Another multiple exposure up there. Yup, that’s Donna still getting used to her new crate, so you can see a bit of unease peeking through in her eyes and eyebrow.
The ones that break through all that noise in the blogosphere to reach us are resourceful.
The ones that got us to “like” them are effective.
The ones that got us to follow them are interesting.
The ones that did all of the above and influenced our thoughts/actions are… versatile.
I had to use the word “versatile” because… you guessed it, this is yet another versatile award post! Well actually, it is a double award post. I am sorry because award posts may be a little self-serving :(
So who are these bloggers that have influenced this blog and its content? (I have named some of these people many times so please bear with me! :P)
Versatile Blogger Award and My Favourite Things Award Nominations
I thank you the one(s) that,
got me trying to explore the same themes in a different way every month- LensandpensbySally
got me posting black and white photos every Tuesday- Sonel’s corner
got me to be more adventurous when editing photos on my iPhone- Ashcroft54
I didn’t even know visited my blog and liked it well enough to spring an award on me, hah! – House full of dogs and Dogsnpawz (Thank you!!)
The remaining 2 links are not blogs, but I would still like to share because I just learn better from videos where you actually see people in action and can observe the way it’s done :P
Thank you guys, you keep this blog going. A lot of the posts wouldn’t have happened if it were not for you! Hahahahaha!
weliveinaflat would like to say that there is absolutely NO obligation to receive, repost or follow any of the Versatile Blogger Award (VBA) or My Favourite Things rules listed at the end of this post. We nominate (sometimes repeatedly) because we enjoyed your blogs, totally appreciate your friendship and love to spread the word about you but we do not want to inconvenience you in any way.
Thank you Dogs N Pawz for the VBA nomination!
Thank you Ku for the My Favourite Things nomination!
Seven things about me
How to follow blogs that are not on wordpress.com via the WordPress Reader
1. I found out recently that it is possible to follow blogs that are not on WordPress.com via the WordPress Reader.
This is how you do it:
How to follow external blogs on WordPress Reader
[1] Click “Reader” tab to go to the Reader page.
[2] Click on the “Edit” button next to the “Blogs I Follow” button.
[3] The list of blogs you follow will appear. There will be a field right on top under the “Edit Blogs I Follow” title. Fill in the web address of the blog you want to follow, in this case I put in the Dogs N Pawz URL.
[4] Click “Follow”. If nothing goes wrong, you should now see the website appearing in the list with the other blogs you are following.
I don’t know why I’ve ignored that field all along even though it sits right on top of the page there! I must have been blind. Maybe you guys knew all along and I have been the only one in the dark. D:
I do use the WordPress Reader to follow blogs, much more often than the other service Feedly that I have on my web browser. However, it seems Wordpress sometimes had a moodswing and swallowed posts at times. I know it happened to Ruby the Black Labrador and me.
Still, I am quite glad that I can add outside blogs to the reader. I’m just too lazy to use multiple readers. :P
The other six will be Six of Donna’s favourite things, to satisfy both award requirements. :P
2. the humans in the house
3. the humans in the shelter Donna came from
4. the grass outside!
5. chicken and eggs, fresh boiled ones
6. the toy of the day, but only if the human is throwing it
7. yogurt and milk, mmmm-mmmm!
Leaving you with this cute video via nodogaboutit. Both award requirements below if you are interested to respond.
Thank the person who presented you with the award and link back to him or her in your post.
Pass the award along to 15 favorite bloggers. Contact the chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.
Share Seven Things About Yourself:
My Favourite Things Award Rules:
1) thank the blogger who gave it to you,
2) post the award on your blog,
3) name 6 of your favorite things and finally pass it on to as many bloggers as you wish.
BUT, weliveinaflat would like to repeat that there is absolutely NO obligation to receive, repost or follow any of the above rules. We nominate because we enjoyed these blogs but we do not want to inconvenience them in any way. :P Naggy, naggy~
The storm today had thunder that made me jump just a little and the dog shivering uncontrollably. Even before it came, Donna was already communicating her nervousness, putting her front paws on my chair as she tried to attain some height.
I took out the new pack of doggy sausage from the refrigerator and sat in the living room, cutting it into tiny treats ready to disburse to the dog every time the thunder rolled.
But when the thunder hammered across the sky, she was one mass of jiggling nerves. I’m serious. If you had put your arms around her, she would have felt like a violently trembling Osim massage machine.
