Lhasa apsos, cones on heads and grooming

 When Penny died, it took me four months to even think of continuing this blog, and for a while I just added the occasional post to keep it alive. And to keep Penny alive on the internet. (She's alive forever in our hearts.)

And then we made the enormous decision to bring another dog into our household. During the worst of the lockdowns here in Victoria in Australia, many people discovered the joy a dog can bring, so we had difficulty getting an older rescue dog. Given my age (not too young is what I'll say), it was a momentous decision to start over with a puppy.

But what joy she has brought us. 

And what a further education in living with a dog. I thought I knew so much about dogs, after fifteen years with one. Now I realise each dog is a new experience. Getting a lhasa apso puppy was a tribute to the fact that we thought Penny had been a lhasa.

Well, no.

Lhasas have special coats. Just because Penny looked like a lhasa does not mean she was one. The groomer warned us. 'Don't think this will be like caring for Penny. She didn't have a thick coat. It was fine and easily managed.'

Yep. She was so right. Peppa's coat is a whole new ballgame.

Recently she had an operation on her right front paw to remove a grass seed buried inside it. 

While the weather was good, sunny and dry, we coped. But once the winter rains set in, we didn't go so well. It eventually turned out that the bandaged foot had healed well, but had got wet under the bandage and needed more time to recover. So, the cone went back on. 

 

The dreaded cone... 

If you've seen the movie 'Up', you'll know it as the Cone of Shame. From now on, I'm going to call it the Cone of Messy Fur.

That darned cone made such a mess of Peppa's head and neck fur.

 

Here are the ears, the worst affected: 

 

In all the kerfuffle over the paw, we've missed out on our scheduled grooming session, and our lovely groomer is going on holidays, so I bit the bullet and decided I'd have to start getting her coat back in order. 

I'm rather pleased with the work I did on her ears. The first one 'only' took thirty minutes.

And then I started on the other ear - the left.

Another thirty minutes - after which it was time for a rest, each of us in her own way. Peppa in her crate, me on the computer.

I figure in another hundred hours we should have the whole coat looking good.

Changeable weather makes it hard for an old dog

It's difficult to feel positive these days, with the tragedy of the bushfires here in Australia, and the terrible loss of life - too many humans and an estimate of a billion animal deaths.

But we keep on trying to have a normal life here, fortunately living in the safety of a big city. Penny's missing her regular walks the last couple of days, because the air is smoky for an old dog (and her old humans). And sometimes it's too hot for her. She struggles if the temperature is higher than about 20°C.

Yesterday we didn't go out early because it was too hot. Here she is briefly visiting the front yard, where some of our plants are protected by our newly purchased beach umbrellas (only useable if the wind isn't blasting like a furnace).

 And then, when we thought of going out in the late afternoon, it was cold and raining.

Hooray for the rain. Here's hoping the exhausted fire fighters can get a bit of an advance on the flames while the cooler weather is here.

walking in beautiful surroundings

Penny and I are fortunate in the variety of places we can walk together. Here's a recent location:

It's easy to take these wonderful places for granted, but I was reminded recently that such bushy surroundings occur only because of the work put in by local government,  indigenous people and groups of volunteers.

I thought this sign at the Willsmere billabong in Kew had an excellent explanation of why we dog-walkers need to respect the other users of our spaces, both human and non-human.

These plantings are newer than the one pictured at the top, but in time they will be just as lovely:

 

December with my dog

I'm surprised to see I haven't posted any updates on Penny's day-to-day life since October 6th. Where did October and November go?

Anyway, there is one thing to report for November - Penny had a long-overdue haircut. Here she is, energised after the visit to her lovely groomer, Gabby.

Penny has never been fond of being groomed, but when I took her for a walk prior to going into the salon, she tugged me down the driveway into Gabby's place. That's what I call 'voting with your feet'! Gabby has a gift for making Penny relaxed and happy.

It had been cool for November, so I covered her with a blanket the first couple of nights, as she has quite a thin coat.

I didn't have to do that for long. December arrived with a vengeance, and hot, hot weather landed on us. It was too hot, even at night, to walk, so I drove to Kepala to give her a swim. I loaded up a big container of  water in a cooler in case the car broke down, because I don't think she could deal with 38°C these days. She was panting in the back seat, even with the air conditioner going, but we got there safely after the 50 minute drive.

It was worth it.

The rules specify that humans are not allowed past the blue line, so I took that as a definite instruction to wade in up to the blue line. (When I wasn't taking a break in the shaded hut.)

