Black & White Sunday – End BSL

'What I think of BSL' - www.lolathepitty.com
I think we can all agree that Breed-Specific Legislation pulls families apart. Or wait? Can we? WHY is it still very apparent in cities around us? But as a responsible pit bull owner BSL is part of the battle and a frustrating one at that. We are out to show that WE are the majority and create a positive image for pit bull type breeds. Almost all of the time there is a bad owner behind the problem. But we can save that conversation for another day.

I captured this shot of Rio after a long day of doggy day care. Tired much?! He seriously laid there, tongue hangin’ for about 10 minutes. I have more photos that I’d like to admit of this pose.

Link up to Dachshund Nola and Sugar The Golden Retriever to share your Black & White Sunday.

5 Indoor Activities To Do With Your Dog

5 Indoor Activities to do with your dog! www.lolathepitty.com

Let’s face it, when it’s -15 degrees outside with a real feel of -38 F, ‘winter activities with your dog’ that require going outside are NOT happening.

Here are some INDOOR activities to do with your dog when it’s too cold to think about going outside!

1. Work on training.

This is a perfect time to work on training and teaching them tricks. It’s a little more difficult with two or more dogs, but what we do is take one dog into another room and then switch!

Here are a couple sites that I love going to for tips and training:

Dr. Sophia Yin and Your Pit Bull and You

If you have a treadmill, you can also work with your dog on treadmill training for a great exercise program.

2. Make feeding time a challenge.

Try hiding their food somewhere in the house and make your dog search for it. Tip: you can leave a trail of food for them to make it easier! You can also use toys such as the Kong Wobbler. I’ll admit it, I’m guilty – frozen peanut butter Kongs.

3. Use interactive feeders/dog puzzles.

These are great because they encourage your dog to figure out the puzzle, even if they get it within a few minutes. We have this one below and Lola and Rio LOVE it. The only problem is that Lola has began to eat the actual game. Lola’s motto: If you can’t easily get to it, just eat your way through whatever is in the way.

(we purchased this toy on Amazon here)

dog puzzle toy

4. Play ball in the hall.

Our house gets a little crazy, but luckily we have a straight shot from the living room through the kitchen and into the dining room – this has now become Lola’s running path.

5. Hide & Seek!

Lola absolutely loves this game and she totally rocks at it, to. She’s pretty much got us figured out. And it’s HILARIOUS when she finds us. She begins barking and jumping around, she gets so ticked that we hide from her! Rio on the other hand – he’s still a rookie and it takes him a few minutes to find us in fairly obvious places (i.e. behind a door). We’re slowly working up to more difficult hiding places, but Lola usually rats us out.

*If you’ve done all of that and still run out of ideas (or have a very high-strung dog, ex: Lola), many cities have indoor dog parks or doggy daycare providers (we go to Camp Bow Wow). Many of them even offer half-days for a minimal fee and they are guaranteed to be tuckered out after playing with all the other dogs!

*Oh and add sleeping to that list because let’s face it, we all like to cuddle up on these cold days.

(Check out my 5 Cold Weather Activities for Dogs on Victoria Stilwell’s site!)

Have you made my Small Batch Peanut Butter Banana + Flax Seed Dog Biscuits?!

Peanut butter Banana + Flax seed dog biscuits

And if you haven’t read my ’10 Signs You Shouldn’t Adopt a Pit Bull’, it comes highly recommended by moi.

Rio aka Crazy Ears

Let’s talk about dog ears. Both of our dogs have some serious EARS, lol.

Not hound-like ears, you can’t tie them in a bow or anything, but seriously…they have a mind of their own.

I don’t think the whole wearing a cone for several weeks helped his situation but what’s done is done. Kidding – I love my little crazy Rio ears!

Do your dogs have a recognizable trait that you find funny or unusual? Share with me on Twitter!

Rio - lolathepitty.com

On a more serious note, isn’t this the truth? I saw a similar photo to this one on Instagram from our friends at Camp Bow Wow and had to recreate my own!
Whoever said money can't buy happiness has never paid an adoption fee. www.lolathepitty.com

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Exercise is great!

