Miss M: The Over-Confident Dog

We've always considered ourselves lucky that we have confident dogs.
Confident that they can walk the city streets without problem.
Confident they invite foster dogs into their home without caring.
And confident that they're unfazed by random drunk festival-goers who over-excitedly grab at their lips.

But then we have Miss M who is Over-confident.
Over-confident in her athletic abilities

 Over-confident that other dogs want her to use them as furniture

Over-confident that everyone she meets will want to meet her even more.

Miss M is over-confident in herself.
Even though I know she lacks in athletic skill (and apparently direction).
That when she's with a group of dogs she's really "that dog". The one trying to keep up with the gaggle all playing together and being left behind.
And the thing I remember the most, is when we were in another neighborhood, and there was a little fluffy puppy tied up outside the coffeeshop. Nearly every single person who walked by stopped to pet that puppy. And Miss M would get so excited that they'd come pet her next. So excited that she would begin curling her lip and wiggling her entire body in anticipation. But no one stopped to pet her. Not a single person. Each time she would swivel her head to watch them pass by, but instead of being sad, she would just swivel her head back start curling her lip and wiggling her entire body. I still remember it. And it made me a bit sad.
Though Miss M has never been sad for herself. Miss M is over-confident.

DoggyStyle: Having Pets in a Smaller Space without Sacrificing Style

  

One of the biggest misconceptions we always hear is that you can't own a big dog in a city condo. There are obviously so many of us in the city owning big dogs, and we've always been particularly impressed with Yellow Brick Home blog. Besides creating a gorgeous home--under 700 square feet!--it is also home to their pitbull Jack and 2 cats: Libby and Maddie. After stalking their blog for awhile, we were so excited to be able to meet them in real life; they were on our inaugural SociaBulls trek, and you may also recognize Jack with his infamously stylish Bomber Jacket. Since they create everything themselves, and they have such a beautiful home, we asked them to share some tips about integrating pets into a small space while maintaining style.

Scott and I love our home. It's not big (coming in at under 700 square feet), but it's where I work, where we play and where we raise three very hairy, wet-nosed kids. I say this with complete adoration, as our kiddos, Jack, Libby and Maddie, are of the four-legged variety.

 

In our virtual corner of the web, Yellow Brick Home, we write about all things DIY and making our city condo so very us while not sacrificing style (in a such a small home, no less!) with five warm bodies in the mix. With every design decision we make, we must take into account how the whole family will react. Will the girls claws get caught in this fabric weave? Will the natural fibers in this rug make Jack think it's suitable for lunch?

 

As much as we might love a certain (insert home accessory item of your choice here), we won't spend the money or waste the time if we know it's not a good fit for all of us. One question we hear from our friends and readers is this: how in the world do you maintain your small home with two cats and a big dog? There's no one answer, but there are plenty of ways that we integrate our favorite little dudes into the home we all share. 
1. Just because Jack is a slobbery, excitable, muddy-pawed (and adorable, awesome and too cute) pup, this doesn't mean we can't have items we love. We purchased our sofa off of Craigslist - a steal after the seller realized the Room & Board design didn't work with her vision. We're a no-dog-on-the-furniture household, and after repeated failed efforts of finding Jack cuddled on the couch, our veterinarian recommended this solution: when we're not home, place an upside-down office mat (spiky side up) on our cushions. When not in use, we tuck the plastic pieces under our couch, out of sight.

  

2. Because we like to keep our home style more personal, we try to think outside the box when it comes to pet toys and furniture, rather than purchase pet specific items. The felines in our home don't seem to enjoy fake mice or feathers on string, but they do love to chase the laser pointer. This cuts down on toy clutter, and when not in use, we tuck their "toy" in a drawer! And for Jack's naps, we use an oversized Ikea floor pillow that doesn't scream dog bed!