It's not only about keeping cool. The benefits of swimming are wonderful for old dogs with joint problems. Look at how she stretches her limbs when she swims.

goji berries and African boxthorn

I walked in Darebin Parklands without Penny this morning, because I was taking part in a 'mini retreat' to learn more about mindfulness. It was lovely to walk mindfully, using my three senses - hearing, sight and feeling/touch/body awareness. When I'm with Penny the time seems to rush by unexamined, as she dashes from place to place.

I came across an African boxthorn, a really pestiferous weed in Australia, and dared to try out a theory I have that the fruit is the same as the much-admired goji. I ate one, and it tasted nice, even sweeter than the gojis in my garden. Of course, there's the likelihood that the plant had been sprayed with poison, but I thought it looked as if it had not been.

Later, when Penny and two of us humans returned to the park, I persuaded Human Number Two to also try out one of the fruit, and so far we're unharmed, lol.

BTW, I had taken the precaution of rechecking my facts about African boxthorn and felt reasonably sure it was a goji-relation.

ADDITIONAL NOTE 11 MAY 2015: I'm not sure that African Boxthorn is safe to eat. I think it's too risky until I can find out more.

I wonder if it would be good for the park if everyone took home lots of these nutritious fruit, so the birds don't continue to seed them all around the place. (They're frightfully expensive to buy.)

Of course, the better course is to get rid of the plants entirely.

Penny is quite laid back about an exciting encounter

Today, as we were walking in a nearby park, we saw a dog approaching - and he looked like Penny.

Now, you have to understand - no dogs look like Penny! People are always asking us what breed she is, and we say, she's a 'bitser'. That's Aussie slang for a dog who's 'a bit of this and a bit of that'.

But this dog looked like her!

Ever-so-casually, I said to the woman with him, 'What breed is your dog?'

She replied, 'He's maltese/shih-tsu/poodle.'

My heartbeat sped up. That's what we think Penny is. I said, 'Did you buy him from your vet?'

'Yes!" she exclaimed.

OMG! This was Penny's brother. When we decided to get our first-ever dog, we didn't know whether we could cope with two dogs, as beginners. We paid for Penny and left her to grow a little older with the one remaining litter mate, but said that if he was unsold when we returned for her, we would take him too. We had mixed feelings when we heard someone had bought him.

It was wonderful to know he has a loving home and is happy.

Penny's named after the copper coin, because of her puppy colouring, but has long since become a blonde. He, on the other hand, is still coppery. When you see them together, the difference is plain.

It was such a happy and exciting meeting that I can't resist posting lots of photos.

dogs and lips and rocks

It's hot now in Melbourne. If we didn't have a dog, we'd be slouched in front of the television in the evenings. But we do have a dog, so we're out walking.

Thank God for dogs.

Otherwise we'd miss seeing  fascinating things like this mouth-shaped cloud. Lips in the sky, ready to kiss the world and make life good.

But Penny teaches us to look down as well as up. Interesting planet we live on. The only one we've got, so we'd better look after it.

little miss hug and Penny the dog

There's a new kids' book in Roger Hargreaves' 'Little Miss' series.

I love the innocence of Hargreaves' books, and during my teaching years, enjoyed many of his stories with children.



The new book's called Little Miss Hug and Penny the Dog, but of course it's not written by Hargreaves, who died in 1988. What a fabulous name for a dog, lol.

The profits from this book go to the RSPCA.

I came across the reference to the book in a sad way, because I visited the RSPCA site in order to get information for my letter to the Minister of Agriculture protesting about the abominable cruelty of selling live sheep to countries where they die in horrifying ways. Australia needs to stop sending live animals overseas!

Penny and our vegie garden

Penny likes some veggies in her dinner, and last night she had a little piece of cooked asparagus. I'm glad she doesn't realise that edible plants grow in our garden - because our asparagus bed is sprouting beautifully. That's very strange, actually, because it's the middle of winter.

Our very first shiitake mushrooms are emerging from the inoculated log, too. Very exciting! Penny wouldn't know anything about fungus being edible, because I've never given her any. I don't think it would be safe for her.

But something has been looking at the log, where it sits on a green plastic garden chair, because we noticed a fresh possum poo right beside it. Here's hoping that the poo fell from the tree above. I'd be disappointed if the possums pinched our mushrooms!

in Australia dogs help conserve an endangered species

Great article today in The Age newspaper about  dogs in our national parks.

Usually we hear only complaints about dogs and native animals, and I do understand that we can't take dogs into areas where we need to protect native creatures.

