a kangaroo in our city park

So, we're out early in the morning in Yarra Bend Park, the shadows are long and lovely and Penny's off lead.

Penny freezes. She sees something. What could it be?

Our first reaction is delight. A kangaroo here, right in the suburbs.

Penny begins to run. Towards the kangaroo! Oh no, this is a disaster - either Penny or the kangaroo is going to suffer. Thank Dog for all those sessions rewarding her for a good 'come!' We shout. She heads back for her treat. (We always reward a 'come' in some way, usually with food.)

We'd better ring the wildlife protection people, because on the other side of that chain link fence is a busy freeway, and perhaps the kangaroo could leap that fence. We head off to find one of the many signs in the park with a phone number on it.

And then a black dog races past, intent on catching the kangaroo. The kangaroo and the dog disappear up a hill leading to the busy traffic, and I run off in pursuit while Human Number Two puts Penny on lead. I can't see where the dog and the kangaroo have gone.

By the time we walk down to where the kangaroo has disappeared, the owner of the black dog has run past us and found his dog. We never did find out whether he realised why his dog had taken off like a rocket. He puts the dog on lead and walks away.

Human Number Two is on hold for what seems an inordinate length of time, but learns from the recorded message what she should do if we find an echidna, a flying fox, a wombat, lorikeets, parakeets, wallabies, and, yes, a kangaroo. Finally she passes the message on to a human and we head off, hoping all will be well.

And we tell all the dog-owners we meet to take care. Dogs and kangaroos don't mix. Sometimes the dog suffers, sometimes the kangaroo. The funny thing is that we spend quite a lot of time in the mountains with Penny, but the only time we see kangaroos is in the city. She's never been close to one and for both their sakes, I hope she never is. Here's an old post about dogs and kangaroos.

a new fish ladder on the Yarra

When I read Slavenka's post today about salmon leaping up the River Tyne, I remembered how Penny and I have seen lots of work going on - for years! - at Yarra Bend, one of our favorite spots.

We also blogged some time ago about our usual swimming spot now being out of bounds for dogs.

It seems that it's all connected. Here's a video clip about the new Fish Ladder near Yarra Bend, at Dight's Falls.



I now understand why the little area has been fenced off - it's all part of the exciting news that native species are swimming back up the river, some of them for the first time in over a hundred years! As well as rebuilding the weir and putting in a fish ladder, the workers are regenerating sections of the banks.

Just the other day we wandered down that way to see the finished project, but we won't go there very often, because Penny has to be on lead. Also, I don't think she'll like walking over the fish ladder section, because it is a grill. She wouldn't like walking on the mesh. But I'm going down one of these days to try to see fish swimming up the river.

My all-time favourite native fish are using the ladder - galaxias. Here's a fantastic underwater video by  Greg Wallis of spotted galaxias swimming in the wild. (They're small fish, by the way, which is not obvious from the video.)

answers to some questions about dog walking at Yarra Bend Park

On 17 April I  blogged about the strange 'crop circle' at Yarra Bend. (Not really a crop circle, of course. Just preparation for indigenous planting.)

It was great, therefore, to see how the planting is progressing.

In another section of the park, at the place we are sad to be banned from, there is also planting.

I don't think we'll ever be able to swim there again, because once dogs lose access to an area, they're unlikely to win it back again. But on the whole it's a fantastically dog-friendly park. 

should dogs stay away from alien crop circles?

When I posted recently about the strange circular marks on the grass at Yarra Bend park, Lassie and Benji commented that perhaps aliens made the marks.

And here was I thinking it was just park rangers preparing for new plantings of indigenous vegetation!

Today when we walked at Willsmere Park, there were more strange circles. Maybe crop circles?

Or just patterns from the ride-on mowers...

mysterious white marks on the grass at Yarra Bend

For years, as we've walked with Penny at Yarra Bend Park (a wonderful dog-friendly place), we have noticed strange white lines on the grass. Usually they are long curved or straight lines. But recently we see arrows also.

