SociaBulls: A Small Dog in a Big-Dog Group

 One question we hear a lot about our SociaBulls dog-walking group is whether you need to have a pitbull-type dog to join. We know all dogs can benefit from pack-walking socialization so we love having a broad range of dogs in our group: including a couple of little guys.

You may recognize Franklin in a cameo from this post where a rivalry between former foster dog SuperLevi and Franklin was born (it's been an on-going competition about who's the cuter pooch!). Franklin lives with pitbull sister, Lola, and he doesn't realize he's actually a small dog; he even likes barking smack. The group is helping him realize how to positively interact with other dogs. Read the story of Franklin and see photos from one of our latest walks:

While most of the Chicago SociaBulls pack comes from the Pit Bull side of the Pit Bull Terrier family, our smallest member is firmly from the Terrier branch. Franklin is 17 punds of Shih Tzu- Miniature Schnauzer (our best guess) mix. Franklin, however, does not realize that he's any different from the rest of the pack. He probably thinks he's a pittie himself, since the only other dogs he sees regularly are his life partner Lola, and his friends at SociaBulls. 

Because he thinks he's a big dog, he has no issues going up to big dogs and getting right in their faces. There are two St. Bernards who live down the street, with a combined weight of close to 300 pounds. Franklin jumps right up on them and barks smack. I worry about him doing this to the wrong dog. Participating in the walks gives Franklin a chance to learn how to act respectfully with dogs who outweigh him by probably 50 pounds and outmuscle him considerably. Having a group of well-behaved big dogs is the perfect training ground for Franklin. 

Franklin gets along well with most of the pack, sometimes he leads the group and he fits into the walking order wherever we need what we call a "buffer dog" (a dog who can walk by excitable dogs without issue). He does however have a nemesis, who we try to keep him away from. Franklin and SuperLevi do not get along. There appears to be a little cuteness competition going on in the smaller part of the pack, and I think that Franklin knows that I have a serious crush on Levi, and if I didn't already have Franklin, I would've seriously considered adopting Levi. But I couldn't be happier to have Franklin and Franklin couldn't be happier to be a SociaBull.

And if you want to read more about adorable Franklin and his pitbull sister Lola (and cats!), check out their blog: A Franklin a Day.

You can also read about more SociaBulls Members: Gordon (Learning to Be Social and Have Dog Friends),  Nabi (A Shy Dog Making Sense of a "People World") 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. And check this link from the DINOs (Dogs in Need of Space) group to read more about the benefits of dog-walking groups and to see if there is a group in your area. 

National Pooches Radio

When Mr. B first came into our home, he was very anxious and this was clearly audible whenever we left the pooches home. Mr. B would howl and bark so loud that we can hear him at the end of the block and he would continue until we came home.

We thought that we would have to live as people on house arrest, but lucky for us, Curtis was able to "cure" Mr. B of his isolation distress. One of the tactics we used to calm Mr. B down whenever we left was to play a recording of us talking in the second bedroom. It was a bit unnerving to come home to hear us talking down the hall, so we started playing the radio in addition to the recording. Over time, we were able to stop the recording, but we kept playing the radio because we had this strange feeling that the pooches would be upset missing an episode of Fresh Air. 

 

A takes reading specialist classes, and she is learning about emerging language literacy and she has learned that one of the most important things for language acquisition is to hear spoken language. We believe that Miss M is really benefitting from having Chicago Public Radio on all day and she actually knows differences in words. She knows 'tomorrow' meaning the itinerary for the next day, and she also knows that 'party' and 'riding in the car' are something to be excited about. 

But to poor Mr. B all of the talking on the radio is just background noise and after years of hearing news radio, he still cannot tell the difference between shake and down.

DoggyStyle: Rugs and Dogs

My first apartment where Miss M and I lived together as bachelorettes was mainly carpet. Each day I would lament the muddy paws, random accidents and general dinginess that I thought came with carpet. I was especially excited to move into our new place that was mainly hardwood floors, thinking I would never need to deal with rugs and carpet again. Now we've realized it's actually key to have rugs with dogs, plus we've learned some things about making them more dog-friendly.

Being Good Neighbors

I think having rugs is essential to being a good neighbor. Living in a multi-unit building we're always aware of how what goes on in our place will impact the people living around us. I used to live underneath a small Cocker Spaniel and for the longest time I couldn't figure out why they were hammering things at all hours. Then I realized, it was just the dog wagging his tail against the floor. Even something like a dropped nylabone can sound like a tumbling boulder. With rugs we can at least muffle the sound a bit.

