We live in a flat - Page 31 of 75 - Many Adults, 1 Boy & 1 Dog's Montessori Life in a Singapore flat

Page 31 of 75

Pose, Stay, Say cheese

On May 24, 2014

Dog stay on branch - long shot

I have never deliberately tried to get her to hold a pose (other than sit) specifically for a photo, and certainly never at a great distance away. So this photo is a first time for me.

We were just out for a walk.

Nothing special.

If we took photos, we took photos. If we didn’t, we didn’t.

But I was in the mood, and look at her face. She was in the zone!

She knew she was going to get treats, got excited and started jumping up against the tree. On the wrong side.

It helped that I could direct her to the spot and direction I want her to be with her following my fingers using the Nose cue. That she knows I want her to climb on something when I say Up. We do that a lot for doggy parkour.

There wasn’t a lot of distraction, just a playground with children playing, random joggers and cyclists. They are not strong distractions for her.

She didn’t use to Stay that well.

When we first got her, I couldn’t get her to understand the concept of staying, she wanted to follow me instead of stay. Of course it made sense to her. The treats were with me and they were moving further away from her because I moved further away from her.

But somehow, when I tried to teach her to stay on her bed it helped her to grasp the concept more easily. The bed just had a sort of anchoring effect for her that I couldn’t explain. She mastered stay with phenomenal speed (compared to previously) after that. We practiced it consistently at every meal. I would send her to her bed and ask her to stay before I go mix her kibble and canned food in the kitchen. Nowadays I don’t bother to do that, but she makes a run for her crate anyway.

It sounds quite structured because I basically followed the textbook when it came to positive training.

Set the dog up for success so he will feel confident and find training fun and rewarding.
Don’t scold or punish the dog because make it less fun for him and he could become more hesitant to try for fear of doing wrong.
Keep it short so that the dog looks forward to the next training session.
Slowly raise the level of distraction, so that it doesn’t get too difficult for your dog suddenly. That sets him out for failure instead.

The consistent repetition day in and out started to make following the Stay command a habit for her. It was time to move her to a slightly more distracting environment.

So every morning we went to this fitness corner. It was outdoor but still enclosed by walls up to waist height and seldom used.

Dog stay on step up platform in fitness corner

I would ask Donna to sit on one of these step up platforms and stay as I walk a wide circle around her. She would sit, but her head would follow me as I walked around. And if she couldn’t see me she would stand and peer at me around the board that lines one side of the steps. It mattered to her that she should be able to see me. It didn’t matter to me that much that she stood to peer, although I preferred her to sit. As long as she stayed on the platform step, I left her be.

There were times when I took it too far and she grew impatient as I circled. That’s when she would stand up from her Sit, panting a little, perhaps break her stay. I guided her back and released her much faster after that hoping that that meant the training ends on a successful note. :P Don’t know if that’s really the case. Haha!

I started with small rounds, rewarding her with treats every time I come back to her from my circling.

As the weeks passed, and she got better at sit-stay there, I widened my circles around her.

It took time, but eventually I lengthened the time she stayed by increasing the number of circles I walked around her. It helped me a lot because walking occupied me. I don’t like standing around waiting for time to pass as she stayed. I wouldn’t be consistent doing something I don’t find fun.

More and more, she stays on the step.

Then it was time to go to an even more distracting environment. A nearby park that is quiet but much more open than the fitness corner was. I felt I have less control here because there was always the possibility of someone walking a dog that would distract Donna. I didn’t want her running off since she wasn’t very good being off-lead or having a strong recall then. So I started with her close to me on the lead, until I was comfortable enough to put distance between us.

Dog stay on stool

Around the same time, we start working on off-leash heel and recall again in the same low distraction environments mentioned earlier.

I wasn’t ready to walk her off-lead in the park then, but I felt comfortable enough to have her sit-stay un-tethered to my hand for short periods, knowing that her stay was pretty strong by then.

Dog stay on table

Nowadays, her sit-stay is strong enough that I can finally take the type of long distance photos that Jen K. does with her Newfoundland dogs.

And then I realised, perhaps because Donna is smaller and less fluffy, she just doesn’t have the type of presence that the Newfies have in a distance shot. Oh jeez… :P

Dog stay on wall

Note: The Sit-stay is great at home. She used to run to the front door when someone walks past or rings the door bell. But not everyone wants to be greeted by a dog, even if she is friendly. It was easy enough to practise Sit-stay with her in the crate with zero distraction at first as part of crate training. Eventually, she got good at it so that even when the door bell rings, she would go and stay in the crate when instructed. Nowadays, when she hears the door bell ring, she rushes to the living room in a hurry but heads for her crate.