Sarah at Lolathepitty.com

You know you’re living in Minnesota when…it’s 40 degrees outside and it feels like a heat wave. We soaked up the much-needed sun today, especially after the holidays and all the craziness.

I was beginning to get slightly frustrated with both Lola and Rio lately.

It seems like Lola has been rebelling lately which has led us to taking away her roam-the-house-when-we’re-gone freedom. Last week she pulled a pack of gum off the counter and managed to eat half of it and the pieces of gum that she didn’t like, well…those were in the carpet. Then take that last sentence and repeat – she did the exact same thing a few days later. On Friday, while I was showering (which takes a whole 15 minutes) I thought to myself, “She’ll be fine, I’ll leave her out” and proceeded to bring Rio in the bathroom with me. Well, I come out only to find my notebook with a piece of paper shredded on the floor. That piece of paper was my blog post idea with all of my notes jotted down on it. Joy. And if that wasn’t enough, Lola helped me finish my cookies & cream smoothie from Caribou – dumb on my part for leaving it on the table, but sheesh. Just thankful there wasn’t enough chocolate consumed to make her sick. :/

Rio  - lolathepitty.com

Then on top of that, Rio peed in the house last week. Twice. I think Rio’s two accidents were just a freak occurrence because he has been potty trained since before his leg surgery, or at least we thought so.

But when it comes down to it, I think the real problem is simple. I am not the only one that is going stir crazy in the winter. The week before Christmas was insanely busy and bitter cold here. I was working 12 hour days and ‘A’ was the only one to really tend to the dogs. When it’s in the negative temps, the dogs can’t really stand to be outside for too long because their paws get too cold, too fast. Yes, we have booties for them but they are pretty worthless. So on those days we practice training inside and go outside for 5 minute spurts, lol. But what they really need is a good exercise!

But today, today was good. I took Rio out for his own walk and it was probably the best walk we have had. He stayed close to me, paid attention to me and we practiced “sit”, whenever a car would drive by or whenever I would stop walking. Then Lola and I went up to the park, played disc for a little bit and went on a short trek. She absolutely loved it. They are SO much better behaved once they are able to get out, run off that energy and just be dogs.

I will never underestimate the importance of physically exercising your pets. It’s good for their health and mind as well as yours! So not only for the new year…but for life – resolve to keep your dogs (and other pets) in good shape!

Here is a short video taken on my cell phone of Lola today:

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Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to take a quick moment out of our busy lives to wish everyone a Merry Christmas & happy holidays. Here is a little dose of cuteness for your Tuesday!

Merry Christmas - From Sarah & Lola at @lolathepitty

A little dose of Rio…

Rio - @lolathepitty

Merry Christmas from Lola @ @lolathepitty

Merry Christmas from Lola and Rio @ @lolathepitty

Merry Christmas from Lola and Rio @ @lolathepitty

Tuesday Things from Rio

Rio waiting patiently for his food - lolathepitty.com

Tuesday things!

The cutest thing happened this morning. It was one of those ‘proud mama’ moments. I tend to have a few of those, along with a few face-palms (Lola eating half of a pack of gum) every week, haha.

As usual, we set Rio’s food down in front of him and tell him to “stay” or “wait” until we give him the signal by saying, “okay” for him to eat/inhale his food.

Well this morning in the hustle and bustle of everything, I set Rio’s food down…proceeded to fill the coffee pot with water, add the coffee filter and grounds, shuffle through some mail on the counter when Antonio taps me on the shoulder and signals towards Rio. Here he is, sitting. Waiting. Patiently. Head bowed, just staring at his food waiting for the magical words, “OKAY!” to come out of my mouth. What a good boy, Rio!

Rio Shaking - @lolathepittyFast forward 12 hours…here we are in the living room, we were planning on doing a little Christmas photo shoot in their sweaters that Amaya bought them.

“Mom! My sweater definitely doesn’t fit….”

Rio - outgrew his sweater! @lolathepitty

Instead, let’s just take some pictures. Or try to. Rio is not the most cooperative when taking photos. He must be a little camera shy. Lola on the other hand – easy peasy.

