Lost in Translation

You know that heart in your mouth feeling when you realise you’ve lost something important and have absolutely no idea where it is or how you are going to get it back? You feel sick, start to panic and suddenly it gets really hot. Well, that was us on Waitangi Day when we lost Mila for the best part of an hour at the dog park. 

We had gone out to the park in Newlands for a run and to practice some recall training. It was a beautiful afternoon and a great excuse to get out and enjoy the fresh air. This of course involved pulling Mike away from the couch where he was watching both the cricket AND the Super Bowl – so it wasn’t a particularly popular decision from his perspective, but I digress. 

The park out in Newlands is basically a big, secluded field tucked away (generally) from houses and roads and surrounded by bush. The park is popular place for all types of dogs (and their owners) to hang out. It is an excellent place to let loose, sprint around, meet some other dogs and if you’re lucky, jump into one of the many “water features” about the place which of course, guarantees the need for a bath when you get home. 

There are also a whole heap of different paths and walking tracks around the outside of the park – and the bushes provide an excellent opportunity to explore. There are known to be rabbits hiding in them there gorse bushes! 

When we got to the park, we wandered around for a bit with the lead and muzzle on before deciding that Mila could have a bit of freedom. We played a couple of hide and seek games, some fetch and Mila attempted to race a Beagle and an overweight Chocolate Labrador.  Of course, Greyhounds have 2 settings: super fast and super slow. All of Mila’s meetings with the other dogs involved the former, sprinting up to them and standing with her ears straight up as if to say ‘C’mon! Why aren’t you racing with me!?!’ We always joke that Mila lacks the ability to “read the room” when it comes to interacting with other dogs and has no sense of tact when it comes to introducing herself. It is an endearing trait when you know that it is all in the name of good fun – and is Mila’s way of saying ‘Hi! Let’s be friends!!’ As you can imagine, it took the Beagle a few seconds to realise that the big black cheetah barrelling towards it at a million miles an hour was actually just playing around. The Lab on the other hand, was super keen to play chase but was also super slow (10 points for effort!)

Eventually Mila found the pond – and being a hot Waitangi afternoon decided to sit down and cool off – ensuring that the mud wasn’t restricted to just her legs but made it all the way up to her neck. At around this time she also developed selective hearing. Suddenly there were things more exciting in the world than wondering about with us and even our possum meat treats weren’t up to scratch anymore. 

And it was then, that she trotted off down a track and disappeared completely. 

At first, we weren’t overly concerned. Even if she didn’t immediately respond when she was called, she was pretty good at keeping us within eye sight and sprinting back to us if she got too far away. But as time passed – and 5 minutes turned into 10 and then 20 – we started to worry. We followed her most recent path, calling out all the way, to no response. The houses and roads seemed much closer than they were before and we knew that if she had seen something that she wanted to chase, she could be miles away. After 20 minutes of helplessly looking (and Mike heading back to the car to scan the surrounding area) and just as we were about to reconvene to consider our next move, out from the bushes comes a black waggy tail with a white tip and a big tired grin. Totally oblivious. After lots of pats and being securely back on the lead – we were back in the car (hooray!) and off home for a bath. That was more than enough excitement for one day! 

Aww - C'mon! I didn't get THAT dirty...did I??

As we packed up the car we discovered that along the path Mila had met a man who was out walking his two dogs – and decided to join their party for a bit. How lovely for her!!

So, Lesson #589 learned – Mila loves to hang out with other dogs and other people and is happy to spend time exploring with them – fantastic!!! However, in order to avoid knocking 10 years off my life due to stress, reading the signs (body language etc) is important. If it looks like I’ve lost her attention, I probably have and reverting back to a nice relaxed on-lead walk might just be in everyone’s best interests.

The Social Butterfly

Sometimes it seems as though Mila has a better social life than I do. A slightly depressing admission to make when you are twenty-something and Mila is a dog – but I don’t mind, it’s good for both of us to get out and mingle with our new hound/owner friends.

This long weekend, involved a whole heap of Greyhound-related activities. We discovered a new (and fantastic) dog park in Newlands with Sally and her hounds George and Mynx where we were able to explore off-lead, have a few sprint races and get ourselves very wet, dirty and smelly playing with Mynx in the pond. Having three black hounds together was good fun and it was really interesting to see the differences (and similarities) in personality between them. It is a bit of a trek from our house to the park in Newlands…but well worth the journey. Mila has been in need of a decent run around for a little while now and after that has seemed like a calmer and more settled dog.