I am not a trainer. I am just recording what I did with my dog, what worked and what didn’t. It probably also helped a lot that my dog is very food-motivated and has an almost non-existent prey drive.

Nail Cutting and Chicken

By weliveinaflat

On May 23, 2014

In Training

1 Day 1 World Project: Donna at 2:00pm – 3:00pm Thursday

Sometimes I do silly things.

I called the groomer down the street wanting to book an appointment to cut Donna’s nails. Which basically means that I’ve been procrastinating cutting her nails ever since I accidentally cut her to the quick and drops of blood formed on the floor. D: I don’t like to cut her nails.

The groomer was of course happy enough to take a booking but no, we do not allow customers into the grooming station to give the dog treats while she gets her nails cut.

I explained that Donna didn’t like her nails cut, and the groomer’s immediate reaction was we’ll use a muzzle if she is likely to bite.

I explained that Donna doesn’t bite but she’ll likely be trembling like a leaf… and I’ll like to make the experience a positive one by treating her while the groomer cuts her nails. It was still a no go.

I remembered the other shivering dog I saw standing by itself on the grooming table when I walked past the other day. And I decided, no, I’m not going to make the appointment. I think the groomer was just as happy not to take on a difficult customer.

There were enough dogs gracing their store, lions at the door turned snivelling worms on the table. One less didn’t matter.

Piqued, I immediately marched to the kitchen to cut up bits of chicken. Because I was positively going to get her nails cut that day!!

Chicken!!!

I only cut a small amount of chicken because that prevents me from overdoing things which starts making it a bad experience for Donna. She gets treated a piece for every small sliver of nail I cut. I intended to repeat this process three times that day.

The following images are highly positive because I try not to take pictures of Donna when she is stressed. She doesn’t like me pointing the camera at her so no point making her more uncomfortable when she was already nervous about cutting her nails.

I only started taking pictures when she was more relaxed.

Donna’s long black nails.

Eyes on the chicken

I try to get her to lie down so that it’s easier for me to work with her nails, especially those on her hind legs. But when she gets nervous, she insists on sitting.

So I didn’t really get to cut the nails much on her hind legs.

So this is not the before and after photo. Haha.

She doesn’t resist the cutting tool touching her foot.

She only really starts getting more nervous when the nail is between the blades and I take a long time because I’m trying to see and reassure myself that I’m not going to hurt her again when I force the blades together. That’s the reason why I thought it might be more effective to get a groomer to cut her nails for now, while I feed her treats.

Towards the end she got more relaxed. That realisation hit me. She was not as adverse to the experience as I was. She used to be worse but with the previous counter conditioning work she was better. That one bloody clip did not dent her as much as it had dented me!

That was one good thing that came out of this hated exercise of nail cutting.

With the bits of chicken now in her tummy, I started packing up and she gives me this look.

What do you mean there’s no more chicken?!!!

For 24 weeks, weliveinaflat will post photos taken for a specific hour in that week.
We will cover 24 hours in 24 weeks. (I’ve no idea how we will do the sleeping hours, lol!)
More about the 1 Day 1 World Project here.

Donna finds shelter from Thunder Phobia

By weliveinaflat

On May 22, 2014

In Behaviour

The situation with Thunder Phobia thus far

We adopted Donna in January last year so the battle with thunder phobia has been raging for one year five months.

Thunder Phobia
The fear of thunder that descends the dog into terror that looks like this:Ears pinned back, whale eyes, tense mouth, pacing, climbing on furniture and humans, yawning, drooling, violent trembling, peeing and pooping.

Solutions we have tried

We’ve tried some products that are said could help with Donna’s thunder phobia – the Thundershirt, DAP collar and crate training.

I’ve just gotten a copy of the CD Through A Dog’s Ear and waiting for an opportunity to see how that works.

//Edit: Here’s the review of the CD and accompanying book.

The thing working best for us appeared to be counter-conditioning with food so I concentrated on that, using the Thundershirt, her Collar and Crate-training as additional aids.

