We live in a flat

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Interpreting dog body language

On July 18, 2013

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?

what is my dog body language in this picture?

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:

what is my dog body language in this picture?

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.

what is my dog body language in this picture?

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

Some progress with toilet pee pan training… some.

By weliveinaflat

On July 17, 2013

In Training

Continuing from where we last stop… (you can read the previous post here)

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!

Hello puppy

By weliveinaflat

On July 16, 2013

In Dog & You

Sonel’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Family
#1 Her family of used toys, donated from a friend
#2 A t-shirt commemorating her sister, who had passed on

This photo was taken probably somewhere in March. The T-shirt shows Donna’s birth sister, who has passed on. You can read more about her sister here.

While Donna is a local mongrel, she was never a stray like some of the other local mongrels in the shelter. You see, Donna was conceived and born at the shelter. She and the rest of the litter were the unplanned children for a couple of dogs slated to be neutered but have not yet had the procedure done.

It was thus why I had mixed feelings when I read a post about terminating pet pregnancy recently. On the one hand, terminating a litter of puppies will help by not adding additional strain to an already overcrowded shelter support system. But on the other hand, I also can’t help but be glad that the shelter kept the puppies of the already pregnant mother dog or there would not be a Donna. :P

I did write before that when we explored adopting a dog, we visited and wrote to various shelters and the SPCA. None of the dogs left a strong impression on us. And we might just as easily have gone the other way, just continued with our busy lives and not adopted a dog at all.

But we got lucky, we met Donna. And we are still lucky today that we don’t have the problems that some of the other adopters of the same shelter seem to experience – aggression against other dogs, snapping at children, destroying the furniture – things that got some of the dogs returned.

We are lucky.

Life is never black and white. Humans make choices that they either believe make themselves better people or are choices that they just have to live with. The choice is really down to the individual or collective of people. A pregnant dog would not have a choice if the humans decide to take away her unborn puppies. As the guardian, a human that lets the puppies live and is committed to their well-being for their entire lives cannot be faulted. Neither is the responsible abortion of puppies wrong if no one would commit to them.

All I can say is Donna, who was adopted then returned, went on home stay than returned again, got lucky and so did we. And this blog exists documenting the minutiae of everyday, the good and the awful, so that hopefully people who are thinking of getting a dog for their family and happen to visit our blog will seriously consider before taking the plunge. And if they do intend to get a dog, I hope they would consider adopting one.

Dear readers,

By weliveinaflat

On July 16, 2013

In Dog & You

The About section of this blog tells you something about us, our dog adoption story and why we started the blog. In a sense, I like to think that we are blogging the change with every post about our dog Donna.

You see, unlike in the United States where pit bull ownership seem to be the contentious issue, it is not so here. The reason is simple. Pit bulls are not allowed here unless one has a lot of spare cash and really wanted a pit bull. What we have here is a dog ownership landscape comprising mostly of toy and small-medium breeds suitable for people living in flats (the most predominant housing over here), and then some larger dog breeds for people in private or landed property. (Sydney has a post on 10 most popular Singapore dog breeds here.)

Coming back to local mongrels like Donna, they just don’t fit into the scheme of things here. They are not a known breed being mongrels and so they do not appear on the list of approved breeds for public housing. They are generally bigger and heavier than 15kg, which is the weight limit for unlisted dogs that could be approved for public housing on a case by case basis.

There are stray local mongrels that form packs in some areas of the country, namely forested and industrial areas. And because these are feral, not spayed or neutered, they eventually multiply enough to trouble the man on the street. Then the pest control is called in. Yes, the pest control.

Rehabilitating and rehoming dogs cannot be an easy task, let alone rehoming the local mongrel that is larger than most dogs the man in the street is comfortable to meet. A large poodle would be more of a rare novelty to gawk at, but a smaller local mongrel generally warrants a warning from parent to child that “that dog bites.”

So what change are we trying to blog here again? Mongrels for apartment dogs awareness of course! Smart, loyal, obedient and healthy!! IF you take the time to consistently train and care for it.

I would like to end this post by saying, look beyond the breed please. If you are considering buying or adopting a dog, see the dog for the individual that he is, his temperament and how well/keen you are to work with him to help him fit in your home before deciding if you can make the commitment for the long term.

Thank you for reading :)

P/S1There is an ongoing online petition for HDB homeowners to be able to keep a second dog through adoption, see here if you are interested.

P/S2 In case anyone is as curious as I was, these are some of the licensing requirements for the pit bull and 7 other dog breeds and their crosses in Singapore:

1. Dogs must be leashed and securely muzzled when in a public place…
4. The owner must take up an insurance policy for at least $100,000 coverage against injury to persons and damage to property
5. The owner must take up banker’s guarantee of $5,000
6. Any existing banker’s guarantee would be forfeited for non-compliance and the owner must take up a fresh banker’s guarantee of $5,000.
7. Newly licensed dogs must undergo obedience training

More information about the selected breeds requiring additional licensing here – http://www.ava.gov.sg/NR/rdonlyres/2FCF9F87-1FB1-49C8-A804-0611C26E95FA/18221/SummaryofAB_DoglicensingControl_Rules_15Nov2010.pdf

This post is inspired by Blog the Change.

