weliveinaflat - 15/31 - We live in a flat

Author: weliveinaflat Page 15 of 31

The last Sunday, Mr P was meeting some friends in the east so we hitched a ride to III Cafe. Perhaps due to the fall in the car she had the day before, it was much easier to get Donna to lie down for a longer time on the back. Remember friends, car safety first! (and yes, we are looking for a pet seatbelt.)

driving to III cafe

This was our first visit to III Cafe. It’s on the second floor of a row of shophouses and this is what it looks like.

donna dog at III cafe

We were there around lunchtime I think. Only one table had dogs and they were very friendly, which made me feel more comfortable to let Donna go leashless. Even though the puppy dogs were smaller than Donna, the corgi was the more playful one and they were able to run around and play for a bit. While the puppies’ humans were more relaxed, I was more uptight and watchful since I didn’t want Donna to accidentally hurt the puppies because she was bigger… I was perhaps too uptight. :P

A black mongrel, Happy, that was bigger than Donna came in later. You could tell he was a little nervous. Since Donna did play in a pretty balanced manner with the small dogs, we introduced Donna to Happy. I was surprised to find out that not only was the other dog younger than Donna, but he was also from the same shelter as Donna. Small world!

For a while, there were more than five dogs running around and I wasn’t sure when it started but I realised that Happy was trying to avoid Donna who playfully followed after him, so I stopped her while he retreated to under his humans’ table.

I subsequently read this post Puppy School of Hard Knocks by Nancy Tanner (if you have a puppy, this is good reading material ;) ) and I was glad that I stopped her when I noticed her getting more rambunctious. The puppies were reined in too as their humans wanted them to tone down a little and suddenly, Donna had no friends to play with.

donna dog at III cafe

At that point, it seemed like it was better for her to return to our table and practice staying.

We have had relatively little chance to practice staying when there are other dogs around. As a result, Donna is pretty good at staying in regular environments where the only distraction is vehicular/human traffic or cats. But Donna is very bad at staying when we meet other dogs. That is, unless she is on a leash. Hah!

donna dog at III cafe

To be fair, after I made sure that she was staying, I took off the leash and she did still stay. I continued with treating her for every few seconds or minutes that she stayed and was calm. But I’m afraid the treat wasn’t as exciting as the other dogs that were playing at the centre of the cafe. So it wasn’t for very long before she got up and tried to make for the other dogs playing in there. Still she was very good at staying even for a while, but even when on the leash, you can tell from the picture above, her attention to the other dogs and her interest in them. :P

If it was 6-7 months ago, I would never have the confidence to venture to a pet cafe with Donna. Right at the start of her homestays before we adopted, we realised that she is a very excitable dog. Even when playing simple games of fetch she could become so excited that she would start bounding all over the place and up and down the sofa uncontrollably. The effervescent self-entertainment would continue and no amount of “stop” or “no” would work and if you reached for her, she would think you are playing with her and get even more excited doing the doggy bounce of joy. So all we could do was to walk outside of the room to the balcony and wait for her to eventually calm down on her own.

I have inserted a Suzanne Clothier video – “Thresholds, Thresholds, and Doing Nothing” – here. Basically she talks about staying calm, not engaging with the dog that is over-excited, and just do nothing until the dog calms down.

If you are unable to view this video, please click on this link to view on Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLriCeTYxLM

We were sure we didn’t want a high-energy dog that we couldn’t manage but at the same time, we weren’t sure if we wanted to explore adopting a different dog instead when she seemed to fit into our size and age requirements so well. Plus, she was also a very smart dog.

One of the materials that helped me a lot at that time was this video: Capturing calmness – How to train calmness in dogs.

I have inserted a kikopup video here. Basically she talks about how to continue to build calmness in your dog after you have waited him out and he has calmed down and is lying about minding his own business.

If you are unable to view this video, please click on this link to view on Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wesm2OpE_2c

While this treating-the-dog-when-he-is-lying-calmly-doing-nothing business was new to me at that time, I was more than eager to just try anything that might work with Donna. She loved running in and out of the study to get our attention, so we treated whenever she was in the mood to tolerate lying by the door and mind her own business. We treated her when she decided she could lay on her strange, new bed to rest. We treated her when she rested outside of the kitchen rather than coming in and getting underfoot (we didn’t have a child gate then). We made sure we had treat jars in the kitchen and in the study so that we treat her very often for staying calm.