Thundershirt, collar, lead

Counter-conditioning with food

So what happened was, everytime it rained and thundered, I would put a little dish of food in her crate hoping that would create positive associations to the thunder. She was very comfortable with her crate but only when it wasn’t raining. So for her to be willing to go into the crate to take the food was a good step in getting her to be even more comfortable with the crate. But once she took the food, she came out of it immediately.

Counter conditioning
To “condition” means to teach, and to “counter” means to change. So counterconditioning just means to re-teach the pet to have a pleasant feeling and reaction toward something that he once feared or disliked. We do this by associating the feared thing with something good so that it predicts good things for the animal. As soon as the dog or cat sees the thing, we give him a delicious treat to create a pleasant emotional reaction. Over many repetitions, the animal learns that whenever that thing appears, good things happen! Eventually, the process produces a neutral or positive emotional reaction to the sight of the previously feared or disliked person, animal, event, place or object. – ASPCA

So it became a long, tedious process of scooping out the food, putting it into the crate, taking the dish out again when she’s done and doing that over and over again as long as the thunderstorm lasted. And that could be the whole afternoon or the whole night. So you can see how it would take a toil on the human

The only reason why I persisted was because I could really see a difference. She started anticipating this routine when it rained. And she would bounce to her crate in excitement. Sure she noted the thunder with a frown even while she was lapping at her food, but at least she was no longer trembling violently or drooling or pacing around… for the earlier parts of the storm. She was lying on the floor in the front the kitchen watching me scoop out the food before running to the crate.

waiting outside while I am busy with her food in the kitchen Donna with her ThunderShirt which helps to lessen her pacing agitatedly about the flat when it rains.

Advertisement
Read: How to introduce the Thundershirt or any shirt to a dog
before you buy on Amazon

The downside to counter conditioning with food was that eventually she would reach the point of diminishing returns and I had to scoop larger portions to get her interest. And finally that would stop working as well. And if it were still thundering then the thunder phobia would make itself evident.

The good news – the more sessions we went through, the more I could lengthen the intervals between each treat, which means she could progressively stay calmer for a longer time. And at one point, she was calm by herself with low rumbles of thunder from the distance without my intervention.

That is, until we hit the dry season. Good news for me because it meant I could take a break and sleep well and be more productive in the daytime. But that also meant that whatever progress we made backslide-ed when the rainy season came again. Boo.

Finding a safe place to hide from the thunderstorm helps the dog to calm

For the longest time, we have limited her area of activity to the living room and hoped that with all the actions we have taken, she will slowly find it comfortable in her crate in the living room even with the storm.

It just wasn’t happening.

And when something isn’t working, it would be stupidity to continue so I thought I’ll change the venue and let her be in the study with me when it storms.

I did the same thing that I did in the living room. Treated her every time it thunderstorms. It took a bit of work at the beginning but comparatively quicker. Perhaps the work in the previous season helped get us into the mode of think about food and not about the storm so Donna was maintaining calm a lot easier.

Thunder phobic dog is unhappy but no longer panicking, even without thundershirt.
She doesn’t look it but this is better than if she were pacing around, drooling and freaking out in general. You can see she is unhappy still. Her jaws are tensed and clamped shut, her ears are pinned back and her brows are sort of frowning. But she is at least no longer panicky, even without thundershirt.

Never would I imagine the difference being in the study could make. The key difference that really showed that location made a huge impact in her behaviour was that once upon a time, she was happy to see her collar and lead when it stormed and now, she looks worried when she sees it!

She would go to the study by herself and look out again to see if you are going in there with her. I can only conclude that previously the collar and lead made her happier because she thought it meant we would go out and escape from the experience of the storm from inside the flat.

But now she has somehow got the connection that the storm was even scarier outside so she doesn’t want to leave the flat. She has started to anticipate the rain two hours in advance and paces about. Even when it hasn’t started raining yet and I thought to take her out for a short walk before it rains, she got worried and was reluctant to come and get her collar put on.

The living room with its floor-to-ceiling glass balcony doors does little to muffle the buffeting wind, thunder and the lightning flashes. So I have to smack myself in the head because it made so much sense now. That once she familiarises herself with the small study she would be more comfortable in it. She feels safer in it.

The study has become her Thunder Shelter.

From her height, it’s almost den-like. All she sees are cupboard doors, books on shelves and some junk we pile on the floor. No windows. Having the door opened makes her nervous when the thunder is particularly bad and she would pace to the door to peer outside. Closing the door helps her calm down even more.

