Our New Foster Dog: Meet Sweet Bessie-Belle

If you've been following our Facebook page,we had some spoiler-alerts about a foster pooch we took in over winter break. E is always hesitant to bring a foster dog into our home during the school year, because of the extra work that is required adding a 3rd dog. Since we were home during winter break, we decided to become short-term fosters for mellow elder gal Sweet Little Bessie-Belle, and hopefully find a suitable foster or permanent home during that time. Ironically, it was E that fell in love with our big sweet girl and decided Sweet Bessie-Belle needs to stay with us until she finds the perfect home.

Sweet Bessie-Belle was waiting so patiently at the city shelter, where her time had just run up. Luckily New Leash on Life saw how sad she looked, and quickly realized how fantastically amazing she is, and swooped her up just in time.
Even though Bessie is a big girl, she blends in quite well with our pooches.

Even volunteering to walk around Chicago in a New Year's party hat, without complaint, when we'd only had her for 2 days (You can probably tell from the photo who's complaining).

What we didn't expect: she is so mild-mannered and gentle that she is even better than our own dogs. She is like a sweet Southern-belle among our pooches with attitude. And like any proper Belle, Sweet Bessie-Belle created her signature demure look with this Sirius Republic flower to match her Adopt-Me collar.

 And was delightfully surprised when Smiley Willie and Nabi's mom from SociaBulls made her this beautiful blue collar flower to tuck behind her ear:

Sweet Bessie-Belle has transitioned into our household quite easily, and every day she lets us know how grateful she is to live with us. We know she is going to make a fantastic companion for a lucky family, or pooch, or even a child who loves to play dress up.

SociaBulls: A Morning Walk with the Chicago Tribune!

While we've resumed our weekly SociaBulls walks, we had a couple of extra guests with us yesterday: a reporter and photographer from the Chicago Tribune! You can read the fantastic article raising positive awareness they wrote here which has so many of us smiling from ear to ear:

 It has been incredible to bring positive awareness to our dogs. Even though we only began back in August, we love getting together with such a diverse group of people demonstrating responsible dog ownership.

 Our group is composed of PhD's and PhD candidates, lawyers, chefs, business professionals, teachers, artisans, and grad students, just to name a few. 

I think it's easy for people who haven't met our dogs to make assumptions about us, but getting out there and allowing them to see us, and how amazing our dogs are, can show the bigger picture. We hear so many positive comments.

 Positive socialization is important for all dogs, and many of us who own pitbull-type dogs feel an extra responsibility knowing people will judge the entire breed based on what they see from our single dog.

It's hard to miss us with our 20+ pooches. And I'm always amazed by the dedication of everyone consistently waking up early on a Sunday morning to spend quality time with our pups. (Trivia: Anyone recognize the belly in that photo??)

Our highlight of this week was when a woman driving her car stopped, and yelled out "If I had known you were walking here, I would have brought my Westie".

 And of course knowing that even though we walk together as a group, each pup and owner is individually setting a good example of responsible ownership by modeling this in their respective neighborhoods.

 We couldn't be prouder to be a part of this group! And seen from Mr. B's camera, the pooches even seem to pick up good habits from one another:

Mr. B and the photographer taking photos of one another:

We never anticipated our group would grow this big, so right now we need to review our structure before we can take on new members. Please stay tuned to our Chicago SociaBulls Facebook Page for updates, and thank you everyone for your support!

One of Our Favorites: Ms. M 100% Mutt

This has to be my all-time favorite post, because we have met so many people that live parallel lives through this one post. Plus, it gives some personal detail that we don't readily divulge in our other posts. We will resume updating our blog on Monday. Happy New Years!