But this is a video with a difference. An exciting discovery has been made, a camera shot of a spotted quoll in a place where they have not been seen in recent times.  So sniffer dogs have been brought in to try to locate scat (poo) of spotted tiger quolls.

I really enjoyed the film, but unfortunately, on this occasion the dogs did not find any quoll scat.



You might want to read more about the quoll conservation program in Cape Otway, which is where the highly trained sniffer dogs come from.

Reading about these dogs reminds me of the hunting dogs who were trained to kill rabbits but ignore grey-headed albatross.

Aren't dogs amazing?

Penny doesn't see the eclipse of the moon

I took Penny down to a nearby street corner to watch the moonrise tonight, because the moon was to come up totally in eclipse.

Penny didn't seem to understand the idea of setting off for a walk and then standing around for ages. In her opinion, that's a waste of time, so she tried mightily to convince me we should dash up and down the footpath, here and there, anywhere. But since it was rush hour on the road beside us, I decided to take her home and go back to watch the eclipse with other humans, who understand that we need to take time to see how the universe around us works.

 Penny looks rather sad in this photo, but she was actually quite happy to stay home, because I had scattered little fish treats around the floor.

The eclipse wasn't very exciting, to be honest. Just an orangey blur barely visible through the mucky pollution on the horizon. But it was great fun to meet other locals and watch the shadow of our planet move across the surface of our nearest neighbour in space.

It's amazing to think that we were seeing the curve of planet Earth across the Moon, just as the ancients did.

A neighbour mentioned to me that it was this phenomenon that first led ancient Greek philosophers to realise Earth is a sphere.

In following up on her remark, I came across this great clip from Carl Sagan's show Cosmos, in which he explains how Eratosthenes worked out the circumference of the earth, so many thousands of years ago. He realised that Earth could not be a flat surface. It must be curved. Just in case you don't want to click across to YouTube, here it is:

another session of Bowen therapy for dogs

Here's a photo of Penny taking it easy after another session of Bowen therapy for dogs. (It's rather hard to see, because she was so comfy in the darkness that I didn't have the heart to use the flash. And the strange colour is  a wash of light from the television set.)

We have been given notes by our therapist, Deb from Bow-Rei Me. (Don't you love that business name?)

Some tips for an after-Bowen day:
Allow Penny to rest undisturbed for as long as she needs, because the body integrates the work best during rest or sleep;
no brushing or bathing for couple of days;
no vigorous stroking or patting for a couple of days (that's a hard one to remember!);
don't give Penny other sorts of treatments for about four days;
tell the vet about the Bowen treatment if we are on medication.

Penny has become increasingly happy with the therapy. In Bowen treatments, the practitioner sometimes moves away from the dog to allow the body to respond to the treatment.

Whenever Deb moved away from Penny, Penny eagerly looked at her, or even moved close, as if saying, 'I'd like more of that, please.'

It's a lovely non-invasive treatment.

a dog has Bowen therapy

Today Penny went to a cottage in the hills for her second session of Bowen therapy.

When Penny had her first visit last week, the practitioner suggested we monitor her reaction, and I must say we did think Penny was walking better even after just that one session. For a long time now she has tended to 'hop' along when she hurries, with her two back legs moving together. We think her lower spine is becoming a bit arthritic.

But when we walked last week we thought she was moving more freely. I'll also be interested to see whether it has any effect on her itchy skin.

At this second session, Penny once again seemed relaxed and happy during the gentle hands-on treatment.

At times the therapist took a break, to allow Penny's body time to respond to the treatment, and Penny would look up, as if saying, 'More, please.'

You can see how relaxed Penny was. (This photo was taken after the actual Bowen treatment was finished.)

Here's a bit of info about how it works for animals.

This video clip showing the work of Maddy Casey in the UK is very similar to what Penny experienced.

dogs can help our native birds

There's a great article in The Age newspaper today, about a small wetland in a densely urbanised area, where native silver gulls were driving away most other species of birds.

In an effort to get rid of the gulls without harming them, a variety of strategies were implemented. The one that interested me was the decision to allow dogs to visit the wetlands off-lead.

The article says: The species of birds and frogs that frequent the site have doubled to more than 51. Of the 48 bird species that visit, 42 are native. Six of those, including the dusky moorhen, Pacific black duck and Australian grebe, have started breeding at the site.                                                                                                                                             So far, three species of frog have been recorded at the wetland: the common froglet, spotted marsh frog and striped marsh frog.                                                              Melbourne Water senior biodiversity scientist Will Steele said he wouldn't be surprised if turtles started arriving too...                                                                                               Dr Steele said the native birds...seemed willing to put up with dogs if they kept a safe distance.