 

3. We vacuum several times a week, and we lint roll small areas in between clean ups. This seems obvious, but all hell breaks loose if we skip these simple tasks too many times in a row. Remember, our home is small. This affords us the luxury of tag teaming a 10-15 minute clean up three times a week. Once or twice a month, we'll do a larger clean up (such as washing the dog "bed", throw pillow covers and using vacuum attachments to de-fur curtains and furniture), but staying on track with multi-week mini clean ups make all  the difference.

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4. We furminate. I kid you not, the Furminator has changed our lives. The kiddos love their brush-time, they lose about 5 lbs of hair in the process (an instant slim-down!), and our home stays cleaner in the process.

 

 5. While we love fresh flowers in our home, it's more of a luxury than the weekly (or bi-weekly) treat that we wish we could do. This is for a couple of reasons: 
1) Maddie and Libby love nothing more than a lunch of leafy greens; leaving plants/flowers on a table out of sight results in the plant's untimely death (not to mention, some greens can be poisonous for cats), and 2) Jack's happy, heavy body with a mind of it's own can knock a vase off the coffee table with just a flick of his tail. We do pick up flowers here and there, but we have to be very strategic in their display. So to quench our need for a little continuous plant life in the home, we've taken to terrariums. Not only are they fun to make, but you can personalize them with trinkets and toys - and the vessel shape deters kitty paws and curiosities.

 

Like I mentioned earlier, it's important for us to remember that everything we bring into our home has the potential to affect our pets, too. Jute rugs are off limits (they too closely resemble scratching posts), wool blankets are a no-go (Jack loves to nibble a natural, yummy throw) and we're big fans of modular Flor tiles (for an easy swap if needed). But with some creative thinking and easy every-other-day maintenance, your home can still have style - even with a big ol' pup in tow. For more info, you can read an in-depth discussion for our hairy situations, see our house tour or visit our pet portraiture shop. Thank you A and E for having us stop in!

City Dog: How to Have a Good Time at the Parade with Your Dog

 Besides hearing "Is that a camera?" and "How does he get his hat to stay on?", the other biggest question people always have is how our pooches are so well-behaved despite all the chaos around them. St. Patrick's day is always crazy in Chicago. This year the holiday being on a weekend, coupled with insane 80 degree weather,  had a lot of people out, many who were very excited to meet the pooches:

Luckily we've done a lot of work with our dogs where big noises and crowds don't phase them. Last year we wrote this post about "How to Prepare to take your Dog to a Parade" detailing some of the steps we took to prepare them. Since we learned some new things this year, here are some tips about what to anticipate when bringing your dog to a parade.

Anticipate Triggers and Advocate for your Dog:

 Parades are filled with all kinds of scary noises, people acting erratically, and food on the ground. Miss M is a very confident, but she has a strange fear of cigarettes, fiddles and bagpipes. When someone approaches us, I make sure to have her step back and explain to the people that these things scare her. Mr. B was happy to step in and take a photo with the bagpipers, and luckily, these are things we only see once a year.
We also know there will be a lot of drunk and really excited people who will just make a grab for our dogs. We always make sure to act in the best interests of our dogs, so if our dogs seem uncomfortable we don't hesitate from asking people not to grab at them, and we show them the proper greeting of putting your hand out, backwards, so our pooches will give them kisses.

Be Prepared: 

 We make sure to bring extra supplies for the pooches and even have a pooch specific bag. They tend to get worked up from all the excitement, so we make sure to bring a collapsible bowl and water, a bandana we can dip in water if they get hot, sunscreen, extra poo bags, hand sanitizer and a sarong for us to sit on. Though from the photo above you'd guess Mr. B is drinking green beer.

Practice Wearing Costumes:

 We know if dogs are already nervous or uncomfortable wearing a costume will just compound that. We've always been mindful of the gear our dogs wear, and we're careful to introduce it slowly with positive associations in our house. Luckily our pooches have become more accustomed to wearing things, but here's an earlier post we wrote about dressing your dog for parades.
 For more photos of the dogs at the parade, plus a video taken from Mr. B's point-of-view, be sure to check this post.