And after a while, it seemed she figured out the patterns. Perhaps too well, because she is so very calm nowadays we seldom see Donna playing with her toys or chewing on her many bones on her own much nowadays unless we missed a walk that day. In fact, except for one or two toys that were shredded in the early months, all her toys are intact now, with the occasional aid of a sewing needle.

It could be that once a dog leaves the shelter and gets regular exercise, he works off those excess energy and will in general become a calmer dog. The shelter has seen dogs like this. Logically speaking, the treating of the dog while she is staying calm does not negate but probably helps to enhance the effect (although it may be at the expense of weight management :P)

Mostly after her morning walk nowadays she likes to just lie prone on the floor or curled up like a donut on her bed and sleep the whole day away if we are busy, until after 5pm when she revives and wants to be entertained. Don’t get me wrong, she does still wake up infrequently and come to check on us. But she is generally happy to go back to sleep after a pet or two. Not that we are complaining, since that will fit as nicely into the schedule of working adults as we can hope for. :P

But yes, that is only half the story. Put a dog in front of Donna outside and she would rather meet them than stay. If she were playing, she would come if you call her, only to bound away again as if she has done her duty by coming to you. :P

I did like III cafe. It was very clean, the staff and the patrons cleaned up after their dogs promptly. The staff is also very friendly, even though I only ordered a hot chocolate and stayed for a pretty long time :P (I had intended to have lunch there but ended up supervising my dog as she played. – – Haha! So yes, no food and no pictures while they were playing.)

Overall play experience for the dog depended on the mix of dogs that were visiting though. And given the space, it probably would be too crowded if most patrons came with big dogs. But when I was there, there was only one dog that was bigger than Donna.

But mostly I like that this is a pretty good place with some distraction to practice staying calmly by my feet with Donna. Not a bad place to go to, except for the distance and the shortage of parking space. And of course, the need to pack really high value treats to compete with all the exciting dogs running around!

Can dogs eat durian, the prickly fruit?

By weliveinaflat

On August 6, 2013

In Health

section of durian fruit in it's shell Can dogs eat the fruit, Durian?

There is very little online information on this that I can find but apparently yes but in small quantities only, if the links referenced at the end of this post are accurate. :P

Weekly Phoneography: Flowers in the sky

By weliveinaflat

On August 5, 2013

In Photography

When I was a child, my dream was to go to university. If you think about it, it would make sense, wouldn’t it? After a few years of working, I longed for a job closer to nature (out of the office) and wondered how one could become a landscape architect. My friend laughed and said it must be the hay fever speaking. It was too late. As adults, we have too many other worries. A few years ago, I met a lady travelling in Canada. She must have been a number of years older than me and she was a landscape architect; it was a mid-career change. I have often wondered, if mid-career changes are just easier to engineer in another country other than Singapore.

Flowers in the Sky

I found a mirror in my iPhone,
an app that worked magic.
It made a scrap of nature symmetrical,
look unnatural, less organic.

Weekly Phoneography: Nature [challenge details here]
Apps used: Gorillacam, Camera360, Snapseed, Camera+
App effects: There is a mix of filtered and unfiltered photos here.

I played with this,
creating arrangements that decorate.
A virtual landscaping tool;
it does not propagate.

Foreshadow

For every bloom that unfurls in the sky,
every leaf that uncurls unseen by man,
every cell resounding the cry of nature:
every beginning foreshadows every end.

Every blossom drying out,
every petal a recital
of every falling back to the earth,
an unending cycle.

Close up

And so in the best way they know how
each photographer’s eye will capture,
the essence of life, no different from
the tiniest purveyor of nectar.

Nature

And if the weed goes unseen
It will not matter,
Nature’s serendipity gets discovered,
sooner or later.

Though often overshadowed
by sculptural bits of plant matter
nurtured by human design
to impress and to flatter.

P/S: I thought it was time for a bit of bad poetry to pop out :P

Read my eyebrows, human!

By weliveinaflat

On August 4, 2013

In Photography

We all have photographs of ourselves taken many times over but how many can say they actually have a hand-drawn portrait of themselves done? Perhaps a pencil sketch is an anachronism, a format not representative of current trends which has seen the proliferation of digital camera and smartphones into the household. But sometimes, a pencil sketch, even an artificial one from a smartphone app can be quite the novelty, don’t you think?

