Pooches: "Running Like a Dog" Marathon Training

I have been running Marathons for the past 6 years. When I'm in training, this involves a lot of rigorous running, set schedules, and specialized eating programs.
A fellow runner once marveled that the secret of some professional runners is that they aren't as strict with their schedules and they just "run how they feel". So instead of following a set number of miles for training, they may decide they're feeling great and go further, or go less if they're not feeling it. This helps them enjoy running so they keep doing it for fun rather than view it as work. Since I'm embarking on my 7th Marathon this year, I have lost some of that initial spark, and I was thinking I might need to use this philosophy.
I don't personally know any professional runners, but I do know others who just run how they feel:I originally thought it would be a great idea to use Mr. B. as my marathon-training partner. Unfortunately, with the terrible heat and humidity Mr. B. has been feeling more like this:Basically, I couldn't get him to run all summer.
At the same time, with all the fostering, parental visits, trips, and classes I've been taking this summer, I haven't really been feeling like running either. Embarrassingly enough, I have only been running 1-2 times a week.* Though I still have some muscle memory, I'm not sure if this is enough to carry me through the entire marathon.
But I did decide I will take this approach and "train how I feel" and see in a few weeks whether I'm prepared to run. Ironically, the other day I struggled through 5 miles; however, on Sunday I was able to breeze through a 20 mile training run and still volunteer for an adoption event immediately afterwards. My long run was amazing, traveling along Chicago's beautiful lakefront path, and it made me remember why I enjoy running.

*Disclaimer: I wouldn't advise this type of program for new runners. Going too far too fast could lead to terrible injuries.

Pooches: A Date with Mr. B.

Since we are a 2-dog and 2-person household, it just kind of worked out that we have "His and Her" dogs. I always gravitate towards Miss M, and when we go for family walks, given our Bachelorette history, and E walks Mr. B.
I have never actually taken Mr. B. for a walk by himself.
The other day I wanted to go read in the park. Knowing Miss M wanted to spend her afternoon like this:
I decided Mr. B. would be the perfect companion to take to the park. Although, Miss M. wasn't too happy about this idea. She gave us stinkeye as we were leaving:I didn't realize what a different experience it would be to walk Mr. B. Sure, I walk both dogs together in the morning, but I think there is something about just walking dog that suggests leisure and encourages people to stop and talk to you.
Mr. B. is more of a musclehead, and he attracts a lot of guys. Just on our mile walk to the park, we were stopped by at least 6 different guys. Nearly all of our conversations centered around what a "beast" he is, and how I am "able to walk such a big dog". Mr. B. is also a bit more aloof, and doesn't rush to be petted like Miss M. He was also able to lay nicely at the park without acting like a Bovine.It just seemed like a strange realization that I had never done an activity with Mr. B. on his own. Is it common in most multi-dog households to have favorites? And is having a favorite the only way to be "fair"?

Pooches: Restraint and Respect

The other day, a friend of ours marveled how we can leave all sorts of food and things lying around, and our dogs won't try to eat them.Sure, they'll get really close to our food and smell it, but the truth is, even though there is nothing our pooches love more than food, we know they wouldn't dare try to eat any of it It is common for us to leave entire meals, including steak dinners, at dog-eye level and we can leave the room knowing it will be there when we get back.
One way that we have trained them to have restraint, is that they need to "wait" before eating. Each meal, we place the bowl between their paws and they need to wait patiently before they're allowed to eat. They take it quite seriously, sitting as still as statues. Once I even left the room, forgetting the dogs were waiting, and when I returned 10 minutes later they were still waiting for permission to eat.
Until we had our dogs, I never really believed it was possible to even have food on the counters without the dogs getting into it. Growing up, we had to keep all food hidden from counters since our Bassethounds would countersurf and grab anything in reach. I'm not sure I could ever have trained our other dogs to have done this.
I'm not sure whether this has been a training success, or a breed benefit where pitbulls are just really respectful. What have your experiences been with dogs, food, and limits?

Travel: Daily Walk in 10 Pictures 08.18.10

Though a lot of hotels in Manuel Antonio boasted that we will see monkeys from our window, we mainly saw a lot of these giant spiders. We saw more interesting animals on the streets of Costa Rica than in the rainforest. This dog lived in a house near one of our hotels and he looked a lot like Ms. M. He even lazed around all day like her.

Everywhere we went, especially in Manuel Antonio and Quepos, we saw dogs just laying around or walking about and hanging out with other dogs.
This dog was passed out in the middle of the bus terminal and he didn't even move when people were standing all around him.
We hardly ever see Dalmatians where we live, but we saw quite a few in Costa Rica and one even lived at the firehouse in Quepos.

There were dogs that would walk around everywhere in Manuel Antonio and we thought they were strays like the one below, but then we would see them in front of a house or beckoning to someone's call. Jorge from the Toucan Rescue Ranch told us that many people let their dogs run free and the dogs come back home at night.

A loved this dog because she spent all day jumping in the waves and we saw her the next day back on the beach playing and jumping in the waves again.

We saw several small pet shops in La Fortuna and Quepos that had small puppies for sale. Strange thing is that we think we saw two dogs that looked exactly the same as the ones below in cage in front of someone's house.

When we were looking for a hotel in Manuel Antonio, we kept seeing what looked like the same cat in every hotel that we visited. A thinks that the cats were all from the same litter and they were given as a gift to each hotel.
We did see these really colorful crabs in the rainforest.