Very mysterious. (Well, not all that mysterious if you know the park is right next to NMIT. We assume students are practising some sort of esoteric skill, like the time we saw groups with chain saws up the trees, looking like a flock of huge birds.)

At last, the mystery has been solved. They must be marks to show the horticulture students, or the park rangers, where to spray, so that indigenous plants can be put in.

I dislike the use of herbicides, especially Roundup, but I do realise it's an effective way to restore indigenous plantings.

Once we knew what to look for, it was clear that the grass was indeed dying. (We made sure Penny didn't walk on any place we knew had been sprayed.)

It will be interesting over the next few months to see the new plants grow.

dogs walking close to traffic

One of our favorite walking places is Yarra Bend Park. We cross the Darebin Creek and continue onto the Clifton Hill side, a circular walk which leaves us with a short hike alongside traffic in Heidelberg Road, before we enter the Yarra Bend Park once more.

Once upon a time we used to come out to Heidelberg Road on this little path.

The good thing about coming out at this spot was that there was a protective barrier along the edge of Heidelberg Road to keep us safe from the cars.

But, as you can see from the first photo, our preferred path has been blocked off with a fence. So now we have to emerge on to the road further along, and take our chance walking alongside lanes of busy traffic.

It's aggravating that someone in a planning department has made a decision that impacts on our safety, without any consultation about what we prefer. I wrote to the council to explain my concerns, but received the usual noncommittal response. 

However, once we navigate the short scary stretch of street, it's back into the lovely, lovely Yarra Bend park, one of the most dog-friendly places in Melbourne. (You have to be on lead on the hard-surfaced bike paths, but everywhere else is off-lead.)

Happy New Year to all

Who would be up early on the morning of January 1st?

Dog walkers, of course, if the predicted temperature is 38 degrees (about 100 Fahrenheit).



But most other people must have been still in bed, to judge by the freeway traffic:



Which usually looks like this:



However, Penny tracked down some signs of life in the park:





Sure enough, there had been revelry in the park overnight. And there still was!



We thought it must have been a well-organised party, because they were all still having fun, having been there all night, and there was no mess. The river was barricaded off with tape so people wouldn't fall in, but no one seemed to mind us ducking under the tape so Penny could have a swim.



Oh, and you might have noticed dog-walkers weren't the only ones out exercising.

walking at Yarra Bend on a lovely Spring day

When I arrived home this afternoon I was told that Penny had gone to Yarra Bend Park with one of her humans, so I jumped in my car to join them.
I parked partway along the path I thought they would take, and had the pleasure of seeing Penny realise I had arrived. Watching her race towards me was pure joy!



After walking on the flat for a while, we headed up a hill, which is good exercise for Penny to strengthen her left rear leg, the one that was operated on for a cruciate tear, almost exactly a year ago.



There were birds perched on a rock half-way up the hill, but they didn't seem to mind us walking towards them, until we got too close.





Walking past one of the eucalypts, we had a lesson in why the Australian bush burns so well. Just look at all those strips of flammable bark hanging down. Eucalypts need to burn to regenerate, and the strips of bark have the effect of allowing a grass fire to run up them and set the foliage on fire. (I'm not quite clear about this process, but I do make a point of clearing away all the hanging bark at my place in the hills.)



By the time we arrived back at the cars, nature had turned on a gorgeous sunset to make our walk complete.

returning to training

At last, Cindy, our long time trainer, has restarted her regular sessions! And what have I discovered, after a year away from training? I've discovered that Penny is still clever and I'm still clumsy and uncoordinated. But Penny doesn't care and I sure don't.

Cindy lent me a book called 'The Other End of the Leash', after I told her how much I enjoy the author's blog. I haven't read far into the book yet, but in the early part the author, Patricia McConnell, looks at the ways we humans use our bodies when interacting with our dogs.

So today, on a lovely spring day, after a quiet time in the sun for Penny and hard work in the garden for me,



three of us set out for Yarra Bend Park.

