I made this dog spray quite some time ago but didn’t use it that often because for a while Donna was fearful of being sprayed at. But what with the insect bite allergy, scratching and some skin abrasion, I probably should start using it more often. Here’s the instructions for making your own!
Author: weliveinaflat Page 29 of 31
She doesn’t usually do this because she understands the meaning of a barrier. But when it starts to thunder loudly and the wind howls, she just wants to be near you, in the same space. She pushes into the kitchen without a thought.
For the first time, she launches herself upwards so that her front paws land on the counter top supporting her upright posture. After she is satisfied, she drops down and moves to the small yard where again she was never allowed. She peers into the gloom of the store room but decides against entering. She peers into the drum of the washing machine. The space is too small for her. There is no safe place to hide.
She finally stops by the side of the kitchen cabinet and stares out to the living room, where the thunder blares right outside. Her tail is tucked between trembling legs. You call her but she does not respond, already immersed in her own world of doggy apocalyptic thoughts.
Physically, you tap her gently on the rump to get her attention, ‘sit’, you say. She does, slowly. Does it give her some measure of comfort?
“Help me,” she seemed to be saying with her eyes perhaps. But my dear girl, no one can keep the thunder away.
You walk in and out living life as normal. There is nothing to be scared of, its just a storm, you tell her. You hold the gate for her, in case she wants to follow you to the living room. But her bottom is rooted to the spot. “Do you want a treat?” you ask, knowing full well her little head of horrors is drowning you out. You left the small piece of jerky by her anyway, and tie the gate open with industrial strength velcro.
After she realises that you are not going back to the kitchen, she makes her way to the living room and stood there in the centre for quite a while. At length, she realises nothing is happening to her. And as the thunder dies, she lies down on her own and relaxes into sleep.
Quite some time back I had the awesome idea to put this t-shirt on my dog. And no, the t-shirt in question is not made for dogs. In fact, it was too big for Donna and she couldn’t walk in it without stepping on the hem. But no big deal, because I did not have it on her for long anyway. Just a couple of minutes, long enough to find out it was too big and to snap a few pictures before taking it it off again. No animals were harmed in any way.
The dog on the t-shirt in question was not Donna but her sister Dyana. The t-shirt was one of the shelter sales items, made in memory of the dog. We first learnt of the dog’s death on the day we first met Donna. In the midst of interacting with Donna, Florence received the bad news when her phone rang.
We later learnt that Dyana died when she jumped down the building from a window, presumably because she was anxious during a thunderstorm. The dog was home alone and the window was opened to provide some ventilation. There was some speculation that perhaps the curtains flapped from the wind and drew the dog to the window.
I later sent the picture to Florence and she replied that it made her emotional. But I guess, emotional in a good way since she did not get mad at me. :P
Today is Donna’s birthday, and also Dyana’s. A good day to remember a dog who died and to remind us to always to make sure the house is secure when leaving the dog home alone. And also to remember the mother Dior, who is happily adopted, and coincidentally enough to a nearby family.
When Donna first came home, she was followed us everywhere like a little busybody. But Mr P and I already agreed that she would not have access to all the rooms. So the Donna zone covered only the balcony (when someone is at home), the living room, the kitchen and the common corridor along all the rooms. The kitchen was barred only after Donna ran in and peed on the kitchen rug once too many times. We secured it with a child gate. All the other room doors were also closed all the time.
Of course, at the start Donna still wanted to follow us everywhere. When we entered the bedroom and shut the door, she would be outside snorting loudly demanding to come in. Sometimes we can hear scratches and bumps and wonder exactly what was she doing outside.
We sometimes work in the study for long stretches of time, so we leave the door open. But, the minute she sticks one paw in, it was one of us saying “Out!” and getting up and backing her out the door. There are times we had to do this repeatedly when she thought it was a great game to run in and out, in and out until we got tired of getting up to shoo her out. And when no one responds to her antics, she will get bold and clatter all the way in, reminding us that we need to be consistent ourselves if we want her to abide by the rules. We treat her when she backs out by herself. But mostly we treat her if she stays outside by the door, without coming in.
