senior dogs and mental stimulation

Wow! I see I haven't posted since February. And I know why.. It has been so hot that Penny has been less willing to go for a walk.

She has spent most of the time each day snoozing, and we had put that down to her age. Our vet agrees that perhaps she doesn't deal so well with hot weather these days, so we have let her set the pace on walks and if she didn't want to go we'd let her lie. However, we do manage a walk of some sort most days.

Lately, though, it has become cooler, and we're wondering if her sleepiness might be as much due to boredom as to her senior status. So, we're trying to play a few games each evening, and use some of the lovely Nina Ottosson games when feeding her. ( A bit tricky, given that these days we only feed raw meat, with some additions of vegetables and vitamins.)

Also, today I took her for a swim in the warm water of the indoor pool at Kepala.

Afterwards, I asked in the office whether it would be okay for us to pop into the agility area to see how Penny would cope with it. As soon as we stepped through the gate, she headed for the tyre and the tunnel!

Before I even had time to give the 'begin' signal, she was through. I hurried to catch up so she wouldn't jump over the higher items (because of her arthritis.)

She managed the little seesaw like a pro.

And what was that in the distance? A set of weave poles...

Yes, she sort of still remembers how to do them. Hooray! So, next time, after a warm swim to get her muscles loosened, I think we might try this again.

baking treats from canned dog food

Well, so far it's been all good on Penny's (boring) new diet. I'm not sure she thinks it's boring, but I  do, so I'm thinking of ways to make the Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal Low Fat Diet seem interesting.

As I mentioned previously, I've been putting it into a Nina Ottosson dog toy. That's fine, and it slows Penny down so much that she takes more than three minutes to get the food out of the toy. (Only half the recommended serve, because I'm boiling up a half serve of chicken and rice each time.)

Now I've come up with the idea of buying the same food in a can, and stuffing some into a Kong. I think Penny would vote this a good idea.

Also, I've baked some of the can into crunchy treats, which makes it easier to reward good behaviour and practise tricks.

The instructions on this site explain how to cut the top and bottom off a can and use the cut-off lid to push the food out slowly, in order to slice it evenly and thinly.

It's rather mushy food, so without the idea of pushing it out gently, I don't know how I'd have been able to make slices.

Here are the slices ready for baking.

I did them for about thirty minutes at 180°C. And after enduring the smell that humans would consider pretty awful, put them outside the house to cool down.

Today she sampled them, and seemed to love them. (On the other hand, she loves beef, kangaroo, chicken, rice, red peppers, banana, duck poo, possum poo, stinky buried bones, compost, and anything else you can suggest, so maybe it's not altogether surprising she liked my baked treats.)

a dog learns from another dog's blog

I've been having an interesting conversation with Johann's mum. She has two great video clips of how she trained Johann to succeed with the wooden Nina Ottosson Dog Casino.

First she taught him to focus on the little pegs that close off the drawers.



Then they moved on to pulling the pegs out of the holes.



So far we've practised Penny touching the peg for a reward from my hand. We moved on to clicking when she knocks the peg off the game, because I thought that might be closer to what we need finally, when she'll have to pull up the peg and throw it off the Casino so she can pull out the drawer to get the treats.



Johann's mum has mentioned the command 'pick it up' and Penny knows that well, so we experimented with that.



(I just can't seem to co-ordinate using the clicker and stopping myself from saying 'Yes!'. Luckily Penny's used to my muddled training methods, lol.)

trying the Nina Ottosson wooden Dog Casino

When I was having a clean-out of all our dog 'stuff' I noticed the wooden Dog Casino puzzle I bought ages ago. The puzzle is by Nina Ottosson, and we've tried out the plastic version with mixed success. (Here's a long - really, rather boring - clip of our try-out of the plastic one.) It's been sixteen months since we used that puzzle, so in our first try I simply allowed Penny to look at it.



Then I put treats in two drawers and Penny had a go. (Wasn't she a good girl to wait so patiently?)



Next Penny waited again




while I placed treats in every drawer



and closed the drawers.

After which her patience was rewarded and she successfully conquered all the drawers.

She had the rest of her evening meal from the toy. Next time, I'll put one a 'stopper' in one of those top holes and see if she can figure out how to pull it out so the drawer can move.

I prefer the wooden version, even though the plastic version can be cleaned and this one can't.

keeping dogs intellectually stimulated

It was a pity Penny had to endure such a boring week while her cut paw healed, but it was also a timely reminder for us that walks can't be the only stimulation a dog has. It reminded us to include some other activities during the day.

