Try and Try Again

I hear people saying they put booties on their dog and the dog didn’t like it, then they never tried again.  I think of it like reading glasses, at first maybe not totally necessary, but much better to read once you’ve gotten used to them.  Dog booties are the same.  

The first few times you put booties on your dog they will likely walk gingerly, or maybe even chew on them.  Our dog did both of those things the first few times we used them, then we discovered that if we put them on immediately before getting her out of the car, or just before running out the door, that she was so distracted by running and playing, that she soon forgot she was wearing them.  True of the DoodleSuit as well.  

The first few times we put the DoodleSuit on our dog Bug, her tail instantly drooped and she stood there looking woefully at us as if to say “you’ve GOT to be kidding me, I have to wear this?!”  But then, as soon as we open the door of our house or of the car she’s out running, jumping and generally having a great time having forgot the initial ‘weirdness’ of wearing a suit.

Now it’s a pretty regular routine, before going out in the rain, the snow, the mud or the brambles we quickly slip on the DoodleSuit and we’re off on an adventure!

Not Just For Doodles

My uncle is a bird hunter and has had hunting dogs ever since I can remember...actually the first dog I remember him having began as the family pet of his wife’s sister.  She had this amazing dog, his full given name was Northern Autumn Sundance.  He was called Sundance (though for a while while I was feeling rebellious I called him Norton).  Anyway, she discovered it was simply too much to have an active dog and active little kids at the same time...so Sundance was passed on to my uncle.  I have no idea how Sundance was as a hunting dog, but I do remember he loved to fetch things, even attempting to fetch rocks thrown in the lake.  He was a beautiful Golden Retriever and was extremely well loved by all in the family.  

My uncle has continued to have hunting dogs and family dogs, and family hunting dogs and hunting family dogs.  His current dog, Nellie, is sporting a DoodleSuit in mandarin, which you guessed it...will be great for hunting!

A Little Extra Love

As we were printing shipping labels to ship out our very first production run of DoodleSuits, Nick thought - woudn’t it be nice to include a little treat for the dog?  We shopped around a little looking for a local bakery making dog biscuits and came across places like the Furry Friend Bakery and PC’s Pet Pantry...both of which made yummy treats, but since I love to bake I decided to try making my own. I googled various recipes and decided to make up my own simple recipe.  My dog is gluten-free (haha, I know it’s funny, but it’s true), so I mixed some non-gluten flours together, some homemade chicken broth from my freezer, some freshly cooked bacon and an egg...rolled it out, cut out some shapes, baked them for few minutes and viola! Biscuits, that not only does my picker-eater dog like, but that my brother-in-law, Bob, tried and deemed them good for dogs and people (though really my intent was for the four legged creatures!)

We're not dreaming anymore- - this is REAL

We love to be outside...85 degrees and sunny is the family favorite, but we live in Colorado and it snows here. Like most days year round it is sunny, but in the winter there is snow...sometimes a lot of it. We are all outfitted with snow boots, with snow coats, with wool socks, with hats and gloves and super-warm-base-layers...we are prepared to play outside. Bug was only a puppy the first winter we had her, during her second winter it became very apparent that she needed proper snow gear too. We found booties for dogs and snow googles for dogs but discovered that after spending time out in the snow, Bug would come inside and spend hours chewing the snow balls off her legs and belly. I shopped around for a 'snow coat' for her, but found nothing that fully covered her legs, chest and belly. I'm pretty good with a sewing machine, so I started sewing and the DoodleSuit was designed. When she wore her DoodleSuit out on the trail, she received so many compliments and there was so much interest from people that we decided to started making them to sell to other dog owners.

A few years later the dream of DoodleSuit became a reality as we entered our first production run!  We continue to make plans for the future including suits for larger dogs, for smaller dogs and for much smaller dogs.  We’re also researching fabrics to repel ticks for dogs living in the east coast and fabric to prevent thistles and other weeds from embedding in your dogs fur for dogs in dry warmer areas.

Dreaming of Doodles

Remember being in school and doodling?  You know, doodling pictures or designs along the edges of your paper when you were supposed to be taking notes?  Or, as an adult, being on hold for a long time with an insurance company and doodling in the corners of the bill you’re trying to deal with? I definitely am a doodler.

We choose our puppy from a litter of eight in the fall of 2008.  At the time our kids were four and six years old and we decided to name our puppy before giving her to the family. We did that because we were afraid if we let them choose a name we would end up with a Fluffy (even if she wasn’t particularly fluffy) or a Fire-Rocket (as that was what our son was currently interested in).  Our past pet name choices were not exactly stellar, I once named a cat “Number Three” because, you guessed it, he was kitten number three in our household.  Anyway, clearly this name choosing thing was on my mind because I had a dream about it. I dreamt that I was walking through rooms looking at things written on paper, none of which were decipherable, in fact, they were kinda doodle scribbles, but in one room a name was written on the wall “DoodleBug Dale”.  The doodle part makes sense (she’s a Golden Doodle), Dale is the name of my BFF, and Bug...well I’m not sure where that came from, but that is her name.  DoodleBug Dale.  We call her Bug and we love her.