Pooches: On Dog Cleaning

Back when Miss M and I were bachelorettes together, one of the biggest problems of being a single girl with a big dog was giving her a bath. Not only did I have to find a way to lift and toss her 75 lb body into the tub, but Miss M took any advantage to escape from the bath. I actually had to don a bathing suit and hop on in with her where I spent more time tackling her than actually cleaning. The mere touch of water gives Miss M a Gremlin-effect where she starts zooming around and would drench everything in my apartment. Not to mention the amount of hair I had to clean out of the tub.

Times have changed and we decided to make our lives easier by taking both the pooches to PetSmart. Here we let the professionals take care of the cleaning, not to mention the toenail clipping and anal gland expression. But lately it's been really hard to find a 3 hour block to devote to dropping off and picking up the dogs, or maybe it's more about the horror of navigating Chicago traffic.

Are there other pain-free solutions to dog bathing? We've already been using Earthbath Cleaning Wipes between baths to fend off the smell of Fritos, but I don't think it really removes dirt. Does anyone else have any great, stress-free dog bath tips? And how long do most people go between baths?

Mr. B's toy struggles

We make sure to supply the pooches with an ample supply of toys. Though most of the toys are shared, they each have their own toys. The only problem is that the toy Ms. M wants always happens to be the one Mr. B is chewing. Typically, Mr. B will be playing nicely with a toy and out of nowhere, Ms. M will show a lot of interest. First she will walk around, spying on the toy.

Then she will ever inch so closely

to the point that she will be sharing the toy with Mr. B.

Without any notice to Mr. B, the toy will mainly be in Ms. M's possession.

If Mr. B tries to keep some sort of ownership, Ms. M will use her monster paws to complete the take over. 

In the end, all Mr. B can do is look to us for some sympathy.

We usually try to dictate the rules and give the toy back to Mr. B, but the same thing will happen all over again. When we first adopted Mr. B, he would growl and guard his toys against Ms. M,  and Ms. M would have to rely on her cunning ways to get the toy. One time, Ms. M got a different toy, bit it to make it squeak and dropped it in front of Mr. B. As Mr. B went to check out the new toy, Ms. M moved around him and grabbed the toy she actually wanted. This was the first time that I realized that she was actually smarter than me. Now poor Mr. B doesn't guard his toys and Ms. M will just blatantly take the toys away from him.

Schwang Manor: The Allure of Pillows

 To defeat the gray and murkiness of the Chicago winter, we like to load up our sofas with brightly colored pillows and pretend it's Spring in our house year round.

While we already have floor pillows scattered around as extra 'beds' for the pooches, we thought it would be cute to give them each a throw pillow for their dog beds:

Maybe this was a mistake. All of a sudden, our super-obedient Mr. B has become obsessed with pillows. So much to the point that he will sneak onto the couch to rest his luggy head on the throw pillows when we're gone. He knows it's wrong, and we can always tell when he does something wrong because he gives this guilty-appeasement look while pretending he was in his tepee the whole time:

But then again, maybe we should just add some throw pillows to his tepee. Maybe it won't completely deter him from his antics, but might be a fun winter project, and his crate could use some brightening. I think dogs just like being able to have something to rest their heads on. Do other dogs like using pillows like this? And does anyone actually have pillows in addition to dog beds?

Life lessons from Mr. B

This weekend, I tried to organize the little things in our house, including the stack of magazines in our front room. In the process, I got sidetracked and started going through the January 2011 Real Simple. In the issue, it had a funny and insightful article about 5 things we can learn from our pets. From this I realized that there was a lot I can learn from Mr. B about being a better life partner, such as
1. Enjoy just being together, lying out in the warm sunlight.
A and I try to maximize our weekends, by running as many errands as we can, driving all around the city and even into the suburbs. Oftentimes our weekends are busier and more stressful than the week. Just like Mr. B and Ms. M, we should spend more weekends just boarding ourselves in

and laying around in the warm sunlight.

2. Give her space. We live in such a small space with two large dogs, but the pooches don't seem to mind the tight quarters. In their 'nest', Mr. B is happy to curl himself into a little ball, while Ms. M takes up more than half the bed and all the pillows. I thought about getting a larger 'nest' for the pooches and bed for us. But, like the pooches, we are quite happy with our perfect sized bed, even though it means that oftentimes my side of the bed is now just an extension of her side of the bed.