This evening we fed Penny dry food (kibble), which we rarely do, so that she could work hard to get the food out of her puzzle toys - our walks are still quite short, not the hour-long rambles Penny is used to.

 We were trying out Biopet Organic dog food. I wouldn't want to feed this constantly, because it does have grains in it, but as a standby I think it seems good. We bought the food at SuperFruit, a nearby organic store.

 I wouldn't have dared to use these toys a couple of days ago, because Penny used her front paws to claw at the sections of the puzzles, but she seemed to be okay after using them this evening.

 First we tried the Nina Ottosson Dog Brick, which is an old favorite. Then Penny used the Dog Tornado. Even though it hasn't been out of the cupboard for months, she remembered how to get the treats.


 

When she had given the toy a thorough sniffing, and decided there was definitely no more food in it, she waited for more.

So we tried the Seek-A-Treat, which has been put away for almost two years! 

And she succeeded with it, which surprised me, because she didn't quite work it out at that time. 

Having noticed that the Seek-a-Treat is manufactured by 'Ethical Products', I looked at their website, and I must say I did like what they said about themselves:

We will continue to provide pet owners and their pets with the absolute best consumer value and customer service in the pet industry while never losing sight of quality, innovation, safety, honesty and humanity.

trying out the Nina Ottosson Dog Casino

Boredom warning!!

This is a long video of Penny trying out our new Nina Ottosson Dog Casino toy. I'm only posting it because I think people thinking of buying the puzzle might like to see this warts-and-all tryout of it, with no footage cut out.

It's six minutes long, and seems a bit like watching grass grow, lol.

(And the title is stupid, because the last word, 'Casino', is missing in the title. But it took so long to upload that I'm not willing to do it again.)

the nina ottosson dog casino

It seemed a good time to try out our new Nina Ottosson toy today, as Penny was having kibble for her breakfast - boring stuff!
So we got the box out.



It's one of the hardest puzzles, level three, so we knew we'd have to take it in stages.



First I put the puzzle on the floor, taking out the little bones on top that stop the drawers underneath from moving in and out.




I let Penny see the drawers pulled fully out.



She watched with interest as I placed a piece of food in each little drawer.



And, last of all, I pushed the drawers in part-way, so she could see and smell the food.



I have a video clip of her trying it out, but it's very long and probably boring, to be quite honest. But I'm going to upload it here as a separate blog post, because I think it's worthwhile for anyone thinking of buying this toy. It's a warts-and -all look at how a dog approaches the task for the first time.

rest and recreation for dogs

I thought maybe we had overdone it with recreation activities for Penny the other night, so the next day went more like this:





However...
I have made the exciting discovery that a variety of toys to entertain dogs and enhance their intelligence are available at my favorite local pet store, Murphy's Grain Store. They are made by a company I had not come across previously, and seem to be German in origin. The surprising thing is that they are available in wood versions, which are so costly to import to Australia because of the weight.
I'm rather interested in the Trixie Dog Activity Kicker and the Trixie Dog Activity Poker Box.

However, they're expensive, and I think we should get our money's worth out of the Nina Ottosson puzzles we already have, before I buy new ones.

waiting to have Penny's leg checked thorougly

We have to wait till Friday to have penny sedated so the vet can check the movement in her knee and, if necessary, x-ray her joints. I'm not at all happy about having to wait so long, but I'm hoping another four days of rest won't do too much harm.

It's not easy waiting, though, and we're trying to keep life interesting for Penny without too much activity. We are trying also to make sure she doesn't gain weight with the inactivity - it's all too easy to use food as a form of entertainment.

So tonight Penny had to work hard for the smallest reward imaginable - nine measly little pieces of kibble in the Nina Ottosson Dog Fighter toy. We haven't used it for ages, but she certainly remembered how to do it.



After watching her for a while I felt a little worried about her weight being on her back leg, but realistically we can't expect her to lie still for four days, so I guess we have to just be careful she doesn't overdo it. It was great that she remembered the toy so well after months of not seeing it, but I had inserted the two big pegs that stop the little ones moving in their slots, and that was too hard for her, so we helped her.



By the way, she did get some proper dinner afterwards!

the Nina Ottosson intelligent toys are selling in Australia

Today I received an email from VCAworld.com to say they are now stocking the Nina Ottosson toys!

They said they will be receiving a small shipment of the Nina Ottosson toys this week. This is a pre-launch stock arrival so stock is extremely limited. They will be looking to launch the range early next year.

Woo hoo! These toys are wonderful.They said any enquiries can be sent to info@vcaworld.com

They've got the plastic range, and seem to offer the Dog Twister, Dog Casino, Dog Finder, Dog Tornado, Dog Spinny, Dog Brick, Dog Smart.

