Rebel Blog — out and about

There is a purposeful thought process that goes into every product we design. Quality of materials and craftsmanship when paired with optimum fit, function and timeless style create a piece of rebel wear that will make you and your dog very happy. This is the story of how the safety leash came to be. 

On New Years Day a 15-pound Klee Kai named Giovanni and his owner set out on a walk in their rural community as they often do. Gio wore a nylon harness as he usually does and everything seemed destined to start out January on the right foot. But the turn of events that happened on this ordinary walk turned the next four days into a living nightmare. As they walked in the distance Gio's owner saw a group of bike riders with bigger dogs approaching and knowing that her little dog is a bit wary of people and dogs she went to cross the street, assuming Gio was right behind her. As she looked back to reassure him she watched in terror as Gio effortlessly backed out of his harness and darted into the woods.

In an instant her heart sank. She knew his skittish nature and fearful demeanor would make him nearly impossible to coax back to her. He was in coyote county now, and he was all alone. A little dog up against wild animals and cold winter nights. She immediately went to work doing everything she could think of to find him. Her community of dog loving friends came together to look for Gio and over the next 96 hours would cover a great amount of ground searching every tree, rock, and possible crevice. His desperate momma didn't sleep or stop for four days as she searched sun up to long after sun down. 

On the third day search dogs were brought in along with a pet detective but to no avail. As the outcome began to look less and less hopeful a phone call came in, a resident who has seen the missing dog flier called saying he believed Giovanni was on his property. The resident admitted he had originally thought Gio was a coyote but after seeing the flier put the facts together and quickly realized that this was the dog they were searching for. Gio was finally rescued, albeit 2 pounds lighter and sustaining several puncture wounds which appeared to have come from a much larger dog, he was at least alive.

After the relief had set in his owner contacted us to come up with a set-up for walking that her escape artist Giovanni could not wriggle out of. So we made him a perfect fit harness to assure he couldn't back out of it and paired it with a martingale collar, a six-foot leash, and a safety leash too. 

What is a Safety Leash?

The safety leash is a small attachment that connects the leash to the collar, while also allowing the leash to connect to the harness. It's a back-up leash that assures should your dog somehow manage to backout of their collar (or harness) they are still safely leashed. The safety leash is completely detachable from the leash so that you can still use the leash on it's own as well. When paired with our custom fit collars and harnesses, this set-up promises peace of mind for walking securely and in style.

**Safety Leashes and Harnesses are currently available by custom order only, but will be in our online shop shortly. For all custom inquiries please feel free to email us at woof@crazyrebels.com.

On Sunday our Dakoda was invited to show off her tricks (for treats of course) at the Dog Days Sunday Brunch fundraiser for ARF. As part of a training demonstration put on by Baily’s Winery and facilitated by Cool Dog Training she exhibited her skills by obeying cues in a crowd of distractions and other dogs. Although she’s our dog so we are slightly biased to begin with, she rocked the show with her friend Stella proving that positive reinforcement* training is an A+ method in her book. 

Baily Winery hosts a dog-friendly brunch every Sunday during the warmer months, and encourages well-mannered dogs to join in the fun. The purpose of the training demonstration was to let people know that any dog can be a cool dog with proper guidance, even big dogs!  Big bad Dobermans, Dakoda and Stella, politely enjoyed a nap on the patio while everyone else enjoyed a relaxing lunch. We love dog-friendly establishments!

Do you take your dogs to dine with you?

*Positive Reinforcement: There are many schools of thought on training methods, with positive reinforcement being one of them. In this type of training we as humans are taught to praise desired behaviors with love, affection, and treats and to ignore bad behavior rather than punish for it. Raising a puppy in this type of environment has proven very successful as it creates a trusted bond between human and canine.

Dakoda and Stella are wearing Glow-in-the-Dark Skeleton hoodies, get yours here!

We love taking our dogs with us everywhere we go. Whether it be for a week long vacation or a quick day trip up the coast, pretty much anywhere we go, they go. With that being said there are a few things we have learned from experience that will make a day away from home (with dogs) go as smoothly and stress free as possible.

We always pack a Dog Bag. Dogs are kind of like children in that they somehow require a lot of "stuff." We use our handy Rebel Tote which is just the right size for carrying dog necessities with enough room for our people things too.

What's in our bag:

1. Collapsable water bowl and a giant size water bottle of fresh, clean water. Lots of doggy germs are found in communal water bowls, so even if shops are dog friendly and provide water, we still like to bring our own.

2. LOTS of treats. Our dogs were trained using positive reinforcement, so they are highly treat motivated. Lots of small treats are great for ensuring cooperative behavior. It's also fun to have our dogs show off some of their tricks for excited little onlookers.

3. Doggy wipes. For quick treat clean-up, and for human hands too. We personally like the Eco Bamboo Pet Wipes because they are easy on the dog's coat, and they smell good!

