On His A-Game

Time to take me outside! Okay?

When we take Barry for a walk we are in-tuned to our surroundings more than before we had Barry. I can spot a squirrel pretty quickly and then let Husband know so we can change direction or turn Barry around before Barry sees it (sometimes). I notice the thawing poop on the sidewalk, shards of glass along the fence, fried foods haphazardly splayed along the street. Barry isn't necessarily interested in the glass, but we don't want him stepping on it. He's not wearing hard soled shoes like we are. He's only got his thick pads to protect him which as we know can still get punctured.

Something was here at some point today...

As for the poop and half eaten foods we find? He's more interested in them. He takes note of the poop and if we allow (or just aren't paying attention) he'll go over to the poop and sniff at it, maybe take a lick. YUCK! We typically move him away and he doesn't usually seem overly interested in the poop thank goodness. He is however, pretty interested in the food. If it's something really special he'll pull towards it hard. Not all food. Just some food. The special stuff.

There were a few pieces of fried chicken hanging out along our path this last weekend on an evening walk. Barry dove at it and before we knew it he was chowing down on a fist sized piece of fried chicken. He ate the whole piece, or at least it appeared that way in the dark. Guess what happened the day after? Diarrhea. He simply just can't handle greasy, fatty foods. Grains don't seem to bother him (though, we don't usually give him anything with grain in it). It's the greasy and fatty meat. A lot of meat tends to be greasy and fatty. Whenever we choose a meat to give him it's always as lean as possible. Occasionally he gets the special treat from someone or finds a yummy piece of fried chicken laying around. He just can't handle it, though.

At this point I'm not sure that Husband and I can be more aware of all of the things we encounter. We try to always be on our A-game because we know that Barry is most definitely on his. As in-tuned as we think we are Barry is always one step ahead of us (literally). It will just be impossible to catch every little thing every single time.

I'm pickin up da scent...

Until the day we acquire super human powers we will keep pumpkin at the ready in our cupboards.
Seriously, though. If you have a dog that has a rather sensitive stomach like Barry, pumpkin. It works. We like to add rice in (and lean protein so it tastes good) as well but the rice alone doesn't help diarrhea. The rice is a filler and easily digestible. The rice helps keep him satiated so he doesn't feel starved since we are giving him less of his normal food (to cut back on the fat and other more difficult to digest ingredients). The rice gives his digestive system a break and keeps him full (full = happy). The pumpkin does the bulking. Enough about dog poo.

Here's to super human powers!

Tree Obsession to Tree Love

Look at his cute face! Too bad the quality is not the best. I'm not very
good at taking pictures and walking at the same time.

Remember when we were having issues with Barry being totally obsessed with all surrounding trees and fences? So obsessed that he couldn't go to the bathroom outdoors because of how distracting the trees were (then in turn using the bathroom inside)? I think the tree obsession has finally started becoming less of a novelty. I think we've gotten him back to a normal love for trees and less of an obsession. Love is good. Obsession is annoying.

What we are finding, though, is now that the weather is starting to get nicer the squirrels and rabbits abound. Birds too, but thankfully he's not into birds. He is into squirrels and rabbits, though. VERY much into them. So much into them that Husband loses balance trying to hold Barry back. Barry makes the loudest, screechiest, highest pitched whistle whine you've ever heard. People can likely hear him from blocks away. I worry that someone will think we're hurting him. He sounds like a wounded mammal. If I heard this noise coming from a dog I'd think his owners were hurting him. Well, that is, if I'd never heard Barry making the noise I'd think that. I am thankful, though, that Barry doesn't bark. I mean, he does bark, but only when we encourage it. He has this deep heavy man dog bark. I'm proud of his bark, actually. He has a very good solid bark. He only does it when we ask him to tell us if he wants to go outside. So we start making barking noises and he does his man bark. It's awesome. He also talks kind of - this other strange unhinged type of whiny voice. He's cute.

Anyhow - I can only imagine if he was a barker, though. It would scare people. Not that it matters. He could be walking very politely along side us, prancing and smiling and there would still be someone that would run away scared. Oh well. It is a benefit to us that he doesn't bark at the squirrels.