The rare treat of being on the sofa gave her no comfort, she tried to climb the coffee table. That was too dangerous. I stopped her. She didn’t feel safe with me, she ran off to poke at the child gate barricading the kitchen, seeking safety elsewhere. Needless to say, the doggy sausage went largely unheeded.
Finally I called her to come and put a t-shirt on her, hoping that having something she was not used to on her would distract her enough to calm her down a little. When she finally settled, it was under the coffee table, enduring the irrational doggy voices in her head.
Hugging the dog is not the option here, Donna does not like to be hugged. She could put up with it on occasion, but hugging her when her tail is already tucked in between her legs just seemed to me to be heaping further pressure on her.
She likes to be petted, but on her own terms and only when she comes looking for you.
That’s why in general, I can only take the measure of her fear by offering her treats. She ignores them when she is too absorbed in her fears. If she had the presence of mind to take them when offered, it means she was gotten calmer.
When she took the bit of tuna I offered, I took the T-shirt off her again. She grinned pretty happily like it was a load off her back. But the thunder continued and she stopped taking the food on my hand, focusing on the fear that has gripped her doggy mind. So I put the T-shirt back on her.
Nope, she has not mastered her fears although she is slightly more responsive with the T-shirt back on. She is worried but not so much now. She tail is only slightly tucked inwards rather than totally curled. Still nervous though judging by ow distracted she is, her ears, eyes and panting.
I’m not sure if the T-shirt helped or made it worse, but at least she settled by my feet and the massage-machine level of trembling had disappeared. She was still salivating more than normal because of the heightened excitement.
I kept offering tuna to her nose but it didn’t work. Since she had laid down by my feet, I sat calmly cutting up the rest of the slighted sausage, packing them into a container for use as training treats at a later time. On hindsight, perhaps I should have petted her more?
Eventually I tried stooping down and getting her attention while offering the tuna. It worked. And as the thunder lightened, I switched to the sausage treats. That worked too. Good.
Here it is the container of tiny cut sausage treats, the result of today’s endeavour to slowly lift her reaction to thunder with food. She went into an automatic sit and was trying her hardest to telepathically send feed me messages. Hah! Fine, one last tiny piece for her.
She’s quite adaptable with the t-shirt.
She gave up lobbying for treats after she realised I was not giving anymore since the rain had stopped. She had somehow managed to get her front paws through the collar of the shirt. I thought it made her look like a Japanese geisha with the obi belt. Haha :P
I felt quite drained after the storm. She must feel so too.
After the rain, we prepared to go out for a much needed walk in the cooled evening air. She sputtered with disgust as I squirted ear cleaner liquid into her ears against her will. She hated me. More than she hated the thunder at that moment probably. She poured all her anger into her beloved Dentastix that she chomped on vehemently, a goodwill gesture on my part for inflicting the ear torture on her.
Then we headed out for a simple walk, no training. Just brisk walking to clear both our heads and our souls.
A lady who passed by us asked to pet her. Donna reminded her of her own dog, she said. In the last few months, Donna seemed to have gained confidence with meeting strangers, compared to when she met Uncle Gardener. She did not react to the lady’s hand hovering over her head.
The evening was cool and wet and she got all her paws muddy. But she returned with a healthy appetite for dinner and now lies on her side sleeping without fussing to play like she usually does after her meals.
I’m sorry if today’s post is a little melodramatic. It’s just how the words flowed today. :P
I decided to order a 3 feet-long crate for her. I wasn’t sure if I should get 2.5 feet or 3 feet because I vaguely remembered reading somewhere that the crate should not be too large so the dog would not eliminate in it. A call to the pet store was unfruitful as it could not give me the advice I needed. The pet store owner was too busy trying to explain to me that a dog crate is a plastic box and a dog cage is a metal enclosure but was unable to advise on which size to get.
I spent some time searching and reading before I found the clarification online. In general, the dog should be able to lie comfortably on her side and to sit comfortably without hitting her head, so a three-ft crate will likely be more comfortable for her 15kg frame. A smaller 2.5 feet crate is only necessary for a dog that is not toilet-trained and is in the process of being house-trained.
We are getting the metal one which allows for greater air flow since our weather is typically hot and humid. Given her penchant for seeking shelter in the galley kitchen and under the coffee table, I think it should work great as a refuge for her (if introduced properly), especially on days when there is nobody home. Fingers crossed!
My closest (canine) friend is Donna. I have not sent her to the Basic Obedience Course for companion dogs and their humans.
