herbicides and dogs

 

We were walking along a path in the evening sunlight today in Darebin Parklands. Penny had been for a swim in the surprisingly clear waters of the creek and looked like a drowned rat - but a clean one.

Then we passed one of the many patches of dead grass scattered around the park lately. I had actually seen the rangers spraying about ten days ago. They had put up a sign on that day warning that they were spraying weeds but since then there have been no signs. I was just wondering how long herbicides last on the vegetation and suddenly Penny sat herself down in the middle of a dead patch.

 

So I decided to take no chances and gave her a bath when we got home. I really must think about that hydrobath that I emailed Melbourne Dog Centre about. They did get back to me and the one I'd like would be about $1100. It seems a lot but when I'm kneeling on the bathroom floor getting a sore back and a soaking-wet front it seems a good idea. And I think of the water that is going down the drain...

I checked the website of Darebin City Council, one of the two councils involved in the management of Darebin Parklands and they have a policy of the least possible use of herbicides.

There's an interesting discussion of the effect of herbicide spraying on dog health at a Canadian site called Animal Health Care.

Dogs swimming

Had a great walk in Ruffey Lake Park today. Met Jabari, Liz's GSD and also Pam with her GSD Kara. I reckon those two dogs must be related somewhere along the line, because they look so similar. All the dogs had a great time leaping into the lake - Jabari and Penny swam out but Kara doesn't seem confident to go beyond her depth yet. She likes to keep her feet on the bottom.

Penny loves to leap into any body of water. I think she would be a natural at the sport of Dock Dogs but I haven't seen this sport in Australia yet. At the moment I'm trying to make sure she walks into the water at a sloping spot because I'm not sure her left elbow is okay and I don't want her scrambling out a a steep spot. I've noticed that she tends to come out of the water at the same spot she entered it.

 

We were followed briefly by a young black lab who ignored his owner's recall. Eventually we turned around and walked directly away from her, which gave him the choice of going with us or returning to his owner. He set off after her - presumably he caught up to her.

Dogs scaring off birds

I was sitting in the beautiful sunshine today in my garden. I know I shouldn't be liking the sunny days, because we need rain, but I figure I can't make it rain so I'm going to enjoy the fantastic weather. Penny was lying nearby basking in the sunshine and contemplating the really beaut rubber ball she had 'fetched' a while ago.

I noticed a dove land fly down and land near her. She didn't see it at first. Then she did, and wandered closer to investigate. Just when I was starting to worry that she might leap on it - she's pretty fast - it flapped up into the tree with a clatter of wings. It made me think about an article I read today. Apparently some scientists in NSW have studied the effect of dog-walking on the movements of birds in the bush around Sydney. Partly it said:

The researchers looked at 90 woodland trails a few kilometres north of Sydney, half regularly used by dog-walkers and half where the animals were prohibited.

Dogs were walked, on leads, along the 250m-long (820ft) trails, followed 20 seconds later by an observer who counted the birds seen and heard. The experiment was repeated for walkers without dogs and for a control scenario where there were neither walkers nor dogs.

Dr Banks said: "The key finding is that dog-walking certainly does have an impact on birds - and we were quite surprised by the magnitude of the impact."

The team found that dog-walking was causing bird numbers to drop by an average of 41% at each site and the numbers of species counted fell by 35%.

The results were similar in sites often frequented by dog-walkers and those where the practice was prohibited, suggesting that birds did not get used to the dogs' presence, despite frequent encounters.

It's a vexed question, in my opinion. I'd like to see the study replicated before I'd be convinced that birds are more disturbed by dogs on lead than by groups of humans walking around. Anyway, I reckon the birds' instincts might not lead them to the conclusion that humans are the more dangerous, with their guns and rubbish and destruction of habitats. I don't know of too many dogs that have levelled forests or contaminated creeks and rivers.

Toys to enrich a dog's life

Tomorrow Penny will be home alone for a while. Normally she she has people here all day, but when she first came to live with us as a tiny puppy she had to cope with being alone for a few hours every day. She's comfortable with her own company and I think it is because from the first we always left her with something to entertain her. Now when I leave she doesn't even bother to accompany me to the door if she's got her treat-filled toys. One of the best, I think, is the Kong.

At first I thought the Kong was just something to throw around, or a chewing toy. Then I realised it's supposed to be stuffed with food. I started out with the recipes on this site but now I usually push banana to the bottom, then some soft food, for instance 4-Legs pieces, or a layer of beef, and finish up with a skerrick of peanut butter or even a tiny smear of Vegemite. Sometimes I shove a bit of biscuit in as hard as I can. If I do a good job of all this, it can take her nearly an hour to lick the Kong completely clean.

Other toys she loves are the plastic ball that has a small hole that allows dried food to fall out as she rolls it around the floor, and the bottom-heavy container that tips from side to side and dispenses treats.

Another great entertainment are the toys form Aussie Dog. She's got a 'Turbo Chook' for playing tug games with us and I sometimes link it through the 'Home Alone' toy that is set up on the back patio for her. I put dried treats in it sometimes.

dog leads and collars

Yesterday Penny and I didn't get out for a walk until nearly sunset. Seeing I knew we wouldn't be out as long as I wished, I decided to make a virtue of necessity and slow the pace of the walk down. I wanted to see if putting Penny back on the 'Gentle Leader' head collar would remind her that she should walk beside me unless she has been permitted to roam away from me.

