Considering Donna had a pretty dull time the later part of our visit to III Cafe, we decided to stop by the Bishan Dog Run which was on the way home.
We haven’t been inside for quite some time since Donna had gotten fearful of the place the last couple of times she was chased by dogs there. Subsequently, I did take her to the park so that we practice staying calm while walking past the fenced-in doggy area. She did not appear averse to entering that day, so we thought we’d try bringing her in and hanging around the area where there were less dogs… except that three dogs immediately lopped towards our area to check her out.
While Donna did not jump for joy, she was not as fearful as she was previously as well. What she did was to duck under the park bench when she got uncomfortable with the attention and then make exploratory forays from there. In, out, in, out until she was comfortable with her new friends.
I didn’t start taking any pictures until later when I was assured that she was having fun with the other dogs.
If this brown dog had some spots, he would look like Scooby-doo! :P Looking at this picture, I think I start to get why Ruby’s human thinks that Ruby’s black coat looks too dense in colour. Donna’s black coat does stand out but does not look as nice as the brown dog’s softer tones against the surroundings.
Checking out the white dog who preferred the fence to them. :P
Is that a border collie? I’m not good at identifying breeds. Still that’s a lot of hair!!
We limited her to 15 minutes of play time in the dog run so that we could leave on a very positive note for her. She was so dog-tired, she didn’t even blink an eyelid at the close up shot at home. :P
If you are interested, Dr Sophia Yin has a great poster on Dog Park Etiquette that can be downloaded for free as well as tips how to train a dog to prevent him from being part of any unhappy situation that may escalate in a dog park in the dog park. Southslope.org has a nice Dog Park Etiquette Poster with lots of useful tips for adults and for parents with children on how we can help make the dog park an enjoyable place for all humans and dogs and also what to do, if a fight breaks out.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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
I always thought it’s interesting how I’m not that great at reading humans, but since I’ve got a dog I’ve done a lot more reading about how to read dog body language. And I still have not read a single page or article about reading humans! Hah!
Anyway, I’m not an expert on this so I’m not going to write a textbook for you! :P
But suffice to say, keeping this blog going and taking pictures of Donna has made me more “in tune” to her body language, albeit looking at her pictures belatedly!! :P And hopefully with time, I get better at it!
But I think slowly, as she gets more comfortable with us, I need not worry every single time her body language seems to be hinting at some level of unease (based on the textbook definitions I have been reading).
It was cold and rainy this morning. I offered to play fetch but she looked at the toy thrown across the floor and was simply uninterested. She wanted to go for her morning walk instead. She decided going back to laze in bed was a better idea since she perhaps understood there’s no chance of us going for a walk with the rain outside?
Although I do think she looked hopeful here. But once she realises I’m just going to stay there with my phone and there’s no hope of a walk, she settles down in her more cosy sleeping-donut position.
Here she is doing a whale eye:
But her forehead is not knotted with tension and her tail is relaxed. So I thought she was just not ready to move but she’s looking at what I am doing out of the corner of her eyes.
Usually if she doesn’t want the attention, she will move away and settle down with her back facing away from us. But in this case, she still doesn’t move away even when I went closer. Then I left her alone and she went to sleep.
And you know what, five months ago words like “whale-eye” and “lip licking” was not even in my vocabulary!! :D You can read all about it in my previous post – How not to test if your dog is child friendly I did say we were dog idiots many times on this blog, right?
So now, I shall direct you to the people who are more expert at dissecting and analysing dog body language than I am:-
– Is your dog comfortable with being petted? Take the hint: How to use the 5-second rule for petting dogs by Ahimsa Dog Training
– What does a fearful dog look like? The look of fear by Eileenanddogs
– Dog Body Language: How to tell if a dog is happy, frustrated, scared, annoyed – Part 1 and Part 2 – by Smartdog Blog
Hope this is helpful to you. Or if you are already expert at reading your dog, well I guess you would have clicked away even before getting to this line :P
Is two weeks enough for a dog to get comfortable with a plastic tray that it will pee on it of its own accord? I decided to test it out overnight Friday some weeks back since the part time domestic help will be here Saturday. If there’s accidents, she’ll be there to help at least.
Saturday came and went. Dog did not eliminate Saturday morning at home. She usually does because that is the one day a week I get to sleep in! (Much needed!!)
That should have been the CLUE, blinking red hot at me that the dog would rather wait to go out!
Did we heed it? Never even considered that!
Saturday night, I wondered if I should remove the tray and continue the test next week. Unwisely I left it. What’s the worse the dog would do? Pee on the floor? That’s easy to clean up.
She peed on her new bed -_________________________- << see my long face.
Yes, yes I know there are worse things a dog can do, but still… :S Don’t you just hate unnecessary chores that you could have avoided by being smarter :(
So there my friend is a lesson learnt. Don’t just think of the worse thing the dog could do, but the ultimate WORST she could do. Because, my human friends, I am not the dog and I cannot predict its thoughts!
So then I learnt to leave the tray there with fresh newspaper and peepad, but also another set of newspaper and peepad on the floor. I starting giving her her mealtime kibble in the toilet to get her comfortable with both the tray and the shower cubicle.
It continued to storm, and so there was an episode in the kitchen because we did not shut the baby gate tightly enough.
Kibble in the toilet continued. And she did get more comfortable. So comfortable that she decided she needed to chew her pressed bone on it, since she is missing the bed she peed on.
It stormed, did she do it on the tray? Nope, she did it on the newspaper on the floor next to the tray. I shifted the newspaper on the tray to the floor to replace the soiled ones, and put fresh newspaper and pee pad on the tray.
It stormed this morning while we were out. Lots of loud thunder.
We came home to find the tray half out of the toilet, newspapers scratched and falling out over the corridor, including some stinky poo.
She did it on the tray :)… Now how do I stop her from scratching the newspaper after she does it??????? :D Bright ideas welcome!
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. ;)
If this brown dog had some spots, he would look like Scooby-doo! :P Looking at this picture, I think I start to get why Ruby’s human thinks that Ruby’s black coat looks too dense in colour. Donna’s black coat does stand out but does not look as nice as the brown dog’s softer tones against the surroundings. 
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…
Isn’t it interesting how the clouds can dictate the gap left by the rain in the distance.
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. 
Donna and I, divided by the threshold to the kitchen.
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. 