 These are things that work for us. Does anyone else have any advice for successfully bringing your dog into a large crowd?

Things To Do in Chicago with Dogs: Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade & Dog Paparazzi

Our pooches love meeting people, so we always take advantage of any opportunity to get them out there. Especially if it involves wearing costumes. So living in Chicago, where it's an annual tradition to dye the Chicago River green for St Patrick's Day, we knew this unseasonably warm March was the perfect chance to head downtown to meet a lot of people. A lot of people.

 Much like when the pooches attended the Pride Parade, they were surrounded by 'paparazzi' eager to take photos and meet them.

 Miss M is always eager to pose for photos, striking her signature Zoolander look.
We were always curious how this all looked from the pooches point-of-view, so Mr B decided to bring along his camera and take a video showing what it feels like to be a celebrity surrounded by paparazzi.

We weren't able to get far. See what the pooches see in this video from their perspective. (Mr B even has a kissing scene!)

You can see from the video how happy they are to have the attention, but at the same time we're always aware of their needs and watching whether they may need to rest away from the crowds.

SociaBulls: A Shy Dog Making Sense of a "People World"

We are always interested in hearing what all the different dogs get from the walks, and we were especially interested in hearing more about shy SociaBulls member Nabi. You may have glimpsed Nabi as part of this vaudeville post or remembered this great post about learning to walk two dogs at the same time. Nabi and her brother Willie are very active members of SociaBulls; their mom is even New Member co-coordinator.
What we never realized was how severely shy Nabi is. Here Nabi's mom explains how walking with the other dogs is a comfort to Nabi as she tries to make more sense of the "people world". She is beginning to slowly build up positive associations with scary things in a safe environment. Here is Nabi's story along with photos of our latest SociaBulls walk (including many smiling pooches!).

 One of the great things for us about participating in Chicago SociaBulls is how our Korean jindo, Nabi, seems so different from many of our members, but can also benefit from the same walks.  If you research the typical traits of jindos, you'll see descriptions such as:  aloof and typically not interested in affection from strangers, takes time to bond with a new owner, and tends to be independent minded rather than driven by a desire to please.  The jindo characteristics seem to me to be the opposite of the people-oriented and eager-to-please nature I have come to associate with many of our members.  

 Nabi has many of the jindo characteristics in spades, and this is compounded by the fact that she is very shy.  We believe she was kept outside with other dogs and had little human contact for the first two years of her life.  When we adopted her, she was scared of everything associated with normal pet life, including being touched, a brush, the car, a water bowl, and even a dog bed.  She has always been much more confident when outside.  She absolutely loves walks, could easily walk for hours every day, and she's never been afraid of outdoor noises like thunderstorms.    

With Nabi, it's always been like "dog world" makes sense to her, but "people world" sometimes doesn't.  While many of our members are working on containing over-excitement when their dog sees other dogs (including us, with our dog Willie), the presence of other dogs tends to reassure Nabi.  She came to us with great dog social skills and will become more confident and curious when she sees other dogs, and she walks calmly next to pretty much any dog.  In contrast, she is unsure of herself with people.  It took over a year for her to really start trusting us, and we're definitely the only ones who ever get to see her playful and goofy side.  With everyone else, her behavior ranges from cautious interest to nervous avoidance. 

When we're walking with the pack, Nabi gets into the rhythm of the walk and often doesn't seem to even notice that she's in a crowd of people.  However, we know that the Chicago SociaBulls walks aren't a magic wand that will cure Nabi's shyness, and I believe the reality is that she will always be shy.  Progress with Nabi is incremental and needs to be measured in terms of months or years, rather than weeks.  The walks help us to very slowly build up positive associations with the scary things in a safe environment.  We hope that over time, this, along with continued work at home and elsewhere, will help her stay more relaxed around other people.  