This past weekend, A's family was in town from Memphis for our belated wedding reception. The last time they were in Chicago was about 10 years ago, so we wanted to show them everything Chicago has to offer. Coincidentally, Kip Fulbeck's Part Asian, 100% Hapa solo exhibition was at The Field Museum.
A and I wanted to see this exhibit for awhile and with A's parents in town, it was the perfect time to go. For those who do not know, A is Jewish and I am Korean-American and we eloped 7 months ago, which is why the wedding reception was belated.
When we first started dating, both sides of our family, mainly our parents and grandparents, were disappointed and disapproving. Over time, both sides of our family have accepted and even embraced our relationship.
So we thought it would be interesting to us and A's parents to visit the exhibit to see what our kids could possibly look like. Hapa in the Hawaiian language, pidgin, means half and refers to an individual of mixed descent. In the past the term was derogatory, but now it is embraced as a term to describe individuals whose mixed descent includes Asian or Pacific Islander.
We don't think A's parents liked the exhibit as much as we did, b/c we don't think they understood why we were so excited, especially when we were looking at pictures of 1/2 Asian and 1/2 Jewish individuals.
Though we went to visit the exhibit to see kids that were half Asian and half Caucasian or hapa haole, the exhibit raised some very interesting points. Many people of mixed descent are asked "what are you" and often times they have to pick one race as their identity over the other. Though not the same, but somewhat analogous, we are often asked about Ms. M's genetic makeup.
The main guesses of her breed has been Boxer, American Bulldog, and American Pitbull Terrier and people like to point to specific phenotypic features to support their guess. On the other hand, Ms. M could care less about her genetic makeup, she just knows that she isn't human nor a cat and maybe not a basset hound. While some people see her as a vicious pitbull, she just thinks of herself as the cuddly, lap dog Ms. M. I realized that our future children could have some racial identity issues, and Ms. M would be a great role model. Hopefully they realize that labels that people give them are not important, it just makes it easier for certain people to use their preconceived notions to judge them, just like certain people can blindly judge Ms. M and Mr. B without meeting them.

And like Ms. M, hopefully our children could care less about their race and those of others and approach every person openly unless that person gives them a reason otherwise.

One of Our Favorites: SuperLevi is Reunited with His SuperHero Family

 (Photo taken Levi's 1st night in his new home!)

Out of all of our fosters, Levi was with us the longest, because he knew that he had to be reunited with his super family. Lucky for all of us, his super family did come back and he is back to having grand adventures with his fellow super dog, Wonder Greta. We love reading about the super lives of his super family at 3legs2nd city.

For the longest time we couldn't figure out why it was taking so long for SuperLevi to be adopted. Besides being a fantastically easy city dog, hanging out at outdoor cafes and neighborhood festivals with ease, he is incredibly handsome, goofy, and comes with his own superhero roll.
But when we met his new family, we realized why it had taken so long: he needed to be reunited with a fellow superdog.

See, this is Greta. And she comes with her own superhero story. When Greta was rescued as a pup, she was severely malnourished with festering open wounds. But, this courageous pooch used her superdog powers to overcome it. Though at a mere 2 1/2 years old, it seems those evil villains had come back to rumble with Greta again, this time in the form of blood cancer. And in this tougher battle, Greta sacrificed a limb, but came out with her dignity and spirit. And while the oncologist estimated it was only a matter a months, Greta has used her superdog strength to go beyond this estimate, full of energy and sass and able to outrun all her 4-legged friends.

 As Greta's Mom says: When Greta, my 3 year old rescue pittie, was first diagnosed with blood cancer, it hit me like a ton of bricks. For the first couple weeks, I walked around in a daze and it constantly felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. Her oncologist told me it could be a matter of a few months, and this was something I just couldn’t wrap my head around. She has become such a huge and positive part of my life, and after having her for less than two years, I just wasn’t ready to let her go. After she had the amputation surgery to get rid of her tumor and she began to heal, it became apparent that she isn’t ready to go anywhere either. Her energy is still up, she is getting around great and she still has a lot of life left in her. She is one tough cookie, and I am continuously inspired by her resilience.
Before she was diagnosed, I started thinking about fostering a second dog. I have a very flexible work schedule and was finally feeling financially stable enough to help out another furry friend. This idea was put on the back burner while figuring things out with Greta, but soon after she healed from her surgery, I was more interested than ever in a second dog. But, given the circumstances, I decided to adopt instead of just foster. I felt like it would really help Greta enjoy her time left, give me some comfort for the future, and then there was the added bonus of providing another dog with a very loving home.

Now the big question: How do I find the right dog to bring into our family? I’ve been a fan of the blog Two Pitties in the City for a while now, and when I saw Levi, their fun-loving foster dog, I fell in love. Greta can be a little picky when it comes to her companions, but she has a big soft spot for male pit bulls with lots of energy. Plus, his alter-ego is Super Levi, so maybe he would be able to tap into his super healing powers to help Greta? It sounded like a match made in Heaven. 
When we first decided to bring Levi into the household, I remember saying to my boyfriend “I wonder if he will have as many strange quirks as Greta?” I should have known better after reading the Two Pitties blog…what a goofball! So far he has kept things so light and fun around the house, we’ve barely even thought of Greta’s cancer at all. Although it took her a couple days to warm up to his overzealous nature and inherent lack of boundaries (check out the pic below of him sitting on her), he has grown on her significantly. They are best buds now, and I have never seen her so happy and at ease. She grows to love him more and more each day, and it’s actually quite amazing to watch.