Cheese on nose takes mind off thunder

laughing cow cheese

I didn’t like the smell of canned food in the study, so I switched the treat to slivers of cheese that I cut from a cube and deliver on a finger tip. She liked the cheese. But bringing your arm up and down to feed her little bits of cheese the whole afternoon is again tedious.

I remembered the Peanut Butter series of photographs that I saw on Instagram. Basically these are photographs taken of dogs trying to lick peanut butter off the top of their noses. I smeared the cheese on her nose.

Best thing I’ve ever done.

She didn’t like having cheese smeared on her nose, but it definitely took her mind off the thunder as she focused on trying to lick the cheese off her nose. She took quite a bit of time to clean her nose completely before I need to deliver her next treat to her mouth to make her happier. :P So no, she doesn’t get irritated by cheese on the nose all the time.

The dog decided that it was more efficient to scrape the cheese off with her paw and then lick the cheese off her paw.
She decided that it was more efficient to scrape the cheese off with her paw and then lick the cheese off her paw.

Nowadays, if it’s low rumbling from a distance she can stay on the floor or her bed under the table in the study without pacing or treats as long as there is a human with her. OK, I lie, it is still up and down when it comes to her and her moods so cheese treats are a necessity still.

And definitely when it thunders badly, cheese treats MUST be delivered in more amounts in order to distract her before she goes over threshold. (No wonder she’s gaining weight) Needless to say, we are spending more time in the study with the rainy days we are seeing this couple of weeks.

Still a long journey ahead

However, all bets are off if she is home alone when it starts to storm. The other day I ran home in the rain to find her on the dining room chair panicky and slobbering away. Saliver was all over the room. She jumped off when I entered and the lightweight chair slid away from her. It is dangerous for her to prance around like that especially in a fright. She was a mess.

Getting her to not react to thunderstorms when home alone without humans is a longer journey. But at least Donna has found a shelter in the storm to hide in relative peace but only when the humans are home.

I think the rain has stopped!
Goes out and looks left, right... and returns back into the room.
Goes out, licks butt, looks left, right… and returns back into the room.
safer to stay in the study

Adoptable dogs in Singapore Ikea store

By weliveinaflat

On May 21, 2014

In Shopping

Home for Hope campaign helps dog shelters reach out to homeowners at Ikea

Locally in Singapore, Ikea is currently running a campaign with the shelters – Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD) and Animal Lovers League (ALL) – to help find adoptable dogs a home. Life-like standees of the dogs are placed in the Ikea store in the furniture display areas to show how “…sometimes, it takes more than a good piece of furniture to complete the home.”

standee of an adoptable dog in ikea store

The website Home for Hope shows the dogs that are looking for good homes.

Home for hope website screenshot

Of the 36 dogs listed, two have been labelled as adopted since the campaign launched this month (at time of writing this article).

Unfortunately, the website does not show which dogs are HDB-approved. But the great thing about the website is that you can see how some of these dogs behave by looking at the videos of the photo shoot. Here’s two dogs, not yet adopted at time of writing, with especially waggy tails.

Home for hope website screenshots

Consolidated data from 9 welfare groups on adoptadog.com makes adoption easier for potential adopters

In the same month, I discovered the website adoptadog.sg on Facebook. It doesn’t look as slick as Home for Hope nor does it have videos. But the functionality! Get this, you can search by age range, gender and whether it is HDB-approved or not on their database. Because who wants to adopt a dog that you may possibly be forced to re-home because you live in an HDB flat?

And I say this is awesome because when I was looking to adopt Donna, I only had so much time to visit 3 or 4 websites to look at what dogs are available. And to be honest I didn’t even know there were so many dog welfare groups in Singapore!

This site does it for you! It has the data from not one, not two but nine* different dog welfare groups in its database. The welfare groups are listed on the homepage. That makes finding an adoptable dog so much more efficient and effective because you now have a larger pool to shortlist from!

*The actual list comprise 10 groups but no dog shows up under the 3legsgood listing.

Adoptadog.com appears to be developed by an individual. The site is meant to be self-regulating so hopefully the dog shelters and the developer will continue to support and update the information there.

What does a real home with a dog look like?

Now since Ikea is showing customers at their store how these dogs could potentially fit into the small living spaces that Ikea typically caters for, I thought Donna will show you real life! How she fits into living in our flat ;)

See if you can recognise which ones are the Ikea furniture.

