dogs and building bridges in Darebin Parklands

Penny stayed at home today while her humans went down to her favorite spot - Darebin Parklands, our wonderful urban bushland area.

We weren't there literally to build bridges; we were actually planting native flora, as we've done before. But, given the distressing argument that's still going on, about the future of off-lead dog-walking in this area, the day was also an exercise in bridge-building.

If you were to look at this picture, you would see a community co-operating to achieve wonderful outcomes for the future.



However, amongst the people working alongside each other there were very different viewpoints about the future of the Parklands.

Some want dogs limited to an area that I consider inadequate and destined to cause enormous conflicts. They think dogs are a danger to the habitat values they've worked for over the years.

Others believe this is an unreasonable reaction to the presence of off-lead dogs in the park and want a wider-ranging area for off -lead walking.

All too often I've heard the saddest word of all used in this argument. The word is they.

In my opinion there's only one word that really counts - we. We all love this area with a passion and that passion is the fire that keeps us all fighting to see out viewpoint win.

But when the decision-making process is finally complete and our local councils hand down a ruling, it will be time to work together, as we did today, to continue to protect this wonderful open space for our future and that of generations to come.

seven week search for a missing dog

Penny is lying safely in the kitchen as I follow the online diary of the seven-week attempt to capture a Bernese mountain dog that ran off in a panic in Washington in the US. I'd sure hate to think of Penny terrified and alone in the bush like that dog.

I found the link to this amazing story of persistence at Bark blog

It's a gripping diary of events as they happened, with video clips that had me on the edge of my seat.

origin of the dog name fido

Penny was named after the copper coin that is no longer in circulation in Australia. It took three of us a nice long hotel dinner and a lubricating bottle of wine to come up with this name, based on the fact that she was a red-head when she was six weeks old.

Now we think she's a strawberry blonde, but we still love her name. And we don't make blonde jokes about her - well, not when she's listening.

Newspaper editors seem to love using the name Fido as a a short-cut in headlines about dogs.. But I've never actually met a dog called Fido. Except for the giant sculpture near Fairfield railway station in Melbourne.

I stood near that statue some weeks ago handing out leaflets to promote discussion about the pros and cons of dog off-lead areas in our local parklands and I got to wondering why it's called Fido. Turns out it stands for Fairfield Industrial Dog Object! Seems it was erected in 2000 to represent the dog-loving community. Well, if the latest plan to restrict dog off-lead walking in Darebin is any indication of the Council's attitude to dogs, then I think they should re-name it. But that's another story...

Back to Fido as a name. As far as I can discover, the most famous dog of this name was Abraham Lincoln's dog.

I take a more in-depth look at this name in my new blog about the fascinating language that surrounds us and helps us make sense of our world.

dog learns the hold it trick

Penny tried a new trick today at K9 Kompany - pulling along a cute little toy cart of toys. But we didn't have any luck.

The idea was that she would use her mouth to grab a ball on a string attached to the handle and as she pulled it the cart would move behind her. However, I realised she had forgotten the trick we practised last year called 'Hold'. If she doesn't get the idea that she has to 'hold' the ball as she comes towards me, then she'll let it go as soon as she feels the weight of the cart.

So, tonight it was back to basics in our 'kitchen training' schedule. I used a clicker as my marker instead of the more usual 'Yess!" because I found it difficult to mark the exact moment when she was still holding the object.

(By the way, the thing she was holding was a strong, flexible toy made by Aussie Dog - I think it's probably manufactured from fire hose, but I'm not sure. We've had ours for years and it's as good as the day I bought it.)

Intelligent games for dogs

I believe it's a case of 'use it or lose it' in terms of intelligence for dogs, as it is for us humans, so I try to keep Penny thinking. Today I came across a link on a German-language blog to a dog toy I haven't seen before. It's called Dog Spinny.

I wrote many months ago about the fascinating toys for dogs available in Europe, but couldn't find anything similar in Australia. (One of the links in that post no longer works, but the fascinating Fun for Dogs still does.)

On YouTube there's a demo of the Dog Spinny. It looks great, though I wouldn't leave a dog to play it alone.(As far as I can work out, most of the European intelligent toys are intended for interactive play between humans and dogs.)

On AOL there were more clips of interesting toys by the same manufacturer, Nina Ottosson.

The problem for me here in Australia is the cost of postage of a heavy wooden toy. So, I was pleased to see that there's a plastic version. I'll contact them and see if it can be posted to Oz.

dogs tracking

Today Penny took part in the last of the current series of tracking lessons run by Jenny Pearce of A Perfect Spot. We have moved from setting out a short, straight track to a longer one and then, today, a track with two right-angled turns.

Here's a picture of her with her nose to the ground last week. Have a look at her tail - obviously she's loving it.



She's just passing one of the socks that I placed on the track; she's a bit off to one side of the sock because the wind changed direction after I laid the track.

Jenny taught us to lay the scent with the wind behind us. I forgot why that was, but I've just revised the reason at the page of the Golden Retriever Club of Victoria. We don't want the dogs to 'wind scent' with their heads up, which they'll do if the wind carries the scent to them; we want them to have their noses to the ground. And that's another reason I'm proud of this picture of Penny.

Jenny Pearce photographed the studentsl so we could check our progress. The dog's doing well - but I'm not so sure the handler has much of a technique! I'll have to practise with these long leads.

We had to keep the tension on the lead but not pull the dog back when she was on the track. I must say, I still find this quite tricky.

the humane treatment of dogs

Having Penny living in our household makes us smile and feel good. I guess you could say she works for us, by increasing our health psychologically and by making us fitter. ( She sure needs a walk every day!) And how could we not enjoy romping in the park with this hairy enthusiast?



I read an article in The Age newspaper yesterday about a study into the working conditions of farm dogs. I can't find a link to the actual article, perhaps because the staff of the newspaper were taking industrial action at the time.

Following the trail of the study on the Net I arrived at the site of Melbourne University and read that their Animal Welfare Science Centre believes there are two important principles in human management of pets and livestock:

“These are, on the one hand, management to comply with the objectives of human profit, benefits or pleasure, and on the other hand, management responsibilities under a duty of humane care of animals.

“The vision of the Animal Welfare Science Centre is that animal welfare and its constant improvement are societal and cultural norms...”

But I wonder - is it the norm in our society to believe that we should constantly improve the welfare of animals? We seem to have two opposite views of animals. We love our 'pets' and integrate them into our households. But 'food animals' are treated as if they have no intelligence and no feelings.

I'm looking forward to living in a world where all animals are treated well.

By the way, I got the link to the journalists' strike from Mark Lawrence's blog post, Shame, Fairfax, Shame!