On Monday, we headed down to Frank Kitts Park to spend some time with some of the other Greyhounds showing ourselves off at the GAP stall at the 350 Birdman on the Wellington Waterfront. It was our first official GAP outing and an excellent opportunity to catch up with/meet some of the other owners and to gauge how far we had come with settling in and dealing with all the attention of groups of people, young kids and other dogs.

Mila has definitely calmed down a lot since our (fairly disastrous) visit to Animates to see the other Greys during her second week of living with us. It’s fair to say that on that occasion we weren’t exactly a shining example of the docile, relaxed, happy and calm dog that we are supposed to be. Anything that moved or made a noise (which in a pet shop is EVERYTHING) would prompt an alert response, or if small animals were involved, it was time to bound about the place like a lunatic! It was definitely a case of too much too soon back then – and we got out of there pretty smartly before we ruined the reputation of Greyhounds everywhere! I feel a lot more comfortable now that Mila is better equipped to deal with the distractions and the fuss (although we are yet to venture back into Animates…).  She put on a Oscar-winning performance at the stall on Monday, positioning herself alongside strangers and nudging their hand just a little bit for a pat or patiently looking up at them with her long face and those soulful eyes, wagging her tail enthusiastically as if to assure them that they had just found their new best friend. It got me thinking that all those weeks ago when we first went to meet her in Sanson, I had been suckered in by a seasoned pro!! Anyway, there were many kisses, pats and hugs for Mila and her buddies – all of whom were very well behaved - and if the number of pamphlets handed out in the hour or so that we were there is anything to go by, it was a very successful day! I hope to post some pics up soon...

So, we now have some new fixtures in the social calendar – A&P Shows, the Martinborough Fair, GAP runs and some doggie play dates. It’s a great way to meet new people and to give Mila some exposure to different settings (and animals) and it keeps us both out of trouble. Between that and the renovations to our house, I wonder if I will ever get the time for some of the important human things in life…like shopping!!

The politics of toileting

This is not so much an adventure, as an observation - but how is it that a dog knows when you want them to go to the toilet and holds on for as long as they can to prolong the process as much as possible? Every dog I have ever owned (or been associated with) has done it - and it has always amazed me.

I was thinking about this late last night as I wandered aimlessly around my neighbourhood in the hopes that Mila would find a spot to go (why does it always have to be the perfect spot??). She had already been for two walks and hadn't bathroomed since the morning, but she didn't (or wouldn't) again at nighttime - and I eventually gave up and took her home in the hopes that we wouldn't wake up at 3am to the signature pacing in the hallway that is a sure sign that we need to go outside.

Cesar Milan (the Dog Whisperer) has a rule that you should never take your dog on a walk with the sole objective of having them toilet. It's no fun for the dog to get mid-way down the road, do its business and then find that they are turning around to go home again. While I agree with this to a point, I have discovered that (for sanity's sake more than anything) there must be exceptions to this rule. As an example, when it is pouring down outside (and has been for days), and neither you or the dog want to be outside without good reason, it is out and about as quickly as possible before we drown. When the dog hasn't been to the toilet all day and you get home with time for a quick toilet (and the promise of an extra good walk later on) before you have to go out again is another good one that we get caught with.

Getting Mila to go voluntarily in the backyard is never an option on these days. If it is raining, she stands under the shelter of the porch and looks wistfully at the grass and then back at me as if to say "Please don't make me do it..." before she trots back past me indoors to the safety and dryness of her bed. Otherwise, there is always something more interesting in the garden than the need to bathroom, so we explore and then come inside again.

So an enforced walk it is.

On our routine walks, Mila has two or three favourite grassy spots to go (which we affectionately refer to a "Poo's landing"). On a good day, she will get to those spots and do her thing, and after some clean up, we can get on with the real fun that is the dog walk. On a not so good day, there is no interest in these spots at all - we muck about smelling flowers, attempting to wander up people's driveways, or stopping to look at something in the distance that isn't really there. We walk slowly and sniff the ground as if we are thinking about maybe going to the toilet sometime soon - and then stand up abruptly with a "hah - tricked ya!!" look on our face. It's difficult to remain calm and positive when your dripping wet and freezing cold!

I swear she can sense when I just need her to go and takes that as her queue to go for as long a walk as possible. When she does decide to go we are at the half way point of our long walk anyway, so it's just as easy to keep going as it is to turn around and go home. 

I suppose I shouldn't really be complaining about something that gets me off my backside and out in the fresh air on those days when I would rather just stay a little longer on the couch. We didn't have to get up at 3am by the way, but we were definitely busting by the time morning rolled around.

One of those walks....