If you go to the Nina Ottosson site, you can check out these toys.

In plastic, Penny has the Tornado and the Brick, and they're both good.

These are not "home alone" toys, though. They need the human to be there all the time when the dog is using them.

continuing to learn about the Dog Fighter toy

In my last post I showed Penny trying out the Nina Ottosson Dog Fighter toy for the first time.

Here's the continuation of the story. A few minutes later we introduced her to the concept of moving two wooden pegs, in different directions. Already she had abandoned the technique of chewing the pegs, in favour of pushing them along.




Last of all for that day, I put some of her evening meal into the whole set of pegs and sat back to see what she would do.

Nina Ottosson toys free shipped from Clean Run

Penny was excited when a big parcel arrived yesterday from the US. We had taken advantage of the free shipping offer by Clean Run.

Well, she wasn't all that excited at first. But I was. I opened it immediately.



I'd been wanting to try out the wooden Nino Ottosson toys, because I thought Penny would be able to get a better grip on them than she manages with the plastic ones.

So far we've only tried the simple first level of the Dog Fighter. As suggested, I put it on a stool rather than on the floor. And, yes, she finds the wooden pegs quite easy to manage. In fact, I was surprised at how quickly she succeeded in moving the first peg along the slot in order to lift it out and get a treat. (I haven't edited this clip at all, so it is clear what the timeframe was for succeeding with the new toy.)



Here's the second try, a couple of minutes later. (Because she tried chewing it, the peg did get a few tooth marks in it, but she soon realised that technique wasn't working.) It was a very hot day, so as soon as her nose told her there were no more treats to find, she settled down again on her mat in front on the fan.

playing with toys that enhance dog intelligence

Penny played with her Nina Ottosson dog toys tonight. Walks have been shorter than usual lately, for no special reason except that we've been low on energy, so I thought meal time could be extended for some doggy mental stimulation.

I was pleased to hear from Johann The Dog that these toys will soon be available in Australia from VCA World. I wish they were bringing in the wooden ones, but they will only import the plastic ones. However I don't see anything on their site yet.

I've always been interested in activities designed to enhance intelligence in dogs, as I've posted about time and again.

We used the Nina Ottosson Dog Tornado. This game has levels of difficulty, so first we tried it with the simple task to turn the bone and find the treats.



Then we tried it with two plastic 'bones' inserted in the lower levels, which makes the game much harder and requires a lot of persistence by the doggy player. (Penny is very persistent!) She became frustrated because her teeth couldn't get a grip on the slippery 'bones' - I think this is a drawback to the game. So I attached some string to the bones and she was immediately successful. (It's easy to slip a piece of string through the holes in the top of the bones and knot it so it doesn't slip out.)

Nina Ottosson toys for intelligent dogs to play with

Hooray! The toys from Clean Run arrived last Friday.

The one toy I am really waiting for is the super duper Dog Tornado that my friend is bringing from New York. I didn't think I could afford the postage, so she said she'd bring it in her luggage. She arrives tomorrow!

And then Johann told me there was to be a free postage offer from Clean Run for a short while, so I ordered the Spinny, the Brick and Dog Magic. I ordered them through Johann's site. (Now that I know the toys are lighter than I thought, and come so quickly, I'd be keen to order more things in the future.)

I ordered them on the 4th of December, so it took them only eight days to come to Australia. I'm amazed. And excited.

The first one Penny and I played with was quite easy - The Dog Spinny.



When Penny was confident with it - which took about three minutes! - I added a plastic bone that makes the task harder. She had to figure out how to get the bone out before she could turn the Spinny and get the treats.





















Today we advanced to the second game, The Brick. We've only played the simplest version, so far.



When she is confident, I'll place more of the plastic bones in the middle spaces, to make it hard.

I can't wait for the Tornado - it looks like the hardest of them all.

free shipping of nina ottosson toys over the next couple of days

Johann's mum added a comment on my post about intelligent toys for dogs and told me that the US company Clean Run is shipping items with free postage until 8th December, if you spend more than $100.

I just had to give it a try, even though the Australian dollar is so bad compared to the US dollar at the moment. It sure seemed as if the items are going to ship to Australia with no cost for postage. To say I'm excited would be an understatement, as I've ordered THREE of the Nina Ottosson toys. I ordered them through Johann's own site, where part of the profits go to shelters and rescue organisations.

If they come by sea, I guess it might be months before I see them, but it will be fun waiting for them. I can't remember who said it's the journey that counts, not the arrival. Similarly, we Australians are experts at enjoying the anticipation of a parcel sailing across the planet to us.