Pooches: The Never-Final Product

Sometimes it's so easy to get frustrated with our pups, we forget how far we've come.
When Miss M first came to live with me, she acted like she was raised by wolves.
She didn't know how to sit still in our apartment and she would only move by leaping like a puma.
Any attempts at bathing turned into an episode of the roadrunner and coyote.
She thought the leash was just there for her chewing pleasure to enjoy while walking.
I remember the huge sense of accomplishment I felt when she was just able to walk straight on a leash--without chewing it.

Through time and training, Miss M became a type of debutante accustomed to all types of occasions in the city.
She didn't need to be entertained every moment in the home and she would walk like a normal dog rather than a large hunting cat.
She would stand nicely in the bathtub even taking joint baths with Mr. B and standing under cold water if the hot water ran out.
Our nice leash walking turned into sitting at corner walking which turned into sitting at a corner and waving walking.
I could even set a steak dinner on the coffee table and leave her alone in the room with it for 10 minutes knowing it would be there when I returned.

Though it's amazing to think how far she's come, I always feel like there is still so much more to do.
Do you think there is ever a time when we have worked enough? Or will our pups always be a work-in-progress?

Also:
The command that changed our lives.
Impressive!
When they show off

SociaBulls: The Things we Carry

When I was thinking about all the different types of bags we prepare for our dogs, I realized we also have a bag specifically for our SociaBulls walks. 

The pups always get excited, knowing it's SociaBulls time, whenever we take out our bag. 

These are the things we carry for the entire group and ourselves:

First Aid Kit

Many of our walks are filled with broken glass, plus seeing how easily this can happen, we were so excited when Maria and Radar's people put together a first-aid kit for the group. It's comprehensive enough that it includes supplies for all types of incidents (thanks Maria and Radar's people!)

Deterrent:

Since we are a walking group in the city, we work to find places that aren't as populated where we won't run into as many other people and dogs. It seems like in many cases other people have the same idea and our secret spots are really secret off-leash dog spots. While it has never happened, in the small chance an aggressive off-leash or stray dog tries to approach any of the dogs in our group we have: a blow horn and citronella direct-stop spray. (We wrote more about it, here!)

Walkie Talkies

For some of our bigger walks where there might be street crossings where people get left back, our dogless walkers carry walkie talkies at the front and the back to make sure nobody gets left behind.

Water & Bowls

Especially since the weather was so hot during the summer, we stop halfway through our walks for a water break. We've also learned a lot about portable water bowls after seeing what many of the other members use.

High-Value Treats

The walks can be so exciting for the dogs, we ask members to bring high-value treats to keep their pups focused on them. This helps eliminate any hard stares and overall excitement for the pups as they are focusing on their people. It's also really important at the beginning and during the water breaks.

What are some other must-haves people bring on their walks?

Join our Chicago SociaBulls Facebook page for more photos and information about group walks. And check out the Hikabull page where we first learned about the benefits of group walking.

Also:

Have you seen what really happens at the water breaks?

Sometimes these things happen

A secret.

Pooches: The Roommates

Most people assume the pooches love playing with each other.

But really...they never do.

And we love that they rarely interact.

When we were first looking for a second dog, we thought that we needed a dog that would play with Miss M all day long. 

Little did we realize that all day would mean all night, all morning, all afternoon, all evening and then back to all night. 

The first dog we were considering adopting turned our life upside down during the foster-to-adopt period. Miss M and the foster would rough house at all time of the day and night. We would wake up to the dogs slamming against the bed, running up and down the hall and wrestling on the floor. After three weeks of sleepless nights, we finally decided that this was not the life for us and we had to find a dog that would tolerate but could careless about Miss M. 

Sure enough, we found the perfect dog for our lifestyle, Mr. B. Though Miss M loves to provoke Mr. B by chewing on his hind legs, shoving a tug toy into his face and even taking hostage a beloved stuffy, Mr. B will either ignore her instigation or save his stuffy and run to his safe place, his tepee. 

When needed, he is quick to oblige and become her favorite pillow and chair.

Do other people have pups that love to play? Or are happy just co-existing as roommates?

Also:

Why they make the perfect pair

Or are they more like this?

Remember when Miss M tried to play like this?

