our replacement floating whirl wheel

Last week our multi-tasking whirlwheel floated off down the river.

It's a great toy, because it's tough, squeaks and can be used in water or on land. My only problem with using it on water has been that the squeaker came free once or twice and fell into the interior, leaving a hole that could fill with water and cause it to sink. Luckily that only happened on a couple of occasions, near the shore, so I could pick it up from the bed of the creek or river. (Things that sink are lost to Penny, as she can't smell them.)

I would not let Penny be alone with this toy, however, due to this problem with the squeaker. I wouldn't want her to swallow the little part.

Because it's an important part of our swimming fun, I went looking for another toy, and found only a green one. The shop, Murphy Brothers in Hawthorn, is one of the best pet suppliers in Melbourne, in my opinion, but they said they don't get a choice of colors when they import these toys.

Well, green wouldn't be my first choice of color. It's too hard to see on the grass!



But Murphys are ordering new stock, so I'll get over there and buy a more visible color.

I was told recently that we need to choose toys in colors that are easily distinguished by dogs. But since I've forgotten what the three suggested colors were, I guess I'll just have to leave it to the manufacturers. I did come across an article on the Net discussing scientific studies of dogs' color vision and acuity and it said, in part

Through these studies it has been suggested that an average dog sees similar to a human deuteranope, a person that is red-green colorblind. Consequently, the dog's world consists of yellows, blues, and grays. When a human perceives a red object it appears as yellow to the dog, while a green object appears as white, a shade of gray. This white region, also called the neutral point, occurs around 480 nm in visual spectrum. According to the electromagnetic spectrum, 480 nm would appear as a greenish-blue hue. All wavelengths longer than the neutral point are indistinguishable from one another to the dog and would all appear as yellow.