We practised 'come', to get ourselves in the mood for some work, and tried out the idea of leaning slightly away from Penny to avoid crowding into her body space when she arrives. Did I say leaning SLIGHTLY away? I think my directions from behind the camera might have been unclear, lol.



On the other hand, Penny did beautiful 'comes', racing towards her human and sitting precisely in front.



Even though Penny's 'come' is usually good, we thought we'd try the idea of calling her and moving away as she arrived. Patricia McConnell explains the logic of it like this:

The best way to get a dog to come to you is to turn away from him and move in the opposite direction (which is actually "toward you" from the standpoint of the dog)...Dogs want to go the way that you're going, and to a dog that's the way that your face and feet are pointing.

In a way it was silly to be changing our established 'come' command, but it was fun to vary things and see what happened. After all, we're not practising for obedience competitions, we're simply out to have fun and communicate well with Penny. Here's a picture of her arriving in a rush as her human walks off in the opposite direction.

photographing dogs

Penny stayed home last Monday when I went for an excursion with my photography class, but the teacher's dog had the privilege of going with us. And why not, given that he's such a lovely, well-behaved canine, willing to mooch around in a relaxed fashion?





We learned how to put our cameras down low near the surface of a pond or a puddle and get a symmetrical photo of and object. I tried this rock and was happy with the result.



And these reeds:



And Rocky himself was so photogenic.



So, when Penny and I went down to the river at Yarra Bend, I tried out my new technique as she swam for her toy.







Hmm... Looks like I'll either have to learn to take photos more quickly or I'll have to slow Penny down!

a muddy river and a limping dog

Yesterday Penny and her humans went for a walk to Yarra Bend Park, the dog-friendly place where she can walk off-lead. To our surprise, the Yarra was at the lowest we have ever seen it. (Later we discovered the weir at Dight's Falls has been taken apart for repair, which has left the river at what our informant said is its natural level.)



The low level of the water had revealed an interesting object.



But Penny was more interested in the water than what was on the bank, so she went for a swim.



As we strolled back along the path, Penny hastened to a boat ramp that leads down to the water. We don't usually swim there, even though it's an off-lead park, because there's a strange sign that seems to indicate that in this spot dogs should be on lead. (Very strange) Penny jumped off the ramp edge, which is usually under water, and couldn't get back up, because she was stuck in the soft mud.

With our physio's advice 'no scrambling from now on' in our minds, we raced down to try to lift her onto the edge of the ramp, to no avail. Eventually we managed to direct her around the side of the ramp where she could scramble up onto dry land.

We didn't worry too much until later in the day, when she hobbled across the kitchen on three legs, her left leg held off the floor. Oh no! The lovely extracapsular surgery - had it been ruined?

The vet nurse was reassuring when we rang for advice, saying that even though it's common to have a setback, the surgery is strong - but we made an appointment for today.

And then gave Penny some tender loving care - an ice pack on the joint, ten minutes at a time, and hand-feeding of nice little carrot tidbits.



During the rest of the evening, we gave her lots of massages to the leg, as the physio had done during the recovery from surgery.

This morning the vet said she has probably strained the leg, but she seems okay. She's not limping, but we didn't exercise at all today.

Here's hoping!

first off-lead walk

A red letter day. We've been given the go-ahead to start to return Penny to her normal activities. However, the physio gave us some advice that I think is very useful: re-introduce only one activity at a time, so that if Penny seems to be in pain or to be limping at all, we'll know which activity caused it.

The first thing we did was allow her to go down and up the steps leading to our backyard. On lead. Slowly. Well, that was the plan. We went on-lead, not-so-slowly. But she seemed fine after that experience. Halleluia! Now we don't have to spend so much time out in the street waiting for her to toilet.

But the big excitement was a visit to the lovely Yarra Bend Park. And, to our great pleasure, we discovered that the planned dog-friendly fence has been installed, so now dogs can walk off-lead without the danger of straying onto the road.

And so we set off along the fence.



Here's the big moment, when Penny was released from her lead:





There were puddles to play in, now that the drought doesn't have a grip on the weather.







And Penny seemed to be fine the next day after her adventure!