Why I Love My Dog

Contributed by Vicky Ti
Our dogs are such goofy creatures. We can’t help but be entranced by their play, attentively watch them poop (and go through it to see what they’ve been stealing from the ground), give them neck and belly scratches as they contort into funny positions to ask for more, soften our hearts when they look at us with their soulful big eyes, and we can’t help but wonder what they are thinking. True, they take time and effort to train (especially with a rambunctious pup like Olive!), but we are a happier person overall with them in our lives.

1) You feel like the greatest person in the world when you come home to a wagging tail and slobbery kisses. Yes, they can’t show too much excitement and they shouldn’t be bouncing up and down like a yo-yo, or nip, or bark – these are behaviors that need to be phased out – but seeing their happiness makes me happy, knowing that they are already waiting there in anticipation when they hear you outside.

What’s an acceptable excitement level? It depends on the owner. Some may like a little excited jumping and whining, others may want a calm sit. I personally prefer a joyously wagging tail as she respectfully circles me (Olive isn’t allowed to jump up). And once I sit down or bend down, she may try to lick my face (she does love to sneak in kisses). Whatever the case is, you feel like the most-loved person in the world when you come home to your dog!

2) On the subject of love, dogs love us unconditionally, no matter what you look like, no matter what crappy things you’ve done in the day, they love us even when they’ve seen us at our worst. With our dog, we can be completely who we are – no trying to be cool or worrying about that crazy hair, and no having to watch what you say and worry about what people think (although sometimes we have to ‘fake’ being strict with them!) – there is freedom in that.

They love us even when we put silly things on them!

Top left: Olive wrongly supported Spain in the World Cup. Top right: Lulu looks on in relief that she doesn’t have to wear sunnies like Olive and Lucy. Bottom: Olive, Muddy, Lulu, Leto and Lucy get ready to go out to the races.

3) Dogs are such great companions. They love to just lie by your feet, will tolerate any hugs and kisses we impose, provide one-sided conversation and chatter, and generally help mitigate any loneliness. I have a friend who says that her dog literally saved her from loneliness when she first moved to Singapore. They are life-savers in more ways than one. Loyal and devoted companions.

Reflecting on life, side by side.

4) They provide much-needed structure and discipline to our lives, especially if you have a flexi job (like I do) or if you are a lady of leisure. From personal experience, my dog forces me to get out of the house and meet people every single day (when before, it was so easy to languish in bed and feel lethargy and inertia to do anything constructive). This lifts my mood automatically even if I didn’t feel great before. An added bonus is we get fitter (and tanner) with daily walks or runs. If we cook for our dogs or supplement their kibble with home-cooked foods, we need to plan a trip to the market and set aside time to prepare the food, and hopefully cook for ourselves too. So yes, I get some structure to my days and discipline in caring for them. We live for something other than ourselves and that makes us feel better.

5) Ultimately, what do I learn from my dog? Things of life:
…how to be joyful and content with the little things.
…don’t over-analyze, life can be simple.
…accept people (and dogs) for who they are.
…it doesn’t take a lot to be happy, and money doesn’t have much to do with it.
…realize that everyone (and every dog) progresses at different rates.
…laugh, laugh and laugh more.
…what love is.

And I am learning this everyday.

Obedience Trial: JUST FOR FUN (JFF)

Contributed by Sisi Soh
In June this year, Lucy and I competed in our very first dog event together with her friends, Muddy and Olive. We competed in the Just For Fun (JFF) obedience trial organized by Singapore Kennel Club (SKC) at Bishan CC. Then in August, Lucy and Olive competed again in another SKC JFF obedience trial at the Singapore Expo, where Olive won 4th place. We were all so proud of her!

SKC JFF Obedience Trial August 2014: Olive won 4th place!! And is waving to her fans and supporters.

An obedience trial is a dog sport in which a dog must perfectly execute a predefined set of tasks when directed to do so by his handler. Training a dog to participate in an obedience trial increases a dog’s understanding and reliability in responding to certain basic obedience commands such as ‘sit’, ‘stay’, ‘down’, ‘stand’, ‘come’ and ‘heel’. At an obedience trial, these exercises are to be performed and will be evaluated and scored by a judge. The dog must achieve basic proficiency in each exercise in order to pass. Higher degrees of accuracy and style receive more points. For example, during a recall, your dog should trot back to you without veering to the side and should sit straight in front of you and not at an angle.

A ‘JUST FOR FUN’ standard is less strict, and allows the handlers to reward their dogs with treats after each exercise is completed.

It was quite an experience!

Top to bottom, left: Olive preparing to heel; Olive heeling; Muddy heeling. Top to bottom, right: Muddy executing down-stay; Lucy preparing to sit-stay; Lucy running back in recall.

Here’s what I learnt :

1. Perseverance furthers.
I started off thinking the training was for the dog. I soon realized it was for both of us. My dad has always called me a ‘halfway girl’. I’d buy a canvas stand, acrylic paints, enroll in painting classes, paint ten pictures, and then wake up one day never wanting to paint again. Or invest in boxes and boxes of crystals and beads to make jewelry, only to lose interest after six months.

