Dog Care Archives - Page 19 of 20

Category: Dog Care Page 19 of 20

Thunder

On March 29, 2013

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.

Invisible barrier training to keep your dog off the road

By weliveinaflat

On March 28, 2013

In Training

The dog park is too far away on foot to bring Donna to, unless Mr P is available to drive us there. I did walk Donna there before, but she ended up totally tired and laid down to rest every time I stopped walking on the way home.

But actually there are at least a couple of big grass patches in our vicinity that I can bring her to to just run free for a bit. That is, if I can successfully train her on invisible barriers to keep her safe, since she can sometimes be so easily spooked.

But first I need a long line.

P/s: Wish I had seen this video when we were getting Donna to respect the no dog zones in our house!

How we created “no dog” zones at home

By weliveinaflat

On March 27, 2013

In Training

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.

I’d like to think that Donna is already a good canine citizen

By weliveinaflat

On March 26, 2013

In Training

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

Breed-specific legislation (BSL) is a law that bans OR restricts certain types of dogs based on their appearance, usually because they are perceived as “dangerous” breeds or types of dogs.

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 ; )

A dog can’t have too many bones

By weliveinaflat

On March 26, 2013

In Behaviour

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.

How not to test if your dog is child-friendly

By weliveinaflat

On March 22, 2013

In Behaviour

Being new dog owners, we of course have let certain things happen which we on hindsight should not have. Letting a strange child play with Donna outside the vet is one of them.

That was the first time we ever took Donna to the vet, just one or two weeks after we got Donna home. She had got what the doctor later diagnosed as the kennel cough.

As we did not make an appointment beforehand, we had to sit outside and wait until every animal was attended to. That of course gave us the leisure to see other animals with their owners, try to entertain a bored dog, etc etc.

Somewhere amidst all that waiting, a couple came to the vet clinic with their mongrel, a frantic pug and their little boy. We were not that clued in the signs that a dog displays at that point in time, so looking back, I can’t really say for sure if Donna was happy playing with the little boy or she was trying to pacify the little boy to leave her alone. We were also keeping Donna on a tight leash, so she wouldn’t have been able to get up to walk away from the boy even if she wanted to avoid him.

What happened was that Donna patiently sat there while the little boy invaded her space to let her lick him. He was especially amused when her tongue slipped through the gap left by his fallen front teeth into his mouth. We stopped him when he used his hands to try to keep her muzzle close, explaining to him in terms that he could understand, that he wouldn’t want some other kid to do that to him would he. The little boy didn’t mean any harm. He stopped when we told him not to. He told us how he had a fighting fish at home that got eaten by the cat. The cat sounded like a nasty piece of work that bit and scratched the little boy too. But who’s to say it may not be the little boy’s fault sometimes. He seemed to be about lower primary school age and mischievous.

We allowed him to interact with Donna (the parents ignored him the whole time), assuming that Donna was happy to have a little boy to keep her entertained, but now I really can’t say for sure what she felt then. One thing for sure, Donna patiently endured the whole encounter and we ignorantly were thankful that our dog is child-friendly.

But in an alternate reality, Donna may have snapped at the child for badgering him, for getting in her face. And we would have been at fault for not recognising her signs of unease and asking for help.

So we were lucky that night, and we were lucky that we adopted a patient not-so-little dog named Donna.

These two posts on smartdog.typepad.com are a great resource that shows you through analysis of video the minute signals of distress a dog may be sending out that new dog owners would find hard to catch:
– Dog body language: How to tell if a dog is happy, frustrated, scared, annoyed Part 1
– Dog body language: How to tell if a dog is happy, frustrated, scared, annoyed Part 2

A sleepy dog and bedtime stories

By weliveinaflat

On March 21, 2013

In Behaviour

When her ears are in this position, I think of them as Dobby ears… though its not exactly like that :P

These couple of days, Donna has been making yelping noises during her afternoon nap. Sometimes, you can see her legs and even her stomach twitching pretty violently. Think when you are making very bad hiccups and you whole body jumps with each hiccup. That’s sort of what it looks like to me, except at a faster rate than hiccups.

At first I was alarmed since we had Donna for more than two months now and she had never done that before. Then I googled and read that this twitching is normal in dogs. Should I be glad that perhaps Donna now feels at home enough to go into REM sleep?

Do your dogs twitch when they sleep and how violently do they do it?

Donna doesn’t bother our Siamese fighting fish

By weliveinaflat

On March 20, 2013

In Behaviour

… but she sometimes thinks she is entitled to fish food, so she steals the bottle of fish fish in the hopes of getting to the pallets inside. So far for her efforts, all she accomplished was a chewed bottle cap. Fish food is safe!

Mr P and I live with our dog Donna and a Siamese fighting fish.

We had the fish first. My health wasn’t very good so my husband Mr P bought two fishes to give a bit more life to our two-person home. One of the fish has since died, so we are left with one.

We got the dog later. I had fractured my ankle and was suffering from nerve problems in my toes, spent a lot of time at home alone. With all that time, we thought we were finally ready to get a companion animal. But since I couldn’t walk very much, we didn’t adopt the dog until later when I regained some mobility. Donna became very much a exercise companion, pushing me to go take a walk and exercise that foot even though it hurt everyday.

