Snooza bed is still giving good service

 It's great to see Peppa using the Snooza raised bed that we bought for Penny so many years ago. 

Penny would only sleep on it if it had a cushion or blanket on it, and even on super hot days or nights wouldn't be happy without that covering. Snooza does say that their pet futon is cool, but I prefer the open bedding at the moment.

I've read that the open mesh is a good way to keep a dog cooler, as the air can circulate around their belly and paw pads. So we feel happy that Peppa doesn't care if there's no covering on the mesh.

Coping with the heat for the first time

As I mentioned yesterday, there has been a late onset of hot weather after a strangely cool and wet start to summer. I had  read that one way to help a dog cool down is the use of a gel mat.

It was a surprise to see how quickly she got started on using the gel mat - because it was quite a bother to get Penny to adapt to it and she hardly ever used it.

At first Peppa lay near it. I had read that it's a good idea to show her that a new gel mat can be a nice place, where you find toys and treats, so I tossed a couple of Ziwi treats onto it.

That worked nicely, especially when I added her high-tech toy (the insert from a toilet roll.)

So, there she was lying on it within minutes.

And soon she was stretched out with her belly on the cooling surface.

Here's hoping she continues to use it.

Hot weather

 The hot  weather has finally arrived, after a lovely cool spring and early summer. When Penny came to live with us - all those years ago - it was high summer, so we adapted to living with heat. Now that Peppa is here, we're having to think about how a lhasa apso might cope with heat. 

 Here is a lhasa apso site we've looked at: Lhasa Life

It's going to be a cool enough night, but it's predicted to be hot tomorrow. This article about dogs and hot weather has given us something to think about. It suggests one of the best way to cool down a hot dog is with tap water. We think we might deploy the paddling pool we bought for Penny in 2016, and see if Peppa will feel happy to paddle around. 

 

Here is Penny having fun in 2016.

Peppa, on the other hand, has conniptions when we bath her, so maybe she has a  general hatred of water. But she does love to feel a spray of water from a tap or hose and prefers to drink running water rather than still water in a bowl.

It's going to be fun trying out the pool. So nice to be able to get it out of the shed and remember happy times with Penny.

too hot!

It's just too hot to do anything today.

Penny had a couple of ice blocks made of juiced vegetables earlier. She has plenty of water available. Thank goodness the power hasn't gone off, so we have the evaporative cooling on. And a fan.

She had a walk early this morning, followed by a bath in cool water.

Penny has us looking after her, but the poor creatures that share our world are suffering today. The Little Ravens were sitting near the doggy bowl of water, with their beaks open. I put a hose dripping into another container, but they didn't go near it. I think perhaps it wasn't in the open enough, so they couldn't tell whether predators were nearby. (Not that there were likely to be many predators out in 40 degree heat.)

Beating the heat with a new doggy pool

It sure is hot in our house since the day before Christmas, when the evaporative cooling on the roof flooded our lounge room. Water poured down through the light fittings and through the cooling vents.

And it did it again on Christmas Day!

So now we don't have any cooling, for the first time in Penny's lifetime. And she's feeling the heat. It's still about 35°C at 10:15 at night (about 95°F), and Penny's lying in front of a fan, worn out, as we all are.

But we did have some fun earlier in the evening with our new doggy pool. It's called 'buddy and belle' and so far it seems to be suitable. I like the fact that it folds away when not in use, not like those plastic sand-play shells we had when Penny was a puppy.

I wondered how the material would stand up to a dog's claws, but it does seem to be thick material. The man in PetStock, where we bought it, hadn't sold one before - I think it's a new product - but we examined it and it's the thick material used for lining human pools, so it should be okay.

Just in case it does spring a leak, I've positioned it uphill from a major tree in the garden, which could use the water, and also uphill from our goji vine.

Penny jumped in to fetch thrown toys, and out again, and normally I'm not keen for her to jump, due to her arthritis, but with such heat it seems worth the risk. She sure had fun. I guess we could try out a little stool for her to get in, but I think she'd ignore it. When she's after a ball she's focused on the task!