Here are a few outtakes of the Christmas sweater photos – sans Christmas sweater:

Rio - photo outtakes @lolathepitty

Overall, Rio is doing awesome since his leg surgery which was just five weeks ago (three more weeks of recovery to go)!  I can’t wait to see our baby RUN again – we’ll be sure to keep everyone posted and share another video of him soon!

Shine ON!

lola the pit bull

 

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Rio’s Surgery

Rio-leg surgery - lolathepitty.com

We had only had Rio for about two weeks when he and Lola were wrestling as usual, but then the worst imaginable thing happened.

I received a frantic phone call at work from ‘A’ and all I could hear was a dog screaming in the background. My heart began racing…what is happening? Is it Lola or Rio? What do you think is wrong? I immediately flew out of work. Before I could even get in the car, he called me back and said he was taking Rio to the vet because it was obviously something very serious.

My heart was breaking and I had so many questions. How did this even happen? This is a nightmare. I began to ask ‘A’ a million questions. He was in the laundry room switching over a load of laundry and the next thing he knew, he heard Rio screaming. He ran up the stairs to find Rio laying on the landing. When he tried to pick Rio up, it was obvious he was in extreme pain as he was letting out intense cries. ‘A’ went and grabbed a laundry basket, lined it with blankets and carefully picked Rio up and transferred him into the basket so he could easily transport him.

I drove immediately to the vet, getting there in about 30 minutes which seemed like an eternity. I walked into our small vet office and heard shrieks, it was Rio. They had Rio in the back room and had to sedate him to get the x-rays. We waited sitting on the edge of our seats and I’m fairly certain I chewed through about 5 of my fingers. About 20 minutes later the vet called us into a private room. I knew this could not be good. Rio had a fracture that went THROUGH his joint. Our vet showed us the x-rays as we tried to absorb the reality. Our options: surgery or amputation.

I won’t go into the details of why it took so long for the surgery, but long story short, it was a holiday weekend and we needed a specialist, the surgeons at the ER were not ortho surgeons. Therefore, we had to wait until MONDAY, November 11th, 2013 (this happened the Friday prior) for the orthopedic surgeon to perform the surgery. The shitty part about it was that unless it was life or death, you will not find an ortho surgeon operating on weekends (or Friday evening past 4pm).

Therefore, I slept on the couch by Rio’s side for three nights in the case that he should try to wake up and attempt to move. My job was to keep my poor baby as comfortable as possible before the surgery was performed.

Here are some pictures of his story:

 Pre surgery, the day of the injury:

Rio-leg surgery - lolathepitty.com

This was Rio sleeping in his crate (which we took off the top so we could easily pick him up for potty breaks). TG for pain meds.

Rio's before surgery - lolathepitty.com

Post surgery – with one pin and screw

Rio's surgery - lolathepitty.com

This was the day he got home from surgery – already feeling MUCH better.

Rio's after surgery - lolathepitty.com

This was taken the 4th day after the surgery, after he had his leg unwrapped…

Rio's sutures after surgery - lolathepitty.com

As you can see from this video, which was taken about 4 weeks after surgery, Rio is doing much better!

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Meet Rio

This is Rio! Formerly “Leo” from Save-a-Bull rescue in Minnesota.

Rio was a “Craigslist puppy” who was pulled off of the site thanks to the wonderful people at the rescue. I don’t think I need to go into details about the horrific things that have happened from dogs listed on Craigslist…just glad he’s home with us now!

Rio is truly a great puppy! Smart, willing, and the perfect energy level. We won’t go into that with Lola, haha. Let’s just say her battery never died and it was basically like trying to contain a 10 lb tornado.

Here are the rescue photos of him, thanks to Angela Boone Photography.

Rio Puppy - lolathepitty.com

What a cute little stinker.

Here was his “I’ve been adopted” post on Facebook!

Rio Puppy - lolathepitty.com

These were pictures we took when Lola played with Rio for the second time…

Rio - 10 weeks old - lolathepitty.com

Lola was doing her classic ‘stalk and pounce’ move, so he found a great place to hide!

Rio - 10 weeks old - lolathepitty.com

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