Panting after a game of fetch with her toy hippo.
Abuses her toys, so I have to spend time with the needle.

I thought you said no sitting on the furniture, human.

Always likes to eat and chew on her beds and stain it, which is why I always look for busy patterns in the fabrics to hide the stains.

Has lots of beds scattered about the flat and still likes to nap in the middle of the floor sometimes. Mind your steps!

A pet is a great companion and addition to the household, but he/she is not a piece of furniture. A dog needs to be fed, exercised, played with, bathed, and groomed, be checked regularly by the vet and safe-guarded from specific canine ailments that can strike easily.

So adopt, with consideration, not with impulse. ;)

Note: Donna is a dog we adopted at age 3+ from Gentle Paws and Friends. We are not sponsored or paid by Ikea to write this post. We are also not affiliated with adoptadog.com but found it potentially helpful for anyone looking to adopt even after the Ikea Home for Hope campaign is over (as long as they continue to maintain it).

References
– homeforhope.sg
– Furniture mall partners animal shelters to find homes for abandoned dogs
– Ikea helping dogs find a home
– Ikea promotes dog adoption by advertising homeless dogs in its showrooms

Where goes tuesdayChallenge?

By weliveinaflat

On May 21, 2014

In Photography

Snappy H’appy

As the Snappy H’appy photo challenge draws to a close, I’ve been thinking – what am I going to do with tuesdayChallenge?

First, I’m going to take a break from hosting a photo challenge because a break is a good thing. Hah! The time can be better used to think about and write up the next set of challenge posts so that the challenges will never be late again! Haha!

So anyway, the final set of updated Snappy Happy Photo Grids will be posted in the finale post 3rd June. So please do send to me your links for any outstanding work that you would like to share. Anything after the end of the month will not be included.

tuesdayPhotography

We’ll still look at photography on Tuesdays. I’m going to save this day to look at specific themes in Pet Photography, because I’m personally interested in that topic and hope you will be as well.

These trends could include – minimalist photography, peanut butter series, dog squish, etc. So if you would like to join in the fun feel free to try out some of these types of photography with your dogs and share those photos with me on a week to week basis.

If we have enough people interested, I would love to create a set of photo cards that I can send to you or a print calendar for 2015 available for non-profit sale at the end with a collection of our different photos ;) I’m just throwing out some ideas and not putting pressure on myself ;) So we’ll see how it goes.

Donna at 1pm

By weliveinaflat

On May 18, 2014

In Photography

1 Day 1 World Project: Donna at 1:00pm – 2:00pm Saturday

dog at door jamb

Most afternoons proceed in more or less the same fashion for this dog. Nap time.

When Donna was newly adopted, we weren’t sure how destructive she was going to be so it seemed common sense to just limit her area of activity to the living room for the first few months.

After we discovered that she had a habit of indiscrimate peeing outside of the peepad and newspapers provided for her when it storms, it seemed prudent to continue to keep the other rooms in the flat off-limits. These rooms have laminate wood flooring which have the unfortunate habit of popping out and creating holes in the floor when soaked.

Because she knows the invisible boundaries exist, it became a habit for her to sit outside any of the out-of-bounds rooms we were in, peeking in to see when we would come out again.

dog at door jamb
Apparently the invisible boundaries did not include her paws. Donna getting uncomfortable with me taking pictures of her when she was just doing nothing and minding her own business.

dog at door jamb

And often times I will find her like this when I come out of the study for a break or a drink.

dog at door jamb

Nowadays, she is allowed into the study, which is why you will sometimes find pictures of her on the laminate floors on this blog. But somehow, she still at times choose to stay outside by the door. Perhaps it has become a habit or maybe the tile floor is cooler for her on hot afternoons.

Ian Dunbar – Dog-friendly training

By weliveinaflat

On May 17, 2014

In Training

That’s an interesting title of Dunbar’s Ted video because it means that there is training that is not friendly to dogs.

Some cases of Cesar Millan’s approach to dogs can certainly be seen as not dog-friendly. But take a look at Google Search Trends and we find that Cesar Milan’s popularity is such that he has such an overwhelming mass of people searching for him it’s mind boggling. I’ve watched Cesar Milan on TV many times because TV is just so accessible a medium.

But when it comes to training Donna, I’ve gotten more effectiveness using positive training. So I think Ian Dunbar deserves some airtime on my humble blog. Some would even say Dunbar deserves a lot of airtime everywhere.

