dogs and toddlers

For some weeks now our staid old home has been energised by a visiting two-year-old on Wednesday evenings.

We've been very careful to separate Penny from the little one, because our visitor isn't used to dogs. Penny isn't too willing to be penned behind a doggy gate, but can usually be manoeuvred into the room with a treat. She can see the visitor through the gate.

Week by week, the little visitor has become more accustomed to Penny's presence, sometimes wanting to pat her; but in general quite wary.

Tonight, Penny waited behind the doggy gate for her visitor.

After a while, the little one wanted to come into Penny's room and meet her, and we let the visitor give a few 'sit' commands and drop treats for Penny. Eventually Penny was allowed out of the separate room and resumed her usual quiet evening doze in the family room with everyone else, even sitting on the couch next to our little visitor.

It was great to see the two of them comfortable together, but we didn't take our eyes off them for a moment, because it's so important there be no misunderstanding.

Finally Penny took herself off to another room to have a rest. But our visitor thought Penny needed some entertainment, so she rushed around fetching toys for her. (I love the way the camera gives an impression of her activity level!)

Penny was somewhat bemused by all the activity, but took it calmly.

What a lovely visit!

safe throwing toys for dogs

Out again early this morning to beat the heat, we met a couple of lovely black dogs (and their human) at the dog friendly park along the Yarra River. They had a couple of Safestix, which their human had purchased online.



We were wondering whether Penny might try to nab one of the lovely orange sticks, instead of her boring old piece of wood (which I'm holding in the background), but she swam quite happily for the ordinary stick.



The dogs with the Safestix had to learn to watch carefully when the toy was thrown, because it momentarily sinks and then bobs up again.





Now I want one for Penny. Of course.

I can't find an Australian supplier listed on the Safestix site, so I've emailed my favorite pet supplies store, Murphys, to see whether they might have them or might get them in. Otherwise I'll order from either the UK or the listed New Zealand shop.

The Safestix seems to have a similar use to the Aussie Dogs Slapathong, which is also a floating alternative to a stick.

By the way, we never throw a stick for Penny on land. I've heard many people mention the dangers of tossing sticks for dogs to fetch, but I don't need to be warned of the possible consequences, because I once saw a man with a stick embedded in his face. He lived, but it was one of the worst things I've ever seen!

Sticks are dangerous.

a new toy to make Penny think

I bought a new toy recently, despite my decision to stop buying unnecessary 'stuff' for Penny. (But I can forgive myself for this broken resolution, because someone has to spend money and keep the economy ticking over.)

It's called 'dogit' Mind Games and on the manufacturer's site there's the cutest video clip of a puppy playing with it. I think it would be great for a puppy, but I must admit Penny solved it in seconds.

However, I think it's a well-designed toy. It's made of sturdy plastic and sticks to the floor with suction cups, so that it avoids the problem of the Nina Ottosson toys of the whole thing moving around the floor as the dog investigates. (But I LOVE the Nina Ottosson toys in general and find them more challenging than this one.)

This game involves three different types of activity and here we are trying the first one, in which she simply has to pick up the green pieces to find the food under them:



Penny liked finding the treats, but it was fairly straightforward. So we tried the next activity:



And then I set the toy up for the next type of game:



And Penny tried it.



Overall, I'd say it's a good game.

a multi-lingual dog toy

Penny has been missing one of her humans, who was travelling in France. But now she's back and Penny's happy to have the pack all together.

You can read about the travels of this human on her own blog, if you wish.

No humans received a gift on her return, but the important family member did. Here's the toy for Penny.





Penny liked it and settled down to enjoy it, and perhaps, clean her teeth on it.




And we could have the pleasure of practising our language skills by trying to read the label!

New blog about dog shopping

I've mentioned Jess the Dog Shopper a couple of times since she commented here. I think she has an interesting idea for a useful blog - she tries out products and reports in an impartial way. She has two dogs of her own and also tests products out on her mother's dog.

new toy available in Australia for intelligent play by dogs

I'm a sucker for a good dog toy, so today I just couldn't resist the wooden Seek-A-Treat, when I visited Murphys to buy one of my favorite dog foods - Ziwi Peak canned tripe, venison and lamb.