And when she lies quietly or falls asleep on the floor outside, I go “Yes! Dead dog! Good job!” and treat her again. Actually I was hoping that the “dead dog” will stick in her subconsciousness as time goes by :P But all it accomplished, really, was a laze-about dog that loitered in the corridor waiting for treats xD
Sometimes, she’d curl up on her pillow for a nap. Because yes, the pillow is another treat zone since I was trying to help her to love the pillow.
And after a while, Donna stopped insisting to enter any of the rooms. She would stop outside even if we left the door open when we went in.
Donna can usually be found with her entire body just piak on the floor dozing off, unlike her adopted young cousin Doudou who falls asleep in all sorts of adorable contortions half on and half off furniture. So I was surprised and amused to find her in a new sleeping position when I got up from my study desk yesterday for a break.
Although, how comfortable can a door frame pillow be for a dog’s head is beyond me.
She was obviously too comfortable or lazy enough to just follow me with her eyes as I walked around snapping pictures :P
Today, Donna has piak herself outside the kitchen instead because I ran out of treats in the study a few days ago. That dog is not stupid at all.
P/s: We are not dog trainers and most of what we do is trial and error and may not be the best for your dog. A lot of times, we may also do what is most effective for us at that point in time but it may not be best practice. However, we will never harm our dog.
As individuals, we probably have different ideas of what responsible dog ownership encompasses.
Even organisations have to take specific view points due to their roles in the community. Hence the HDB’s Code of Responsible behaviour from Project Adore, which basically lists 8 line items on what nuisance behaviours your mongrel dog should not engage in (see Appendix A). So yes, in order for the dogs to be accepted in the public housing community, owners need to ensure the dogs behave themselves from month one (by means of enrolling in a basic obedience course) and not give cause for complaint (subject to fines). Conversely, you can also say that it is not so much about the dogs themselves but more making sure the owners know what are the rules and limitations outside of their house in their community and to work with the dogs to fit in.
Project Adore, by the way, is supposed to be a one year pilot project to selectively re-home only medium-size mongrel dogs in public housing. Currently our Housing Development Board does not allow residents of HDB flats to keep mongrels as pets. The same dogs may be allowed in private condominiums and other private residences.
It seems there is a specific term for this sort of legislation in the US – BSL
There are currently 42 HDB-approved breeds listed on the HDB website. They are small dogs which are “generally more manageable“.
In comparison, the American Kennel Club’s CGC Responsible Dog Owner’s Pledge is perhaps more holistic in defining the word “responsible” – covering in addition, aspects pertaining to the dog’s health, safety and quality of life. But then again, that’s because this is a totally different organisation with a different purpose in the community.
In any case, the evaluation objectives of the 8-week obedience course at the Singapore Kennel Club is similar to the AKC.
I’d like to think Donna is already a good canine citizen, but at this point, she will probably fail from Test 2 onwards, which requires that she be petted on the head and groomed by a stranger. :( She is shy about that. After Test 3, she should do well, until Test8 because she will want to approach the other dog. No question about it. How she’ll do for Test 9 and 10 is really up in the air.
So yes, the dear girl will probably fail, but unofficially, I think we should think of her as a good canine citizen. She is able to sit and stay and also walk by my heel during our walks to the park which include passing through crowded bus-stops, narrow paths, road crossings, etc. She rarely eliminates on concrete areas which are public use anymore. She doesn’t bark at home, even if we’re not in the house. Our next door neighbour was so surprised to hear we have a dog because she never heard any barking. For the record, Donna stopped barking loudly after we told her to be quiet the first time. She still runs to the door when she hears strangers (not the neighbours but strangers) and she sort of, goes woof woof under her breath. It’s kind of hilarious :P
Oh yah, even her poop seems to smell less after we changed her food :P Surely that should seal the deal ; )
The flat was being fumigated, so Donna had to spend sometime in the balcony.