The Need for Fewer Dog Beds

 We like how rugs make everything a bit more comfortable, warmer and nicer. Since we have an open floor plan it helps us create separate spaces, and it's especially nice for pooches like Miss M who are predisposed to just flop down on whim despite several comfortable (and empty!) dog beds nearby.

Easier Clean-Up

Miss M and I have learned some things since our bachelorette days and now we use preventative measures so we don't have to clean as much. We wrote before about how the pooches wipe their feet before coming inside to keep the Chicago Grime out of our home. Our SpotBot has also made it really easy to clean up a mess without us having to scrub anything or even stand there. Plus, we've learned how to choose rugs that are dog-friendly.

Of course I'm always curious: do most dog owners find it harder or easier to have rugs with dogs?

Update: SociaBulls member Jack and his family have their small, pitbull and cat-friendly home featured on Apartment Therapy today in the Small Cool Contest.  Not only is their space beautiful, but they do it so easily with pets! We would love to see a pet-friendly (and pitbull friendly!) home win the contest. If you like what you see you can vote for them here.

Bridging Gaps one Pit Bull at a Time

Back when A and I both changed careers and first started teaching high school in the "inner-city", we were both idealistic and probably very naive in what we thought we could do as teachers. A continues to work in a neighborhood school and every year she does an amazing project, where her students try to dispel stereotypes and misconceptions that other people in the city  have about their community. Her students create an exhibition, which includes photography, interviews, and poetry and present it in spoken word and gallery form to show the true story of themselves and their community beyond the stereotypes people might have. Through this project the students travel to another neighborhood in Chicago and present their community and view of Chicago through their eyes.

Many of our past students and A's current students are from neighborhoods that many people unfortunately deem unsafe, gang ridden and completely destitute. Through this project the students demonstrate the beauty that exists in their neighborhoods that many are too ignorant to see. While A tries on a grand scale to bridge the gap between different parts of the city, we feel as though our pooches are also bridging gaps. 

The area that we live in is very diverse, racially and socioeconomically, but it is also very segregated and this is quite apparent in our many neighborhoods and parks. We love that in whatever neighborhood or park we walk through, we have all types of people stopping us to ask us about the pooches, some that know the pooches through the blog and sometimes people will have us wait as they grab their Mr. B or Miss M lookalike from their car, home, backyard or they pull up pictures on their phone or camera. Oftentimes we are conversing with random strangers, exchanging funny and touching stories about our pooches. 

Chicago neighborhoods are very divided, but through our pooches we have had the opportunity to meet all types of people. We wonder if this is just the fact that they are dogs and all dog owners experience this or is it the fact that they are pit bulls and pit bulls connect so many different types of people?

Though our weekdays are spent trying to bridge the great divide, we love the fact that we spend our weekends and evenings making new friends of all backgrounds and steadily bridging the small divides in our community.

Pooches: Where are all the Elderbulls?

A lot of people don't pick up on this, but Miss M and Mr. B are Elderbulls. We didn't really realize it either. We don't celebrate the pooches' birthdays so we had always thought Miss M was four and Mr B was five...for the past 4 years.

 Sure we're noticing a streak of gray in Miss M's ears and on her eyebrow and the fur on Mr. B's nose is rubbing off from being petted so much, but not much else has changed.
Our pooches still have more than enough energy: Mr. B going for walks like a jackrabbit and loves going skateboarding with E. Miss M is still as stubborn as she was since she was a younger pup, but they both love going on long family walks around the neighborhood.

The funny thing we've noticed: all the other dogs we meet on our walks are usually puppy to 3 years old. And these pups need to get older some day. So I'm always curious about where all the other Elderbulls are.
We did have a neighbor who would always be out walking his dogs and they ended up living to be 15 and 17 years old. They didn't look a day over 4 and he said the secret to their longevity was walking.
Even former foster dog Elderbull Bessie-Belle can't get enough of walks. I remember Miss Bessie's new mom calling and asking how many walks we went on because Bessie just wanted to keep walking and walking.

 

(Photo of svelte Bessie-Belle who we saw just last weekend!)

Maybe the Elderbulls just don't want to go on walks anymore? Maybe the owners think they don't want to go on walks anymore? Maybe most owners are just tired of going on so many walks over the years and think their dogs don't want to walk? Or maybe the Elderbulls who keep walking are kept so mentally and physically stimulated that they look so great and people don't even realize they're Elderbulls?
What do you think?