I hope the dog owners who visit the wetlands will realise they have a responsibility to make sure their pets do keep a safe distance. I guess there would be signs telling them the dogs can't swim there. That's how it often is in wetlands.

Penny rarely takes notice of birds. I'm not sure whether it's because she frequently swims in creeks and rivers amongst water birds and walks past land birds...

or whether it's due to all the training in her early years, being rewarded for ignoring birds.

However, we would never assume that she's not going to attack a bird. There's a first time for everything, so we remain vigilant.

If you click the the link in the first line, above, I think you'll enjoy the whole article, and especially the video clip of the wetlands, where you can see an off-lead dog walking past.

Penny's reaction to Advantix

On 6th November, about 11 am, in preparation for our holiday at Best Friend Retreat, I put Advantix parasiticide on Penny's back, to protect her from possible paralysis ticks.  I'd done the same thing last time we went there, because by all reports, paralysis ticks are a problem not too far away from where we were to stay.

Penny seemed agitated by the middle of the afternoon. She would hurry from place to place, paws clicking on the parquetry,  and plonk down in a curled-up huddle. We thought she seemed more settled later, but by midnight she was scratching herself.

The next day she was licking her usual itchy places, around her vulva and anus.

On the 8th, she was still agitated and trying to scratch the place between her shoulder blades where we had used the spot-on Advantix. So I rang Bayer.

I was pleased with the response from the vet consultant who spoke to me. She queried me closely about Penny's behaviour, and said eventually that Penny was having a reaction - called paresthesia  - to the permethrin in the product. I should use soapy water to wash the medication off Penny. She particularly said to use cool water, as we didn't want to make Penny more uncomfortable. She offered to take back the two unused Advantix doses from the packet, and send me a flea collar in return, plus Advantage For Dogs.

Since then, I have read that the underlying reason for washing off the medication in cool water is that if I had used warm water, it would have opened up Penny's pores and made the poisoning worse. (I call it poisoning, not just 'reaction'.)

I had researched paralysis ticks, because they frighten me. However, now that I knew we were going on holiday with no protection, my researching became more urgent. It seems strange that paralysis ticks kill dogs and cats, because it is never in the interest of a parasite to kill its host. I discovered that these native Australian ticks don't kill their traditional hosts, Australian animals. Unfortunately, they can be fatal for our non-native pets.

At Dogzonline I found people discussing the pros and cons of medications. They mentioned paresthesia. At Yahoo Answers I found a discussion of this reaction in dogs.

It all sounded rather scary, so I decided to look again at the prevalence of paralysis ticks in the area we were visiting. I called the resort and was told they had never had a case of paralysis ticks there. I rang the local vet who said they had only ever had one case, and that was a dog who picked up a tick elsewhere.

So, we went without tick prevention, although I did make sure to watch this video clip on how to remove a tick.

No way was I going to put a tick collar on Penny, given that she would be sleeping on my bed and staying in the room with me. The chemicals in a tick collar sounded almost as bad as the permethrin in Advantix.

I also checked the map showing the distribution of paralysis ticks in Australia.

Virbac has an interesting site where they map data about outbreaks.

PetMD, which I consider one of the best sources of balanced discussions of pet health issues, had an article about the hype that surrounds ticks and fleas. An interesting read!

And now that we've been back for more than a week, I think I can safely say Penny did not encounter a tick! Hooray!

Although I believe we need to be super careful in deciding whether to use these dangerous chemicals on our pets, I have no complaints about Bayer. The representative I spoke to was informative and helpful, and rang back a week later to see how Penny was. For your interest, here is the letter I received from the company:

Thank you for contacting us about your experience with Advantix. I'm sorry about the reaction your dog Penny had to this product. It does seem likely they have a sensitivity to the pyrethroid, Permethrin, used in Advantix.
As described on the phone, this reaction is called paresthesia, which is a sensation of tingling, itching or numbness of the skin following dermal exposure to pyrethroids. It occurs as a result of a direct effect of the pyrethroid on sensory nerve endings in the skin. This type of reaction is very rare and usually resolves spontaneously in 24-72 hours.
To warn pets owners of this possible reaction, the following information is included on the label insert:
"On rare occasions reactions on dogs may include skin sensitivity resulting in symptoms such as scratching, agitation or lethargy. These signs are normally transient."
As discussed, it is likely that your dog will continue to react in this way, so it is best to not use Advantix or any permethrin-containing products in the future. 

