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!

 

Snooza bed is still giving good service

 It's great to see Peppa using the Snooza raised bed that we bought for Penny so many years ago. 

Penny would only sleep on it if it had a cushion or blanket on it, and even on super hot days or nights wouldn't be happy without that covering. Snooza does say that their pet futon is cool, but I prefer the open bedding at the moment.

I've read that the open mesh is a good way to keep a dog cooler, as the air can circulate around their belly and paw pads. So we feel happy that Peppa doesn't care if there's no covering on the mesh.

Coping with the heat for the first time

As I mentioned yesterday, there has been a late onset of hot weather after a strangely cool and wet start to summer. I had  read that one way to help a dog cool down is the use of a gel mat.

It was a surprise to see how quickly she got started on using the gel mat - because it was quite a bother to get Penny to adapt to it and she hardly ever used it.

At first Peppa lay near it. I had read that it's a good idea to show her that a new gel mat can be a nice place, where you find toys and treats, so I tossed a couple of Ziwi treats onto it.

That worked nicely, especially when I added her high-tech toy (the insert from a toilet roll.)

So, there she was lying on it within minutes.

And soon she was stretched out with her belly on the cooling surface.

Here's hoping she continues to use it.

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.

Changeable weather makes it hard for an old dog

It's difficult to feel positive these days, with the tragedy of the bushfires here in Australia, and the terrible loss of life - too many humans and an estimate of a billion animal deaths.

But we keep on trying to have a normal life here, fortunately living in the safety of a big city. Penny's missing her regular walks the last couple of days, because the air is smoky for an old dog (and her old humans). And sometimes it's too hot for her. She struggles if the temperature is higher than about 20°C.

Yesterday we didn't go out early because it was too hot. Here she is briefly visiting the front yard, where some of our plants are protected by our newly purchased beach umbrellas (only useable if the wind isn't blasting like a furnace).

 And then, when we thought of going out in the late afternoon, it was cold and raining.

Hooray for the rain. Here's hoping the exhausted fire fighters can get a bit of an advance on the flames while the cooler weather is here.

hot weather as a start to Autumn

It's been a while since I posted, but the hot weather we've been having takes the energy out of me and out of Penny.

But we still manage a walk most days, even though often a short one if it's a hot day.

Yesterday we headed off to Yarra Glen for a Bowen therapy session for both human and canine together.

And how wonderful it was, for me with a sore aching back and Penny with her arthritic joints.

On the way home we stopped off briefly at Heide Museum of Modern Art for a quick lunch. There's a huge garden with outdoor sculptures and various installations, and many old, substantial shade trees. Dogs are welcome as long as they are kept on lead.

However, because Penny and I had been in an air-conditioned car driving the fifty minutes down from Yarra Glen in the hills, I hadn't realised how hot it was, even in the shady outdoor section of the cafe. I had already ordered my lunch, so while we waited I quietly poured my drinking water onto Penny. (As you can see in the photo, the kindly waiter had brought the dog drinking bowl inside for us.

December with my dog

I'm surprised to see I haven't posted any updates on Penny's day-to-day life since October 6th. Where did October and November go?

Anyway, there is one thing to report for November - Penny had a long-overdue haircut. Here she is, energised after the visit to her lovely groomer, Gabby.

Penny has never been fond of being groomed, but when I took her for a walk prior to going into the salon, she tugged me down the driveway into Gabby's place. That's what I call 'voting with your feet'! Gabby has a gift for making Penny relaxed and happy.

It had been cool for November, so I covered her with a blanket the first couple of nights, as she has quite a thin coat.

I didn't have to do that for long. December arrived with a vengeance, and hot, hot weather landed on us. It was too hot, even at night, to walk, so I drove to Kepala to give her a swim. I loaded up a big container of  water in a cooler in case the car broke down, because I don't think she could deal with 38°C these days. She was panting in the back seat, even with the air conditioner going, but we got there safely after the 50 minute drive.

It was worth it.

The rules specify that humans are not allowed past the blue line, so I took that as a definite instruction to wade in up to the blue line. (When I wasn't taking a break in the shaded hut.)

It's not only about keeping cool. The benefits of swimming are wonderful for old dogs with joint problems. Look at how she stretches her limbs when she swims.

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!

hot weather and allergies and chest infections

How come I'm willing to get up at the crack of dawn, before the stifling heat lands on us, yet Penny's acting like a wimp about going for a walk?



Luckily she can always be persuaded to walk out the door to eat a treat.

Ooops, just noticed how I titled this post...

Well, the allergies are being experimentally treated with Cetirizine. I read online that the basic dose is 1mg per dog body weight, and the vet agreed. This site has lots of info.

As to the chest infection, she's still taking Amoxyclav 250.

I'm so looking forward to the time when she is on no medications.

Penny and the renovations

Life has been out of kilter  for Penny lately, because we're renovating our laundry and bathrooms. With stuff piled up in boxes all around the house, it's hard to get through a normal day, but as much as possible we have maintained Penny's daily schedule. Fortunately, we never did have a strict routine, so Penny has adapted well to irregular meals and to having doors shut so that she can't access one wing of the house.

A dog wandered into our front yard the other day and the builders collected him before he could roam further. The dog had got out of his own home because that family, also, was renovating, and their builders had left a gate open. This has made us even more careful to check where Penny is at all times. Fortunately, we have dog-aware men working for us, and we also have the advantage that our home is L-shaped and we can close off one end of the house.