One feels livelier with a dog. Donna has this constant positive energy about her, always ready to go out and explore the world. Always ready to jump up to her feet and follow to see what’s up, even if she was napping. (OK, I lie, sometimes she only raises her head, as if trying to decide if it is worthwhile moving her whole lazy body.)

She finds such joy in simple things that she cavorts, almost obsessive compulsively, always welcoming you home with a toy in her mouth and her tail wagging like a helicopter ready to lift off. It’s as if she doesn’t move, she will explode.

And yet, when she calms down, she gives very endearing gentle licks on your toes, on your knees, on your hands, any part of you that she can reach.

The dog didn’t ask for us or it’s previous owner to give it a home. We heard Donna was abused. And when she was returned to the shelter, her mother and siblings didn’t welcome her. They couldn’t get along. The shelter had to put the dog that couldn’t get along with an old dog that could suffer her.

But Donna didn’t seem too unhappy with her lot even when she was at the shelter. There were volunteers to play with, and she could always watch the main door in anticipation of the next dog or human that comes in.

And when she came home with us, she adjusted. Sure there’s less excitement here with two quiet adults than at the shelter, but she has a roof over her head and food to eat. She doesn’t get cold and wet when it rains for days during the monsoon season. And she gets three walks a day rather than two walks a week when the shelter volunteers come in on weekends to walk the dogs.

It’s not difficult to enjoy life, the ups and downs and all it brings. The dog does it, we can too.

My dog is sometimes fearful

By weliveinaflat

On March 18, 2013

In Behaviour

We met Uncle Gardener again this morning on our walk. Donna seem to recognised him from the previous two times we bumped into him. Her tail was wagging and friendly. She sniffed around his legs, probably checking out the cat scent, but was having too much fun on her own to “sit” or “paw”. Things seem to be going well until Uncle Gardener reached out his hand to pet her on the head. She jumped and her head hung low to avoid his hand. Everything about her screamed nervous.

For all she is friendly and playful, this dog does have random episodes where she reacts fearfully. Early on, Florence had pointed out to us how Donna is so ideal in the home environment, we had thrown a toy which landed near a bunch of big boxes stacked together, that dog was almost tiptoe-ing around the boxes as she carefully grasp the toy in her teeth before cautiously returning back to us with the toy.

Donna is a very cautious dog. Sometimes we wondered if it was because she was abused in her previous family.

Sometimes, we understood that her cautiousness was with good reason. When we got a new dog in her house, friends and family who liked animals would want to visit and play with the dog. These friends and family unfortunately are strangers to Donna and when the strangers’ focus are trained on her and they make a beeline for her once they enter the house, she starts to get nervous and she will siam. Yup, at these times, she becomes the master at avoidance tactics.

It didn’t help that some family members are rough and think that they need to show the dog who is the boss first, even if at the end of the day they just want to shower affection on the dog. It also did not help that people naturally want to help the poor scared dog, and end up cornering her to pet her.

When pursued by “strangers”, the nervous Donna will usually bunch up in her bed after she gives up avoiding them. But in this picture, she just wanted to be left alone because it is her bedtime.

These situations could have ended up badly, if Donna was not the type of dog to downstress and just freeze on the spot versus becoming fearful aggressive instead. I read that a dog that downstresses may also react violently when pushed past a threshold. With Donna, we have never reached the aggression threshold yet.

Much later, I met a guy from the Save Our Street Dogs organisation at a new grooming place I was trying out, and he told me that this contradictory behaviour of being fearful and yet calm (frozen in one spot rather than kicking and screaming and showing teeth) at the same time was a behaviour that our local street dogs are genetically predisposed to show.

Interesting, so Donna is genetically programmed to go from fearful avoidance and then to fearful acceptance, without the aggression?

I’m not so sure about that. What I do know is that Donna is not incapable of aggression. She has a “mortal enemy” at the shelter called Grace, a dog whom she would with certain predictability lunged at, only to be stopped by the leash and even then, the handler needs great strength to hold her back as she tears at the air.

But we have not seen this aggression away from the shelter. Not once.

Meanwhile, we’ve tried with limited success to help family members and friends learn how to not approach Donna in order to make the introduction to her a success. (Sometimes, older folks have their own opinions and think we are spoiling the dog. My goodness, they have NOT seen a spoiled dog, I tell you!)

We have also been making Donna go to her bed and lie down in a relaxed position so that she may slowly learn to find calm there, especially when she may potentially feel fear. It’s sort of like crate training, but without the crate since we don’t have one yet.

I try to get the inquisitive little girl to go to her bed and to lie there before opening the door when the doorbell rings. She may not always stay since she is the very soul of a busybody, but she does at least stand around 2m behind me, near her bed as I answer the door, which leaves space between her and the people at the door who may need to come in.

It’s working pretty well, whether it is the dog supplies delivery man, the carpet cleaning salesman, etc. We complete our transactions while Donna stands and watches on. Sometimes, she is amenable to come closer to sniff at an offered hand, especially when she sees the nice man is delivering her food.

But yes, we do have a bit of a way to go when it comes to socialisation and helping her feel more confidence.

Yup, she also gets nervous when the weekend cleaning lady starts to vacuum the floor.