Checking out a new Basic Obedience Course
Quite some time back, we were invited to participate in a Basic Obedience Course (henceforth BOC, because I am too lazy to keep typing that! :D) which would cost us a few hundred dollars.
We’ve had Donna for about 7 months now and although she’s 4 years old, hardly a puppy, we did discuss between ourselves whether we should go to a BOC. There’s lots of good reasons why anyone in our shoes should go to one.
we are first time dog adopters, and therefore dog dummies who haven’t the faintest clue
we are first time dog owners, and therefore dog idiots who haven’t the faintest clue
we are first time dog humans, and therefore dog morons who haven’t the faintest clue
we really didn’t have anyone in our immediate social circle who could give us the advice or help that we need when it comes to helping our dog adapt to her new home and to us
the Project Adore guidelines in our country require mongrel adopters to complete the Basic Obedience Course (BOC)
a dog can only be tested and given the Good Canine Citizen certificate after attending the BOC
and I guess, it will pave the path to other courses like agility, etc
Perhaps you are wondering why we have not even completed a Basic Obedience Course at this stage. The reasons are simple:
We haven’t a clue how to go about selecting a good trainer or a basic obedience course
We haven’t a clue which trainer or basic obedience course is held by a certified trainer and government-accredited
We haven’t a clue if all BOC tests and gives out a Good Canine Citizen certification at the end of the course, or we should really just go to the SKC (Singapore Kennel Club)
It seems a little silly to shell out hundreds of dollars to enrol in a course that teaches our dog to sit, stay, come and walk by my side when we already practise that with our dog daily.
We are awesome at procrastinating! Sorry to disappoint you :P
So back to that specific BOC course we were invited to. It was rescheduled because of the haze, but there was a preliminary discussion held in Whatsapp between the trainer and the potential attendees, who listed the reasons why they were considering getting educated on dog obedience training – jumping on people, dog-dog aggression, destruction of furniture, running out of the bathroom all wet after taking a shower, pulling on walks, barking non-stop at humans at the door, etc. You get the drift.
Why we decided this Basic Obedience Course is not the right fit for us
We decided this particular dog training course was just not for us. Aside from the fact that Donna has none of these problems (although she does like to poison herself on occasion 1 and 2 when she was not supervised – -! ), the deal breakers were: –
there would be at least 2-3 dog-dog aggressive dogs obviously with handlers who need help handling them and we were not comfortable with the idea of bringing our some times fearful dog into that sort of situation.
and it appeared the trainer intended to manage this situation by putting all the dogs in choke collars. Not ideal for us.
Dogs tilt their head when they are puzzled :D
Speaking for ourselves, Donna has been doing fine on the martingale collar, which from what I read was designed for dogs like her with their necks larger than their heads. Should we put an obviously obedient dog in a choke collar, just so that we can bring her into a situation where she can proceed to pull and choke herself should she get too excited or fearful in reaction to the many dogs attending the training? There must be other courses out there better suited to what we would like to do with our dog. So we opted out of that course.
Donna in her martingale collar, staying on the park stool patiently while I take her picture.
But for the other humans in the chat group at least, they really thought they needed help. Some of them have been to other trainers and it didn’t work out. This trainer did come highly recommended by the source that invited us in the first place, so I would understand if they continued with the training despite any doubt that they may have.
Is it possible to positively train a dog-aggressive dog to behave calmly?
And honestly speaking, how do first time dog adopters like us even know how to positively reinforce a dog-aggressive dog to not be aggressive when it’s already busy lunging at and making “tiger-faces” at the other dog? We don’t know! We are NOT trainers. If I have a dog-aggressive dog, and I haven’t yet found a trainer that I am comfortable with to help me, what can I do?
Then I remembered this video I watched quite some time back from Kikopop, where she talked about counter-conditioning her dog to stop reacting to humans and dogs when they were out walking. And what she did was to treat her dog Splash every time she sees a human/dog approaching and passing by them. After a while Splash took the appearance of human/dog as a predictor of treats and started to look at Kikopup for a treat instead of reacting to the other human/dog. (This video has more detail than my brief summary here. It really helped me to understand the importance of timing and the way the treat is delivered when it comes to counter conditioning a dog because of the detail she went into. )
Disrupt the bad behaviour you want the dog to stop even before it starts
Quoting from Linda’s recent post – “Dogs do not know what they should be doing unless we teach them. Teach your dog to sit for greeting and there will be no jumping on people. Teach your dog loose-leash walking and there will be no pulling on the leash.”