Travel: Toucan Rescue Ranch

We had an incredible time hiking through the rain forest, bathing in natural hot springs, laying out on the beach, surfing in Manuel Antonio and eating casado or typical dish at every meal. However, the highlight of our vacation came on the last day when we stayed at the Toucan Rescue Ranch. The Toucan Rescue Ranch is a privately owned wildlife rescue facility that initially focused on the care and rehabilitation of the Costa Rican Toucans, but expanded to include other species of birds including macaws, pygmy owls,
whistling ducks to name a few and other animals including a prehensile-tailed (rainforest) porcupine,
a spider monkey, three slothsand seven dogs.The couple that runs the Toucan Rescue Ranch, Leslie and Jorge, just opened the bed and breakfast part this past year and they were such incredible hosts. They made us feel like we were old friends. They really made us feel at home and Leslie told very engaging stories about the animals which would make an amazing blog. They work with different organizations and accepts almost any animal that is brought in including this rescued spider monkey, Isadora, that was chained up to a pole. Leslie emailed us to inform us that Isadora got out of her cage and just walked right into their house.Since the rescue is privately run, they rely on donations and revenue from their tours, the B&B and their small gift shop. We visited three different rainforest to catch a quick glimpse of sloths, monkeys and birds at the distance,all of which we got to hang out with at the ranch. In addition, they have two farms near a rainforest where they release rehabilitated animals that are capable to be back in the wild. What was shocking to us was to see their dedication to the health of all of the animals. Almost all of the animals are on different feeding schedules, so they spend pretty much all day and night preparing meals, feeding the animals, cleaning out their living spaces, and then preparing the animals for bed. They even built a separate sink as a food preparation station for the animals with a specific sponge for each animal. And we thought it was hard for us to feed two dogs on the same feeding schedule.

In addition, their latest sloth, Georgie must be hand fed every three hours, which is almost like having a newborn human.

We regret that we only had one night, because we didn't get to see their farms which backs into the rainforest where they release rehabilitated animals and drink their homegrown coffee. The amazing thing is that most of the funds for all of their great work comes out of their pocket, so we are developing ways to incorporate their work into our curriculum and come up with fundraising ideas at our schools.

Travel: Adventures in Costa Rica and Dog Relaxation

This past week we were lucky enough to whisk ourselves away for a trip to Costa Rica. Much like people leave their lights on when they're away, we decided to leave our "blog on" so nobody would know we were out-of-town--thieves are quite tricky these days.
We had an amazing week filled with volcanoes, monkeys,hot springs, jungles, beaches, and sloths.
Here is the volcano view from our cabana:
Some of our highlights were:
1) The animals and beaches in the National Parks.We were able to stay by the beach and right near Manuel Antonio National Park. Getting up right when the park opened we were able to hike through the rain forest and encounter white-tailed dear, white-faced monkeys, sloths, a raccoon family with 3 little babies, and an entire colony of howler monkeys before any of the guide groups had gotten there. Some of the people actually feed the animals, which is bad because it harms their digestive systems and can introduce foreign bacteria, and it makes the animals come closer to the people. This tropical raccoon came right up to us looking for food:2) Whitewater Rafting and 45/mph Ziplining through the Jungle
Although Costa Rica has amazing nature, it has also become quite commercialized and expensive. At first we were a bit surprised how expensive everything was, but then we decided to embrace it and go on a couple of adventure tours where we had an incredible time. One of the tours was ziplining above the rain forest with skytrek tours. A tram brings you up to the top and you zipline across the rain forest at speeds up to 45 mph. It wasn't too scary starting out, it was only in the middle that I started to have regret seeing how far up I was and thinking I was going to go right through the volcano. But somehow that all absolved by the time I landed.
Our favorite tour was the Whitewater Rafting with Desafio Adventure Company. The trip was definitely authentic with level 3&4 continuous rapids throughout most of the river. Though we had never really rafted before, the guides were really good explaining everything and making sure we had a really good time; it was like a comedy show. Afterwards, we were treated to a home-cooked meal by their in-house chef.
3) Staying at the Toucan Rescue Ranch
The Toucan Rescue Ranch was started by a couple, Leslie and Jorge, to rescue and rehabilitate injured Costa Rican wildlife. While they started with toucans, they have evolved into helping a variety of needy wildlife including an assortment of birds and owls, sloths, a jungle porcupine and spider-monkey. We stayed in their guesthouse which was definitely the highlight of our trip, and we were able to see all the animals upclose, and even "have dinner" with the sloths. They are an amazing couple who help the animals primarily through their own funding. It was so amazing we are going to do a separate post on it tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Miss M was able to spend the week with her BFF Dainty Miss MThey spent the week going for walks as a pack, chewing bones together, and our Miss M. loved to stare at Dainty Miss M's owner who she regards as a movie star.
And Mr. B was able to return to the Chicago Countryside where he was able to relax laying on the couch, rolling in the grass, and eating Asian pear apples.

Chicagoing: Ms. M 100% Mutt

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.

Another Favorite: Miss M's Over-Attention Problem

Some dogs don't listen enough. But, with Miss M., she listens too much. She seems to have an over-attention problem.
I initially thought it was charming. She literally caught my eye at the adoption event and I thought I had found the perfect dog for me. Little did I realize, I couldn't relax in my own home anymore. There was always someone watching and listening.
She even does this to other people when we go for walks. In our old neighborhood, people found her quite menacing. They would cross the street because they thought she wanted to eat them.
On the other hand, it is this over-attention that has made her so trainable. I wouldn't say she's especially smart, but because she pays such close attention she has actually learned human language. She knows the difference between "go to daycare" (running and jumping around) and "go take a bath" (backing up and leaving the room). She knows certain friends names, and responds to an array of commands. So even though she looks like a cartoon, she keeps the scary people on the streets away from us, and can keep us entertained as a circus dog