Dr. Patricia McConnell, author of “For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in Your Best Friend” and the animal behaviorist on Animal Planet’s “Petline,” goes as far as to say that Millan has put dog training back 20 years. “Dunbar is a world authority,” she says, “and he should be the one with the celebrity.” – SFGate

Unfortunately for Dunbar (not that he cares since he wouldn’t know I exist!), Kikopup has more influence on me since she has more specific positive dog training videos that are easily accessible on Youtube. (What can I say? I’m part of that demographic that surfs mindlessly and learn better visually and by doing it.) So I can understand why Dunbar isn’t the one with the celebrity. :P

But I just happened to see Dunbar’s Ted video and it summarises so succinctly the points about why a dog behaves the way it does and how that should inform our approach to training our dogs. The ideas certainly helped me make sense of Donna’s behaviour early on. So I thought it’s a good thing to share.

So let’s put a face and voice to Ian Dunbar on this blog because until today, I’ve never actually seen a single one of his videos despite being heavily influenced by his and others’ ideas of dog behaviour and positive training. OMG!

Who’s Ian Dunbar?

(Vet, behaviourist and dog trainer – Dunbar) didn’t know it at the time, but Dunbar introduced a concept so revolutionary he’s credited with launching what is now commonly regarded as the modern era in dog training: Train puppies before six months of age–off leash (the way they live at home)–and use rewards rather than punishment to teach proper behavior.

Today, the notion that very young puppies can not only be trained, socialized, and handled, but that doing so actually prevents most problem behaviors from developing, is a founding truth of modern dog training. – dogtime

Here’s a humorous Ted talk from him.

Force-free training can be so easily integrated into your lifestyle. Give the dog treats or other rewards when the dog is doing behaviours you like and she will be encouraged to behave in ways which you have rewarded her for.

It gets harder to distract her from existing behaviours you don’t want to encourage. For example, how do I positively influence her to stop peeing on the kitchen floor during thunderstorms when she is already frightened out of her mind to even remember training?

That’s when it just seemed easier to vent frustrations by scolding her or telling her “no” or some other action that will deter her because it makes her uncertain, anxious or fearful and hopefully not dare to do it next time. But of course she does, because she was frightened out of her mind by the storm already. And then because she did on the kitchen floor, she becomes twice as horrified because she knows she’s not supposed to do that.

Honestly, I haven’t found the answer for that kitchen conundrum yet so what I can’t positively train, I manage. Put a baby gate at the kitchen entrance. Kitchen peeing stopped.

But that’s sort of where the fun lies in as well. It’s like a puzzle you work at, have to think about to discover what sort of rewards work for your dog and what doesn’t. What makes him learn faster and what slows down the learning.

Of course some things take time, we’re been working on her thunder phobia for a year and a half and it is still work in progress. Other things take a shorter time, like learning to shake paws or high-five or to follow my hand or weave through my legs.

But mostly, I just prefer this self-image of me as a dog human who doesn’t need to scold or use aversive actions on my dog. It makes me happy when Donna looks relaxed or happy rather than uncertain, nervous or fearful because she has done something wrong. She already spends too much of her time in fear from the frequent thunderstorms we experience.

Now, go see this smartest 10-week-old puppy perform amazing dog tricks trained using positive training! I’m sorry Donna knows peanuts compared to him : ( :P

References

– The effect of training method on stress levels in dogs
– The dog trainers’ trainer

Top 10 Online Pet Shops in Singapore

By weliveinaflat

On May 15, 2014

In Shopping

Attention Most of what is written below is valid in terms of the methodology used, but the ranking has been updated & upgraded :P

This is the latest Top 10. The older article starts from after this table.

Don’t forget that you can also buy from Amazon.com! The pet section has a variety of products on offer! Best of all, even if you are not in the US, you can get FREE shipping when you buy above USD$125 with FREE AmazonGlobal Saver Shipping. How awesome is that? ;)

See also

Cheapest Singapore Pet Shop for Dog Food and Pet Supplies

50 Online Pet Shops to choose from when shopping for your dog

Where do you buy your dog food and other pet products from?

Who are the top ten singapore online pet shops?

When we adopted our first dog, we quickly found that her food costs added up really fast. We also found that she scratched and shed more on the dry and canned food that the shelter so kindly provided us with to tide us over the early days. That’s when we decided to upgrade her to try out other dry and canned food that meet the nutritional standards established by AAFCO – Association of American Feed Control Officials.