SociaBulls: Managing a Growing Group

Back when we started our dog-walking group in August, Miss M and Mr B were the only members.Since then, we've grown immensely and we've met so many amazing pooches and like-minded owners. While we've been documenting how to start and structure your own group and  how to create a group in a densely populated city,  now we'll talk about how to safely manage a growing group. Here are some things that we've been doing to maintain a safe structure while we grow::

Creating Teams:
While the walks may looks seamless, behind-the-scenes lot of work goes into the creation of each walk. Each week we need to plan where the walk is going to be held (we love changing our venues to explore different parts of the city) and doublecheck that there isn't already a big event being held there or an event elsewhere in the city that can impact traffic. Before scheduling a walk in these locations we walk the area and plan the walking route to create a continuous walk for a 1-1/2 hour span.We need to monitor the RSVPs and create a pack order prior to the walk. We answer new member inquiries (the other week alone we had 20 new inquires!) and schedule new members for the walks. On the walks we need a certain amount of dogless people: people to guide the walks, observe the dogs to see if they would be more successful in a different pack order, talk to any on-lookers who are curious about the group, and intercept any off-leash dogs. Plus managing our SociaBulls member website.
Since we all do this for fun in addition to our full-time jobs, this can become very time-consuming. So it's been so great having so many people step up to help out.We created teams which tackle a lot of the weekly behind-the-scenes work that is so essential to these walks. Lola and Izzy's people do an amazing job Event Coordinating, Zoe and Nabi & Willie's people are New Member Coordinators (tackling the oh so many new member requests), and Maize's mom works the puzzle of Pack Coordination knowing about each dog and working to create a successful experience for each pooch.We are also have so many great members who have stepped up interested in working on design, community outreach, and neighborhood exploration. It's great to see so much ownership of the group.

Managing Many New Member Requests:

It's been great having so many people interested in joining the group, and especially after this article in the Chicago Tribune, we had a huge surge in requests. It's important to us to keep our structure and limit the number of dogs per walk because we are usually walking in the middle of a busy city and we want this to be a positive experience for all the dogs at their different socialization levels. We ask each member to complete an application just so we can learn a bit more about everyone, and we include our structure directly on the application so everyone reads and initials that they understand the rules.The group is open to anyone who applies. We have a waiting list and people are contacted in the order applications are received. We ask all members to come to their first walk without their dog.

Adding New Members:

We know how exciting it can be for the dogs on their first walk, so we ask that new members attend their first walk without their dogs. This lets them understand more about the rules recognize how the group might work for their dogs. After they attend a walk without their dog, they are given access to our website and they can sign up for upcoming events. We only have 4 'first-time dogs' on each walk to help each dog be successful. It's helpful that most of the dogs are accustomed to being on the walks so this helps the new dogs and owners integrate more easily.
We also use a private website to allow members to sign up for events, message one another and manage the RSVPs. E built our website, but a Meet-up page would function similarly. Once new members have attended a walk dogless, they are granted access to the site to sign up for events. We keep our walking locations private and we never announce our walking locations online, or on our Facebook page prior to each week's walk.

Ownership of the Group:

It has been so great meeting so many like-minded people who are taking ownership and helping the group be successful. Our members recognize the amount of work it takes to coordinate each walk, grow, and be able to accommodate new members and it's great seeing so many people step up.
Since our dogless leaders are fundamental to the success of our group, and allowing us to add more walks, we've had many people step up to volunteer to lead the group (even if it means leaving their own dogs behind). We have event RSVP sign up Monday through Wednesday to allow us to organize pack order prior to the walk. We take members on a first-come first-serve sign-up basis, until reaching capacity, and we also consider the pack balance to make it successful for all dogs. We confirm walk entry on Thursdays.We ask that members give us advance notice of cancellations knowing this will impact pack order and since space can be limited we want to give everyone a fair chance to participate. Members understand last-minute cancellations mean a spot was taken that someone else could have used so members willingly come dogless on the next walk to help out. And we love how this has really grown into a community.
Since we are a new group, things have come up that we've never anticipated, so everything is still a work-in-progress. We know several people have started walking groups as well, and we would love to hear how things are working and the best ways you've found to accommodate growth.

