helpful dogs

Penny tries to help us with the work around the house. For instance, if we mow the lawn and don't rake up the cut grass, she will roll in it over the next few days. Thus she is able to bring quite a lot of it inside the house so that we can all share that refreshing aroma of cut grass.

When we had a mysterious plague of freshly-hatched blowflies (I shudder to think where they were coming from, but it seemed to be from the roof-space) she was on the job 24/7, eating them as soon as they arrived at floor level.

If a minute speck of food falls to the floor she acts as a one-dog disposal squad.

However, she isn't up to the standard of Connie, The Dog Who Cleans And Does Laundry.

Amongst other tasks, Connie, a beautiful newfoundland, places dirty clothes inside the washing machine, puts a detergent ball inside, and then turns on the machine with her paw. Wow! Later, Connie moves the washed clothes to the dryer.

Okay... but aren't newfies champion droolers?

knowing the ingredients in commercial dog foods

I'd better confess straight away that although I mostly 'raw feed' Penny, she does get commercial dog foods some of the time. For instance, I like Nature's Gift canned food and Ziwi canned foods when I am looking for something to stuff into her kongs and freeze. This is especially useful in the hot weather we're having.



I also feed Eagle Pack and Evo dried food on occasion, often in some sort of interactive toy where she has to work to get the food out.


I also use 4-Legs cooked food and their meat treats.

Today I was reading Bark Blog and followed a link to The Dog Food Project by Sabine Contreras, where there is list of ingredients you might find in commercial foods. The author says it will be updated as more information becomes available. To me it seems a useful reference. When I'm thinking about buying new food I could check it against this list. I think I might get out some of the foods on our shelf and check the ingredients.

book about a dog called Lucky

Yesterday I saw a new book called 'Lucky for Me'. It had a photo of a dog who looked like Penny and seemed as if it might be a fun read so I bought it - intending to add it to my 'to be read 'pile. In other words I thought I'd get around to it one day.

Then I dipped into it... and hours later I was finished! I laughed out loud at parts of the story of how a hard-drinking journalist fell in love with a 'seafaring, cat-hating, tree-climbing' terrier. What I loved about this book is that the guy was able to express the love that many of us feel for a dog and our realisation that our traditional distinction between humans and the rest of the animal world might have to be rethought.

It was also a lesson to me to 'lighten up' in my interactions with Penny. The couple in the story decide they won't be 'disciplining' the rescue dog they adopt, they will be loving him. He continues to be an independent and free-thinking animal who brings surprises and sometimes worry into their lives because he never conforms entirely to our human society.

Another thing I liked about this book was that it is actually the story of the dog. Some supposed dog stories I've read are really a biography of the author with a dog thrown in for colour. This one isn't like that.

It's by an Australian journalist and has a definite Australian colour to it - readers from other continents might find that an extra feature. I scanned Amazon in the UK and in the US but it wasn't listed. That sometimes happens with Australian books. The title of the book above has a link to the Australian publisher and the reader reviews give more reactions than mine to this enjoyable book.

the heritage of our mutts

I just came across a wonderful book in Andrew's Bookshop, in my local shopping street. It's called The Mutt Book. It has extensive photos of all kinds of mutts with clear instructions for assessing features that might point to the origins of your dog. For instance, it has pages with photos of different body shapes, ears, muzzles, coats and tails, and pointers about how to examine your own dog to check out her background.

I looked through it for ages, trying to decide whether to buy it; Andrew's is the kind of shop where you feel you can browse at your leisure. I put it back on the shelf because I think I'll ask my local library to buy a copy. It's the sort of book that would be a great library acquistion because it is a reference for all of us who wonder about the genetic heritage of our dogs.

At Amazon there is a good example of the book, with plenty of pages to look at. The index doesn't refer to maltese, poodle or shih tzu, which I think are Penny's three ancestries, so that was why I didn't buy it.

On the other hand, I might just wander up to the shop tomorrow and think about it again...

why my dog loves puddles

Penny loves every kind of water - except for her bath. If we walk in Darebin Parklands in wet weather there's a particular place where a muddy puddle forms and Penny will always plonk herself into it, often rolling over (to make quite sure she collects enough dirt to cover the entire kitchen floor).

When we walk along the creek in summer we have to watch out that she doesn't suddenly disappear down the bank into the creek.

And I still don't like to recall the time that she launched herself suddenly into the Yarra River at Studley Park to chase a ball and then couldn't climb up the bank. Suffice it to say I got rather muddy before she was on land again.

Last night I was following a link from one of my favorite blogs, The Pet Museum, and arrived at The Poodle History Project. For a lover of literature and of history, this site is an endless source of entertainment. Incidentally, those who grew up as I did devouring the Regency romances of Georgette Heyer, will be interested in the part about the Prince Regent's friend 'Poodle Byng'.

Okay, so what does this have to do with Penny rolling in puddles? Well, as I have mentioned before, her ancestry is somewhat mysterious. She was sold to us as a maltese X shih tzu with one poodle grandparent. We've always taken the poodle heritage with a grain of salt, except for occasional remarks by passers-by about her coat or the shape of her muzzle. What we hadn't taken into consideration was her passion for water.

I hadn't made the connection between the word 'poodle' and the word 'puddle' until last night. I looked it up on a few etymological sites and there it was... They come from the same linguistic source - poodles are puddle dogs.

So, maybe Penny does have poodle ancestry. Of course, that leads to a new nickname for her - 'Penny the Puddler'. (One of the other ones is The Flying Carpet).

teaching a turtle to do dog tricks

When I first started learning how to work with Penny on tricks I would get impatient with myself for my inability to give consistent signals or reward at the appropriate moment. I'd mix up the verbal signals and Penny would have to figure out whether I meant her to do what the hand signal was saying or what the words said. Maybe that's why she's an adaptable learner. Perhaps every dog should start out with a marginally competent trainer!

I still need to reassure myself that we will make progress, and that, as the old fable says, 'Slow and sure wins the race.' It sometimes seems that we are moving as slowly as a tortoise.

However, it hasn't taken us ten years to learn tricks, as it has for a animal that lives with a Florida psychologist. He's trained his turtle to sit, stay, heel, roll over, shake hands with either 'paw' and play dead, amongst other things.

I was enjoying the video immensely until I read the 'comments' under the clip. A couple of people criticised the guy for the fact that the turtle has a long beak that should have been clipped before now. However, when I browsed a range of reptile sites the members were not critical of the owner so I guess as long as he learns from his commenters all will be well.

I'm amazed that a turtle would learn so many things, but I guess they've got plenty of time as they live so long.

I noticed that the animal was always referred to as a turtle, although I would have thought of it as a tortoise seeing it has feet and not flippers.

happy new year to all

Penny is lying on the hot kitchen floor, tired out but not sleeping because it is over 30 degrees in the house at 1:30 am on the first day of the year. I think that would be somewhere near 90 degrees fahrenheit.

I've cooled her down with a wet towel on her stomach, but she keeps wandering around looking for a new spot to doze.

However, I feel sure she would join me in wishing everyone, canine and human, a great start to the new year and lots of good times in 2008.

(If tonight is global warming in action, I don't look forward to the coming summers. Let's hope we can all work together to keep our one and only world in good shape for the future.)