Dogs are creatures of habit, similar to humans. Animals in particular are all creatures of habit. We do similar things everyday (wake up, go to the bathroom, put on the coffee, go to work, etc., etc.). Sometimes we get into bad habits as a coping technique (chewing nails, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, cutting, plucking hair, etc.). Dogs are very similar. Have you seen your dog incessantly lick or bite at a spot on their body until it's raw and bleeding? Chase their tail? Chew shoes or couches? If you see your dog becoming more obsessive about certain behavior you need to try and stop it as quickly as possible. What are the triggers? When did it start?

Hmmm... This bench smells like something...

For us the trees weren't as bad as full blown obsession. Close, though. We were able to help him pass trees and not worry so much about them relatively quickly before his slight obsession turned into full blown obsession. It took a few weeks to get him to realize that not all the trees we pass are that exciting. Now his interest in trees is back to normal and at a healthy level. This is how we'd like to keep it.

What happened that made him so interested in trees to begin with? For one there is occasionally a squirrel in a tree. So it totally makes sense that he wants to check in each tree to see if there is a squirrel. The biggest change was when we had Grandpa watch Barry. Grandpa encouraged Barry to look for squirrels and check in the trees. It was totally innocent of course. They were both having fun. Barry, however, being a dog, wants to make his human happy. If Grandpa wants him to jump up at a tree and stare waiting for a squirrel then he will totally do it! Not only is it exciting for Barry to do something like that he wants to do it because he's being told that it's good to do. Over the course of a two week period doing that over and over again each day it started to become a habit. Barry thought that it was acceptable and good. Grandpa was having fun. Unfortunately it did become somewhat of a habit and the quality of our walks (when we came back from vacation) was poor. At that point we were still working with Barry to walk nicely and safely on a leash. Combined with his poor listening skills, and now a new almost obsession we decided to call in the behaviorist I've mentioned in previous posts.

Picture Grandpa took of Barry.

Barry walks mostly well now. We're happy to report the trees are still awesome but not that awesome. Thank goodness too! We will continue to work with him but now we can put our tree obsession days behind us and focus on our goals.

Weekend Adventures

Saturday night adventures...

This dog is in heaven.

He feels wild and crazy and free.

The weather is divine. The scents and sounds of nighttime are intoxicating.

He is THE dog when we're at the spot.

Please forgive the bad quality pictures. We're all running and moving and as hard as I try I can't stand still much either. I would rather play and enjoy Barry than take pictures of him when we're out on our walks or at the spot. I am also using my cell phone to take pictures and it's low light. Perhaps one day I'll get a real quality camera. Perhaps not.

Happy Weekend!

The Coolest Spot

Husband and I always feel like we do the best we can with giving Barry enough exercise. He gets 4 good walks each day. One of those walks is typically much longer. We play with him inside. We take stairs occasionally if walks are short. I would just love to have a yard for him. It's just not physically possible to give him all the exercise he requires without a yard. When he gets outside he is a different dog. He's moving, listening, hyper-aware, sniffing, intense, and on-alert. He's not focused on us most of the time. I know he knows we're there now, though. The first couple of months I wondered if he realized he was out on a walk with us and that we had a leash on him. Since he's walking soooo much better nowadays I at least know that he knows we're there. He's still mostly all about his surroundings but coupled with not pulling so much.

This last weekend we were out on our final Before Bed walk of the day. It was probably 11:45 PM. We walked a pretty typical route but switched it up a bit by continuing through a park and the front of a school. It was nice out, too and that's why we wanted to switch it up a bit. We walked by a grassy gated area. It was all gated off. You could easily get in, just closing the gate behind you. The gate is a 4 1/2 foot black iron gate. Husband suggested we let Barry run around a bit. So we all walked in (the gate door open) and latched close the gate. I walked around to the other side and closed the back gate, Husband unhooked Barry's leash and he was off. This spot has a really long stretch that is perfect for running, and run Barry did. Back and forth, up and down, in the bushes and all over the place. He was loving it. We felt really good about this find. Though, we've seen it before. We've walked by this spot and we've even seen people in there with their dogs. We just hadn't walked by at night when no one else was there. The opportunity didn't present itself in the same way it did last weekend. Nighttime is the best time for letting Barry run around in that spot with no other dogs or people around.