So rather than letting the dog go into its typical aggressive behaviour, the key seemed to be to start training it to understand that walking calmly by the human’s side is the behaviour expected of it. Once the dog is good at walking by the human’s side, it may then be exposed in small increments to whatever it gets reactive to on walks. The human needs to manage its reaction by rewarding it when it is calmly walking while the human/dog is going to or is passing by e.g. in the opposite street, before the dog has the opportunity to go into the behaviour it is used to, i.e. lunging at/barking at the other dog.
At least, theoretically that is how I understand it to work. :P Am I right?
Just reading what I type above, I get the feeling that it may be a process that takes a long time, especially if the human is busy at work and only has scant hours to spend with the dog before bedtime. It will take the human patience and consistency to get it to work.
Perhaps that is why some humans find it more efficient to resort to choke chains as the short term solution?
But for us, we do prefer finding ways to teach and encourage the dog to do what the human prefers him to do in a fun manner, as much as we are able to. Even humans will give up doing something after a while if it’s not fun! :P
Friendship – gives us a supportive base to work from. Donna agrees with me :P (Nah, she was just sitting and waiting for her toy to be thrown so she could scramble after it.)
Next, what looks like another good resource to refer to – 7 things that helped my dog aggressive dog – is a forum thread that has people discussing this same topic. My dog is not dog aggressive, so I can’t really say if it works, but the advice is pretty interesting. (If you click and check it out, tell me what you think about it! :P)
Home-schooling while looking out for a good Basic Obedience Course
So like I said, it has been about 7 months and we are still playing around with the idea of attending a Basic Obedience Course sooner or later. We probably are harder to please since we want to find a positive reinforcement trainer that we are comfortable with. (Trainers here don’t really identify their training methods when they advertise Basic Obedience Courses :( )
Still this blog journals our progress with Donna, and largely I do feel that we are not doing too badly. Of course, that may just be my ego talking! :P Heh~ Feel free to take me down a peg or two. Good advice always appreciated!
But Thank You Internet for all the amazing dog trainers and enthusiasts who publish information freely for dog idiots like us to reference! :P Just so we can home-school our dog in the meantime while trainer hunting! :D
P/S: It’s not a bad idea to try to home-school a dog. At the minimal, it is still bonding time with the dog. Do read and discern because not all advice on the Internet is good. And if you find that you are getting nowhere with the dog training, it would still be a good idea to get in touch with a responsible/experienced trainer rather than to do it all by yourself.
Fresh puppy cake anyone? By today’s standards that cake probably has ended up in somebody’s tummy, got digested and returned back to the good earth many cycles ago already :P, since I took this picture in Australia more than a year back. How’s that for a retrospective view of puppy cake? :P
The puppy cakes were being sold in a shop called “Breadtop”. We laughed when we saw it because we have a local chain of bakery shops called “Breadtalk” here in Singapore. The branding for both are fairly similar, wikipedia tells me Breadtop started a year after Breadtalk. Regardless, these puppy cakes do look happy, don’t they? :P
Our not-so-little girl pup here is not so happy.
Ears are pressed back. A little worried looking.
The dog does it sometimes. If she realises that we are preparing to go out, she will quietly go to the far corner of the living room and hide under the coffee table, by the sofa. – – As shared in a post last week, we do leave food out for her so that she may be conditioned to associate the positive feelings brought about by the food to us leaving the house, rather than reinforce it and degenerate into severe separation anxiety. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t because she will wait until we return before she proceeds to eat the food.
I don’t really think there is a magic formula to solving this instantly, besides daily exercise and slowly working on counter-conditioning with her to moving away from that anxiety she seems to feel.
But if there were, perhaps it would look like this recipe :P
Recipe for a not-so-happy Donna puppy cake
Ingredients For puppy cake,
“Erghh” brand Sour Cream, 1 cup
Frown’s Essence of Doom and Gloom, 1 teaspoon
Puppy’s tail wag of (un)yeast, 1 tail*
Chicken stock, 1 cup
4 or 5-star grain-free kibble, 1/2 cup
Organic positive self-reinforcement flour**, 2 cups
For icing,
Plain natural yoghurt***, 1 cup
Gobbledygook****, any amount (to induce her to eat it.)
For garnish,
strawberry, 1 half (for tongue)
sausage for dogs, 3 thin slices (for eyes and nose)
Instructions 1) Ground puppy’s tail to powder.