These food tend to be more expensive. And so costs jumped especially when we cut out canned food that we can get from the supermarket and bought more of the better regarded brands.

It wasn’t long before I decided to put on my bargain hunter hat to check out some online shops. I wanted to get a sense of the price difference between them and the more convenient chain store that we sometimes buy from.

A quick search on Google showed that it’s not difficult to find listings of local online pet shops all claiming to be the top pet shop in Singapore. But honestly, there can only be one top pet shop, isn’t it?

Which of these online stores are trustworthy?

Which have the lower prices?

Which online stores make it easy to find the products on their website?

Which of these online stores are the most popular or have the highest traffic?

Here are the Top 10 Online Pet Stores in Singapore based on Alexa Global Ranking, broken in to two charts.

Top Ten online pet shops in Singapore

Top 10 Online Pet Shops in Singapore : #1-#5

Online Pet Store Ranking	Global Rank	Bounce rate (%)	Daily Page Views	Daily Time on site (mm:ss)	FB likes
01. petloverscentre.com	509,065	37.2	9.0	4:17	23,393
02. moomoopets.sg	1,417,725	16.7	12.0	5:53	4,644
03. petsstation.com.sg	1,550,521	53.3	5.0	3:54	4,911
04. singpet.com	1,572,649	25.0	4.3	5:50	n.a.
05. polypet.com.sg	1,753,041	46.2	11.0	5:08	1,685

Global Rank and Facebook Likes data retrieved between period of 8 May to 15 May, 2014.

Since revenue, order volume or total customers information is confidential, we can only try to make a guess looking at website traffic estimates from Alexa. Now I would be the first to say that Alexa is a free data source and it is not the most accurate source of data in the world, but this exercise is really just for fun so bear with me :P If you feel that I should verify if a store you are using should be in the list but is not, let me know.

Did you know?
Although supermarkets do sell dog food, 80% value share of dog food are sold via pet shops and pet superstores in Singapore. – Feb 2013 Market Indicator Report

#1 and #3 – It should come as no surprise that the two local pet chain stores are in the top 5.
#2 – MooMooPets is the more surprising for me in the Top 2 spot. MooMooPets started out as an online store that later opened a retail outlet in Jurong West. The outlet has since closed down.
#4 – Singpet.com originated from Australia, and is a localised copy of vetproductsdirect.com.au
#5 – Polypet is a 10-year local pet supplies retail store with the one shop-front at Sunset Way in Clementi.

Singapore-based online pet shops appear to be less mature in terms of the variety of products they carry and the e-commerce user experience. Therefore, it made sense that customers would gravitate towards trusted local retail stores that have got an online presence.

With the exception of Doggyfriend, the next five appear to be online stores in existence 4 years or less.

Top 10 Online Pet Shops in Singapore (#6-#10)

Online Pet Store Ranking	Global Rank	Bounce rate (%)	Daily Page Views	Daily Time on site (mm:ss)	FB likes (as of May 8, 2014)
06. doggyfriend.com.sg	1,818,596	50.0	5.0	2:43	527
07. goofypets.com.sg	2,250,923	42.9	2.7	2:47	4,731
08. petcare.com.sg	2,453,880	64.3	2.3	1:48	208
09. theonlinepetstore.com.sg	2,748,714	46.7	6.0	4:09	394
10. pawfamily.sg	4,454,204	n.a.	1.5	n.a.	1,072

Global Rank and Facebook Likes data retrieved between period of 8 May to 15 May, 2014.

The data presented in the charts above are put together for an informal comparative reference of the popularity of Singapore online pet stores. Note that the data can change over time. I was able to find 47 online pet stores, out of which these are the 10 leading the pack in terms of Alexa Global Rank. All stores need to have e-commerce shopping cart capabilities to be included in this exercise. Stores that exist only on blogs, Facebook and/or Qoo10 are not counted. Stores that do not sell dog food are not counted in the sample. Please note that Alexa Global Rank cannot measure the true value of the stores’ popularity and transactional activity occurring with each store. Based on my own experience transacting with some online stores, after my first visit to the store, sometimes the repeat purchases can occur via SMS or email, with no actual visit to the online store.

I have compiled this information freely on my own time. Provision of the information does not mean that I know, visit, transact with or in any way recommend their store. I did not verify if any of the stores are engaged in the trade of live animals, in case you have any questions about that.

