eye camera has succumbed to the battery's early demise that gave the Pet Eye such bad reviews. So what better way to use all of our REI gift cards and dividend than get Mr. B a camera/camcorder, the GoPro HD Hero 960. With his new camera, Mr. B can not only take pictures every 2/5/10/30/and 60 second intervals, but he can record full HD video in 960p. Just like the Pet Eye, I rigged the GoPro to fit on his collar. Eventually we will get enough gift cards to get him the chest strap. Here are some pictures from Mr. B's GoPro camera.

"Rear View"

"Beached Whale/Too Many Kongs"

"Skateboard for me"

"Personal Photoshoot"

"Drop food for me"

"At Six Corners"

"The Muppet"

"Meeting Fans"

"Best Friends"

"Bella's New Best Friend"

City Dog: Dining Outdoors with Dogs

Living in Chicago, dining outdoors is a given. And having a dog in Chicago, I had always thought dining outdoors with your dog was a given. But I was wrong.
Just because you have a dog, doesn't mean that they will know how to sit nicely at the outdoor cafe. Especially with a dog like Miss M:

With tables packed closely together, the potential for food on the ground, passing dogs, and food on the table, bringing a dog to an outdoor cafe can be a struggle. Though we did have a successful experience bringing all 3 dogs out on a recent outing. What worked:

Choosing a table in the corner:

 This way the pooches could have room off to the side, and they wouldn't have problems with passing dogs. We've found that as we're walking by cafes we normally can't see the dining dogs and sometimes they'll pop out from under the area surprising both us and our dogs. By keeping our dogs in the corner, our dogs won't be tempted to play, and other dogs won't disturb our dogs.

Doing a Pre-walk and Practicing 'Down Stays'
Instead of just going out to eat immediately, we made sure to go on a longer walk before sitting down. Since the pooches were more tired, they were able to stay still longer. That, combined with their continual practicing of down-stays around the city, allowed the pooches to be calm and well-behaved. Miss M was even falling asleep in front of the water bowl.

Going to a Dog-Friendly Restaurant

The city passed an ordinance allowed all dogs to be able to sit with their owners, but dogs aren't always as well-received in certain restaurants. We absolutely love going to Five Star which is not only dog-friendly, but super pit-friendly. The restaurant keeps a huge water bowl, always filled with fresh water and ice, outside for passing dogs. We've also met so many nice servers and staff who come running out to meet the pooches when we walk by. When we dine there the pooches are so well-received they get their own well-filled water dish and people are always coming out to see them. I think this is going to become our summer mainstay.
And as we were sipping our drinks and enjoying some food above, this is what the pooches were seeing below:
Does anyone else have tips for outdoor dining with dogs?

How to Be a Tourist with Your Dog Series: Roadtripping the 'Seven Wonders of Illinois' with 4 Large Dogs

We haven't quite mastered the art of roadtripping with our two big pooches, so you can imagine our intrigue reading about Lilac, Blueberry, Bunny, and Morgan, three Greyhounds and a German Shepherd, regularly roadtripping around Illinois. Their family has perfected the art of traveling with 4 large dogs ranging from sixteen years old to two and one half years. And while we thought there wasn't beautiful scenery in Illinois, we are inspired by their travels: exploring state parks, visiting the 7 Wonders of Illinois, hiking among frozen waterfalls, and discovering the beautiful Allerton Park Estate.

When I started thinking about Two Pitties In The City’s Be A Tourist In Your Own Town series, I had to laugh a little.  We live in a tiny village in Illinois where there’s really not anything to do.  Sure, we go for walks every day, and enjoy the village festival once a year from our front porch, but aside from that, there’s not much going on here.  That doesn’t mean that we and the dogs sit at home and do nothing..It just means that most of our outings involve some travel. A lot of our weekend trips are day trips to some of our state parks.  Unlike national parks, most of our state parks in Illinois are free and they allow dogs on leash to visit.  It’s been great for us to get out and see a lot of the hidden beauty of our state. 

Starved Rock is a beautiful place to visit any time of year and leashed dogs are welcome on the trails there.  The same is true of Allerton Park, Black Hawk State Historic Site, Rend Lake and the Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway has many nearby places where you can get out and admire things with your dogs, including Pere Marquette State Park. 

 Our travels have taken us to see some of the true gems of the state where we live.  A few years ago, there was a contest to determine The Seven Wonders of Illinois.  The residents of each of the seven sections voted to choose the area that they thought was the most noteworthy.  Those seven attractions are all definitely worth visiting.  We have managed to make it to five of them so far, and most of them are dog-friendly places.  The Bahá’í Temple is in Wilmette, and is beautiful, but because it’s a temple for all faiths, only service dogs would be allowed inside.  We did stop to admire it on a nice day at the end of March, but the girls rested in the van while we went inside to see the temple.  Wrigley Field is a great place to visit and take photos.

