Puppy play during Covid lockdown

 Peppa is probably having an unusual puppyhood, given that the first months of her life are taking place in one of the longest lockdowns in the world. No puppy school for her. But since we're allowed to exercise outdoors (albeit of course wearing our masks), she's doing well.

We walk with her mini dachshund friend Bosun when we can, but it has taken a while for Peppa to grow up enough to visit parks without trying to strangle herself on her lead, and without jumping all over any dogs she meets. However, we're getting there.

She has at last walked with us off-lead, when we can find places that are not crammed with people and dogs taking that afore-mentioned opportunity to get out of the house. One new place we've found is a local school where the public is allowed to walk, seeing the students are doing home schooling. It's a terrific place, because it's completely fenced and has lots of different surfaces for her to walk on - grassed areas, asphalt, stony paths and soft mulch. I guess this is one positive aspect of the present troubles.

And today, for the first time, she met our nephew's puppy. We've been waiting for this opportunity - it was not possible when we were only allowed to travel five kilometres from home. But now, with the more relaxed travel rules, we finally did  it.

 The other pup is a mix, probably Border Collie and kelpie. A sweet-natured pup. By all accounts he's usually the submissive one in puppy play, but he's so much bigger than little Peppa that he could for once be on top in the roughhousing.

I would have felt a bit worried as the rough play went on and on and on, but it was obvious that Peppa and he were happy. Somewhere I've read that puppy play is okay if the two dogs are taking turns to be the one on top, and that was what was happening.

 

Australian magpie plays with a canine friend

I loved this clip that a friend sent me, of a dog and a magpie playing together It reminded me of some photos I took years ago of magpies in a local park. It sure looked to me like they were playing, or perhaps the parents were 'disciplining' the baby.

I assumed the grey-backed birds were younglings, and the white-backed ones were adults (though I'm not sure about that). It's interesting that it was not always the baby who was upside-down. Looking around the internet for information about whether Australian magpies do indeed play, I came across this hilarious site. Here's a photo of two youngsters playing while an adult keeps watch.

enjoying a little park with the dog

As I've said before, living with a dog makes me more aware of local places to enjoy nature. I was driving through Heidelberg recently and noticed a teensy little park and stored the information away in my 'can't-be-bothered-going-for-a-proper-walk' mental filing cabinet.

Today was one of those days, so we drove to the minuscule park and Penny showed me that you don't have to cover a lot of ground to have fun.

You can chase tennis balls and then lie on them.

You can mooch around smelling the smells.

There's always the pleasure of surveying the local scenery.

And, of course, you can just enjoy the ownership of a really, really grotty old tennis ball.

socialising a puppy

When Penny first came to live with us, we were fortunate that we were told to introduce her to as many new experiences as we could, before she moved out of the critical age where she would be receptive to new experiences and learn not to fear them.

We travelled on the local trains, looked at ducks in the park, trained next to fast-moving cyclists, walked through our busy local shopping centre - amongst many other experiences. We always included lots of fun training and play in our schedule.

It was an age when everything was exciting and interesting:
a milk carton...

a doggy mat...

even a box of tissues.

I was browsing the Net today and came across an article suggesting that one of the differences between modern wolves and dogs may relate to that earliest period of socialisation. An evolutionary biologist at the University of Masscahusetts, Kathryn Lord, conducted a study that seems to show that wolf pups begin to explore their environment while they are still deaf and blind, whilst dog pups stay inactive until they have developed sight and hearing.

When a wolf pup explores at first, it may be frightened of a sound, but becomes accustomed to it. Later, when it begins to see, it may be frightened all over again by the sight of something. So, as each new sense comes into play, the wolf pup has to learn to cope with new experiences.

Dog pups, on the other hand, go through this period of accustoming themselves to things - like humans, horses, even cats, for instance - all in the one period.

I guess this has interesting implications for taming wolves.

I wonder if it would apply to dingoes also?

did humans breed into dogs the desire to bark?

Slavenka has a link to an interesting article about the possible evolution of barking in dogs.

In part, the article quotes Eugene Morton, a zoologist and animal communication expert at the National Zoo, [I'm not sure which zoo that is]:

“Barks are used by juvenile wolves, by pups. It’s neotenic — something derived from a juvenile stage, and kept in adults. That’s probably what we selected for,” said Morton. “We don’t want dogs who are dominant over us. The bark might go along with that breeding for juvenile behavior. Or it could have come with something else we selected, such as a lack of aggression.”

That reminds me of an amusing idea I once heard, that dogs are wolves that never really grow up, and we like playing with them, because we are apes that also never grow up! Whenever Penny and I are running around the house playing keepings-off with a soft toy, I think of it, lol.

old dog plays gently with puppy

The Other End of the Leash has a beautiful video clip of an older dog restraining itself to gently play tug with a puppy. Even more interestingly, the older dog tells the young one when it's time to stop the game.