I'm calling it the 'spot' because I don't know what else to call it. It's not a dog park. It juts up to the exterior of a school. The school is in an L shape and there is the gated area at the back of the school that is grassy with a bit of a slope, some side walk, and bushes. It's not a playground for children. It's perfect for allowing your dog to romp around for 15 or 30 minutes to blow of some steam, though. I'm glad we found it. Obviously we'd never have Barry run around during school hours. He's a total nut in there. Running so fast and so furious. I know he enjoyed being a dog in there. I'm not completely sure that we are allowed to bring Barry in there but for now we'll just do it in the evenings and clean up after ourselves (read: pick up Barry's poo) before leaving.

To us, this spot is a gem. It's kind of a game changer. It's awesome. Barry did step on something, though, while running around. It punctured his front left pad and ripped some of the callous off. That precious callous that you work so hard to build up so that your dog can walk around outside easily. It's just a chunk but he was limping and that's why we caught it. We've been cleaning it each night and covering it with a bootie on walks. Once he's more healed up we'll take him to this magical spot as often as possible. I'm hoping we can take him tonight. He deserves to run free and be a dog every single night.

Barry the Pit Bull??

Our first moments with Barry. This was taken on December 3, 2013, the
evening we adopted him.

When we adopted Barry I didn't immediately think "this dog is a pit bull...". Instead I was focused on the fact that he was intense and super energetic. His looks were secondary. Once we got him in a home, fed, and calmed down is when all of the actual facts started sinking in. His physical features are that of a typical pit bull breed. Muscular rear legs and front, lean waist, short hair and, big and wide head. In the end it just doesn't matter his breed or body type. This guy is a bundle of love.

He's already too large to be a typical pit bull. Many times in the news you'll hear of a pit bull that mauled someone and it's described as being 100+ pounds. That isn't normal. It might be a pit mix of some sort but that's not a normal size for a typical pittie. It's just not. Your typical pittie maxes out at 60 lbs. They are lean and muscular dogs but they don't get to be the massive sizes most people have come to be used to hearing about. Barry is a pit mix. He's not the full pit bull breed (even though that even in itself is such a dichotomy). He's a dog. He's an adventurous, loving, independent, nosy, playful, happy, and friendly dog. He loves every dog he meets (but that doesn't mean every dog he meets loves him back), he longs to find squirrels on each walk, he loves the outdoors more than anything else in life (except for maybe string cheese), and he wants to cuddle with us each night as we tuck ourselves into bed. He's a dog.

So, when we're asked what kind of dog he is or is he a pit bull or bull dog, we don't really know how to respond. I feel like he has some pit bull, American Scott Bull Dog, labrador, pointer, cow, and maybe a touch of cheetah. We really don't know. We can say he's awesome and smart and we love him.

When I was young we had a dog named Smokey. He was a pit bull mix. Brindle and black sweetie. He was huge though. I know I was just a kid but that dog was big. He was 100+ pounds. I remember sitting on him and he'd walk around with me on his back. Such a cool and laid back guy. A good dog. I was around 10 years old when he died, I believe of heart worms. Smokey was my first experience with dogs and pit mixes in general.

You know how so many times people say how lucky a dog is to be in a home because they're treated so well or because they were rescued out of a bad situation? Well, I feel like we're the lucky ones that we found Barry. Barry has changed us. Barry has shown us something different. We are the lucky ones. I won't lie and say that Barry isn't lucky but I feel like we have totally scored with this sweet guy.

Gettin' down and dirty, and probably eating yellow snow.

Pit bull or not - Barry is a dog. He's our dog and he's awesome.

Picky Pibble

I thought Barry would EAT anything. If it was dropped on the floor he was there to clean it up. No matter the ingredient. I thought. I now know I was wrong.

Here are the things I know he doesn't like individually:
Rice - plain
Pumpkin puree
Apple
Broccoli - raw
Banana

He will eat broccoli plain if it's roasted, however. For that I can't blame him. I don't particularly love raw broccoli myself. On a totally separate and not-about-Barry topic, broccoli contains goitrogens which inhibits thyroid functionality. Cooking the broccoli just a little bit causes the goitrogens to become inactive and removes the bitterness making your broccoli not only taste better but enables your body to better digest the broccoli. Broccoli isn't the only vegetable with this affliction. Okay - back to the real stuff. Barry...