 Traveling Tips:

 Our oldest Greyhound is almost sixteen years old, and the Shepherd is the youngest at two and a half years old.  The variety of ages in the dogs means that sometimes we have to be creative in planning our road trips.

Since we’ve taken a lot of trips with the girls, we’ve gotten pretty good at being able to pack what we need for the kind of outing we’re taking.  For our hiking trips, we take the girls’ Wolf Packs, which have small water bottles, a portable water bowl, a bandana, poop bags, information from our Greyhound adoption group, treat, a first aid kit, and an ID badge that has their name, our vet’s name and contact number and the phone numbers of some of our closest family who can be found if the girls would be found wandering.  I know some people feel differently about ID on their dogs, but we decided that if our dogs happened to be separated from us while we’re out hiking then the chances are very high that we are injured or caught, and most people who found them would call for help, so we want to keep them as safe as possible.  We also carry our own backpacks with more water, human first aid kits, wildlife and plant guides, camera accessories, and sometimes towels if there’s a chance we’ll be somewhere where we might be walking through water.   We’ve learned that planning for the weather and things we’ll run into on the trail are really important.

 When we take day trips that involve all four of the girls, we put a couple of dog beds in the van, put the back seat all the way down, take plenty of water and treats and make sure we have their nice collars and leashes along.   We make sure that we have the Garmin GPS along with us and that we know where we’re going.  We have taken long, cross country trips with the girls several times.  That involves a lot more packing, but it’s always been worth it for us once we get to our destination and have the experience of our trip.  The main thing is to just anticipate what you might need and also try to figure out what you can live without if you have to.

 You can read more about the ladies' adventures on their blog here.  Seeing how easy they make it look, we're thinking we might try some of these trips with our pooches this summer. Again, we love hearing everyone's insider tips and things to do in their city with dogs. If you would like to share your hometown, please click here for more information.And in case you missed it, check out things to do with your dog in Nashville and Alaska.

DoggyStyle: On Pitties and Peonies

Now that Farmer's Market season has opened, Miss M and I have been making the rounds every week so she can get petted, practice down-stays, and I can pick up some fresh flowers. While Mr. B usually stays behind, last week he came along with his backpack to help me carry things home:

and we spotted these beautiful pink peonies:

And since he was able to help me carry everything home, we picked up an extra bunch for next to Mr B's tepee:

I've found that having flowers around the house makes even these impromptu moments look that much better:

Andersonville Midsommarfest in 10 Pictures

After we participated in the Red Door Shelter's Gimme Shelter! Walk for the Animals with Alexis and Winnie Cooper with Gregg, we headed off to the Andersonville Midsommarfest. Since the long winter is still fresh in our minds, we are try to take full advantage of the great weather and all the amazing things that Chicago has to offer. We love that Bella was able to meet so many great people, which appears to be all that  she really wants in life.

It was so much fun meeting fellow bloggers, our blog readers and just the amazing Chicagoans out enjoying the great weather and this fun festival in a terrific neighborhood.

 

It was also nice to have some tired pooches for our car ride home and in our home.

On Fostering and Miss M's Hazing Ritual

It's an understatement to say Miss M has a very strong personality. We liken her to that mean Senior girl in high school who picks on Freshmen for fun. She has little patience for the attentions of younger, excitable dogs who she will only communicate that she doesn't want to play by using her 'gremlin voice' then proceeds to play with their ears like a stuffie. For these reasons we never considered fostering a younger dog. But I guess it depends on the specific dog. And after spending a couple of weekends with Bella...she has made the cut.

We have found that Bella is really good with other dogs. Even as Miss M was gnawing on her ear, Bella looked up at her and gave her kisses on her mouth. Even Miss M seemed a little surprised and since she held up to the hazing, Miss M really hasn't messed with her since.
I think the main reason that they get along is Bella is really people-focused and she bonds quickly to her people: especially E.

Whereas Miss M doesn't want to lessen her chances of getting attention, and is embarrassed to seen with us in public:

We've discussed before about dog gender issues and we do understand how younger dogs often vie for position as they age. Though we're pretty sure Bella will get adopted quickly. We know how much Bella loves individual attention, so we were happy to welcome her into our home so she can be even better prepared for her future family.

