my pittied life – Lola the Pitty

July 2, 2015July 2, 2015

My Pittied Life: June

Happy July, friends.

But first…oh my gosh, she seriously cracks me up. Look close – see those little teefers peeking out!?

Well, what’s new in June?

Our Flyball career has came to an end.

It’s true. We tried (and tried, and tried) for two years but as of June, Lola will no longer compete in Flyball. I could go on about the issues we had and while we were making progress, it just didn’t work out with the team we were on and the situation we were in. While it’s a little sad, it’s the best thing for Lola (and myself). And while we all think Lola could have continued, everyone felt it was for the best she not.

With that being said, in everything we do with and for our dogs, I feel we should set them up for success. For example, if your dog isn’t great with all dogs, don’t take them to a dog park. Period. It’s about weighing your desire to do something with your dog’s individual needs. And I’ve learned that over the years of being a dog owner. I’ve by no means been perfect.

Doggy Delivery

Okay, not literally, but we finally set up auto-ship for Lola’s food because there’s only one store around here that carries it and sometimes they run out. And it was cheaper online and shows up on my doorstep. Win. Chewy.com rocks…

Our New House…

Or lack thereof. We were supposed to be living in a house of our own by now but typical construction, we’ve been delayed. A couple times. Hopefully by the end of August, well, let’s just say September, we’ll have a yard for these two to run around in (a small one, but a yard nonetheless). I’m not sure what I’m more excited about, the house or not having to take the dogs out on the leash every time they have to pee.

Enjoying Summer – take a peek at what we’ve been up to…

This photo below was just taken today – we’ve been hitting the field and bringing out the disc more often to burn off some energy and enjoy the sunshine and Colorado summer (now…I’m the one that needs practice throwing that darn thing).

This is Lola’s way of saying, “I’m done”. Too hot. She plops down at the first chance of shade and is a PIA to get going again. Princess status around here.

Are you following us on Instagram? We’d love if you would! Help us hit 2K! @lolathepitty

Until next month! Thanks for reading.

April 1, 2015April 18, 2015

My Pittied Life: March

The months are flying by; I can hardly believe it’s been two months since we moved. I also didn’t realize how much I had missed Colorado…it’s so good to be back home. The dogs are completely settled into their routine and so are their humans.

Did you read my post on Tips for Moving with Dogs? Check it out!

Let’s see. What the heck did we do this month?

Hiking the Poudre River

The second week of March we went up to the Dunraven Trail by the Poudre River with my dad and step-mom. The dogs had a blast and although the trails were still snow-covered, it was 70 degrees and we put in a five or-so mile hike. An added bonus? The dogs were able to play in the river and were both crashed out before we hit the main road back to town.

The Flyball Adventure Continues

A different environment. Different trainers. Plus a different team. But Lola is settling in and the training continues. She challenges me at times (okay, most of the time) but we’re making progress. A lot of her success falls back on me, I truly need to take more time during the week to train, train, train and work on her issues. A never ending process.

Exploring Northern Colorado

I’m seriously in love with Colorado and I think I’ve convinced the dogs and boy that I was not exaggerating when bragging about the weather. We’ve had more 70-degree days than not. Plus, we live about a half mile from a beautiful paved trail that covers about 20 miles of countryside and growing towns. Biking, jogging, taking the dogs for walks – you name it. Plus, right off the trail is a large dog park which we’ve made a few pit stops for on our walks. This trail alone is helping the dogs get into tip-top shape, not to mention myself.

Lola the Pitty is a “Pet Blog to Watch”!

We we’re honored and thrilled when Victoria Stilwell listed us as one of the top 10 Pet Blogs to Watch! It’s so much fun to watch my blog grow and meet new friends along the way. So if you’re reading this – thank you. It means a lot to us.

Dog Collar Stands

If you didn’t know this, my dad is an extremely talented woodworker. And I am extremely good at giving him ideas of things to make. Including this collar stand for one of the other things I’m really good at: collecting dog collars. Check ’em out on our Etsy shop!

Until next month…

December 3, 2014December 14, 2014

My Pittied Life: November

November proved to be quite the exciting month… I’ve got some exciting announcements in life de Sarah, so read on!

Mini Rescue Operation

It was a typical Friday night. We had just finished running some errands and went to get a bite to eat. After sitting down with our BBQ sandwiches, I glanced out the window and saw a tiny white dog running through the parking lot – towards the highway.

I watched it for just a moment to see if for some odd reason it had an owner following (knowing this was not likely)…then two seconds later, I popped up out of my seat yelling back to Antonio that I’d be back, “there was a dog I had to get”! Me and my big clunky snow boots ran out the door, (attracting some strange glances on the way) and over to the direction I saw the dog.

I knelt down on the ground, kissed at the dog and watched her trot the other direction. Antonio followed me out the door with a chunk of my sandwich to try and coax the scared pup. At the same time an older couple drove up and asked if it was my dog and I asked them the same. Both resulting in the same answer – no. I asked the gentleman to drive past the dog, who was now heading toward the highway, and get out so that we could hopefully catch the dog or at the very least, direct her the other way.