We couldn't be happier for Levi and his new family. And Levi has already been living it up with the new fam: going to outdoor cafes for brunch, city walks to the deli, joining up for a SociaBulls walk, and even making his way into bars as the perfect ambassadog:

The best part, we will still be able to see plenty of SuperLevi. Not only did we get the luck that from the entire Chicagoland area he lives mere blocks from us, but just like any great superhero, he has his own 'spinoff' blog. You can see his handsome face and read about his crazy adventures on Greta's blog here.

But wait...there's more!
We had so many people supporting us in finding Levi's (super) x-ray vision that we were all able to save SuperLevi's x-ray vision AND have enough money left over to rescue another dog in need of medical care. Please read this incredible thank you note from his rescue, New Leash on Life, because now "one sick pup in Chicago's pound who has been dreaming of rescue will have its wish granted-all because of you and Super Levi. So we'd like to say one last SUPERSIZE THANK-YOU FOR HELPING SUPER LEVI."

And for the Raffle Results:
We really wish we were like Oprah where we could give prizes to everyone, but since we're just us...our friends at New Leash drew the raffle results using a random number generator.

We can't thank you all enough for helping SuperLevi save his x-ray vision. Check SuperLevi's blog for updates on his new life and upcoming surgery, and stay tuned to meet that special pooch who has been dreaming of rescue, and will now have his wish granted.

One of Our Favorites: Being Social with an Unsocial Pup

E is choosing his favorites this week, and he especially liked this post seeing how our SociaBulls walk was so helpful to one of our members and what we learned about ways to be social with an unsocial dog. We are keeping our Facebook page updated this week with photos of new foster dog Bessie.

While our SociaBulls group is not a 'magic feather' that will instantly turn your pooch perfect, we have been hearing that it has been helping people continue to work on things they've already been working on and help supplement their pooches' socialization.
We have been especially interested in hearing about Maize, a sweet shy pup that was started on our inaugural walk, but also struggles with severe leash reactivity. I had never realized how difficult leash reactivity was, until walking one of our rescue dogs and feeling hopeless about going anywhere in a city filled with dogs. So we were very intrigued by Maize's story, knowing how dedicated her mom is working with her, and hearing how she is learning to be social with an unsocial pup.
Spoiler Alert: Maize was part of a confident 'Pitbull Trifecta" on our last walk!

Maize’s Story

 The dog walking group has given me new found hope. As it turns out there ARE ways to be social with other dogs even if your dog is leash reactive! I used to drive by dog parks or walk by dogs socializing in the park and lower my head in frustration and maybe even a little bit of jealousy. I have 2 leash reactive dogs which makes city walking where there are tons of dogs around difficult at times. This used to be something that was hard to admit or talk about.  I didn’t know anyone else who experienced the struggles I have faced in the past 3 years. 

 Prior to adopting my staffie mix Maize it was me and my pug. Although he’s been leash reactive (only in a 1-2 mile radius of our home) for years it was never a big deal. Since he is a small dog people tend to dismiss any reaction and come straight up to him and oooohh and awww over his extremely flat face and bugged out eyes. When my Maize came in to my life I had just lost a 9 year old golden retriever in a break up and my heart ached for her. My neighbor informed me of a dog that had been abandoned at the grooming salon where he worked. She was left by her owner who no longer needed her and was moving. She was being financially supported by a rescue and was staying at various groomers homes. When I first saw her walk down the courtyard her head hung low as she sauntered towards me. This was not a physically abused pup, just a young girl who had a couple of litters, no socialization and no self esteem.  I thought to myself, ‘I’ve had two dogs before I can totally handle this!’ I had no idea what I was getting myself in to.

 What is leash reactivity?

My experience with leash reactivity is a reaction that it happens out of fear and as part of mimicking her pug brother. I don’t think Maize was ever socialized as a puppy and the combination of having no self esteem and living with my leash reactive pug she could only help but follow her pack leader. 

 I'm no expert, but in my experience with leash reactivity, I see the behavior as actually built-up frustration. Two dogs see each other across the street; one dog gives a hard stare or bark; the other dog lunges forwards and feels the pull of the leash on the collar or harness. In this case, the lunging dog then becomes frustrated that it is restrained and unable to approach the other dog. When this repeatedly happens over and over again, the dog begins to equate the pull of the harness or collar as being retrained and becomes reactive towards this restraint. When on walks together, as soon as Pug would start to lunge, so would Maize and then all bets were off.  Maize would also lunge at everything, not just other dogs. She was so scared and confused and had no coping skills that reacting was the only outlet for her. The solution to this problem has been learning some great redirection tricks and then being able to practice them during the SocialBulls Walking Group.