Nabi is the only jindo in SociaBulls (so far!), but she doesn't know that she's different or that she's walking with a group of many pit bull type dogs that some people find "scary".  What Nabi finds scary is the inexplicable things people sometimes do.  With the pack, she's in an environment that makes sense to her, where they're all just dogs, walking without judgment, looking ahead.

 You can also read about more SociaBulls Members: Sprocket (Teaching a Dog When it's not Time to Play), Lola (Living in the City with a Dog who Fears Strangers),  Zoe (The Dog who "Loves Too Hard"),  Izzy (Being a good pitbull ambassador while working with an energetic dog) and Maize (Being social with an unsocial pup).
Plus, join our Chicago SociaBulls  Facebook page for more photos and information about group walks. We've been hearing about so many people starting great groups in their areas. Check the 'likes' on the Chicago SociaBulls page to see if a group has started by you. If you have a group and you don't see it on our Facebook page, please let us know so we can add you!

Mr. B's Security Stuffy

Mr. B is much like Linus from the Peanuts gang. On most days he will try to sneak by and bring one of his many stuffies on our daily walk.

Though they usually stay at home, every so often we will let him bring along one of his best friends.

 

Sometimes, he will even find a new best friend while on our walk, but A will never let him bring it into the house. 

Poor Mr. B, the lengths he go to to just bring a companion on the walk. As seen in the video, nearly every time we're set to go, he can't decide between his two favorite activities: going on a walk, or hanging with his stuffy:

DoggyStyle: Dog Organization

With all of the pooches' collars, hoodies, and costumes I'm always afraid their stuff will become so overwhelming that I'll feel like I'm living in an aisle of Petsmart. Lately we were talking to someone who didn't think they had the physical room to have a dog, and especially the dog's stuff, while living in a condo. Here are some easy things we've learned to keep the pooches' stuff accessible, without taking over our space.

Stackable Bins: 

We keep these open bins near the pooches' beds for easy access to their stuff. We just stash their costumes, sweaters, and   backpacks I picked these up at Target a few years ago, but we also use these inexpensive stacking boxes from Ikea, in white for our own stuff. They are easy to stack in a closet, bookshelf, or even as underbed storage.

Pooch Specific Bags:

 We keep all of their supplies together in a ready-packed bag so we're always ready to go. We have a summer walk bag filled with supplies  for Farmer's market jaunts and impromptu picnics, we have a separate bag for SociaBulls walks, and another bag for Overnight trips. We found it was easier to just keep that stuff all together, than store it and have to repack all the time.

Hooks for Coats, Collars, and Leashes:

 We have hooks at our front and back entrances where we keep the pooches leashes, and hang up their coats. We like the flip hook racks from Umbra so the hooks don't always need to be out if there is nothing on it. We also picked up this hook set for ourback entrance for extra leashes.

Toy Bins:

 (Because you're supposed to notice the toy bin in the photo above).
We've learned young dogs shouldn't have a 'choice' of toys and you should really only have a couple of toys out at a time for them to play with. But since our guys are kind of older and don't play with toys as much, we just toss all of their stuff in the bin next to their crate. Added value: since it's accessible to Miss M, we have trained her to put her pick up the toys strewn about and put them away on command. If you've never seen her do this, you can watch the video by clicking here. 
 We have a whole separate system, with a separate post, for their food. What other tips do you have for keeping the dog stuff organized?

Daily Walk 3.14.12

The weather was perfect for both our SociaBulls and our afternoon walk on Sunday. Mr. B was so excited to get out and take some pictures of our neighborhood alive with people, 

but Miss M was none too pleased leaving the comfort of her bed to go on another walk. 

She soon got over it when she met some new people eager to give her some loving. 

 

Mr. B was just so happy to be out and about, but then again, he never complains and he enjoys everything we do together. 

He cannot wait until we can do these longer walks every weekend.