'How-To' Teach Your Dog to Put Their Own Toys Away

 People may find Miss M charming, but I think this reaches a whole new level when they actually find out she has been trained to put her own toys away on command. Back when I accidentally adopted my pit bull, I was so nervous about owning a pit bull I delved into research and training. I quickly learned she was like most bullies, food motivated and eager to please, and she became a star at training. I was a single-girl at the time, so I guess I did have a lot more time to devote to her training. Plus, what better retort is there if anyone ever questions owning a pit bull that she can put her own toys away--there are human children who don't even know how to do this!
You can click here and here to see the videos of Miss M putting her toys into the toy bin on command, and  these are the steps I used to teach her:

Step #1:  Retrieving

 I had to teach her to "go get the ball". Retrieving is easier for some dogs, as Miss M typically wanted to take the toy and run. Treats were a huge motivator for this step.

Step #2: Add "Drop It" to the Retrieving Command

After Miss M brought the ball to me, I taught her to drop it. I think some dogs automatically do this. Miss M learned to do this because she realized it was only by opening her mouth, and letting the toy drop, that she could actually eat the treat I gave her.

Step #3: Reinforce "Bring it to Me" and "Drop it" as a Single Command

Miss M learned any time she retrieved something she had to automatically drop it in front of me. When I said "Go Get the Ball and Bring it to Me" she would get the toy and automatically drop it in front of me. Though I would probably recommend a shorter command.

Step #4: Add the Box

 I had to make sure she had the command of getting the ball and dropping it very solid before we moved on to this step. I positioned a box under her, and each time the toy dropped inside the box, she got a treat. This one is like a puzzle, and it's easy for the dog to get frustrated, but Miss M was smart and picked up on it quickly. After she realized she got the treat for dropping the toy in the box, I moved further away from the box when I gave the command, so she would resist dropping it by my feet. We practiced a few minutes a day where I moved further from the box, and she was eventually able to start putting her toys away automatically. Mr. B is still in the learning stages and finds it hard to relinquish his stuffed toys:

This is how I trained Miss M, but I recently received an email from Tonya who just recently taught her adorable pittie Michael to put his toys away. Michael is a 1 1/2 year pittie who is highly treat-motivated. This is how she did it:  
So, when I saw your video of Miss M, I basically saw fetch. His toys were in the living room and the toy bins were in the hallway. So I threw a ball, asked him to "go get it," started walking out of the room hurriedly (he followed me out), and "drop it" in bin. Then I said "good put it away," when he finished and gave him a treat. We did variations of this (including pointing to toys and instructing him to "take it") in 10 minutes spurts over the course of a Saturday before he finally got it. 

We would love to hear from anyone who has been successful with this trick, and if you have videos, we would love you to post them on our Facebook page. And we would also like your ideas for any new tricks to teach Miss M...I'm kind of stuck.

'How-to' Dine Outdoors with Your Dog

 With the weather warming up in Chicago, all the restaurants are starting to pull out their chairs for outdoor dining. So in the spirit of our "How-to" week, here is what we learned about dogs and outdoor dining (complete with cameo from former foster dog Bella!).
And having a dog in Chicago, I had always thought dining outdoors with your dog was a given. But I was wrong. Just because you have a dog, doesn't mean that they will know how to sit nicely at the outdoor cafe.
Especially when your dog is as weird as Miss M:

With tables packed closely together, the potential for food on the ground, passing dogs, and food on the table, bringing a dog to an outdoor cafe can be a struggle. Though we did have a successful experience bringing all 3 dogs out on a recent outing. What worked:

Choosing a table in the corner:

 This way the pooches could have room off to the side, and they wouldn't have problems with passing dogs. We've found that as we're walking by cafes we normally can't see the dining dogs and sometimes they'll pop out from under the area surprising both us and our dogs. By keeping our dogs in the corner, our dogs won't be tempted to play, and other dogs won't disturb our dogs.

Doing a Pre-walk and Practicing 'Down Stays'
Instead of just going out to eat immediately, we made sure to go on a longer walk before sitting down. Since the pooches were more tired, they were able to stay still longer. That, combined with their continual practicing of down-stays around the city, allowed the pooches to be calm and well-behaved. Miss M was even falling asleep in front of the water bowl.

Going to a Dog-Friendly Restaurant

The city passed an ordinance allowed all dogs to be able to sit with their owners, but dogs aren't always as well-received in certain restaurants. We absolutely love going to Five Star which is not only dog-friendly, but super pit-friendly. The restaurant keeps a huge water bowl, always filled with fresh water and ice, outside for passing dogs. We've also met so many nice servers and staff who come running out to meet the pooches when we walk by. When we dine there the pooches are so well-received they get their own well-filled water dish and people are always coming out to see them. I think this is going to become our summer mainstay.
And as we were sipping our drinks and enjoying some food above, this is what the pooches were seeing below:
Does anyone else have tips for outdoor dining with dogs?