Perhaps I was attracted by the bright packaging - after all, that's what it's for, isn't it?



Penny found one part extra easy, because she is used to moving parts in slots to get at what's underneath. But this one had another, not-so-familiar aspect. She had to turn a little lever in order to get at a treat under a separate flap. It was great to see her puzzling over it, but when she began to chew on the toy, I solved it for her this time, as I don't want her starting bad habits with her puzzles.

waiting to have Penny's leg checked thorougly

We have to wait till Friday to have penny sedated so the vet can check the movement in her knee and, if necessary, x-ray her joints. I'm not at all happy about having to wait so long, but I'm hoping another four days of rest won't do too much harm.

It's not easy waiting, though, and we're trying to keep life interesting for Penny without too much activity. We are trying also to make sure she doesn't gain weight with the inactivity - it's all too easy to use food as a form of entertainment.

So tonight Penny had to work hard for the smallest reward imaginable - nine measly little pieces of kibble in the Nina Ottosson Dog Fighter toy. We haven't used it for ages, but she certainly remembered how to do it.



After watching her for a while I felt a little worried about her weight being on her back leg, but realistically we can't expect her to lie still for four days, so I guess we have to just be careful she doesn't overdo it. It was great that she remembered the toy so well after months of not seeing it, but I had inserted the two big pegs that stop the little ones moving in their slots, and that was too hard for her, so we helped her.



By the way, she did get some proper dinner afterwards!

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.

continuing to learn about the Dog Fighter toy

In my last post I showed Penny trying out the Nina Ottosson Dog Fighter toy for the first time.

Here's the continuation of the story. A few minutes later we introduced her to the concept of moving two wooden pegs, in different directions. Already she had abandoned the technique of chewing the pegs, in favour of pushing them along.




Last of all for that day, I put some of her evening meal into the whole set of pegs and sat back to see what she would do.

Nina Ottosson toys free shipped from Clean Run

Penny was excited when a big parcel arrived yesterday from the US. We had taken advantage of the free shipping offer by Clean Run.

Well, she wasn't all that excited at first. But I was. I opened it immediately.



I'd been wanting to try out the wooden Nino Ottosson toys, because I thought Penny would be able to get a better grip on them than she manages with the plastic ones.

So far we've only tried the simple first level of the Dog Fighter. As suggested, I put it on a stool rather than on the floor. And, yes, she finds the wooden pegs quite easy to manage. In fact, I was surprised at how quickly she succeeded in moving the first peg along the slot in order to lift it out and get a treat. (I haven't edited this clip at all, so it is clear what the timeframe was for succeeding with the new toy.)



Here's the second try, a couple of minutes later. (Because she tried chewing it, the peg did get a few tooth marks in it, but she soon realised that technique wasn't working.) It was a very hot day, so as soon as her nose told her there were no more treats to find, she settled down again on her mat in front on the fan.

trying out a 'fun-for-dogs' toy

Here we are, trying our own version of one of the toys from 'fun-with-dogs', the German site devoted to enhancing human-canine interaction. (If you click on the British flag you will get the main page in English.)



And I'm just gob-smacked by the wonderful games on the page devoted to a competition to find the most creative toy. You don't need to read German, because the photos speak for themselves.

I think I love the last one on the page best of all. An old hand-puppet has become a friend that only opens his mouth to reveal a wonderful treat when the dog offers an interesting behaviour. The reward is for creativity, for thinking up - and offering - a new behaviour.

chewber the multipurpose toy

The Other End of the Leash (a great source of information about dog behaviour) posted a video on YouTube of her dogs playing with a Chewber.



It looked so interesting I searched for it on Google. Here's the link. I think it has one of the most cheerful advertisements I've ever seen.

great new intelligent game for dogs

While I was visiting Johann's blog, I saw a new game for dogs. It can be used as an intelligence-enhancing activity, or as a way of feeding a meal. It's the Aikiou (pronounced IQ).