Penny is feeling the heat as summer closes in, so we've had her clipped. I think she looks lovely. I'm hoping that she might like to sleep on the cool tiles of the new bathroom floors, but so far she refuses to set foot on the tiles. We'll see how she goes when the work is completed and it's clean and quiet in there.

I think we'd have to be careful of her sleeping on those tiles, though, because she is somewhat arthritic. On the other hand, on warm nights she sleeps on the parquetry floors with no cushions under her.

regrowth in Darebin Parklands after the dry spell

Yesterday Penny and I ventured back to our favourite old walking spot, Darebin Parklands. It's been so hot and dry over the summer that we have walked in other places where there's more shade, but seeing it has cooled down - at last! - we decided to return to the park.

As you can see from this photo, the thirsty ground had become quite barren in the heat.

But it's great to see that with the recent rain the networks of cracks in the dry soil are starting to close.

And lots of tiny plants are germinating, so I expect that soon the hills and dales of the park will be lushly green.

trees keep pets and humans alive in the heat

On Thursday evening, after a day of extreme heat, Penny had not been out, so two of us humans had the bright idea of walking together to the nearby supermarket. I would wait outside with her while her other human  shopped.

Well, after waiting about five minutes, I was worried because Penny was panting. We were sitting under a concrete overhang at the side of a carpark. It was stifling. And Penny was getting hotter. I moved her out into the carpark and lifted her onto a planter, hoping a breeze might come by and that being a metre above the tarmac and beside plants might be cooler.

She started panting faster and we abandoned human number two and headed home, where I threw water on Penny and tossed treats into her water bowl to make her drink.

How could she have become so overheated at 10:30 pm?

An article in Friday's copy of The Age might explain our bad experience. There's a thermal image of a Melbourne city street corner at 3-4 pm on December 8, 2011, when the day's top temperature was recorded at 32.4° C (90° F).

Below a large plane tree on an inner-city corner, the temperature was 38.3° and nearby hard city surfaces were - get ready for this - 80.7°C ! I've checked the article a couple of times and that's what it said. 80.7°C is 177°F.

Apparently our built-up cities suffer from the heat-island effect.

I noticed yesterday that the back steps of our house, made of concrete, were too hot to stand on in bare feet, after sunset, so how hot must it have been for Penny, walking to the supermarket that evening, even if the ambient air was a bit cooler?

We dog owners need to be more careful when we take our  pets out, even if it is only for a brief outing.

And we need more trees in our suburb!

We need more trees in our cities, in our gardens, everywhere on our continent, and everywhere on our planet.

At my favourite garden centre, there's a sign that goes something like this:

The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago.
The second best time is now.

Looking around on the internet, I found lots of references to this quote. It seems to be an old Chinese proverb. I'm very glad most of the trees in our garden were planted about forty years ago.

Here's a link to the article in The Age newspaper about the dangers of creating heat-islands in our cities.

mad dogs go out in the midday sun

Here are the first few lines of the old song, Mad Dogs and Englishmen by Noel Coward :

In tropical climes there are certain times of day
When all the citizens retire,
to tear their clothes off and perspire.
It's one of those rules that the biggest fools obey,
Because the sun is much too sultry and one must avoid
its ultry-violet ray --
Papalaka-papalaka-papalaka-boo. (Repeat)
Digariga-digariga-digariga-doo. (Repeat)
The natives grieve when the white men leave their huts,
Because they're obviously, absolutely nuts --
Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.
The Japanese don't care to, the Chinese wouldn't dare to,
Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve to one,
But Englishmen detest a siesta,
In the Philippines there are lovely screens,
to protect you from the glare,
In the Malay states there are hats like plates,
which the Britishers won't wear,
At twelve noon the natives swoon, and
no further work is done -
But Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.

And here is Penny, at twenty minutes past noon today. (40 degrees Celcius/ 104 Fahrenheit)

Has she gone mad? Probably not, but she's a glutton for fun with her Whirl Wheel.

I ordered her inside! (BTW, the plants are covered to try to stop them frizzling in the extended horrible heat.)

Now she's relaxing in front of the fan, and I'm hot and bothered in the next room because I'm too kind (or soft) to deprive her of the fan.

But this morning, early, we walked at Willsmere and she had a lovely swim with her toy. Two toys, actually.

It was cool in the shade of the trees. Thank God for old, established trees!

it's very hot for dogs, humans and birds

It's hot. Hot all day and hot all night. Penny is feeling the heat.

We took the comfy pet futon off her bed and replaced it with a wet towel, but she's not convinced that's a good idea and has rejected it. I'll put the futon back on, tonight, because I see on the Snooza website they say it's cool in summer. Certainly Penny did sleep on it last night, and the temperature only dipped to about 28 degrees Celcius (83 Fahrenheit).

While she was flaked out in the best spot to receive the breeze from our evaporative cooling, I was out in the garden checking for fresh water in our array of bird bathing bowls.

As I was filling this final birdbath I heard a chattering...

...and saw two thirsty little birds sitting right beside me, not a metre away, with their beaks open, and realised they were my very favourite birds, pardalotes.

I knew pardolates pardalotes live around here, because I've heard their song from high up in the trees, but to see some down near the ground, right up close, was fantastic. I couldn't get a photo, because I didn't have a camera, and by the time I crept away and rushed into the house to get one, they were - of course - gone.

Here are some photos of these lovely birds.