We corralled the dog into a corner of the building and the poor thing appeared to be blind. Knowing there wasn’t much of a choice, I put my gloves on and quickly snatched the dog up. The dog yelped, most likely out of fright, but quickly calmed down. I told the older couple that I would take care of finding the owner and getting this pup back home safe.

Antonio had ran back into the restaurant to grab my purse and the car keys and luckily the dog was wearing an id tag with a phone number! The first time we tried calling – no answer. The second time – an answer! An elderly woman answered the phone and I told her I had a fluffy white dog in front of me. She was delighted and asked where she was found. Five minutes later, this woman drove down to pick up her 14 year old blind, and mostly deaf dog.

Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

The BIG News

In August (was it August? Yep.) I resigned from my marketing job of nearly five years. It was one of the biggest decisions of my life. But it was time – time to focus on me and move forward. And it was one of the best decisions I’ve made.

The first couple months went by, sluggishly and the couple promising job interviews proved not to be.

But something exciting happened recently and I’ve been questioning whether to share immediately or wait a while…oh well, here it goes:

I recently accepted a job with a marketing company.

A marketing company that just so happens to have a dog as it’s logo.

I mean, how perfect is that?

A marketing company where I’ll be working alongside Lola and Rio most of the day.

A marketing company in Colorado.

We’re moving! Moving back home.

Buh-bye Minnesota. It’s been nice (and cold), but it’s time.

I’m going miss the connections and friends we’ve made here but I’m excited. I’ll miss my horseback riding buddy, my dog friends, my rescue connections, our flyball team, our favorite places to take the dogs to play, and my mother (Lola and Rio’s grandma), but I’m ecstatic about the future.

We’ll keep you posted on the move!

Kennel Cough Sucks

Oh, Rio. You’ve been healthy (minus the $2,500 surgery) for almost an entire year… so I guess we were due – kennel cough got the best of him. Luckily, we had a vet appointment made for his one-year shots and what not so we had them check out the coughing. Didn’t seem to effect him all too much though and I’m just glad Lola never caught it! Sick dogs are no fun. But I’ll definitely take kennel cough over giardia or any other intestinal parasite. Yikes.

Holiday Gift Guides

We had two fabulous gift guides that I posted in November. One is a gift guide for dog lovers and one is specifically for all my “pibble” lovers. But of course, they kind of carry over into one another.

Check ’em out below!

Lola the Pitty’s 7 Top Gifts for Pit Bull Lovers

and

Lola the Pitty’s Gift Guide for Dog Lovers

Thanks for reading, we’ll catch up next month!

P.s. Do I have any Colorado friends?

October 1, 2014

My Pittied Life: September

Last month was the first month in quite some time where I (a) went to the gym more than once, (b) spent close to an hour at the park everyday with the pups, and (c) felt a little pressure relieved from my shoulders. If you need to catch up, please read August’s “My Pittied Life”.

However, it seems that no matter how many extra hours in the day I may have, time still manages to slip through my fingers like sand. Extra time? Yeah…gone.

But it was quite the eventful month, take a peek!

Duluth Trip

Antonio and I took a daytrip up to Duluth, Minnesota with two of our good friends a couple weeks ago. The biggest shocker: we went sans dogs.

Of course I would’ve preferred them there but that would’ve meant eating solely on patios and waiting outside any not-so dog friendly shops while they browsed around.

New Logo!

I could sit on my computer all day and play with graphics and photo editing software. However, I am not an artist nor do I claim to be. I’ll leave that to the experts. A friend referred me to Ivan – and before I knew it, I had three new logo choices waiting for me in my inbox.

After way too much thought into font choice and other relatively unimportant decisions, I ended up with a new logo for the blog! And I adore it. What do you think?

Parks & Play

September proved to be a great month weather-wise. However, we may have seen our last 80 degree day for quite a while!

My friend Amaya and I took Lola, Rio, and Tater to the Minnehaha Falls dog park, aka Doggy Nirvana. Here’s a little peek into the craziness:

First LOLA Newsletter

I (finally!) sent out the first LolaThePitty.com email newsletter! If you’re not already signed up, you can do so below to stay in the Lola loop. No spam, no sharing – just the occasional email. Thanks! It truly makes my day when I get a new subscriber.

If you haven’t already…you need to: Homemade Pumpkin Spice Puppuccinos!

August 2, 2014

My Pittied Life: July

July seriously flew by. Between vacation to Colorado with the pups, traveling for work, blogging, and trying to enjoy the summer as much as possible, I suppose it’s understandable.

So please, get nosy and read on about our “pittied” life, July edition.