Barry's treat box. We also have a few calming chews in here that we don't give him
unless necessary. He hasn't needed the calming chews in quite some time.

I was shocked when a couple of weekends ago I tried to feed him banana from my hand and he sniffed at it and looked away. WHAT?? Same with the apple.

The rice and pumpkin puree is what we feed to him when he has diarrhea, which happens to be more often than what we'd expect. We never feed him only rice and pumpkin puree. We add a good lean protein to it as well. He eats it as long as it's thoroughly mixed with each bite having bits of protein in them. Without the lean protein he won't even grace the combo with a sniff. WE MUST ADD MEAT. I found this out when I put just rice and pumpkin in his KONG one day and topped with banana and pumpkin. That KONG wasn't touched.

No, I did not eat the paper from that box. 

I know there are picky eaters out there but I never thought my Barry would be one of them! In one of our first obedience classes we met a sweet tiny dog that wouldn't eat her treats! I just thought how funny that must be, to have a dog that would not eat something you tried giving them. Now I see it with Barry. He is picky after all.

Perhaps he would eat those things happily if he were hungry and that's all he had available. I guess it's a good sign that he doesn't eat what he doesn't want to because he's well fed. I guess I can relate. Being well fed myself I don't usually eat what I don't want either.

Happy Friday!

Confessions of a Dog Mommy

I try to be as open and honest in each post as I can regarding Barry without divulging too much of my private life. This blog is all about Barry and there are bits in between that I cannot help but explain which gets into some of our goings-on. I never want this blog to be about me or Husband.

This post will be a lot about me, this time. My confessions. It all circles back to Barry of course. So it's still all about Barry but these are my deep-dark-Barry secrets.

Confession #1

I can't contain how much I love Barry. I mean that I've never loved an animal this much. I love people this much. I happen to love Barry equally as much as a person. I feel bad about it a little. I don't want to be someone that treats their dog like a human but I think it's too late for that. I justify most of what I do with Barry thinking it's necessary or "for Barry's own good" so I'm torn on this love I feel for him. 

Confession #2

I wake up in the middle of the night half asleep because many times Barry will lay his huge, heavy head on my feet or legs. Instead of moving him I sit up and love on him for a bit. I pet his sweet velvet face and scrub behind his ears. I scratch his belly a while and then lay back down in my awkward position that's a little too warm but I don't care because it's Barry laying there and he's kind of precious to me.

Confession #3

I get jealous when Barry lays next to Husband and not next to me when we're on the couch.

Confession #4

I feel sad when Barry is laying with his head on my lap then he suddenly switches positions to a curled up ball and he's no longer close to me. It seems like he's mad at me or annoyed by me. 

Confession #5

I think Barry is cuter than your dog. Not to say I don't find your dog super cute. I totally do. I just think Barry is cuter.

Confession #6

I don't know how many exactly but a conservative estimate of the number of pictures I have taken of Barry is around 1,700. In less than four months.

Confession #7

I am just now starting to come around to liking walking Barry. I always go out with Husband when he walks Barry but I rarely walk Barry myself. I do walk him but I'm just now starting to like it. He was really difficult to walk for the first bit we had him. He is so much better on a leash now and easier to control (unless there is a squirrel). I am super thankful to Husband for taking over this task and walking him. I feel pretty guilty about this one. I feel bad that my Husband does pretty much all of the walking and that I haven't really enjoyed walking Barry up until more recently. 

Confession #8

I love it when people want to pet Barry and compliment how pretty he is. It makes me so proud and that makes me really like that person just for liking my dog.

Confession #9
When people tell me about how their kid did this or that, or the issue they might be having, etc., I can totally relate now. In my mind I'm thinking, "I know! Barry does the same thing! When Barry is sick we..." but I don't say it aloud because then they'd think I was crazy comparing Barry to their child. I'm not actually comparing the two. I still would never say it to someone. Except I just now did.

Confession #10

I kiss him right on his soft pit bull lips. He really has these ridiculously soft poofy lips that I just love. They are super smooth, and smushy, and kissable. Many times he'll kiss me back and his tongue gets into my mouth. Kind of like french kissing only it's not because it's innocent and I would never advocate or take part in that kind of behavior. 

So now you know my secrets.