Colour version –http://instagram.com/p/d9AkPnFIJT/
It’s interesting how a once indifferent cat can start to give you the stink eye when you have a dog in tow. More about our recent encounter here.
Tag: dog Page 4 of 5
Last night when we went down for Donna’s loo break, there was a youngish-looking cat stalking a lizard on the wall. On a whim, I made a meow-ing noise and the cat came towards us curiously. I had Donna sit and stay on one side of me, while on the other side I stroked the cat who was marking me with her scent. But soon enough, Donna would not sit and stay further. She got up and her head moved to sniff the cat even as she made to sniff at Donna’s nose.
I was quite astonished. It was a beautiful moment.
A man has been fined S$5,000 for keeping his pet dog in the balcony of his apartment, and exposing it to the sun and rain for long periods of time… Ling had said he was not aware of causing any suffering to his pet as it was healthy. – 3 Sep, 2013 channelnewsasia – The balcony is not a safe environment for dogs when unsupervised.
My Best Photo of the Week (MBPOTW) Challenge – week 1
Although it shows my dog in a somewhat worried state (which obviously I preferred her not to be in), I like this picture because her glance straight at the lens works well to connect instantly with the viewer. I usually choose not to over-saturate a picture, but in this case I feel the vibrant colours work, and so I am prepared to forgive the graininess in the leaves of the plants. Her eyes should capture you after all, not the graininess :P
The plant is the perfect foil for her uneasiness. Still and calm, the green leaves frame and reveal to you the unease a dog can feel in a perfectly safe and secure environment that is its home. Our flat has become a little messy of late but close cropping it to a small corner of the flat, you wouldn’t know, would you? :D
Update: Submissions has ended for this week. You can see the final submitted photos here – http://weliveinaflat.com/blog/my-best-photo-of-the-week-mbpotw-challenge-week-2/
For a while there, every time we visited the vet we were informed that Donna’s weight had gone up again. The vet is an hour’s walk away, so it didn’t make sense to walk our overweight dog over in the hot sun just to weigh her regularly. A two-hour walk there and back is generally too much for our princess dog to handle as well. Donna is not handbag size, and she gets worried when her feet are not firmly on the ground, so the best way to weigh her is to get her to get on our digital weighing scale (for humans :P) herself. Hah!!
But of course, she did have this habit where she will view all new things I try to introduce to her suspiciously. So it took time to get her to get on the weighing scale on her own accord. Practising doggy parkour outside helped a lot. Once, she got the concept of “up-up” outside, she totally got that I wanted her to get on the weighing scale. Doesn’t mean she is that happy to be there though.
This is how we weigh the dog – on the human’s weighing scale!
And since she was supposed to be on a diet, we had to cut back on the treats. So I ended up giving her her meals while she sat on the weighing machine.
Conditioning the dog to like being on the weighing scale by giving her food rewards in that position
Pretty soon she had cued in to what was happening and couldn’t wait to hop on the weighing scale and go into an automatic sit the minute it landed on the floor. But in the case of this video below, she was perhaps getting bored of the exercise because it was the 3rd or 4th take already :P
First time for me using the vine app to take looping videos. It takes some getting use to as one needs to tap and hold in order to record the video. The first take was bad because towards the end her head got cut off by the frame :P
While it took some time to get a good 6-second take on Vine, the actual posting of the video thereafter was quick and easy. However, this also means that there is no selection of filters that one can apply to the video and there is no small list of music to layer over the movie, in the case of people like me, who cringe to hear myself speaking on the video :P
Is your dog having success at doing something you have trained together? Fame him :) Details on eileenanddogs.
I normally try to avoid posting very blurred photos. Unfortunately, I don’t have any good photos from this tennis ball fetch session. So… showing you the opposite of the pictures I usually post today.
When your pictures are lacking, group them together so it looks like you intended them to work that way!!!! :D *shhhhhh…..! That’s my lame blogging tip of the day!!*
Anyway, I present to you the long corridor that is the spine of our flat and the highway of our dog’s dash and fetch games.
And the rest of the floor where she sprawls about nom, nom, nom on her saliva-smothered tennis ball.
Can dogs play with tennis balls?
Yes, modern tennis balls “use a safe dye that will not cause harm to dogs”.
But be aware that tennis balls have an abrasive texture that can wear down the teeth of compulsive chewers. Therefore, tennis balls are great for a game of fetch or chuck it but are certainly not chew toys.
They can become choking hazards when broken into pieces that can be swallowed. And in the case of bigger dogs with strong jaws that can compress a tennis ball, the ball could “pop open in the back of the throat and cut off the dog’s air supply”.
If the tennis ball is smaller than your dog’s head, you probably should not give it to him as a toy.
So no more rolling around the floor with the tennis ball in your mouth Donna!
Sources:
– Pet subjects: Are tennis balls bad for dogs?
– There are worse things for dogs than chewing tennis balls
– Are Tennis Balls a Dangerous Toy for Dogs?
And so we did precisely that on a breezy, cloudy afternoon. Lame videos follow:
Just Donna observing a bird and enjoying the wind.
Donna absorbing the sights and sounds of everything around her. I think you can see her shift every time there is loud construction sound. Or am I just seeing things?
Have a great weekend! :)