2) Mix sour cream and essence of doom and gloom in chicken stock.
3) Soak kibble in mixture for 5 minutes
4) Fold in powdered puppy’s tail and flour gently. Mix well.
5) Pour in round bowl and bake evenly until cooked.
6) Once done, remove from oven and let cool.
7) Slather all over with plain natural yoghurt
8) Decorate at will with sausage eyes, nose, strawberry mouth and gobbledygook about the body.
9) Serve while fresh.
Additional Notes: * This tail is not traded legally. You will need to hunt for it, the dog usually hides it under the coffee table, by the sofa. Please note that the consumption of puppy and puppy parts are highly mortifying! Details, visit notodogmeat ** I know dogs don’t need carbohydrates but you must not skip the flour or the cake will not rise and neither will puppy’s spirits.
*** For good digestion. An unhappy pup is a constipated pup! :P
**** If Gobbledygook is unavailable in your area, you may substitute with boiled plain chicken, canned tuna in water or boiled egg, or all three. Preferably FRESH and see puppy slurp it up!
I may fade from this world,
I may be far from home,
Remember me in flowers,
Under trees where I have roamed.
I find it hard to feel a connection with abstract work. But it is pretty fun to experiment with multiple exposures when it comes to abstract photography. I find more meaning that way. This set of pictures is heavily influenced by Sara Byrne.
The original four black and white images I intended to use for this post before I decided to do a composite.
You’ll agree that the composite is more interesting right? I thought the colour versions of the double exposures were quite interesting by themselves but stripped of colour, some of them do need the composite to give it extra oomph!
All colour versions may be found on Instagram. :) Or click on the images above to see their corresponding colour version.
We were in the Marina Bay area on Saturday night. This area is part of the country’s urban redevelopment plan to extend the existing financial district to the waterfront, emulating London’s Canary Wharf and Shanghai’s Pudong area. More on the Marina Bay Vision at www.ura.gov.sg.
Marina Bay Financial Center
Across the street from the Financial Center is the Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade.
Breathe, kinetic sculture, a legacy sculpture from the Youth Olympic Games in 2010.
One would have thought this is a dead-town on a Saturday night, being the financial district, but not so. This area is also one of the vantage points for taking pictures of the city skyline, particularly around these couple of months. And while not packed, there was already a healthy crowd hanging about the waterfront area…
… including the country’s many photography enthusiasts staking out along the waterfront. The country celebrates it’s National Day in August so the rehearsals for the parade and celebration have begun. The crowd was waiting for the fireworks display that typically is the finale of the celebration.
Wait, wait, wait… … Kaboom!
I found it pretty challenging to take good, unfiltered night photos with the iPhone. So this set is pretty heavily edited with Snapseed and HDR Art.
Phoneography Monday Challenge: Challenger’s Choice
(Architecture, Night Photography, Street Photography, Travel)
Apps used: Gorillacam, Camera+, Snapseed, HDR Art, Camera360
App effects:
Picture 1 – Snapseed – vintage blue filter
Picture 2 – HDR Art – mysterious filter
Picture 5 – Snapseed – vintage blue filter
Picture 6 – Camera360 – black and white (red) filter
I had an impromptu City Timelapse Vimeo marathon on Twitter today – one short movie clip for each hour. These are the city reels if you are interested ;)
You can go directly to my Twitter page @weliveinaflat where each tweet can be expanded to play the videos all on the same Twitter page (go before they get buried by other tweets!! I shall improve on unique hash tag handles next time round!! :P), or visit any of the above links directly to Vimeo for any city that gets your interest. I found it pretty fun to watch those of cities I’ve been to before and see if I can identify the landmarks there. :P
We didn’t train her to do this but perhaps because she knows she is not allowed in the bedroom, so she stepped into the room to deliver her toy as a play invitation before stepping back to sit “respectfully” outside the door.
I was quite amused when she did that. XD She doesn’t always do it of course. :P
weliveinaflat health articles get the added insight from our vet partner, the lovely Dr Jo from Creature Clinic, so you may be sure what we say is credible. ;)
We are limited by our perspectives.
1) thank the blogger who gave it to you,
Nope, she has not mastered her fears although she is slightly more responsive with the T-shirt back on. She is worried but not so much now. She tail is only slightly tucked inwards rather than totally curled. Still nervous though judging by ow distracted she is, her ears, eyes and panting.
She’s quite adaptable with the t-shirt.
Donna in her martingale collar, staying on the park stool patiently while I take her picture. 