The Beach

Bounding about in the waves

On Sunday morning, we decided to head down to Paraparaumu Beach to frolic in the sand and the waves. For those keeping track, that is a visit to two different beaches in one day for our Greyhound friend – which made for a very tired girl that night – but the weather was so good that we couldn’t resist the opportunity.

We were out visiting the Kapiti Coast for various mum-related birthday celebrations. Both M and I grew up taking dogs to the beach (me with German Shepherds at Himatangi, and later Waikanae Beach, and M with his Waimaraner at Pararaparaumu Beach) – so it felt like a good time to renew the tradition and introduce Mila to the sights and sounds of the ocean.

When we got there, the change in Mila was obvious – everything was so different to our home in Karori. First it was the smell of the sea air, then it was the shells and the dune grass, the feeling of soft sand underfoot, the seagulls, the drift wood and…ALL THAT WATER!! What was going on?!

Not surprisingly, all of the nice, calm walking that we had been faithfully practicing went out the window at this point. There were too many things to be sniffed, pawed at and watched for a greyhound to be paying any attention to what I had to say. After the novelty of the sand had worn off a bit, it was down into the water where there was running and jumping and splashing and also a bit of intentionally trying to get me as wet as possible. It didn’t really help that M was standing (nice and dry) back up on the beach, doing his best to rark Mila up and make sure that my pants had absolutely no chance of staying dry.

Unfortunately, we are not quite at the stage where we are able to let Mila off the lead with the confidence that she will come back to us when we call her (any tips????). I’m pretty certain that she wouldn’t take the opportunity to run away from us completely – but when there are other dogs, seagulls, fish and possum traps in the sand dunes – the risk of her getting herself into trouble is just too high to take at the moment (even with a muzzle on). The Kapiti Beaches are supposed to be on-lead anyway, so you can imagine the trouble I would get into if I let Mila off and she managed to destroy something important…they get penguins around there, you know!
Here are some pics of our adventures at the beach. As you can see, there was a lot of running and getting wet (and quite a few ‘c’mon! why are you being SO slow??’ looks from Mila as I did my best to keep up). 

 

This is SO much fun!!

Reluctantly back to dry land

 

Dogaccinos in the Sunshine

Reading back over my posts, it has dawned on me that so far all of my stories have been about Mila getting herself into trouble. Admittedly, they are the most entertaining tales – but they probably don’t paint a fair picture of our little buddy.

Mila’s bio on the GAP website described her as a “people dog” – and it really couldn’t have been more accurate. She loves every person who shows the slightest interest in her (sometimes to the point of being annoying) and, although she is a big black hound, we have discovered that she would make the worst guard dog in the world!

She’s not all that into other dogs unless we are on a walk, or there is a chance of a race. At Obedience Classes, she was more interested in what the owners were doing than in interacting with the other dogs and she is also happy to make her own fun - running around by herself chasing leaves, squeaking toys or splashing in puddles. Sometimes Mila’s disinterest in other dogs borders on impatience (we are learning to tolerate the small excitable dogs at the moment) and she will let another dog know if they are being a pain. However, in a household with no cats or other dogs (although we do have a rabbit who is kept well out of sight and smell), Mila fits in perfectly.

On Sunday, I decided to test her a little with a walk down Oriental Parade. It was a glorious summer day in the Capital (one of the few so far) and I knew there would be dogs of all shapes and sizes enjoying some time out in the sunshine. We started around by Te Papa and resolved that, if we were good, we would stop at Beach Babylon (about a 5 minute walk away) and try something from their new K9 menu.

I was super proud when we made it the whole way along without a single problem. We passed Beagles, Pomeranians, Seagulls and plenty of kids on scooters and there was no lunging at all! We even had a lady with her big black Labrador come up to us and ask if her dog could meet Mila. No worries, we said.

So with that, I wandered confidently along to the café to find a seat in the sun. As we went in, I saw a little Scottish terrier and a couple of Jack Russells which I thought might cause us some issues. But of course, the most exciting thing for Mila was the number of smiling people who wanted to stop for a pat. She was in heaven!

We ordered our drinks – an OJ for me and a Dogaccino for Mila. A Dogaccino is a mix of cold milk and beef stock served in a large dog bowl – an extra special treat because we don’t like to give her dairy too often – and she loved it! She was a bit apprehensive to begin with, taking a couple of slow licks at the bowl, but when she realised that it was okay for her to keep drinking, she was right into it.

After we finished, it was off home for a much-needed sleep on the couch. A big day for Mila, but a successful one exploring the sights and sounds of Wellington City. And Dogaccinos get the Mila Grey Seal of Approval! 

Chowing down on our Dogaccino under the shade of our table on Oriental Parade