Crate-training for our dog who hates storms and thunder

By weliveinaflat

On August 2, 2013

In Training

The story so far…

Our flat is tiny and one side of the long living room is lined with floor-to-ceiling glass doors, which gives the room a very open feeling. On good days, it’s light and airy and maybe a tad too bright. On rainy days, our dog gets insecure and prefers the cosier galley kitchen where perhaps she feels more protected from the thunder.

However, the kitchen is usually secured by a child gate and Donna is not allowed in. Given all these considerations, we decided it may be best to crate-train our dog so that when there’s nobody at home and she needs a safe space from the thunderstorm, she may nestle into the safe den that is her crate. At least, that is how I would like her to perceive it as, ideally.

Trip to get the crate and other supplies

Saturday morning it stormed, but Donna weathered it well. In the afternoon, our plans were to visit the shelter for her supply of Heartgaurd and then the pet shop to get her crate. Due to my “awesome” planning, that meant that we would have to travel from somewhat north of the island to the east and then turn to go to the west before we head home. The entire car ride is going to take more than an hour, perhaps two depending on traffic. (Thank you car-driving Mr P!)

Since the car ride was going to be long, I decided to try giving Donna some ginger, because apparently it can help. (Reference links at end of the post.) She seemed quite interested in it, licked it quite a bit but also kept flicking her tongue so that the ginger ended up all over the floor, and then licked at the ginger in the bowl some more. Should have just given her a whole slice rather than cut into little bits! I’m not sure if any of it went into her actually :P

See the mouth? She’s more relaxed on the right than on the left. In fact, I wasn’t so used to her with her mouth clammed shut like it is on the left and as recent as two nights ago, I worried if it’s swollen because she was allergic to something!!! Oops…

It had been quite some time since the last occasion where we took her out in the car so she may have been quite nervous. But her clammed up mouth loosened after a while, so good. (Although there was less drooling when she clammed her mouth shut :P).

Note, as we seldom drive her out, we have not gotten a car travel harness for her. But that is really advisable because the silly dog decided to stand up on a whim, just as Mr P had to brake suddenly and the silly dog was swept off her feet to the bottom of the car seat!!!! Luckily, it was a gentle bump for her and she was not hurt or shaken up. I think I was more shaken up than her. So yes, we are not always good friendbeasts to our dog. D: Hah! Looking into car dog harness in our next purchase… my goodness, the dog shopping list just keeps getting longer!

The return of a gentler dog

So anyway, we made our way to the shelter – Gentle Paws – without any other mishap. We haven’t brought her back for a long time and Mr P was worried that she would revert back to her crazy pup behaviour that she was so used to before we adopted her. Instead, she remained calm and was able to walk with me slowly (without pulling) along the narrow corridor bordered by cages with barking dogs until we reach the shelter entrance. I’m so glad Florence (who introduced Donna to us) could see Donna now in her calm and friendly state. Her old cage is now shared by Buddy and a larger black dog that kept barking non-stop, kind of reminiscent of when Donna was in there with Buddy.

The crate we bought for the dog and crate training

Then it was off to the pet shop for her new crate, or dog cage, as the pet shop owner called it. I wasn’t too sure about it when I saw it because everyone else online seemed to have crates that open at the end of it. The one the shop sold had the door in the middle along its length rather than along the breadth of it. But it came as one-piece of equipment that was collapsible, with a handle. So it looked easy to travel with and also to set up, and we’ve already traveled there, so we bought it.

The crate had a door on top as well. At first I thought it rather useless, but when it came to trying to get Donna to go into the crate initially for treats, it proved extremely useful for dropping the treats in. When I dropped it in from the door at the side, Donna who was next to me got distracted by the treats and would rather sit by the crate and try to get rewarded by offering to shake-a-paw or play-dead. So I had to move the treats away from her to the top instead.

Then because she really didn’t want to step on the floor of the crate, she would try very hard to stretch and crane her neck, while standing outside, to try to reach the treats further in the crate. It was pretty funny to watch. :P

After a while, we were able to progress to a point where I need not drop the treats in from the top anymore, so the door on top stayed closed and she got used to it that way. What I didn’t realise was that meant that when I wanted to take the pictures above, with the door on top opened, she would refuse to go in when I ask her to! Once I closed it, she got in readily but got out again when I lifted up the door. We had to practice a few times before I could take the picture. :P

Perhaps because of her “give me food I beg you” face, all the pictures of her in the crate looked miserable. D: So here’s a video.

