She has to go through some effort, to get the food reward inside this toy.
Two pretty high contrast pictures that I thought suitable for black and white. I originally published them in colour on Instagram, which you can view here. How do you spend your Sundays?
Living with a dog is a weekly overview of the posts published in the last week, and some of the discussions prompted in the comments or thoughts that I had as a result of hindsight later on. The following list gives you a quick idea of the main topics covered in this issue, before the full article:
Mikki isn’t comfortable with Donna and Donna can be a bit of a rascal at times in trying to get the golden retriever to play. Thankfully our mongrel knows better than to encroach too much into Mikki’s space. You can see the gap she leaves for Mikki in this picture.
This is part one of a series of posts documenting our trip to Changi Beach and meeting the dogs Chloe, Ally and Mikki. This is the first time we brought Donna out to socialise with a visitor of our blog!
We were scheduled to meet with some small dogs for the first time.
And because we had a not so successful introduction to another dog before, and knowing that Donna can sometimes be overly friendly and want to approach some dogs we walk pass on our walks. And also that she has, admittedly, a past history of antagonistic relationships with other female dogs – namely her mother, siblings, a former cell-mate called Grace – I thought it prudent to take the dog for a long walk in the morning… 2 hours. :P *pats self on the back*
Aside: Doggerel recently published a post on that gives the key points how to introduce unfamiliar dogs, if you are interested.
We went to the pretty Bishan Park. (I have more pictures and a related news article on my previous post on this link to dog urban agility at Bishan park, if you are interested.)
One of the lovely features in the park is the man-made stream that runs through the length of it. At various points of the stream, there are stone steps that one can traverse across to get to the other side for the fun of it. We’ve never tried going across them before, but there’s always a first for anything isn’t it?
So I thought hey, Donna can parkour across the stream by hopping across the stone steps!
But first, the coast has got to be clear, so we waited for this man to come across. I thought to take a picture of Donna before she starts her journey across the stream, but she didn’t want to stay. She wanted to forge ahead.
Is she a good dog sitting by the roadside? Well actually, this is Donna sitting her ground during a walk at night and refusing to go home. She shows this kind of behaviour sometimes, and she will literally lie down and stick to the ground when she really, really doesn’t want to budge. That’s our Donna :P
Three weeks ago…
Last night…
Time, has not made a difference to her persistence in the mission :P
“Go to your bed” or crate/kennel cues are so useful in this case :P
It hadn’t occurred to me until now but it is dangerous for any animal to hang around the door frame, especially in our case since we live on high floors with crazy winds that sometimes slam doors really hard. In this case, we had the bedroom balcony door closed which shuts off the wind. Normally we do keep the door securely hooked to the wall, and not ajar.
Ears back, climbing, seeking attention, yawning.
Yes, I know. Thank you for telling me.
I know she is nervous, but sometimes I wonder if I coddle her too much. Mr P ignores her and she seems calmer with him. But when she sees me, she gets really pushy like above. And if you study her eyes, no dilation. She’s nervous, under some stress but still managing.
She wants something with that automatic sit.
Soon she figures we’re both taking it easy, even with the approaching rain and seems calmer. I talked to her a little and she gets excited. Oh-oh, I probably should never talk to her again. Ever!
The thunderstorm got really loud. And then she starts to circle her sleeping towel in the study determinedly. (- – !!!) I reactively screamed, “NO!” And she did. Thank GOD!
Urgently got her into the toilet. There she goes. For the record, because Mr P did once let her do it on the carpet because he thought she was circling to go to sleep. This is what it looks like.
She circled deliberately on the spot more than 10 times.
I probably should have taken a video but it seemed voyeuristic to me. Don’t ask me why I think an animated gif is any better. – –
She is toilet_trained, but when she gets over-excited, common sense/trained behaviour always flies out the window and any mat/rug-like texture becomes fair game for elimaination. That is why when we leave her alone in the house, she has no access to any towels, rugs, mats, only the pee pad in the toilet. And when we are at home and these things lie around, we need to really keep an eye on her to shepherd her to the right spot to do it during stormy weather conditions.
Since she seemed to calm down better when I am out of the room, I went to sleep the rest of the day away. I wasn’t feeling well anyway.
Later in the night as we sat in the living room, she went and slept in her crate. Good.
We had a power failure today. Did a little bit of crate training today with her, while the electrician presented himself as the distraction working on the power unit. I was able to close the crate door with her inside for minutes, yay!
P/S It was difficult to get any electrician on a the phone on a weekend it seems. We waited more than 2 hours before the original electrician we called came along after his praying session at his temple. During that time, we tried Town Council-listed numbers, companies that advertised themselves as 24hr emergency services, etc and they all never picked up the phone! D: Good idea to keep a reliable emergency contact for such services handy.
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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. ;)
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