While waiting for the flat to air out, the deer antler magically appeared!
Inspection by Inspector Grass.
She wants it.
Getting pretty good at using her paws.
Abandoned.
The various bones to beguile our distracted dog. Because she gets bored of them so easily.
When I was a young school going kid still, I was like the typically child with a fascination for small animals. I would pet all the street cats, only to turn my hand up to see it all covered in dirt. I would buy small cans of cat food with my pocket money and feed it the to stray cat that gave birth to kittens under one of the teacher’s table in the classroom.
And there was once, only once, we found a small kitten, my friend and I.
The kitten seem to be sick. So my resourceful friend found out where we could take it to the vet. We went there and then we took it to the SPCA. But by the time we got there, I had gotten it into my not-so-brilliant head that I would adopt the kitten. And so the SPCA staff said I should not bring the kitten in and sent me home.
But I was a young child with no real knowledge of how to go about taking care of a poor young kitten. The kitten did a wonderful job of being cute, taking small steps across our great desert of a floor and mewing piteously. But it didn’t know that it shouldn’t pee or poop on the floor and plonking it on the newspaper, like the book I had borrowed from the library had advised, didn’t work. I was a small child, I had no patience and no real understanding or empathy for the kitten.
At last, after a full day of putting up with everything, my mother lost it when the kitten made a mess on the floor yet again. She took the kitten and returned it probably to some void deck similar to where I had found it originally and that was that. I never saw it again. I was a young child, any resentment was quickly forgotten, although the memory remained.
But why am I talking about a poor abandoned kitten?
We are not Donna’s first family. She was adopted by a schoolgirl when she was a puppy. It seems like a very similar story, it seemed like the schoolgirl never really got her parents’ consent in the first place. And probably like my mother, they tried to put up with it. Eventually, Donna was returned to the shelter. Donna was lucky, she had folks at the shelter who took her in and cared for her unlike that tiny kitten from so many years ago.
We bumped into our neighbour today when we returned from Donna’s pee break. I joked that I was Donna’s servant having to take her down to do her toileting. My neighbour’s answer was that Donna must have done a lot of good deeds in her previous life to find a good home now.
Or maybe, its just my karma and what goes around comes around.
One thing for sure, the decision for making an adoption should not be left in the hands of a schoolchild. Their un-informed parents are most likely not ready for it.
Oh, and my neighbour’s primary school-going son was quick to add, if he had done a lot of good deeds in his previous life, he’d rather be a human than a dog in the next life. Tell that to Donna.
Aiya-iieee, how is it I find myself alone here? Where did the human go? Where do I go? I can’t loiter here all day… besides I’m hungry… sniff sniff…
… this way smells right. *stops to pee* There, I was here too fellas! Now it’s my spot, hah!
Oh, oh…*Sniff, sniff. SNIFFFF~* this smells good. *gulps unknown food* Really you never know what tasty morsels you find among the grass. Only the human knows why we need to hurry along all the time. No this, no that, no let’s go. Now I’m FREE~! Oh, I miss my human. : ( I know, I know, I shall find him! I shall, I shall track him by his SMELL!! That’s it.
Aren’t I lucky that dogs don’t need money to get along with this world? Oh look, look, I found a dog! The world’s your friend, if you’re happy to sniff a butt or two you know. Doesn’t matter if they’re black or white or brown, or spotty. A dog’s a dog!
Hello dog! I found you. What, you found me too? Well now there’s a pair of us. How cool~oodle-loo!
Let’s play chase-chase! Oh you can’t because you’re on a leash. Oh poor you. Look, here’s a tasty morsel you can’t reach in the grass, nah-nah-nah-boo-boo :3 *gulp gulp*
This is boring when you can’t play chase-chase. I’m just going ahead because I am free as a bird. Doobie doobie doo~
***End***
Just because I thought of the dog I met the other day. ;)