3. Speaking of beds... Since I lived alone in the city for quite a while before we got married, I'm still getting used to the idea of cooking for two, cleaning a lot more, paying the bills and just worrying about another person. Then looking at Mr. B, I can see that none of that matters and all I have to do is just be with A, whenever she needs a head to rest her head on 

or a body to rest her buttocks on,

though sometimes she can be my pillow.

4. Groom every day. Being a bachelor for quite some time, I got used to my own stink. I was able to go days, even weeks without a shower. Now that I have two pooches that start to smell like Fritos after a couple weeks, I can truly see the importance of personal hygiene.

5. Find some ME time. Though in the movies, being inseparable appears to be the ideal relationship, much like Mr. B and Ms. M, we love hanging out, even if it means doing our own thing in the same room,

and they also remind us that we should value our own time and space.

Pooches: Dog Chemistry

A lot of people are always amazed how our dogs get along so well. When we were looking to adopt our second dog, we knew that we needed a dog that could put up with Miss M's dominant and overbearing personality. First we were looking at younger dogs because we thought Miss M could mentor them. Being the diva that she is, Miss M wasn't interested in these younger dogs. Rather than mentoring, she would talk smack to them--I think secretly think she just didn't want anyone cuter than her in the house.
Then we decided to go for an older male, and we found Mr. B:

We thought that as a 5 year old gentleman, he would teach Miss M some manners and put her in her place. Which didn't quite work as we envisioned. Instead, Mr. B became totally submissive to Miss M's prima donna ways. Besides using him as furniture, Miss M is always pushing Mr B out of his tepee:

 But then again, he lets her do it:

When we were fostering Wilma during the summer, the two girls would take over the bed with their slumber parties:

And Mr. B would just sleep to the side:

 We know Miss M is most compatible with male dogs. Because when she tries these same things with other female dogs:

She's not so happy to be the recipient:

I think our dogs fall on the extremes of the scale: Miss M likes being bossy, and Mr B is just happy being Mr. B. I think even if Mr. B were our first dog, he would have still stepped aside for Miss M. Do most other dogs sort by time lived in the house? Or is personality a bigger determinant?

Chicagoing: The Chicago Way

They say you have to be tough to make it through a Chicago winter. Not only do we have to battle through daily dark walks and iced-over sidewalks, but our distant memories of family walks, ice-cream runs, and impromptu picnics make our winters that much more painful:

But then it became more obvious: we didn't really have to give it up. See, this past weekend after biking to Dottie's 'Ladies who Bike Brunch' , I realized that many Chicagoans are just going along their daily summer routines...just with much more clothes. Dottie writes her blog to show not only how easy and fashionable biking is, but how it can be done throughout the winter. So, much like E who rides through blizzards:

Many of the ladies at the brunch haven't locked their bikes up for the winter and are continuing to ride. Even in skirts and heels. Not only did this inspire me to bring my bike back out, but I realized we could make some accommodations to 'bring back the family walk' with the pooches.
Having survived several below zero days, this 30 degree weather felt downright tropical. The pooches have a variety of rain and winter jackets, and we even picked up some Paws Waterproof Dog Boots since things are getting a bit slushy outside.

We like these because they're inexpensive and keep the dogs' feet from getting muddy and lessening our clean up time later. The dogs also like that they keep their feet free of ice and salt.
So in the spirit of Shiva's 'rallying cry', we're going to break out of hibernation and continue with our regular ways. While we know we won't be having picnics any time soon, it is fun to be back on longer walks and exploring our neighborhood. Or at least until the next sub-zero day.

Pooches: The Story of Shy

I've always wondered what our dogs' lives were like before they came to live with us. Knowing how much Miss M loves people, it kills me to think of her going from living in a home, to being unwanted and forced to live isolated in crate at the city pound with limited human interaction.We know she had a happy ending, but it's especially hard to see dogs who thrive on human interaction not able to live in a home.

Our friend Heather is a third-year veterinary student at the University of Illinois, who has had the privilege of working with many animals. She was especially taken by this sweet special-needs pitbull who desperately needs a foster or adoptive home. Shy had a hard life, but has been rehabilitated and has been living at the vet's office for the past 4 months. She is a staff favorite, thrives on human attention, and just wants a family to love.