Colo-ra-dah

We did it again. Roadtripped it the ~13 hours to Colorado. Two humans in the front seats, two pibbles in the back. They ended up with far more space than we had. Typical. But what a blast! Hiking, spending lots of time with family, going out to eat at our favorite restaurants, brewery tours…you know. Lola and Rio would probably tell you that the highlight of the trip was being allowed to sleep in grandpa’s bed. Spoiled rotten.

Emma found her ‘fur-ever’ home

At last! Miss Emma, Mama, was adopted and went home at the end of the month. After saving her life, watching her give birth to ten puppies, getting the vet care she needed to finally being adopted, it was such a rewarding experience. Everyone thought that we’d cave in and ruin our streak and end up being “foster failures”. In my heart, I loved her and cared for her but we have our hands full with our two! Plus, accepting from the beginning that our fosters will eventually be going to another home seems to get easier and easier.

TWO Canine Good Citizens!

Last month, Lola received her CGC and now Rio has joined the club! Proud of my two little dogs, even though at times I still question how they passed. Kidding. Somewhat.

Calendar Dog + Birthday!

Rio had his 15 minutes of fame this month. We went to a photo studio where he was the star and delighted us with his tricks while the photographer worked her magic.

The photo sessions were part of a fundraiser for Save-A-Bull Rescue in Minnesota. Any pups that booked a photo session are able to enter a photo in the rescue’s 2015 Calendar Contest. Voting will begin soon and I’ll be sure to send out a note on our Facebook page. After all, we’ve gotta get that handsome boy in the magazine!

Plus, sometime in the month of August Rio turns ONE! Big month for this guy. Happy Birthday baby boy, I think we’ll make another round of my Peanut Butter Banana Frozen Pupcake recipe!

Thanks for reading!

June 14, 2014June 17, 2014

My Pittied Life // June

You know how life can get so incredibly busy that you can’t even remember what you had for lunch two days ago?

Okay, so maybe my memory is borderline horrible, but I feel like there’s so much going on with the dogs’ lives lately that I fail to mention (let’s be honest, my life would be quite boring without them).

Thus the beginning of this series:

my-pittied-life-teal-lolathepitty

Each month I will have a post dedicated to what’s happening in our crazy “pittied” lives. And I’ve got a lot to cover this month, so bare with me & scroll on!

Obedience Training

At the end of May, Lola received her Canine Good Citizen (CGC) certificate!!!

And Rio is well on his way. Right now, we are taking Advanced Obedience class and in just four short weeks we test for his CGC. Then if all goes as planned – therapy prep class!

Rio - Obedience Graduation. www.lolathepitty.com

So proud of all the hard work we’ve put in. It really does pay off! But the most important thing I’ve learned – patience is key.

Adventure at the Northstar Bike Race

Lola the Pitty — Photo by Megan Rademacher

We took the pups to the city for a large bicycle race that was going on that one of my friends was photographing.

We decided to bring Lola and Enoch as I wanted to see how E would react in a crowd. After all, he’s basically rocked every other experience he has been introduced to; and he did not disappoint here either.

Enoch quickly began stealing the center light from Lola – which I don’t think she minded one bit.

We even had a stranger come up to us and ask if he could take Enoch’s picture! He remarked, “Wow, that is one awesome looking dog…do you mind?!”.

Let’s just say we did our duty of making positive impressions for pitties. We must have been asked 15 different times, “Are those pit bulls!? They are so pretty and nice…I really like your dogs!”.

Then we walked past the Apple store and they invited Lola and Enoch inside to enjoy some fresh water. Again, everyone fell in love and was complementing the dogs on how good they were being and what pretty dogs they are.

Way to be awesome breed ambassadors, Lola & E!

Enoch!

If you follow us on Facebook you have probably seen the photos of our newest {temporary} foster, Enoch. Oh my gosh ya’ll, I’m in love…again. However, he’s going to be another Weeser experience, I already know it.

We have been trying to help him with his crate anxiety and have been using our own tips for crate training, along with a new-found solution: place Rio in the crate with him. And it worked marvelously! Turns out it may be more of a separation anxiety, but we are making progress even in the short time we’ve had him.

I’m also fairly certain he has a home lined up – wish us luck as we’ll know more soon. Can’t wait to tell everyone!

p.s. I say temporary foster because (to let you in on a little secret not-so-secret) we may be bringing Mama Emma back to our home until she gets adopted, once her pups are old enough of course.

Big news: Emma & Pups

Mama Emma’s puppies are seven weeks old this weekend, crazy how time flies!

~~One Four~~ Five of them are already spoken for and the meet and greets are beginning for the other pups.

If you’re interested in meeting one of Emma’s pups, you can start by filling out an application on the Secondhand Hounds Rescue site.

Birthday month!

Someone…who this blog so happens to be named after, has a birthday coming up at the end of June! Let’s call in June 25th since we really have no idea when she was actually born.

Lola the Pitty! Photography by Barbara O'Brien Photography — Barbara O’Brien Photography

I think we’ll celebrate with pupcakes and meet up with friends at a park! Cannot believe she’s going to be two years old already.

Thanks for reading!