Finally getting back to training and fun

 Since we've been attending the Play and Train classes at Warringal on Sunday mornings, life has become more settled at home. Peppa has had frequent tummy upsets and visits to vets, and we seem now to have found foods that she can stomach. 

And, best of all, we've found that her appetite is improving and she will take food as training rewards.

Consequently, we're able to play in the kitchen with the toys I bought from K-Mart. 

 

At the moment, I'm rewarding for simply not being scared by the new objects in the house. I was surprised, after fifteen years with phlegmatic Penny, to realise that Peppa is a totally different personality, who needs lots of time to adjust to novelty. (Penny thrived on novelty!)

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.

dogs as omnivores

Penny is quite an adventurous eater, and willing to try new things.

Lately we've had lots of feijoas, courtesy of a friend with a huge crop on her tree, and Penny likes them.

I think perhaps she's willing to try many new foods because of having been offered a wide variety throughout her life. But she doesn't like celery!

In the back lane today, while I was contemplating the prolific crop of lilly pillies on a neighbour's tree, and wondering what I could cook with them, seeing they were just falling to the ground and rotting, Penny had wandered off towards our house. When I reached her, she had a big hamburger bun stuffed into her mouth. I got a bit suspicious that she wouldn't look up at me, and crouched down to look, and there it was. Such a trophy.

After a long battle of wills, in which I held onto the bun and repeated the command, 'Give!', she finally gave it to me. What a hard decision that must have been for her. I rewarded her with some yummy peanut butter treats from Ivory Coat. We got them from Deb at Bow Rei Me, when Penny had her Bowen therapy last week.

Another interesting treat Penny had this afternoon was a -hopefully very small - mouthful of fertiliser pellets, aka chicken poo. She was investigating a pot of wild rocket seedlings and, once again, wouldn't look up at me, always a tell-tale sign that she's pinched something she shouldn't. The dirt around her muzzle was another strong clue!

Now the plant is up high on a table.

I had a look in a book to see what I could cook with the lilly pillies, but it all seemed a bit too hard, so we're freezing them for the time being, and human number two might try them out as fabric dyes if we don't cook with them.

(The lilly pillies are in the plate at top right. There are some olives at top left. I'm experimenting with preserving them.)

camel meat treats for dogs

When I travelled to Central Australia recently, Penny, of course, stayed home.

The area around Uluru and Kata Tjuta is beautiful and is not a desert, as I had thought. It is a semi-arid landscape and has supported an ancient and living culture from time immemorial.

One of the most enjoyable activities I took part in was a dinner in the bush, called The Sounds of Silence. My friend and I arrived in a mundane way, on a tour bus, so we were thrilled to see another group arriving...

on camels!

The leaders of all the tours we did gave us lots of information about the camels who roam free in the centre of this continent. Basically, they don't belong there, but some farmers are now turning from running cattle to herding camels. Apparently the camels here are remarkably disease-free compared to camels in other parts of the world and many are exported to The Middle East.

We were told again and again that one way to control the overpopulation of camels might be to use them for meat, so I was interested to see this packet of dog treats for sale here in Melbourne, at Murphy Brothers.

Penny thought the treats smelled rather good, and when I gave her some, she gobbled them up!

is that fish for rolling on or for eating?

I'm hoping that the Bowen therapy will help with Penny's itchiness and her licking. However, we've also been to the vet and he suggested a short course of anti-inflammatories, so we'll try that too.

A friend suggested that more fish in Penny's diet might be good, so I picked up this little bag of treats the other day. (I hope they were sustainably fished and dried without some horrible chemical process.)

But Penny doesn't get it. Treats shouldn't have eyes. These little fish got the same treatment as the raw fish she found in her bowl so long ago.

Yep. The fish got a good rolling-on.

Her technique's not that good, because I think I can see the fish peeping out from under her head. (BTW, it seems the best place to acquire a fishy smell is behind the ears.)

The little dead thing looked kind of lonely after Penny loomed up at the camera to see what I was doing, before wandering away.

I don't like to think of a fish dying for no reason, so I broke our rule that any uneaten food will be removed after a couple of minutes. I left it there.

And what do you know? When I came back later it was gone.

Here's hoping it's not buried somewhere in the house. I think not, because later Penny actually deigned to eat another little fish when I offered it to her.

Penny has her meal from the Amazing Treat Machine

Penny has quickly conquered The Amazing Treat Machine and I think it's great value for the price. (I forget what it was, but if I remember right, it was well under $20.)

Here she is having her dinner from it. I've had to compromise on my ideal of all raw feeding, but I think I've chosen a suitable premium brand of dry food for the occasions when we'll use this toy. It turns out to be quite an energetic activity because she's so enthusiastic to get the food. Apologies in advance for the terribly boring sound of me saying, 'Get the ball. Pick it up. In the box.' It's only when I listen to myself I realise I do that silly thing humans do, of repeating ourselves to our dogs unnecessarily.

learning about the amazing treat machine

After unpacking The Amazing Treat Machine, Penny and I, together with our video assistant, set about trying it out.

I find that video clips advertising products show the results achieved after some practice. Well, here's a 'warts and all' unabridged version of how a dog tries out this product for the first time.

We did have the advantage, however, that Penny already knew how to pick up a ball and put it in a box. (It's taught by putting the container under her mouth so that the ball drops into it and, if using a clicker as a marker for good behaviour, clicking and treating every time the ball falls into the container. Eventually the container can be left on the floor and the dog learns to bring the ball to it.)

Here's our first try. We had fun but no success!



Okay, so we needed to make some adjustments- for instance, jamming the bottle in more securely. But still no luck.



Never give up! Penny noticed before I did that the treats had begun to emerge from the hole at the bottom.



At this stage I decided to cheat a little - which turned out to be a bad idea.



Finally, success - sort of. I cheated again! But Penny has the idea and I'm sure we'll do better next time. I think it's a good product, and not too expensive - if you don't live at the end of the earth and have to pay more in postage than the product costs...

food motivation for dog training

Penny always checks out any bags I bring into the house - I think she reckons I'm a wonderful hunter-gatherer, because I so often come in with dog-friendly goodies. Today she was especially interested in the big bag of dog biscuits I had bought at Murphy Brothers in Hawthorn. They were in a sealed plastic bag, but that didn't seem to interfere with the wonderful smell.

When I took a biscuit out, Penny began offering all sorts of behaviours in an attempt to coax me into giving it to her.



It's not like her to be so quick in her behaviours, so we couldn't resist making a short video clip. First she stood up on her hind legs and then she tried some backing, but when I didn't react she figured out she should wait for a hand signal.

I've never seen her so quick! These biscuits must taste wonderful.