 Here is a bit more of Shy's story:
She came to the animal hospital weighing 30 pounds - completely emaciated, we could see every rib, every bone on her body.  Her haircoat was thinning and very dull looking - hair would just fall out whenever you touched her. She had undiagnosed diabetes and her previous owners relinquished her to the animal hospital.  Incredibly, she was super sweet despite how horrible she was probably feeling at the time.  After a few weeks at the animal hospital, she had gained 15 pounds, was put on insulin and a healthy diet, and her haircoat became super shiny red and back to normal.  Sadly, because she is diabetic, she developed cataracts secondary to the diabetes - she has lost some vision because of it and her vision may continue to decrease - but amazingly, she barely realizes it.  Her attitude and mood haven't changed because of her loss of sight and she is still the happy, sweet little girl that she was when she came in.  She has been living at the animal hospital in the kennel for four months and she really needs to get out into the world and exist with people again.  She has become a staff favorite at the animal hospital, but we are having a very difficult time finding her a home because of her special needs.  She also cannot be homed with cats (which is the reason why I can't take her) -but is fine with dogs her size or larger.

It's so heartbreaking to hear of animals who have had such a rough start to life, but can still remain so resilient, happy and loving. We were hoping to use our contacts here to see if anyone might know of a foster home.
We've been speaking to some rescues in our area, who are unfortunately full. We know of one rescue in the Chicagoland area who would accept her if she can find a foster home. We were hoping to do this; however, we don't think Miss M can have another female in the house for more than a few months, and if anything happened I think it would be much worse for Shy to go back to boarding after being in a home.
I was curious about what a dog with diabetes entails, and Heather said the following:
It is very easy to give insulin shots.  They go subcutaneuosly (just under the skin) and dogs have looser skin than people - so really all you do is lift up an area of skin on her back and stick the needle in!  There are no vital structures that you are in danger of hitting with the needle. She is on twice daily insulin injections (14 units twice a day - 28 total) - the vial of insulin (Humulin-N) is 10 mls (=1000 units) - so each bottle should last just over a month.  The syringes are very cheap and I called all of the local pharmacies down here and the insulin runs about $50 a bottle.  The owner of animal hospital said she would be more than happy to send a whole vial of insulin with Shy wherever she goes. 
If someone were able to help foster her, E and I would also help finance the cost so she could have a 5 month supply of insulin, and look into providing other financial options thereafter. Update: HoundDogMom made an interesting point in the comments section noting how easy it is to care for a diabetic animal.
We feel so lucky that someone saw something special and took a chance on Miss M and Mr B, much like other adopted dogs who someone took a chance on. We're really hoping that Shy gets this same chance. Please let us know if anyone has any thoughts or ideas. And here is a video of Shy in action, so you can really see her sweet nature shining through:

DoggyStyle: Twin Dog Beds

 I remember reading somewhere that one reason people feel exhausted during the day is that they have too many distractions in their bedroom to get a good night's sleep. They recommend not using computers and TV's in the bedroom so you can condition your body to know the bedroom is for sleeping. While we don't have those items in our bedroom, we do have an even bigger distraction: the dogs. We have a second set of dog beds that we keep in the corner of the bedroom where the pooches sleep at night. And I will admit, the rattling of dog tags, the tapping of claws sneaking out to the sofa, and of course having this in our face each morning is sure to disturb our sleep cycle.

 I just started thinking about this as we've been making some improvements in our bedroom. We're getting a new headboard and rug which will probably takeover much of the dog bed space. While we originally had the beds pushed together to create a 'queen size':

We decided to alleviate Mr. B's suffering and make twin beds; ala Donna Reed. They even have matching pillows to rest their luggy heads, but Miss M still needs to sneak over to Mr. B's bed and take over:

This is working for now, but I think when the new headboard comes, our bed will become even bigger pushing everything back and putting the beds in an area where we would literally have to jump over them each time we left or entered the room. They do enjoy sleeping on the rug too, so I'm not sure if they really need another bed. Just curious, do most people have dog beds in the bedroom? Or do the dogs just sleep on the carpet?  Or do your dogs just not sleep in the bedroom?

The Pooches' Staycation in 10 Pictures

A and I were not the only ones taking full advantage of our staycation. Since a lot of people were out of town for the holidays, we had free reign of all the dog parks, tennis courts and many fenced in areas.

Ms. M is obsessed with snowballs and she would zealously wait for me

to throw these magical snowballs only to find them disappear in the snow.

She then tried to catch the magical snowballs in the air, before they disappeared.

Though most of the time, Mr. B was looking for snowier pastures outside of our fenced in areas, every sof often he would get a random spurt of energy and

 he would run full force around the park or tennis court for several minutes, like a little rabbit.

However, this would lead into a game of puma and rabbit.

Poor little rabbit...

Though A and I hate when it snows in the city, the pooches are in heaven.