DoggyStyle: Creating a Dog-Specific Entry

People are always curious about owning dogs when you don't have a backyard and your pup depends on you for daily walks. We've realized all it really takes is a routine and a bit of (easy!) organization. We wrote before about how we budget our time for that before-work walk.

We also have an entry way set-up that makes things more manageable. 

Accessible Leashes, City Bag, and Raincoats:

We bought some hooks to help us organize our dogwalking supplies more easily. Each of the pups has a hook for their leashes and raincoats.  It's also nice for us to hang our dog-specific city bag with the supplies we need for our walks; we wrote more about it, here. Our hooks are the flip hook racks by umbra, and we like how they flip up when they're not in use.

Dog Boot Drying and Preventative Cleaning:

With the icy, salt-strewn sidewalks, our pups need to wear boots during the winter. Things were getting a bit messy, so we decided to add a boot drying tray filled with black river rocks. The river rocks let the water drip through and keep their boots dry.

We've also realized one way to keep our home cleaner is to take little steps each day. We use kids' hand wipes to wipe the pups' feet after each of our walks to keep floor cleaning to a minimum. We also keep towels in our umbrella basket.

The Late-Night or Unexpected Trip:

Miss M is afraid of the dark

Just so we're not fumbling for clothes if we need to make a last minute trip outside, we each keep a pair of slip-on shoes accessible by the door. I also keep a long trench coat to throw on over any night clothes which is much quicker than being fully dressed. Though we do have a neighbor who is always out in her bathrobe.

What are some other must-haves you include in your entry way for your pup?

Also: 

When we talk about what's not talked about

Another use for a front-entry bench
Dog Bags!

Things to Do in Chicago with Your Dog: Taco Crawling

The other weekend we had some friends in town visiting from Pittsburgh. They said the one thing they were really excited about was having the chance to get some really good tacos. Since our neighborhood lives on tacos, we couldn't decide on a single place to go.
So, we created a 'taco crawl'.
We picked a couple of our favorite places and traveled around eating a few tacos.
While our plan was foiled by full stomachs, we thought it would be fun to try again, of course with our pups in tow.

We don't believe in dog parking, so we like to pick places with outdoor seating, pick-up windows, or to call ahead and have one of us pick it up and eat in the park. We've been refining our list, but here are some of the places where we have crawled:

Picante Taqueria:
A traditional taqueria with a huge menu. We like that it has a large outdoor dining area with a lot of room for the pups to sit, but not a lot of dog traffic walking by.

Takito:
This restaurant, that opened just across the street, serves modern tacos. They come in orders of 3, for around $11, though these tacos are a bit on the smaller side (which I guess makes them perfect for a taco crawl because we were still hungry). We tried the pork belly and grilled cheese tacos. They have a communal outdoor seating area that allows dogs, but there was a longer wait and it seemed a bit tight. We took ours to go to eat on a nearby bench.

Antique Taco
This is another modern taco restaurant serving things like horchata milkshakes (my favorite!) and rosemary margaritas. While their tacos are amazing, my favorite thing is the cheese curd chili. They are always super-busy and I don't think dogs are officially allowed on the patio (though we were there when it was colder and later at night and it was ok). They have a long wait, so it's easiest to call ahead and take it to go for a picnic in the park.

La Pasadita:
We love the traditional steak tacos, and also the fact that it is open until 3am. We love getting these on the go when walking with the pups. Or for eating in the park.

Big Star:
These are definitely the easiest tacos to get with dogs. Besides having an outdoor walk-up window, they have a huge outdoor area with picnic tables and they are right next to Wicker Park if you want to take it to go.
We even spent the night taco-crawling with some of our favorite dog friends.
Recognize these familiar faces? They've also had cameos here, here and here.

 We can't be the only ones who have tried this? Does anyone else taco crawl, or do any other type of food-crawl with your pooches?

Also:
Perfect for when we're doing this in the summer
Our new crawl?
Our favorite!

Pooches: On Meeting Pitbulls and Responses

I never imagined I would one day own a pitbull.

When I was originally looking to adopt, I too believed everything I heard from the media.