How- To Week: Teaching Your Dog to Be a City Dog

We've been meeting a lot of people who have either moved, or are moving to, the city and were curious what their pooches would need to know to be able to survive among the distractions of the city. While we had fallen into our routine, back when we were fosterig Super-Levi we began realizing some key things dogs should know as they become city dogs in-training. Since this is 'how-to' week, here are some things we've learned to help dogs integrate into city-life.
(And check Our Facebook Page for more current photos of the pooches).

1) Work on Sit-Stays and Down-Stays

Down-Stay was the most useful training our pooches learned, and it was actually the command that changed our lives. Now we can take the pooches to get money from the ATM, buy things at the Farmer's Market, wait nicely while one of us goes inside, and most importantly...learn to sit nicely at outdoor cafes.
Little Super-Levi has already been doing well with the sit-stays and will automatically sit and wait while I am locking the door, picking up poo, or waiting to cross the street.

2) Be Prepared to Meet all Kinds of  Strange People...and Lots of Dogs!

Our pooches have become accustomed to meeting all kinds of people. People who may be wearing funny costumes, people who may rush up to the dogs and want to pet them, and people who may be stumbling out of bars drunk and trying to put a sombrero on their heads (yes, this did happen. Twice!).
We are lucky that our dogs aren't fearful, but we did need Miss M to practice her people greeting manners. We would have people come over so she could practice greeting them without being over-excited.
Though we still have the issue of seeing so many dogs--I guesstimated about 30 live on our block alone. We have been working on doing training walks where the pooches are busy focusing on their training so we can redirect if they get excited about another dog.
We also have our SociaBulls dog-walking group to be accustomed to being around other dogs, and we have even met up in smaller groups with some of the members we met in the group who live in our neighborhood.

3) Make Their World Big so they are up for Anything

 We love taking our dogs to big festivals, picnics in parks, and to explore new neighborhoods because they become exposed to so many new sights and smells. We started small because we know that crowds can be scary, but now they can move comfortably among crowds, meet all kinds of people, and have even been known to lay in the path of on-walking traffic. Little Super-Levi has proven he is well on his way to being city-desensitized as he even took a snooze in the middle of the street during last weekend's marathon.

These have just been our experiences.What are we leaving out?

"How-To" Week: How to Teach Your Dog to Be Gentle with Toys

It seems a lot of people are impressed with Mr. B's ability to not only carry around his favorite stuffies, but keep them relatively intact.Since this is "how-to" week, here is how we taught Mr B to change his baseball-mitt ripping days to be gentle with his stuffie toys:

After writing this post, we had an overwhelming response asking for our secret to teaching Mr. B not to tear apart his toys. When we first got Mr. B, he was a pro chewer: ripping apart baseball mitts in minutes and quickly tearing through all of Miss M's toys.

Knowing we couldn't afford to keep buying new toys, we decided to train Mr. B to be more gentle. We know all dogs are different, but this is how we trained our Mr. B:

1) We reinforce positive toy-chewing behavior

Dogs really don't know that we get upset when they tear apart their toys, so we have to reinforce positive behavior by marking when they're gentle. We started by supervising all of his soft-toy chewing. Every time Mr. B would nibble on the toy we would associate the words "Yes gentle". When he licks the toy we say "Yes  kisses" and give him lots of head rubs.

2) We have a signal to let Mr. B know when we're disappointed

Dogs are in-tune with us and they don't want to hurt us. Like when Miss M first came to live with me she thought she was showing affection by mouthing and chewing on me. Every time she did that I pretended to cry or be in pain, and eventually she learned to stop that behavior. We do the same thing with the toys; every time he would become aggressive with the toy we would pretend to cry and he would stop chewing it. Then when he would lick it and become gentle we would give the positive reinforcement. Eventually we were able to stop the fake-crying and insert a mournful "Oh no!" which gives the same effect.

3) We supervised toy playings and kept chewing time to a minimum

We would supervise his soft-toy chewing and only allow it for short amounts of time before taking it away. Eventually, he built up the time and we trust him to chew on his own. Sometimes we hear him getting rough with the toy and we just take it away. But now that he understands how to play with toys,  he's content just laying with them in his tepee.

We know Mr. B is sensitive, but I wonder how this would work with most dogs. Or does anyone else have some other tips?
PS. Stay tuned to our facebook page for more recent updates while we're on break.