Slavenka has posted a link to this funny clip of two dogs romping around during a soccer match (football match).
I love the joyful dogs and I love the way they are treated by the players. I wonder what happened afterwards? I presume the voice speaking is Turkish.
Saturday, 19 January 2013
Friday, 18 January 2013
red tennis balls grow on trees
Fortunately, she doesn't eat the plums. She just likes to have them around, perhaps regarding them as toys.
Tuesday, 15 January 2013
physical therapies in the treatment of dogs
PetMD has a great article today on physical therapy for pets.
When Penny damaged her cruciate ligament, I searched for reliable information about what to do, and I would have loved to have read this article.
Eventually we settled on a traditional repair of her cruciate ligament damage, and were happy with the surgery, but the vets did not emphasise the necessity for follow-up therapy. However, from research on the Net we decided it would be helpful.
I'm glad we did, because I don't believe Penny would have recovered as well as she did, without the underwater treadmill, swimming and canine physiotherapy. We followed it up with a long period of home therapy, using exercises given to us by the canine physiotherapist, from Dogs in Motion. (And I'm excited to see that Dogs in Motion now has a blog!)
Dr. James St. Clair's home therapy booklet was a godsend also, and it became our bible for more than a year.
Penny still swims regularly, but looking back through my blog to compose this post has alerted me to the fact that perhaps we should also be doing ongoing home therapy. I'm going over right now to check out the Dogs in Motion blog.
When Penny damaged her cruciate ligament, I searched for reliable information about what to do, and I would have loved to have read this article.
Eventually we settled on a traditional repair of her cruciate ligament damage, and were happy with the surgery, but the vets did not emphasise the necessity for follow-up therapy. However, from research on the Net we decided it would be helpful.
I'm glad we did, because I don't believe Penny would have recovered as well as she did, without the underwater treadmill, swimming and canine physiotherapy. We followed it up with a long period of home therapy, using exercises given to us by the canine physiotherapist, from Dogs in Motion. (And I'm excited to see that Dogs in Motion now has a blog!)
Dr. James St. Clair's home therapy booklet was a godsend also, and it became our bible for more than a year.
Penny still swims regularly, but looking back through my blog to compose this post has alerted me to the fact that perhaps we should also be doing ongoing home therapy. I'm going over right now to check out the Dogs in Motion blog.
Friday, 11 January 2013
summer - or drought once more?
This morning, in our summer routine for hot days, we set off early, when the parks are pretty much deserted, except for dog walkers. The sun was brassy in the sky, and already hot at 7:45 am, but bearable because of the clouds.
As usual, Penny made the walk interesting, stopping to draw my attention to a good smell on a rock...
and on a post.
The grass on the sportsground is still green, thanks to watering from the storage tanks.
But it's frightening to see how the environment is drying up elsewhere, now that it hasn't rained for so long. The cracks in the earth beneath our feet are a warning of how fragile our hold on life is, in this dry Australian continent. I have water tanks to hold 8000 litres, but two out of three tanks are empty.
I hope we're not slipping back into drought.
Summer comes crashing in
Penny doesn't read The Age, but I think she might have been interested in Wednesday's cartoon by Michael Leunig. Here's a link to the cartoon, but I'm not sure if newspaper links stay around for long, so I'll quote a section of the text:
G'day, G'day. Beg your pardon
I am here to wreck your garden
Tongue is cracked; claws are hot;
I've got prickles in my bot.
The words are accompanied by a picture of a creature with fiery breath and flaming backbone. A small human cowers before the monster, holding a hose with water trickling out onto a patch of ground near a home.
These days Penny comes home from most walks with prickles in her 'bot' and mostly everywhere else too! I don't know what the little plants are that have these horrible spiky seeds, but they are everywhere. We search through Penny's fur after each outing, not only to protect her from discomfort, but also to avoid the seeds ending up in our garden.
G'day, G'day. Beg your pardon
I am here to wreck your garden
Tongue is cracked; claws are hot;
I've got prickles in my bot.
The words are accompanied by a picture of a creature with fiery breath and flaming backbone. A small human cowers before the monster, holding a hose with water trickling out onto a patch of ground near a home.
These days Penny comes home from most walks with prickles in her 'bot' and mostly everywhere else too! I don't know what the little plants are that have these horrible spiky seeds, but they are everywhere. We search through Penny's fur after each outing, not only to protect her from discomfort, but also to avoid the seeds ending up in our garden.
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
out in the wide, wide river
Penny hasn't built on her recent success at fetching two toys at once while swimming in the Yarra. It must have been an accident, because she doesn't appear to remember how she did it.
Yesterday she was, as usual, swimming in the river for her Whirl Wheel, but she absent-mindedly took one with her when she went for the other.
So, a problem. How to bring them both back to shore? She's a determined dog, and swam in circles, trying to figure out how to do it, gradually drifting further and further downstream.
We weren't worried. Well, not yet. But she was starting to flag - we can usually see she's tiring when she sinks a bit in the water.
Here's a clip of how she solved it. You can hear us calling her to head back to shore with the first one. After all, we didn't really care if the second toy floated down the river and out into Port Phillip Bay, as long as Penny got back safely to shore. But as you can see, she wasn't going to give up. (By the way, the birds chirping in the background are bellbirds.)
After all that effort, it was time to shake the water off...
and roll on the toys.
So, a problem. How to bring them both back to shore? She's a determined dog, and swam in circles, trying to figure out how to do it, gradually drifting further and further downstream.
Here's a clip of how she solved it. You can hear us calling her to head back to shore with the first one. After all, we didn't really care if the second toy floated down the river and out into Port Phillip Bay, as long as Penny got back safely to shore. But as you can see, she wasn't going to give up. (By the way, the birds chirping in the background are bellbirds.)
After all that effort, it was time to shake the water off...
and roll on the toys.
Friday, 4 January 2013
dog walking in every kind of weather
Living with a dog is a great way to get in touch with nature. We've found that we have a greater interest in the weather forecasts since Penny came to live with us.
In winter, we need to know whether there's going to be a break in the rain so we can head out and not come home soaked.
But it's in summer that we really keep and eye on the forecasts. If it's going to be a stinker of a hot day, which has been the case lately, we need to walk and be home before about 8a m. It was about 30º C this morning by that time. That's about 80º Fahrenheit.
Lately we've been getting less exercise ourselves, because if we leave it a bit late to walk, we simply take Penny to the river. She swims while we sit around.
In winter, we need to know whether there's going to be a break in the rain so we can head out and not come home soaked.
But it's in summer that we really keep and eye on the forecasts. If it's going to be a stinker of a hot day, which has been the case lately, we need to walk and be home before about 8a m. It was about 30º C this morning by that time. That's about 80º Fahrenheit.
Lately we've been getting less exercise ourselves, because if we leave it a bit late to walk, we simply take Penny to the river. She swims while we sit around.
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