I didn't want to adopt a pitbull.
I didn't want a dog that possibly looked like a pit bull.
I didn't want a dog who possibly had any trace of a pitbull.
That is...until I met my first pit bull. And my second. And Miss M became mine.

I suddenly realized, I had never met a pit bull-type dog before. And it became my mission to allow other people to meet our pit bulls, so they could have these same realizations themselves. 

While we have had so many positive experiences where people can't believe our dogs are so different from the terrible stories playing across the media, we have also had some conversations where I'm not sure how to react.
Sometimes after meeting our dogs, people will say "It's all in how they're raised".
Which we all know isn't true (especially in our case since we adopted Mr B when he was already 5. Miss M was 2.)
Or people will say "They're great dogs...until you have kids".

Most of the time this is said by people we just meet on the street, and I know we don't have enough time to really explain why this isn't true, or whether they would really listen to a drawn out explanation.

Does anyone have any good, short 1 sentence responses for when you hear these types of comments?

Also:
If you do own a pit bull-type dog....
How much do people really love pit bulls?
The reality of pitbull owners

Sociabulls: Keeping our Momentum

Since our initial walk, nearly two years ago, our group has successfully trekked through two Chicago winters, an extra hot summer, and planned around numerous Chicago events taking over our walking locations.We have even grown to having two walks per week, though I feel like we have only canceled less than 10 walks this entire time (mostly rain related).

We're always still a group in progress, and a lot of what we learn is definitely through trial-and-error, though here are some things we've learned that help us keep our momentum.

Establishing Routine:

From the beginning, we established a weekly day and time when people know we'll be having our walks. We change our locations, but our timing doesn't change. We know this helps people plan ahead and know when they can join a walk, and I also know how hard it is to pick up if you fall out of a routine. Sometimes our second walk would be a bit smaller during the winter, but we decided to keep it because we know important it is to stay consistent.

Sharing Planning Responsibilities:

While the walks look effortless, there is actually a lot of coordination going on behind each of the walks, and we even have a SociaBulls Board. I work with Maize's person on each week's event planning. We research online to see if there are any races, events, or traffic issues preventing us from walking in a location (some things can be really, really hard to find!). We monitor the packs for each walk making sure we have a balanced group so it will be a successful experience for each dog. Maize's person spends a lot of time speaking with specific people about how their dog has been doing and sets up a pack order. We send approvals, emails, and designate walk responsibilities.

Zoe and Willie & Nabi's people work with the new members. They do a lot of work with the new member applications, scheduling orientation walks, finding new member buddies for each walk, answering a lot of questions, handing the facebook page (and a lot of other things I'm always forgetting). 

Sharing Group Responsibilities:

Since our board can't possibly make it to every walk, we designate responsibilities to help each walk run smoothly. We assign responsibilities to specific dogless walkers: reading the pack order, organizing the dogless walker line up, and determining when to stop for and resume water breaks. We have people responsible for checking the weather and determining if there needs to be a weather related cancelation. We also have members working as New Member Buddies who walk with and talk to the new members coming on their orientation walks to help them understand the group.

There really are so many people who have helped our group remain successful.
For those in walking groups, what are some other things you've learned about keeping the momentum? Or even just trying to keep up with your own dog walks on a regular basis?

Join our Chicago SociaBulls Facebook page for more photos and information about group walks. And check out the Hikabull page where we first learned about the benefits of group walking.

Also:
And this is what we mean by Dogless Walker.
Numbers!
Another positive part of being weekly

Pooches: Miss M's "Mr. Big"

Sometimes we recommend that our single friends go out with our friends since we've realized 
Miss M and Mr. B are pick up artists.

When Miss M and A were bachelorettes together, Miss M had no filter and wanted to meet everyone. She would especially spend a lot of time with the people A didn't want to talk to .
As she's gotten older, she has saved her extreme excitement for specific people. Though the specific people she chooses are so different, I can never tell why she wants to meet that exact person.
It is like they are the person of her dreams:

Just yesterday I took the pups for a walk around the bustling streets of our neighborhood, and  Miss M was her normal self: greeting people whenever they said hi with her signature whole body wiggle, bulging eyes and grinning smile. Then we walked past this one gentleman and Miss M was completely stunned. She just couldn't stop staring at the guy. 