Weekly phoneography: Triple exposure urban landscape

By weliveinaflat

On July 15, 2013

In Photography

A long shot. And for the birds, how near and yet how far from the sky. And how far away are you reader from Singapore where this picture was taken?

Phoneography Monday Challenge: Black and White
Pic #1 Apps used – Camera+, Gorillacam, Snapseed
Pic #2 Apps used – Camera+, Snapseed, Blendcam, Camera360 (Jelly), HDR Art (Red October)

Pic #1

This is a scene from my mother’s neighbourhood. Keeping birds seem to be more a pastime for elderly man. The birds get to go out on their “walks” and a bit of sun when the elderly men congregate at the bird poles to socialise and enjoy their feathered friends. Perhaps hanging them up high helps the bird song weave through the atmosphere further. I can’t really say.

I took a picture because there aren’t so many of such pole-dotted landscape nowadays. I imagine it would be quite a sight and soundscape should the poles have been filled to capacity.

Pic #2 (colour version on instagram, click.)

While the clear sky showed up the bird cages on the bird poles really well, I found the surrounding trees noisy and disrupted the pattern of the poles. I decided to disrupt the image further by blending in a previous picture I had taken of clouds over the surrounding landscape of blocks of flats. What you see is a triple exposure of two images only. Perhaps the ghosts of apartment blocks predict the future removal of this public interaction space? That is not impossible.

The colour filter I used for the picture (before conversion to black and white) has a pretty distinct signature to it which I do not favor. Hence if you look carefully, a bird silhouette added in photoshop helped to shield the number “5” that comes with the filter. In my mind’s eye, I could see a swarm of ghostly bird silhouettes building into a crescendo from the poles to the sky to create a visual image of bird song. That could be cool :P

I recently created a Twitter account for this blog. I was surprised to find people using the hash tag #unfiltered for their images. This makes me wonder, do you prefer your photos clean or filtered so that they become virtual/alternate versions of what exists in reality?

A dog with a tennis ball

By weliveinaflat

On July 14, 2013

In Dog & You

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?

What is this life if full of care…

By weliveinaflat

On July 13, 2013

In Behaviour

– W.H.Davies

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! :)

Bougainvillea in late afternoon light

By weliveinaflat

On July 12, 2013

In Photography

We visited the Gardens by the Bay in the late afternoon. Very lucky because there was a very short stretch of time where the plants were bathed in dancing light. I have always loved the interplay between light and shadow, though I am too lazy to go out of my way to capture it. :P

I have never liked the bougainvillea. It is a very common roadside plant, often in its many gaudy colours. Deep bright fuchsia horrors. I was never fond of fuchsia. And because it is by the roadside, it is inevitably dusty and tattered, sometimes dry and twiggy.

But see it in a different light, pink veins lining the delicate paper-like petals. These I quite admire.

I even wrote bad poetry for it, titled “Bougainvillae”

Had to power up my dusty OmmWriter to find the haiku within! :P Donna had one for Ku too! You should go see it on Ku’s blog at Haiku by Ku! ;)

Park stools and fitness corners are great for doggy parkour :)

By weliveinaflat

On July 11, 2013

In Training

Been some time since the last post on doggy parkour. Here’s Donna perched on a wall. She wants to get down already.

What else has she been up on lately? Artificial tree trunk stone stools, now these are pretty good for canine urban agility challenge.

These come in rows of three to five stools, so she has been slowly hopping from one stool to the next. The most she achieved was three consecutive stools so far :P

It really does test her agility to stand and sit on these stones, given the size of their surfaces and their distance apart. So I don’t really push her to do it when she doesn’t want to.

One day, in the same park, I saw this tiny kitten jumping up and down that tiny ledge along the wall fencing the police station. It’s definitely more agile than Donna! :P

And in the last couple of days, inspired by zeke’s adventures, we went to another nearby fitness corner in an attempt to train Donna to “jump” over these bars. As you can see, she much prefers to put her paws on the bars to help herself over rather than jump over. – –

We went leash-free for a few minutes and she cleared the bar without touching it.

I’m starting to get more comfortable with her being off the leash for few minutes at a time because we have been practising with her to “walk with me” at home and also in the small little secluded park downstairs (usually free of people and dogs). And when she gets into training mode, she can sometimes be quite focused. That is when I am more comfortable letting her off-leash for a few minutes at a time, never more because one never knows when something may suddenly spook her or draw her excitement.

She doesn’t have a strong recall or heel yet, so I’m always paranoid about her running away because she has been spooked or running to scare small children or dogs that happen on us before I can stop her. And when she is restless/distracted, then we just go for a nice, relaxing leashed walk instead.

If doggy parkour is new to you, you can read more about Urban Agility Challenge for Dogs here.

Note: It is illegal for the dog to be off leash in public areas in our country. I will not be responsible if local readers let your dog(s) off leash at your own risk/discretion. I generally don’t so why am I incriminating myself by blogging about this? :P