It's been months since we used this training headcollar. At the time, she didn't much like it but stopped pulling ahead when we were walking. We didn't use it for more than a couple of weeks.

What I like about this collar is that it comes with a short DVD that shows how to use it effectively.I can't stand seeing people whose poor dogs are being yanked around inefficiently and harshly on training collars. As far as I'm concerned, they are a learning tool that is used for a short period of time in a dog's life. If the dog learns how to walk nicely on lead then they've done their job. If not, then put them away because they aren't the right tool for teaching the dog.

Well, yesterday Penny surprised me by heading off quietly beside me all the way to the park. She didn't seem to mind the collar at all. At the park I took it off, of course, and we had fun chasing balls. Well...I stood around and Penny did the chasing. We didn't use the head collar on the way back but I did think she was walking more calmly than she has been doing recently.

We seem to be accumulating quite an array of leashes and collars.

I've now got the extendable lead for walking in the park in the on-lead areas, the normal one-and-a-half metre lead for street use and two new short leads for training work. They are useful in agility work where I want Penny to be free to move without the danger of tripping over a trailing lead yet want to be able to control her if an unexpected situation arises.

I bought one at K9Kompany in Lilydale. It's called a 'snub lead' and it's made by Black Dog Wear. It's about fourteen centimetres long, with a knot at one end, which makes it easy to grab, even with her long fur.

The other one I got at A Perfect Spot training. It's a bout forty centimetres long and can be clipped back on itself to make it twenty-five centimetres.

I'm looking forward to trying out the two different leads and seeing how they compare.

 

Playing and learning dogtricks

Penny and I are working on a new trick.

I began Penny's original training at my dogclub, Kintala in Heidelberg - check out their great site - but the training time is Saturday morning and I usually work at that time. So I'm going to two other places for dog training, both of which are heaps of fun.

One is with Jenny Pearce's company, A Perfect Spot Dog Training. (Love that name.) It's on a Sunday morning - at the crack of dawn, as far as I'm concerned - 9am in the Preston area. Often Penny won't do any activities that involve putting her bottom or belly on that cold, wet grass. But with the drought seeming ready to take hold again, I guess dampness won't be a problem for a while...sigh... Anyway, she just loves training there - we probably don't look too efficient as a training partnership when she drags me from the car to the training ground. I guess we've got a bit of work to do on 'walking nicely on lead'.

The other training is at Lilydale, at K9 Kompany. They're associated with Animal Aid in Coldstream. It's here that we are in the early stages of learning 'say your prayers'. At this stage Penny's learned to sit with her paws up on a chair. I was surprised at how many weeks we've taken to learn this. Next we'll move on to her lowering her face onto her paws, the way a child puts her face onto her hands when kneeling beside her bed to say her evening prayers. I reckon it would look super cute if I could find a little bed for Penny to do it on.

Apart from our 'formal' training - that's agility and tricks - we love playing games together. A book that I've found useful is one that is published by Barron's. (I think it was originally in German, but I'm not sure.) It's called 'Fun and Games with Your Dog'. Just to give you an idea of what's in it, some of the topics are:

Learning Life's Lessons through Play
Making Light Work of Training
Indoor Fun and Games
Make Your Yard into a Canine Paradise
An Obstacle Course in the Yard

I've found the section on indoor games helpful. It's designed for those days when it's too cold to go outside, I guess, but here in Australia it's also great for those days that are too hot.

Bathing the dog

I've just taken Penny for a walk with my sister in our favorite park in Melbourne, Darebin Parklands. If you've never walked there you should try it. There are some areas where it's necessary to have the dog on lead to protect the native wildlife but it's possible to walk a circuit that lasts about forty minutes. It includes swimming holes for the dogs, grassy hillsides to romp and chase balls and winding bush paths amongst the native vegetation. Here's a link to the park's wonderfully informative Darebin Parklands website.

The ranger has been spraying in the park recently, along the creek. Of course, just as we were leaving Penny decided to roll in the poisoned vegetation. So we decided she needed a bath asap.

I've been thinking about buying a dog hydrobath for quite a while but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend so much money. However, I've decided I'm going to do it. I've just finished washing Penny and I seem to have used half a bottle of shampoo and conditioner, as well as seeing litres of water go down the plughole. That's not to mention the wall-to-wall water everywhere after she jumped out unexpectedly and raced around the house to get dry. Liz, Jabari's 'mum', showed me one day how to use a hydrobath and I was amazed that it only uses a bucket of water and very little shampoo. I think it was only something like a teaspoonful.

I'm going to contact Melbourne Dog Centre to see how much it will cost to have a hydrobath delivered. I realise it will be costly but it might be worth it in terms of water saved and also in saving time spent kneeling on the bathroom floor and bending over the bath to wash Penny.

Penny looked gorgeous after her bath tonight. Before that she looked like 'Harry the Dirty Dog'. He's a character from Gene Zion's book of that name. Harry hated having a bath but learned his lesson when his human family disowned him because he looked like 'a black dog with white spots' instead of their dog, who was 'a white dog with black spots.'