One other thing I might mention to anyone who reads this and wants to know more about permethrin: it's interesting to look up the difference between pyrethrum, a natural product, and pyrethroids. I've come to the conclusion that pyrethroids are very dangerous. We have an organic garden and try for a chemical-free household.

It's quite a dilemma what to do about protection for Penny from parasites. I do believe Australians probably over-medicate our dogs in comparison to the rest of the world.

a post not about dogs

This post is for Mitch and Molly. Their humans have black swans, way over on the other side of the world from Australia, and after I read their comment on my previous post, that their 'lady swan' is playing around at nesting, I thought I'd post these two photos of black swans nesting a few weeks ago right in the middle of the city of Melbourne, on the Yarra.

walking in Yarra Flats park

After our recent two- and three- hour walks along the Ninety Mile Beach when we holidayed at Best Friend Retreat, it seemed boring to do our usual walks near home, so yesterday I drove up to Yarra Flats park with Penny. After we set off, I had the bright idea of calling home and asking Human Number Two to pick us up at the other end of the walk, so we could explore and see where the path eventually ended.

She agreed. So Penny and I set off along the river. (I've just realised, in researching for this post, that dogs should be on lead in the park. I'm sort of glad we didn't know that. Next time I guess we'll have to abide by the law. Maybe we won't go there. It's boring having Penny on lead.)

Well, it was a rather long walk. Only an hour, but slippery, and steep in some places. Trees were down across the path in many places, which wasn't a problem for a dog, but was harder for a not-so-young human.

I guess the trees fell in the big storm while we were away on holiday, last week. Someone had made little tracks around the fallen trees, which was handy, but I wasn't too happy when I realised Penny and I were walking on flattened wandering trad (sometimes known as wandering jew). 

What a shocking weed! I've always disliked coming across it on our outings, because so many dogs are allergic to it,  but I hadn't realised why it is such a hated week in Australia, until I saw how it had smothered all the other plants. Kilometres of this plant, with only trees hardy enough to struggle up through it!

We enjoyed our walk, but I made sure to bath Penny as soon as we arrived home, to get any allergens from the wandering trad off her skin.

kangaroo dogs on Flinders Island

While Penny was lounging around at home yesterday, I was in central Melbourne at The Ian Potter Centre (National Gallery Victoria) wandering around a display of indigenous art.

I've written on my other blog about this visit, but the dog-related aspect that struck me was in a video by Julie Gough, an indigenous artist who works in many different mediums. I stood entranced through two viewings of her film of people walking on Flinders Island. (If you'd like to see some of my photos of her exhibition, taken with my phone, visit my other blog.)

Superimposed on the footage were lists of words added to the local indigenous language when Europeans arrived. One of them was legunthawaa:



 followed by its meaning, kangaroo dog.

I wondered what sort of dog accompanied the newcomers, that the local people specifically called it a 'kangaroo dog'. Presumably they watched the Europeans working with the new dog to kill kangaroos.

I presume the  dog, observed in the early nineteenth century, would not have been what we call a 'kangaroo dog' these days, as this type of dog was not established at that time.

When I was searching for Julie Gough's work on the internet, I noticed a word coined for a spaniel - kaetta.

(I've written previously about the impact dogs had on the early settlement of Tasmania.)

a balm for sore paws in dogs

I've been searching Australian sites for Bag Balm every since Mitch and Molly mentioned it in a comment on my post about Penny's sore paws, but had no luck. But today I went into my favorite pet shop, Murphys, and asked if there might be an Australian equivalent. This is the most amazing store, with a great variety of toys, food, health items, grooming, and everything I've ever needed. (No, I don't have anything to do with the store except to be a satisfied customer, lol.)

The product I came home with - Deri-Sal - was quite expensive, but I'm glad to have it on hand for the future. I think I'd use it on myself, if I had a skin problem, even though it's advertised as being for animal treatment only. Here's a photo of it:

I took a close-up of the label so you could see the ingredients. They are not the same as Bag Balm ingredients, though.

Wondering about whether zinc oxide might be dangerous, I was reassured when I read this page.

NOTE Wednesday 29 May 2013: I have subsequently had some reservations about using this without a covering bandage, because Penny might lick it off. I'm going to consult my vet next time I take Penny for a visit.

should dogs stay away from alien crop circles?

When I posted recently about the strange circular marks on the grass at Yarra Bend park, Lassie and Benji commented that perhaps aliens made the marks.

And here was I thinking it was just park rangers preparing for new plantings of indigenous vegetation!

Today when we walked at Willsmere Park, there were more strange circles. Maybe crop circles?

Or just patterns from the ride-on mowers...