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.

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!

 

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.

 

First bath in the hydrobath

 Peppa had a big adventure yesterday when we tried out the hydrobath for the first time in her life.

Not a great success, as the loud machine that powered the spray hose was rather scary. 

 Even the offer of lots of treats didn't work, because she was so nervous she couldn't eat. 

But we did discover, as we suspected 😉 that under all those masses of lhasa apso fur there was a skinny puppy.

So we turned off the machine and just used a baby bath and jugs of warm water to complete the bath. 

Afterwards, she had a wonderful time when we wrapped her in a towel to dry. She adores the game of disappearing and reappearing in a big comfy towel.

Baby Steps in Peppa's new life

 Peppa is making progress.

House training... well, the books say how to do that, but I think she hasn't read the books.

She's conquered the doggy door, and that's probably because she may have had one at the home where she was born.

A few days ago was first walk in the street. I had forgotten that cars would be quite scary for her. We were so used to Penny being relaxed around all the noises of city life.

 

Yesterday was first walk on a long, loose lead, exploring in Heide kitchen garden. We have never seen other dogs there, so it seemed a safe place for a first outing.

 

Of course, like all Melbourne citizens, she knows to collect a mask when preparing to leave the house.

 

Today was her first encounter with friendly stranger dogs in another park and that went well.

Peppa has joined our family

 It was a long trip home in heavy traffic, last Thursday...

and the driver was taking great care, because there was a very special new family member on someone's lap.

Peppa! 

Her name was meant to be 'Pepper', but the breeder spelled it this way, so that's what we will call her.

It feels sad to be writing on Penny's blog without Penny lying asleep in the house, but we've finally made the decision to try to find a new little soul to live with us. It's been more than fifteen months since Penny died, and though we have more grieving to do, Peppa is bringing us joy.

And she's brining us visitors. The cat next door came into our house for the first time in his life on Friday, when his human visited to meet Peppa. He was nervous of Peppa, but he's a cat used to dogs, so we thought we'd try to get off on a friendly footing with him. Peppa was most interested to see him, but he didn't want to be friends. Yet. 

She has turned out to be a calm, confident little girl. Here's hoping we can give her the wonderful life she deserves.

I've made a submission about puppy farms

Here's what I wrote to the Government of Victoria in response to the draft code about puppy and kitten breeding. It's not an exhaustive list of my concerns, but I've noted the things that concern me most.

I hope this letter might encourage others in Victoria to read the RSPCA site and look at the draft code and send in their own responses. ASAP!
 We only have until 9am on 14th August.

I began with my full name, address and email address. Then I wrote:

• This is a submission in response to the Proposed Code and Regulatory Impact Statement regarding the Code of Practice for the Operation of Breeding and Rearing Businesses.
•  My main concerns are:
• Euthanasia – I believe the code needs to specifically define what ‘humane’ methods consist of.
•  Pens should not have any part of their flooring made of wire. Based on my experience of my own dog’s reactions, walking or stepping onto wire is painful for small animals.
•  I am disappointed that business hours have been reduced to eight hours a day. Leaving pregnant animals for sixteen hours a day under the supervision of minimal staffing numbers is not safe. I don’t see how a staff member manning a business overnight for sixteen hours would be available to make sure puppies in the specified categories are fed at least every 12 hours.
•  Breeding between second-generation related animals is not acceptable.
•  I believe you should set a maximum breeding age, so that animals are not condemned to spending their entire lives in these places.
•  It would be better to set maximum litter numbers for both females and males.
•  The feeding of raw offal needs to be specifically monitored to make sure animals do not become ill on this diet.
•  We need stronger legislation about the standards and guidelines for retirement of animals.
•  I don’t see provision for temperature regulation. Victoria is a very hot place in summer and cold in winter.
•  I hope these suggestions will be helpful to you in the next redrafting of the code.

Showing a puppy how to do it

When Pebbles, the cute Corgi puppy, grabbed Penny's lead, as we were walking at Westerfolds Park last week, Penny turned around to give Pebbles 'a look'.

It was quite a patient look, but Pebbles got the message and let go of the leash.

Penny was also willing to show Pebbles how a 'sit' should be done. Pebbles lay down to think about it.

Pebbles is gorgeous!

Observing the behavior of our dogs

One of my favorite blogs is The Other End of the Leash, written by author Patricia McConnell. Sometimes she posts a video clip and invites readers to comment on the dog behaviors they see in the video. She then analyses the behaviors and explains what the dogs have done. It's educational as well as entertaining.

I think watching her clips has improved my observation of Penny's behaviors. Yesterday I posted about her walk with a young puppy, and the owners of the puppy sent me the following clip. (I'm sorry it's so small, but I don't know how to make it larger. If you click on the square in the bottom right corner to make it full-screen it's a little easier to see.)



When I look at what Penny did after the pup dropped onto her stomach nearby, I see:

Penny looked at the puppy.
She looked away.
She looked back at the puppy.
She yawned.
She looked at the pup again.
She waited.

The humans attracted the pup's attention with a twig and then both dogs came back to us.

I thought perhaps the looking away told the pup Penny was higher in status and didn't want to be bothered by a 'little kid'. The yawn might have been an indication that she wasn't going to attack the pup. I found this paragraph on About.com Dogs

Yawning is a type of appeasement gesture, something also referred to as a calming signal. Dogs yawn to deflect a threat. If a person or another animals approaches a dog, that dog may avert his gaze and yawn. It's a dog's way of saying that he feels threatened or anxious, but that he is not going to attack. Dogs use this type of body language to avoid conflict.

That implies that Penny might have felt uncomfortable with the puppy nearby, but I don't believe this was the case.
On the other hand...
three humans were staring at the two dogs, all three humans frozen in place with their mobile phones (cellphones) held high. Who wouldn't be a bit uncomfortable with the paparazzi crowding around?

I'm looking forward to our next outing together. Puppies change so quickly at this age that we'll probably have quite a different interaction.

puppies and middle-aged dogs

It's six years since I posted a photo of Penny racing eagerly around the garden while her old friend Bonnie mooched slowly around, ignoring Penny's antics.

How times have changed!

Now Penny is the older (NOT old...) dog showing an enthusiastic puppy what dogdom is all about. Yesterday early in the morning, before the heat of the day, we met friends with their puppy, Pebbles, and ambled around Westerfolds Park.

Penny, as the senior of the pair, ignored Pebbles. Pebbles took one look at the giant getting out of the other car and raced back to her humans for protection. However, as we walked along, Pebbles was more and more fascinated by Penny, but thought it would be a good idea to drop belly down if Penny seemed to be turning back to look at her.

She also took the precaution at first of making sure one of her humans was between her and the monster dog.

On the other hand, Penny's tail was mightily interesting. The humans were murmuring, 'Not the tail, Pebbles, not the tail,' as  the puppy got closer and closer to the waving, feathery thing.

Fortunately, Penny's patience was not put to the test. Perhaps Pebbles has good instincts about how to behave around other dogs.

On the other hand, when Penny was walking near the cars, and I put her lead on, the temptation was too great...

'What's this thing holding me back?' Penny seemed to be thinking.