I neglected to tell her to stay, so she went back in after she had enough of sitting I guess. :P

And then yesterday morning, as I was just getting her breakfast ready and not paying much attention to her, she disappeared quietly. Coming out of the kitchen I found her in her crate! Obviously waiting for breakfast to be served. I was so pleasantly surprised I had to take a picture, no matter how ugly a crate looks :P and anyway, I zhng*-ed (*singlish; to modify/beautify/upgrade) it. Hah!!

I’m going to have breakfast in crate, thank you.

The behaviour is transferable!

Previously, she had learnt to go to her bed when I was busy sweeping the floor. Since one of her beds is now in her crate, she has managed to transfer that learning to mean that she should go to her crate when I sweep the floor without me asking her to do that. :D She is one smart girl!

Note, while she would happily go into the crate for food or to keep out of the way, I have not caught her going in there to sleep or do anything else besides sniffing for food. But that’s OK, my main aim was to just ensure there will be a safe den available for her to use should she feel a need to, rather than for the crate to become her bed or a temporary enclosure. Although, we should probably slowly get her used to being inside while the door is closed, just in case she ever needs to be crated for medical reasons.

References:
– Natural aids for motion sickness
– To cure your dog’s motion sickness

Fear of thunder? Tuna-do it!

By weliveinaflat

On August 1, 2013

In Behaviour

Saturday morning, the day after the bad storm. It looked like it would be another unsettling day for Donna.

Isn’t it interesting how the clouds can dictate the gap left by the rain in the distance.

We left for a quick loo break downstairs a little too late. It had started pouring so I decided we should go circle around the covered carpark in the basement.

I found a spot where there is a break between the bushes along the perimeter of the carpark. Great spot actually since I could stand still within the shelter while the dog goes outside in the grass. :P I have seen people who let their dogs eliminate against pillars and on the carpark floor. I don’t appreciate that and Donna has learnt months back not to do that.

Two rounds around the carpark and it’s back home. The thunder continued. Coming back from the walk, she was still relaxed although slowly stiffening from the milder, gradual thunder. She nosed her way through the child gate into the kitchen with no hesitation at all.

Remember the post about disrupting the bad behaviour you want the dog to stop even before it starts? Well, out comes the can of tuna from the fridge. I got her to lie down on her tummy and proceeded to hand feed small bits of tuna to her regardless of whether it was thundering or not.

She got so fixated by the rhythm – lick the tuna on the finger, munch munch, lick the tuna on the finger, munch, munch that she didn’t stop – even when the thunder got louder. She was calm the whole time, tummy on the floor although her ears did remain pressed back and flicker when the thunder got a little louder at times. (I guess we were lucky the thunder wasn’t as bad as the day before. )

Monday came and the scenario was similar. We were downstairs waiting for the taxi to come send Mr P to the airport. It was raining and thundering. She decided to sit calmly on the bench, not trembling. But a particularly loud rumble got her on her feet while I was trying to take a picture of her sitting calmly on the bench.

Looking at this picture now, I think I’ve gotten a little too complacent and should have never taken my hand off her leash, especially since any sudden loud thunder could spook a dog. Even if at the point of leaving the leash, she was calm.

Back home, I tried the tuna trick. It worked for a bit but as the thunder got progressively louder, it stopped working at times. Here, she is looking away refusing to leave the kitchen. Somehow, she has associated it to being a safe place even though we don’t let her in it except for her mealtimes.

Donna and I, divided by the threshold to the kitchen.

We probably have to consistently repeat dispensing tuna every time it starts to rain and thunder for the counter conditioning to have any effect. Let me know if you think differently or have other advice that we should consider. Otherwise, not sure how long we need to do this until we can gradually wean her off. Hmmmm…. :/ That is, if there was anyone in the house to do it when it thunders!

P/s: the crate training is going well though :)

This is how we weigh the dog

By weliveinaflat

On July 31, 2013

In Health

For a while there, every time we visited the vet we were informed that Donna’s weight had gone up again. The vet is an hour’s walk away, so it didn’t make sense to walk our overweight dog over in the hot sun just to weigh her regularly. A two-hour walk there and back is generally too much for our princess dog to handle as well. Donna is not handbag size, and she gets worried when her feet are not firmly on the ground, so the best way to weigh her is to get her to get on our digital weighing scale (for humans :P) herself. Hah!!

But of course, she did have this habit where she will view all new things I try to introduce to her suspiciously. So it took time to get her to get on the weighing scale on her own accord. Practising doggy parkour outside helped a lot. Once, she got the concept of “up-up” outside, she totally got that I wanted her to get on the weighing scale. Doesn’t mean she is that happy to be there though.