Ever since I’ve had Lucy, there hasn’t been a single goal I’ve set for her/myself that I’ve given up on halfway.

Tanya (with Muddy), Vicky (with Olive) and I (with Lucy) decided to embark on this obedience trial path at the beginning of this year. With the help of Vivien of Rao Canine, we aimed to meet two to three mornings each week to train. While it was mostly a heap of fun, there were also frustrating times. You can have 100% reliable perfect ‘downs’ for weeks and then one morning your pooch just decides she doesn’t know what a down means anymore! Or have such an itchy dog that each time she finishes scratching, she forgets what instruction she had been following.

Perseverance furthers, they say. However, that’s only partly true – we all know how to repeat the same mistake our whole lives without the slightest difference in result. So, only intelligent, attentive perseverance furthers. That’s dog training.

So you can’t give up. You can’t get angry. Because you can’t train a dog when you’re angry. You can’t tell your dog it should know what you want. So, you take two steps back and then start again where you were last successful. You take a break. You let your dog play hard. Coz it’s not all about working. Then when playtime is over, they are more focused.

And then there’ll be days when you see that your dog finally gets what you’re asking her to do, and because of the praise and reward you provide, she will actually enjoy doing it. It’s quite something to see the penny drop for them. It motivates you to persevere.

The penny has dropped for Lucy.

2. You don’t need a group to compete (apart from group training, I also practiced with Lucy alone at home everyday), but you want one.
Apart from the obvious fun you have when training as a group, there’s a whole lot of support it can provide.  I suffer from massive stage fright. I would normally never willingly sign up for something that would put me in any sort of spotlight. Having to overcome that with several judges, other competitors and an audience watching can be rather overwhelming. But it was made a lot easier with encouragement and the knowledge that I wasn’t alone.

Practicing group sit-stays are FUN! (Alexandra Park Connector)

While I’m sure every other competitor there that day was just hoping other dogs would stuff up, we were cheering each other (and our dogs) on.

3. The power of failure.
It doesn’t matter how prepared you are, how experienced you are or how well your dog is trained for a competition. That’s just the way it is when you’re working as a team. Both you and your dog need to be ‘on’ to have a good run, and since your dog is not a robot, there is always an element of unpredictability to any competition. It’s okay to be disappointed at not doing as well as you’d hoped, but there’s good in failing too because it is how we become better at training our dogs. With every failure, you’re forced to re-evaluate your training methods. (Are you rewarding quickly enough? Are you excited enough? Does your dog even understand your hand signal?)

With every failure, you’re also forced to become more inventive.

I recently read somewhere that a trainer put on masks each time she trained her dog so that it would accept handling from strangers. We resorted to jumping around like maniacs during our dogs’ sit-stays, and running around them in circles, so that they would learn not to be distracted by movement.

4. Being excited.
When I train with Lucy, I’m often so focused on using my clicker at the precise timing, feeding her after, and watching for the behavior that I forget to be excited.

Lucy heeling well – excitement, praise and treats go a long way in training!

Excitement is everything. One particular week in training, Lucy stopped doing well in her heeling exercises. She got distracted easily and wouldn’t do what I wanted. I went home and got out her favorite toy. After each good heel, I practically screamed like a banshee – “GOOD GIRL! OH MY GOD WHAT A CLEVER GIRL!” I AM SO EXCITED OVER A HEEL! And proceeded to play tug with her. She was so happy and improved tremendously that week. So, excitement is exciting! We should immerse ourselves in every opportunity. If training isn’t like a game for them, learning stops.

At the end of the day, working with our dogs towards succeeding in obedience trials is not about winning trophies or awards. It is really about analyzing your training and improving the bond and communication with your dog.

SKC JFF Obedience Trial August 2014: Lucy and I with the Judge.

SKC JFF Obedience Trial June 2014: The Furry Tales team – proud to be first time triallers! (L-R: trainer Vivien with Kafka (who competed in novice and intermediate), Sisi with Lucy, Tanya with Muddy, Vicky with Olive).

Dog Dot Cafe

Lucy and Chihuahua getting acquainted.

The Furry Tales and friends checked out Dog Dot Cafe on Morse Road on a lazy Sunday afternoon. We expected it to be packed but it was surprisingly quiet. In fact, we were the only guests there at that time. At the door, the two little hosts – a black Pomeranian and a Chihuahua – greeted us eagerly. Lucy, who is sometimes intimidated by bigger dogs, was very happy to get acquainted with the Chihuahua who was a third her size. Merrily, the duo spent the first 30 minutes inquiring about each other’s well-being and affairs.

Throwback to the days of school canteens.

The cafe is pretty spacious, ample room to contain the personality of a Chihuahua and some more. The tables are set on one side of the cafe leaving the rest of the space free for the pooches to roam about, roll around, sniff butts, lick butts, lick your face. The green walls and wooden benches made us feel like we were back in the primary school days, also known as the days of yore.

