flyball at the Ferntree Gully pet expo

As I said in the previous post, Penny demonstrated flyball at Ferntree Gully yesterday.

She ran well, despite the crowds watching and the excitement of smells and sounds from a variety of animals sharing the day with dogs.

The other animals had a chance to show they too can perform tricks. Here they are lining up for the egg-and-spoon race with their humans.



And another heat...



The sheep and its owner lost their heat and had to watch from the sidelines.



Penny ran clean runs, but she's not competitive. As you can see from her stance here, she's willing, but she's certainly not raring to go.




She would speed down to get the ball - her favorite thing - but not rush herself when coming back to me.



Until I had the brilliant idea of showing her one of the absolutely delicious biscuits we'd bought from a stall called BJ's Organics. She raced back at top speed for the delicious biscuit. I like to reward her with organically produced treat if possible, so this product was a great find on the day.

Penny goes to a pet expo in Ferntree Gully

Yesterday was a fun day. Penny joined a group of dogs from a cross-section of Melbourne flyball clubs to demonstrate the sport to the public at the Ferntree Gully Pet Expo.

While Penny was resting in her crate, I went for a stroll around and watched a demonstration of gentle horse-training techniques by Wrangler Jayne.



Since I've learned about gentle, reward-based training of dogs I've wondered how it applies to other animals, and at last I had the opportunity to see it in action. Wrangler Jayne's horse was exquisitely beautiful, standing free and unafraid in a small enclosure right next to our dogs, unfazed by the people standing around and admiring him.

As she rode him around the area, guiding him with gentle pats and the movement of a long stick, his ears were pricked and you could see he was attending to her with interest and with confidence in her and in himself.

avoiding guilt about our care of our dogs

Sometimes I think I must be silly to get involved in so many dog activities. Over the last few years Penny and I have done flyball, lure coursing, tracking, agility, tricks, canine freestyle, swimming, and probably best of all, walking together.

I buy her Nina Ottosson toys where she has to figure out how to get her dinner out of the puzzle.

I make puzzles and toys.

I try to challenge her thinking whenever possible. (Yes, dogs do think!)

When is enough enough? As Patricia McConnell asks on her blog, The Other End of the Leash, where do we draw the line on activities designed to keep our dogs interested and happy?

I don't know the answer. I only know I love seeing Penny's eyes sparkle and her tail wag.

I'm a great believer in choice and could never come at the idea that an obedient dog, one that leaps to obey without thought, is the ideal dog. Penny chooses to obey (sometimes after thinking about it longer than I like, actually), rather than acting on a conditioned response. Which, by the way, makes me think of the funny video clip on Noah's blog today.

So I loved reading what Patricia McConnell wrote about the value of choice on brain development.

One the books I’ve been reading on brain plasticity mentioned increased dendritic branching (connections between neurons) when caged rats were allowed to voluntarily exercise. That’s a good thing for the brain, and can lead to all kinds of positive benefits, not only enhanced mental function but also to a better ability to handle stress, for example. But here’s the kicker: there was no effect when the rats were forced against their wheel to exercise, even if it was for the same amount of time. Forced exercise may be good for physiological health, but not necessarily for a healthy brain.

It's a great post, and I suggest you might like to go over there and read it.

killing dogs to force change on indigenous communities

Dog Blog has a post about a Canadian Inuit commission examining claims by Nunavut Inuit that RCMP officers killed thousands of sled dogs from the 1950s to the 1980s. It says:

Inuit have long alleged that police killed a total of about 20,000 sled dogs from 1950 to 1980 in Nunavut, the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, and the Nunatsiavut region of Labrador.

As a result of losing their dogs, Inuit say their livelihoods were dramatically affected. Many have accused governments of forcing families to move from their traditional settlements into western-style communities.

Interesting!

I recently posted about claims that there may have been a deliberate campaign in Australia to kill domesticated dingoes so as to deprive indigenous people of their valuable help in hunting, and thus force the people to abandon their nomadic life and agree to live in government camps.

The history of dogs and humans is complex and interesting. I believe our relationship with them is deeper and more significant than that of any other animal. (Though the horse changed human history in massive ways, of course.)

a sticky situation for a dog

Penny brought a lovely stick up from Darebin Parklands the other evening.

But it made passing through the baby gates rather difficult.



Perhaps if she were to hold it towards one end...



Nope, that didn't seem to be working...



Oh, forget it...



She decided to keep the stick in the kitchen for later chewing.

dog-walking in Darebin Parklands at sunset

As I said in my previous post, tonight we took Penny for an evening walk to Darebin Parklands. It was a warm day. It was also a smoky one. I think there must be lots of burning-off going on around Melbourne, in preparation for next year's bushfire season. Thank goodness this summer was virtually free of bushfires!

It's great that the authorities are preparing early for next summer. Of course, there's only a small window of opportunity to burn off, as it needs to be still, cool and dry. Once winter sets in it might be too wet.

As we walked with Penny along the clifftop above Darebin Parklands, the sunset was lovely, an effect of the smoky air. The city skyline was a blur on the horizon



and the sun set through a red haze.



As we went down the hill into the parklands, the sun set.

how lovely is the evening in Darebin Parklands

This morning Penny stayed at home while I went down to help with maintenance of the exquisite little gem that is the Hidden Valley in Darebin Parklands. Penny doesn't go there often, as it is in the on-lead area and I can't see the point in making her walk on lead when there are lovely areas on the other side of the creek where she can run free.

We worked with one of the rangers, who showed us how to weed by hand around the indigenous plants. She explained that we don't need to hand weed everywhere, because she can use specific sprays to target broadleaved weeds near grasses.

This evening, we went with Penny to the on-lead side of the creek to look at the grasses and lomandra that we planted in August of 2008. The broad-leaved spray has been used there. Here's a picture from my blog post at the time of the baby plants.



And look at them now!





Here's a shot of the effect of the broad-leaved weedkiller. The weed has died but the lovely grasses are unaffected.



Isn't it a beautiful spot? The next photo's blurry because it was after sunset and taken on a long exposure. Of course, a human and a dog having fun are never still enough for the photographer...