This is how we weigh the dog – on the human’s weighing scale!

And since she was supposed to be on a diet, we had to cut back on the treats. So I ended up giving her her meals while she sat on the weighing machine.

Conditioning the dog to like being on the weighing scale by giving her food rewards in that position

Pretty soon she had cued in to what was happening and couldn’t wait to hop on the weighing scale and go into an automatic sit the minute it landed on the floor. But in the case of this video below, she was perhaps getting bored of the exercise because it was the 3rd or 4th take already :P

First time for me using the vine app to take looping videos. It takes some getting use to as one needs to tap and hold in order to record the video. The first take was bad because towards the end her head got cut off by the frame :P

While it took some time to get a good 6-second take on Vine, the actual posting of the video thereafter was quick and easy. However, this also means that there is no selection of filters that one can apply to the video and there is no small list of music to layer over the movie, in the case of people like me, who cringe to hear myself speaking on the video :P

Is your dog having success at doing something you have trained together? Fame him :) Details on eileenanddogs.

Look upwards and find a little tale

By weliveinaflat

On July 30, 2013

In Photography

Picture 1

“Hold on a minute,” I said, “I want to take a picture of the flower-shaped lights cast by the roof on the floor.”

But there were people walking by. I snapped the roof with its flower-shaped cut-outs that let escaped similarly shaped light shadows on the ground as I waited for the passerby to clear the frame. When he had passed, the flowers were gone too, as the clouds obscured the light.

Picture 2

I was waiting for the family to arrive for a buffet dinner at a hotel. I was in the lounge and spied a many thousand (I exaggerate!) baubles of a chandelier. I sidled to the couch somewhat directly underneath and pretended to be playing with my phone… and then non-nonchalantly snapped a few pictures. I just didn’t want to look like I had never seen a chandelier before :P Muahahahahaha!

Picture 3

Night loo break and short walk with Donna. Leaves lighted up by streetlight. They looked numerous, and yet still lonely in the dark.

Picture 4 and 5

At the petrol station while Mr P was filling up petrol. The light was bright so I couldn’t see the flowers of this blooming tree clearly. No problemo, let’s take a picture and look at it on the screen at a later date. I love blooming trees.

Picture 6

I stepped onto our tiny bedroom balcony, took one look at the sky and went back in for my iPhone.

Picture 7 and 8

Mr P and I were standing on our tiny bedroom balcony waiting for the National Day rehearsal military planes to fly past. We got bored and looked down, studying the construction site below instead. When we looked up again, the blue sky had already been crossed with these streaks of white, marking the passage of those planes that we were waiting for.

“They went past? I thought we would hear them. They usually are very loud, aren’t they?”

“Dear, they are military planes. They have a stealth mode. You can hear them on National Day because they made them loud deliberately.”

Ooops.

Anyway, if you look real carefully in one of the corners, you can see a tiny sliver of the moon.

Weekly Phoneography: Donna and I

By weliveinaflat

On July 29, 2013

In Dog & You

Phoneography Challenge: Challenger’s Choice (Portrait)
Apps: Camera+, Snapseed

Switched the viewfinder to the screen side of the camera so that it is easier to take a picture since I am strapped down in the car. Oh look, I got caught in the frame as well, sans head. So there you have it, me and my dog. :P

Mr P was driving so he couldn’t be in the picture :P

For the last couple of months, I have started to worry that perhaps Donna is missing out on building social skills now that she has started life afresh from the shelter. I guess you could even say she perhaps never had social skills to start with. This, after all, was the dog that was isolated with an old man dog (who is too chill to care about crazy pups) because she couldn’t get along with the other dogs in the other bigger fenced yards.

We took her to the dog park, but she couldn’t deal with the dogs that home in on her and got fearful. I introduced her to our cousin’s dog Doudou, but they seemed to prefer the grass around them compared to each other. Oh she wanted to meet the other dogs we pass by on our walks alright, but a lot of times her tail would be wagging stiffly, which apparently can mean that she is undecided if she wants to be friendly or no.

But over the weekend, we drove to a doggy cafe and then to the dog park and she did great with both. She was gentle with the small dogs in the doggy cafe and a little submissive but friendly with the big dogs at the dog park! The people we met remarked at how calm and gentle she was! Good progress given that we have only had her for half a year so far! :D I’m pretty stoked!