A lhasa apso puppy having fun in water

 

 Peppa had her first experience of water play two days ago and again today. I had read that lhasa apso dogs don't like water, but we thought it was worth a try.

It has continued to be hot this week, so we  wanted to get out the old pool Penny had loved. We put a sprinkler into it, so that the water was moving but not deep. 

I found an old footstool that had flat legs that we thought  would not damage the pool floor.

                                                                                                                      

 

An additional box outside the pool acted as a step for getting in.

It was fun!

 

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.

Loving our new doggy pool

So far the new foldable pool ('buddy and belle' brand, made in China) is a great success. I had put it away, and it folded up really small, and fairly easily, though of course I couldn't' get it back into the original box. Who ever can?

It fitted comfortably into an ordinary cotton shopping bag, 42 cm square (about 17 inches).

Today it's hot and the house is full of workmen replacing a damaged ceiling, so there's no cooling possible. It seemed like a good time to try the pool once again.

Penny doesn't do much jumping these days, due to a past operation on her left knee and to a degree of arthritis, but she leapt in and out today, having fun. We'll hope she doesn't pay the price tomorrow.

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!