“Please don’t eat me, Bulldog!”

Lucy bought a house.

We were famished when we arrived, so first thing we did was to order food. The food was reasonably priced and, for a dog cafe, surprisingly yummy. We ordered the Chicken Nuggets (10pcs for $6), Dog Dot Nasi Lemak ($9.50) and the Melty Chicken Yappie Burger ($10.50). They did not lie about the melty cheese. It flowed like the eyes of a teenage girl watching The Notebook. For an extra $3, you can upgrade the sides to truffle fries. Honestly, one would need a truffle hunting dog to detect the difference between the regular and truffle fries. We say, regular fries will do the job. Where the truffle fries failed, the nuggets shined. It fulfills its task of satisfying your craving for fried food. Well done, Chicken Nuggets, well done. The Nasi Lemak rice came in the shape of a dolphin and was accompanied by a bit of everything – Luncheon Meat, Ngoh Hiang, Ikan Bilis, Achar, Chicken Wing, Egg and the magic ingredient, a dollop of Sambal Chilli Sauce. The dolphin seemed to be on the skinny side. A fatter one or a pair of dolphins would make the meal good enough to make a PMS-ing lady happy.

The Menu.

Ten-piece Chicken Nuggets ($6).

Melty Chicken Yappie Burger ($10.50).

Nasi Lemak ($9.50).

Curry Chicken with Bread ($9.50).

Testing our impulse control. No food before photo.

If you find yourself with that bunch of friends who cannot agree on a single cuisine, go to DDC. It has a menu that tries its best to be multi-racial; from Nasi Lemak, to Curry Chicken, to Beef Lasagne. On our second visit, we tried the Curry Chicken with Bread. This is done Indian style, without coconut milk, similar to the type of curry you would have with Roti Prata. There is one thing about the menu that we weep over: the lack of good coffee. Oh, the humanity!

Lucy has a sad. There be no coffee here.

Pied Piper.

Ok humans, now say sit and give us treats when we do.

All in all, we had a very pleasant time at DDC. Because we were so lucky to have the cafe to ourselves, our dogs spent some time training us. They practiced getting us to tell them to sit, stay, and getting us to walk beside them in a formal and stylised fashion. They have trained us well.

Dog Dot Cafe is located at 16 Morse Road. No. 207. If you are driving along Telok Blangah Road, turn in from Wishart Road. They are open Tuesday-Thursday from 12.00pm-8.00pm, Friday from 12.00pm-11.pm , Saturday from 11.00am-11.00pm and Sunday from 11.00am-8.00pm. We heard that it gets crowded on weekend evenings, so you might want to call to ask if there are any available tables.

Meet & Greet

In the dog world, this is where we would be sniffing each other’s butts.

Kafka is a handsome German Shepherd born in Belgium, raised in Texas and living in Singapore. He is in training for obedience trials and IPO titles. Under his macho exterior, Kafka is a mama’s boy. His life goals are chasing that ball, eating all that food, biting that tail and following his mama everywhere.
Lulu was adopted in Texas when she was a little puppy. Her mother was a Great Pyrenees and her father, well, he was a traveling man. Lulu’s passion is for gourmet food and will turn her nose up at anything that she deems unfit for her refined palate. Her hobbies are inspecting the ground, walking at a leisurely pace (especially when her mom is in a hurry) and rolling around in the muddiest spots.
The lucky humans of Kafka and Lulu are Vivien and Murli.

Muddy, Mudster, Mudmonster, Muds, Oscar, Muddy boy! Just a few names that Muddy goes by at home. Muddy is a Singapore Special who was rescued when he was ten months old. He has come a long way from being maggot-infested, skin and bones, and being practically furless (he had been attacked by the wild pack of dogs to which he belonged). He was extremely fearful, nervous and timid. With patience, love and trust, he has blossomed into a happy, disciplined and friendly dog. Though he still has some work to do with strangers, owners Tanya and Michele are super proud of him.

Lucy is an 18-month old American cocker spaniel – black, curly and looks like a baby gorilla. She loves swimming, playing with squeaky toys and snoring loudly. While very timid, she does bark at dogs, people and vacuum cleaners. Sisi and Nathan are working hard to remedy this so that she can have more friends. Lucy babygirl is also inundated with endearments like sweet pea, babykins, sweetest pie, puppatoo, pumpkin pie, puppykins, pumpkin patch…you get the idea! This may also need to be remedied this so that she knows her name.

Olive is a high-energy and nervous rescue dog who had a rough start to life, bouncing through various foster homes, getting attacked by other dogs and being mistreated. She now leads a (relatively) luxurious life, with daily walks, regular adventures and outings with her friends, and homemade treats. She is one smart cookie and is still working on getting over her distrust of humans. While she is a constant challenge to her owners, Vicky and Jay, it has also been a joy watching her explore the world and learning what’s expected of her. She has resigned herself to the things that are put on her head.