4. Poop bags. A given, but hey, sometimes we forget the obvious.

5. An extra leash. Because you never know. We have been on walks and found loose dogs, so having an extra leash convenient is a good idea. 

If we are going to be gone long past dinner time we make sure to bring their pre-measured dinner along with their actual food bowls.  We then scout out a good spot to stop and let them eat. The familiarity of the same food, at the same time, from the same bowl makes for a quick meal.

We swear by the DogGoes app for finding nearby off-leash dog parks for potty breaks. Like most dogs we are sure, our dogs will not relieve themselves while on the end of a leash. So, we have found this app to be awesome and highly useful for finding a quick spot to pull off the highway and let the dogs stretch their legs.

We have found that the key to a good day out with dogs, is patience. Take time to let them play and be dogs. 

{Dakoda is wearing the Dakoda Collar in black in size medium with the Chain Gang leash. Diesel is wearing the Diesel Collar in black and nickel in a size large with the Chain Gang leash.}

Hot weather precautions seem like something that should be common knowledge, yet sometimes it’s easy to overlook the obvious. Most pet owners are aware of the incredible danger of leaving their dogs in the car for even a moment, but what many don’t think about is the temperature of the ground when it’s hot outside. 

A simple rule to remember if it’s too hot for you, it’s too hot for them. If you wouldn’t walk barefoot on the asphalt, sidewalk, and even the sand or dirt, your dogs shouldn’t either. Instead of slipping off your shoes, a good way to test the temperature is to press the back of your hand to the ground: if it’s too hot to hold your hand against, it’s definitely too hot for your dog’s paws.

 Ways to beat the heat: 

Walk your dogs early in the morning before the sun has had the chance to heat the ground all day. 

A small wading pool filled with just several inches of water provides hours of summer fun for canine friends. 

Ice cubes in the water bowl are both entertaining and refreshing.

 Keep those pups cool and walk safely!

We are a dog family and we love to travel. This means we pretty much insist on bringing our dogs everywhere with us, which also means we tend to drive to most destinations, no matter how far. To ensure our dogs were good travelers we began taking them on long car rides as young puppies and haven’t stopped since. 

Early this year we embarked on a weeklong trip to Lake Tahoe, Nevada and for the first time ever brought all three of our dogs; two rambunctious Dobermans and a spoiled rotten Maltese.  What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Well it must have turned out all right because we recently returned from a 15-hour road trip! We know this might sound crazy, but over the miles we have complied some survival tips for traveling and road tripping with our canine companions and we’d love to share them with you.

While we don’t claim to be experts, we just have our own experience and accumulated knowledge as far as what has worked well for our pups.

5 Tips for road tripping with dogs:

1.     Make the car an awesome place.  Because two of our dogs are large Dobermans, they take up a lot of legroom, so in order to keep the comfy on long car rides we give them as much room as we possibly can. We pack the backseat of our SUV and give them the entire trunk area to spread out in. Stocked with comfy bedding and plenty of peanut butter stuffed bones, those two live for long car rides.

 2.     Stop often.  When it use to be just the two of us we would get in the car and drive nearly straight through to our destination, stopping only to refuel and grab more Redbull. But now, we make sure to stop every couple hours at the most to let the dogs stretch their legs and get a good drink. While it’s not always an option, we like to try to find places where they can run off-leash for a few minutes to really burn off steam. We love our Dog Park Finder app for this.

3.     Keep their same routine. No matter where we are in our travels, we always try our best to keep our dog’s feeding schedule the same. It helps to prevent uneasy tummies, and ensures they are relaxed and enjoying the trip too. Even if it means stopping on the side of a desolate road in the near darkness to let them eat at 6 p.m., well then that’s what we’ll do.

4.     Bring their favorite things. Packing light only applies to people. When it comes to our dogs, we bring their travel beds so when it comes time to sleep they have a familiar place that smells like home for them to curl up. We also tend to over pack toys, but in a dog’s world I suppose there is no such thing as too many toys. And as long as the dogs are happy, that’s all that really matters.

5.     We are notorious for using Dog friendly apps and websites to plan the best possible canine incorporated trips, here are some of our favorite links! There are tons of websites and apps for specific cities and even countries too, so if you're international be sure to check some of those out too. 

• Doggoes has a really cool clickable map that lets you search for dog parks by region, and there's an app to go with it: Doggoes.com
• We love Bring Fido for it's easy search-ability and list of dog events taking place nationwide: BringFido.com
• Pets Welcome is great for finding pet friendly hotels and places to stay. Searchable by city, route, or even size of dog (great for large breed dog owners): PetsWelcome.com
• Go Pet Friendly has a fun interactive Facebook page, and we love to follow their traveling adventures with their two pups, Ty and Buster: GoPetFriendly.com
• Luxury Paw focuses on higher rated accommodations for traveling with your pets, for classier vacations and places to stay: LuxuryPaw.com