On Youtube there's a video clip of a Welsh corgi trying it out it. It's one of the better clips I've seen, because the dog seems to be unfamiliar with it and the clip shows the whole process of learning to use it, I think.

playing with toys that enhance dog intelligence

Penny played with her Nina Ottosson dog toys tonight. Walks have been shorter than usual lately, for no special reason except that we've been low on energy, so I thought meal time could be extended for some doggy mental stimulation.

I was pleased to hear from Johann The Dog that these toys will soon be available in Australia from VCA World. I wish they were bringing in the wooden ones, but they will only import the plastic ones. However I don't see anything on their site yet.

I've always been interested in activities designed to enhance intelligence in dogs, as I've posted about time and again.

We used the Nina Ottosson Dog Tornado. This game has levels of difficulty, so first we tried it with the simple task to turn the bone and find the treats.



Then we tried it with two plastic 'bones' inserted in the lower levels, which makes the game much harder and requires a lot of persistence by the doggy player. (Penny is very persistent!) She became frustrated because her teeth couldn't get a grip on the slippery 'bones' - I think this is a drawback to the game. So I attached some string to the bones and she was immediately successful. (It's easy to slip a piece of string through the holes in the top of the bones and knot it so it doesn't slip out.)

Nina Ottosson toys for intelligent dogs to play with

Hooray! The toys from Clean Run arrived last Friday.

The one toy I am really waiting for is the super duper Dog Tornado that my friend is bringing from New York. I didn't think I could afford the postage, so she said she'd bring it in her luggage. She arrives tomorrow!

And then Johann told me there was to be a free postage offer from Clean Run for a short while, so I ordered the Spinny, the Brick and Dog Magic. I ordered them through Johann's site. (Now that I know the toys are lighter than I thought, and come so quickly, I'd be keen to order more things in the future.)

I ordered them on the 4th of December, so it took them only eight days to come to Australia. I'm amazed. And excited.

The first one Penny and I played with was quite easy - The Dog Spinny.



When Penny was confident with it - which took about three minutes! - I added a plastic bone that makes the task harder. She had to figure out how to get the bone out before she could turn the Spinny and get the treats.





















Today we advanced to the second game, The Brick. We've only played the simplest version, so far.



When she is confident, I'll place more of the plastic bones in the middle spaces, to make it hard.

I can't wait for the Tornado - it looks like the hardest of them all.

free shipping of nina ottosson toys over the next couple of days

Johann's mum added a comment on my post about intelligent toys for dogs and told me that the US company Clean Run is shipping items with free postage until 8th December, if you spend more than $100.

I just had to give it a try, even though the Australian dollar is so bad compared to the US dollar at the moment. It sure seemed as if the items are going to ship to Australia with no cost for postage. To say I'm excited would be an understatement, as I've ordered THREE of the Nina Ottosson toys. I ordered them through Johann's own site, where part of the profits go to shelters and rescue organisations.

If they come by sea, I guess it might be months before I see them, but it will be fun waiting for them. I can't remember who said it's the journey that counts, not the arrival. Similarly, we Australians are experts at enjoying the anticipation of a parcel sailing across the planet to us.

Inspector Rex plays music, clever as always

Penny and I watched the Austrian crime show Inspector Rex again tonight and Rex was a canine genius as usual. One trick was to play a toy that involved pressing a section of the game to make a musical note sound. The part to be pressed was large and easily manipulated by a dog's paw.

It was an episode from season four, when he is with Brandtner - a story about a classical pianist who wants his son to be a famous performer. Of course, seeing it's such a great show for us dog-lovers, I won't give away any more of the plot.

He learned to play four notes, repeating them after a child character played them a couple of times for him. I think the piece that was played repeatedly in the show was Kinderszenen by Robert Schumann, and maybe the notes Rex played were from that piece. I've got a memory like a sieve, so the memory of what Rex played was gone half a minute after he did it.

But I'd certainly like to get my hands on the toy. I reckon Penny and I could have fun on it. I'd love to know how many notes she could memorise and I feel sure she could learn the basic idea of pressing buttons - for treats, of course. Penny's not inclined to work without being paid a fair wage!

I've browsed the internet, searching 'musical toys' but I guess I'd have to be lucky to stumble across the toy I want. But, as they say, you never know your luck in a big city, so I'll keep my eyes open when I'm in toy shops.