  

What Socialbulls does for us- The Trifecta

 What has been so amazing about our experience with the SocialBulls Dog Walking Group is that Maize can walk with 15-20 other dogs. She is usually in the lead so sometimes she doesn’t realize who is behind her until she turns around and even then there is usually no reaction from her. This past weekend was particularly amazing. We went to Humboldt Park and Maize and I walked next to Izzy and her mom. Izzy is an extremely well behaved pup who has amazing focus, which then helped Maize to feel more at ease and more confident in her socialization and walking.  Not only did we walk next to Izzy we also walked behind her and at the end of the walk Maize was walking next to Izzy AND Lola. The three of them easily strolled through the park together and I nicknamed them the 'Trifecta'. 

 The amazing part of the group is that dogs never meet face to face so I don’t have to worry about the other dogs and their owners because we are all there for the same reason. I think I have also benefited from SocialBulls because I’ve been able to meet other people that have the same passion for their dogs as I do and everyone seems so kind and understanding. Maize has come a LONG way and I think the key is to keep her active with other dogs just like this group!

It has been so great to hear how well Maize was doing, and we were so proud to see how confidently she was walking with her new friends. And while the group isn't a magic formula, it has been great having so many like-minded, supportive people working towards a common goal.

One of Our Favorites: Chicago Dog-Walking Club, Our Inaugural Trek

 

We were worried that people wouldn't join our dog walking club, so we were pleasantly surprised to find several great dog owners that came out for our inaugural walk. They are largely responsible for turning our small dog walking club into the SociaBulls. Here is a recap of our very first walk:

We had written before about our struggles to find ways to comfortably socialize our dogs in the city with other dogs, and how happy we were to get advice from HikeaBull, a group  in California who uses group walks for positive socialization, so we could start a dog walking club in Chicago. Knowing dogs have different levels of socialization, excitement, dog tolerance, and fear it is important to know how to bring them into a group comfortably.I will admit, I was a bit nervous being in charge of starting a dog walking group in Chicago, but after many conversations with Lark at HikeaBulls and understanding what works, we had a very comfortable and successful first walk!

We had a great starting line-up of dogs, including Buddy:

 

Torre and Jack:

Maize and the pooches:

All of the dogs were working on a variety of issues: from leash reactivity to over-excitement to being fearful to learning good dog manners. To make the walk a positive and comfortable experience for everyone, we let everyone know the issues we were working on beforehand, and we made sure to give everyone a lot of space so the dogs weren't overwhelmed: 

The natural rhythm of the pack walking is very social and calming for the dogs. During the walk they were able to come a bit closer, though we did go back to having a lot of space when we stopped for water breaks.

I had a hard time trying to decide where to have the actual walk, since I don't know of many 'hiking trails' in the city. Then I realized: our city has 18 miles of beautiful lakefront paths. We picked the south lakeshore path which is a beautiful scenic stroll with views of boats in the harbor, Solider Field, the museum campus, and, of course, our beautiful city skyline:

 We did see a storm rolling in, so we had to cut our walk a bit short, but we had a great experience and several smiling pooches:

Thanks again to  HikeaBulls for helping us understand how to structure a positive group hike, and to Jack, Torre, Buddy, and Maize, and their people, for being the 'pioneers' on our first group hike. And to Kelsey for walking Miss M, giving me a chance to walk around and talk to everyone.
We welcome other Chicago-area people to join us in the future. If you would be interested in joining us, please email us using the 'contact us' button on the sidebar and write "Dog Walking Club" in the subject line. And please like our Facebook page where we will continue to keep Dog Walking Club updates

One of Our Favorites: Velveteen Pitbulls and Aging

Since we are off for break this week, we are focusing on relaxing, hanging with our new foster Big Bessie (check our Facebook page if you missed her!), and looking at some of our favorite posts. This is one of our least favorite, but increasingly important, topics to discuss. 

We always want to deny our pooches are aging. For the past couple of years, Miss M has remained 4, and Mr. B has always been 5. It wasn't until someone asked us their ages, the other day, that we realized we had been living in a time warp.
Our lives with the pooches had always seemed the same, but then I started noticing a couple of gray-brindle hairs on Miss M's eyebrow.

Though Mr. B is already gray, he has been aging more like the 'Velveteen Pitbull'. Much like the rabbit in the beloved book, we noticed Mr. B is becoming a bit more worn.

The fur on his elbows has worn off:

The ends of his ears are becoming tattered and frayed:

And the hair on his nose has rubbed away from being petted:

But just like the Skin Horse so wisely explains in the book: this is what happens when you are loved for a long, long time.