 I could tell the guy was uncomfortable with her staring, though he eventually asked if he could meet her. Before I could say yes, Miss M used of her might, to pull both me and Mr. B towards the guy to meet him. Her face grinned and her body wiggled like she had finally met the person of her dreams.

 Even I was shocked by how happy she looked, and I had to ask if he had ever met Miss M before. He
 assured me that this was their first time.
It looked like Miss M was never going to let her "Mr. Big" slip away, but I was able to divert her attention with a treat to allow the guy to slip away.
Before she knew it, her "Mr. Big" has disappeared.
She spent the next few blocks looking hopefully for him

 But he was nowhere to be found:

Maybe he was just the one who got away.
Meanwhile, Mr B....never realized any of this happened. He was just happy to go for a walk.

Does anyone else have 'Pick-up Artist" pups? Or do you know why dogs really want to meet specific people?

Also:
At least she has high self-esteem
 Though if you ever feel bad for her, you should always remember this and even this.

DoggyStyle: Put a Pillow on It

We don't know how our pups became so fancy, but they started giving us subliminal messages that they needed more pillows in their lives:

Or maybe not so subliminal:

Besides the pups actually using the pillows, we like how adding a pillow makes an inexpensive, plain dog bed into something nicer that blends in with our home. 

We made them twin dog beds, ala: a fifties sitcom:

Though after scouting around on Pinterest, I'm thinking Mr. B's tepee might be a little more fun with more pillows.

Do other pups like laying with pillows, or are our pooches just a bit too high maintenance?

Also:

Remember that time Miss M was 'framed' by a pillow?

Ideas for inexpensive dog beds and Saving money by using human products for dogs

Things to Do in Chicago with Dogs: 36 Hours in Downtown Chicago with Dogs

 While we love traveling, we have found everything has become twice as expensive owning dogs. Besides the cost of our own trip, boarding for two dogs can be as much as our own hotel (per night!). We've been learning more about trips to include our pups which include things we all like to do.
I recently realized the New York Times has compiled their "36 Hours in..." series into a book. 
And I thought it would be fun to make our own dog-friendly version.
Last week we wrote about 1 day in downtown Chicago with your dog.
This is our Part II.

Riverwalk

This time leave from your hotel heading in the opposite direction down Michigan Avenue. We discovered that while Miss M can navigate things like this with ease (and in costume!)  her Kryptonite is bridges. We could only cross towards the loop by going under and walking along the river. The area is fairly empty and quiet which can be good for dogs who are scared by noises.
If you are traveling in the summer, one of our favorite experiences is the Mercury Canine Cruise   which is a dog-specific architectural tour where you can cruise with your pooch down the Chicago River and part of Lake Michigan.

The Loop

The Loop is the part of downtown south of the Michigan Avenue shopping area where most people work. It's encircled by our Brown Line elevated train (which runs in a loop!) which makes it especially noisy and busy if your pup can handle it.
 In the Loop you will see much of Chicago's amazing architecture, take photos outside the famous Chicago Theater signs and over the holidays you can even visit the famous Marshall Fields windows (we did!).While most visitors don't know and they spend hours waiting in line at another location, this is where you should visit Chicago's Garret's Popcorn on Jackson or Madison (yes, it really is that good!) where you will be in and out in minutes. We also like Do-Rite donuts.
We never recommend dog parking, so only do this if you're with someone else.
Dogs aren't allowed in Millennium Park, but you can sit in Grant Park, or one of the pocket parks.

Public Art

Mr. B finds his dad!

Chicago has a lot of outdoor art including a huge Picasso statue in Daley Plaza, infamous Art Institute Lions and these unusual body sculptures in Grant Park. You can hang out in any of the plazas, or grab something to eat and sit at Buckingham Fountain.

Museum Campus and Lakefront

Some of the best views of the city are walking along the Chicago lakefront and through the museum campus. The area south of the museum campus is more isolated, and it even has stairs, which are perfect for these types of Pier Picnics. Take the lakefront path back to your hotel.

What are your must-see's that you would include in your 36 Hours?

Also:
Our dogs are cultured!
City Dogs
Dogs in Hotels
City Lights, Navy Pier, and Dogs in Nordstroms