It honestly took me quite some time to compare the different online stores to find one with the best value. But in the end, it was all about compromise. The pet shop with the cheapest cost for the product I want may not have the variety for me to accumulate a total order value that qualifies me for free delivery. The shop that does have the wider range of products priced the products higher and also had a higher value set for free delivery.

Young start-ups likely have the challenge of generating traffic and interest. They also have to work harder to establish a reputation for trust and reliability. I do find myself trusting them less. If I do buy from them, I usually choose to pay Cash on Delivery rather than by Credit Card.

The result was that we continued to buy from both the brick-and-mortar shops and some of the online stores largely based on the situation. Sometimes we needed to save time and have the convenience of getting the product immediately from the nearest pet chain store. Sometimes an online pet shop may have promotional discounts, or I finally have a longer shopping list to meet the free delivery rates to make an online order.

We found the lowest pricing for Donna's favourite canned food brand in an online pet shop ranked 20.

So we have bought Donna’s canned and dry food from about three different online pet shops. One of them in the top ten list above, the other two ranked more than 10. We bought from them simply because the same pet food brand cost cheaper/cheapest with them and there is the option to pay cash on delivery. The downside is, regardless of the variety they advertise on their sites, they usually are out of stock for less popular products and even when I asked about it, they don’t seem inclined/have the capacity to bring in more stock. This means their product range is more limited in reality then what is being sold on their website.

So that in a nutshell is a rough ranking of online pet shops in Singapore and our experience buying from them.

Have you bought your pet food from an online pet shop before? Which one is it?
How do you decide which online store is trustworthy to buy from?
Did you have different experiences from us?

Note: Top Ten Online Pet Store chart data may change with time.
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Dogs on Things in Pet Photography

By weliveinaflat

On May 15, 2014

In Behaviour, Photography

Maddie the Coonhound introduced me to the concept of dogs on things… and not just normal things like the couch or your bed. Maddie has been on some strange objects and made many beautiful pictures – like this, this and this.

But because I have a rather anxious dog at times, my first thought looking at Maddie’s pictures was – was she ever scared to be in this position with a camera aiming at her? Or this position, or this.

But see here, I am judging or at least questioning from the perspective of my own dog. And I really shouldn’t do that. I know absolutely nothing about her real life outside of pictures and some write ups online. Maddie appears to be very popular, having been on TV and also published a photo book. So if Maddie was truly unhappy, perhaps somebody would have pointed it out. Like in the case of Grumpy Cat over here.

The thing is when something cute goes viral, it is human to try to mimic. Here’s Niner on things. And Norm Pug, sometimes on things. :P

Donna, as you know, has been on things as part of our urban parkour activities during walks. I try to get Donna to hop on the things herself and she is generally ok with jumping on things she perceives to be stable.

But new things can sometimes appear to threaten her mortality to her. Like these stack of canned food that was recently delivered to our flat. She was not entirely relaxed because this is something new to her, but not overly terrified either. She was of course treated for standing and staying there.

black and white mobile app sketch of a dog on cans

But pretty soon she grows less happy or comfortable with the whole situation. You can see the signs. The head looking away, the little frown of her eye brows and the tail has shifted inward a little.

black and white mobile app sketch of a dog on cans

So it’s time to let her off before she starts feeling even more negative. Happiness restores when she is allowed off the stack.

black and white mobile app sketch of a dog on cans

Knowing what signs to look out for makes me look at dog photographs differently nowadays. A photo that may have looked cute before would not now if I thought the dog was displaying signs of trying to cope with stress in the picture – licking, yawning, pinned ears, tucked tail, etc.

I have to say, it is easy to miss the signs when you’re looking through a tiny view finder. It is only when one looks back on the photos, magnified, and really have the time to peruse them do I find the finer details that indicate some level of stress or not.

So many pet owners are sharing their pet pictures on Instagram and Facebook nowadays. It makes sense for us to know what to look out for when taking photos of our own dogs. And at the same, know that we do not know the context the dog was in when looking at pictures of other people’s dogs online. A dog could be licking out of stress or he could be licking off peanut butter from his nose!

So relax, go forth and enjoy more photos of happy, well-loved dogs. :)

References
– Perching pooch Maddie shows off skills on Today’s set
– Meet Maggie the acrobatic dog who launched a dream
– This wild idea
– Maddie on Things
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