Red Door Animal Shelter: 2011 Gimme Shelter! Walk for the Animals

During the summer we try to find things that are fun for the dogs as well us fun for us. And sometimes we find an equal balance. One of our favorite events is a dog-walk fundraiser that benefits the Red Door Animal Shelter--where our friend Pip is an alumni. The pooches love going on a walk with a couple hundred of their closest friends, while we love exploring new-to-us Indian Boundary Park in the West Rogers Park neighborhood.

We were able to bring Bella and we were joined by our friend Winnie Cooper who is similar age and markings as Bella--people even thought they were twins!

We loved meeting other dogs (look how handsome our new friend Bruno is in the photo below) and walking through the neighborhood filled with historic Chicago bungalows and ornate gardens.

My highlight is visiting Indian Boundary Park itself. It's a huge park with a castle-themed play area and even it's own mini-barnyard with goats, ducks and chickens. Miss M pushed herself to the front to check out these critters:

They also have a beautiful duck-filled lagoon where the pooches were happy to check out more wildlife.

It's always so interesting to me to find these places I never knew about in the city.

Thanks again to Alexis for escorting Bella on her debut walk, and for Winnie Cooper and Gregg for joining the crew!

How to Be a Tourist with Your Dog Series: "Music City" Nashville, Tennessee

When looking for interesting road trips from Chicago, I've always been a bit interested in Nashville, but we've never quite made the trip. So I was so excited when Nashville-native Lindsay submitted this "Tourist with your Dog" post giving us the local insider's view about all the things to do with a dog in Nashville: "Music City". From outdoor movies screenings and concerts by a replica of the Parthenon, to city trails and greenways, to a tip on getting a dog-friendly snow cone the city is quite pooch-friendly.

Our tour guides include Lindsay's two forever dogs Colt, ( East CAN rescue) and Daisy ( Camp Chaos 37206 rescue)  and two foster dogs: Emma and Ellie (Labor of Love Animal Welfare Project). Daisy is a bit camera shy, but Emma, Ellie and Colt were all very willing to model and show off their hometown. Here is one photo of the elusive Daisy:

Nashville, like most cities, has several parks specifically for dogs but is also home to Centennial Park which houses a replica of the Parthenon. Nashville is called the "Athens of the South" because of the large number of universities we have here and so for the Centennial Exposition, they built a replica of the Greek monument. Here is Emma in front of the Parthenon.

Fun fact: Nashville's Parthenon took longer to build than the original. 

Centennial Park is home to loads of concerts, movie screenings, and festivals, all of which are dog-friendly. They host an Earth Day festival, lots of cultural and arts/crafts fairs and on Wednesday nights during the summer you can bring your pooch to an outdoor movie screening.  There's even a sno-cone vendor who will make you an ice-only sno-cone so Fido doesn't get overheated! 

East Nashville and Nashville in general is full of walking/biking/skating trails and greenways that are also dog friendly. Colt is a pit/lab mix which means he is all full of energy. Running and walking do not tire him out, so C has to take him rollerblading. Colt loves rollerblading, and here he is showing off his skills. There are even places to do this near the Titans stadium which is right across the river from downtown. Usually C will take Colt roller blading around the stadium and I will take one of the other dogs for a walk around the stadium.

While C and Colt were roller blading around the stadium, I walked with Emma. We stopped to take this picture of Emma looking across the river to downtown. To the left of the picture is a pedestrian bridge which crosses the river into Lower Broadway which is full of honky tonks, bars, and restaurants. Also, nearby is the Bridgestone Arena, home to the Nashville Predators. 

In April, Nashville hosts the Country Music Marathon which starts at Centennial Park. There is also a half-marathon which C and I ran in 2010. In addition to its fair share of hills, the race course features bands every couple of miles to showcase Nashville's music scene and provide motivation for the runners. The course isn't dog friendly, however, dogs are allowed to cheer runners on. Here is Ellie cheering on the marathon runners near mile 18--don't they look good for mile 18?

One of the best things about having a dog in Nashville, is that the city recently passed an ordinance allowing you to bring your pet to restaurants with outside seating.   Here is Colt enjoying a Saturday afternoon at the East Nashville bar, 3 Crow. Most restaurants in East Nashville are very dog friendly and will bring out a pail of ice water for your pooch! 

If you are in the mood for something and your pooch isn't allowed, there are several choices for doggie daycare or boarding. Our favorite is the Belmont. The Belmont has a webcam feature for your computer or phone and I really appreciate being able to check in on the pooches when I am away from town or just check in on them during my work day and see them frolicking (or napping) in the pool or with their doggie friends.

We love hearing everyone's insider tips, seeing your pooches, and learning dog-friendly travel options. If you would like to share advice for traveling with pooches in your hometown, please click here for the complete information. And if you missed it the first time, make sure to check out Molly's adventures in Anchorage, Alaska.