Socializing at Pets Picnic Party, Sentosa Cove

Last Saturday, the Furry Tales attended the Pets Picnic Party at Sentosa Cove, along with 500 people and 250 pooches gathered for an afternoon of fun, games, food, shopping and mingling!

One big happy family! (L-R: Vivien and Lulu, Muddy and Tanya, Olive and Vicky, Sisi and Lucy.)

Organized for the third year by Pets Magazine, the event allowed like-minded dog owners and families to get to know each other and foster bonds within the local canine-loving community.

Our dogs enjoyed the afternoon of socialization and meeting new friends. They were also hoping for some of the yummy Thai food and snacks provided.

The food’s for us too, right?

However, we did find it a tad loud (and at last year’s event as well), especially when the emcee got excited and raised his voice while conducting the games. Next year, we will try to come earlier to find a space closer to the back!

Retail therapy was available, including handcrafted jewellery, glamorous pet collars, and customised pet portraits. Other activities included an adoption drive by Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD), entertaining games that saw furry ones pitting their “skills” against one another, and a ‘Pup-tor’ booth for pups to make new friends. Sponsors were generous with their prizes, including a GoPro HERO Session and Fetch Mount (total $600), a half-day luxury yacht charter ($1,800) and a 3D2N stay at Capella Singapore ($2,400). Sadly, we didn’t win anything. We’ll try harder next time!

Our mamas are so cheap this was the best costume we got!

The event was a job well done by the Pets Magazine team and we enjoyed it even more than last year’s picnic. Thanks for a fun-filled outing!

#WalkYourPups to celebrate Singapore’s Jubilee

To celebrate Singapore’s 50th birthday this year, The Furry Tales and Rao Canine co-organized a SG50 pack walk on 7 August. Thank you for the overwhelming response for the 80 dogs that signed up (we didn’t cap the number of humans)!

                                                              Group shot just before setting off!

It had been raining the whole week as well as thundering and lightning the day of the walk, but our prayers were answered when the rain stopped 30 minutes before the event! We so appreciate everyone who turned up even with the miserable weather – we didn’t expect it and it was such a bonus!

Giving out scarves and goodie bags at the “registration” area (we had planned for a nicer set up but the ground was so wet we had to keep everything in the boxes, sorry about that!)

Cutie patootie Hugo, the youngest pup at the event!

      Canine meet-and-greet before setting off.

The walk began at Fort Canning Green and it was a beautiful (though humid) walk through Fort Canning Park.

                                        Let’s go!

It was quite a sight to see. So many humans and dogs wearing red scarves on their necks walking together! We had many random people asking what event we had going on, where they could sign up, where the dogs got their scarves, and of course, much pointing and taking pictures.

By the time we reached the River Promenade area, all our dogs were panting and in need of a break. The dogs were given a water break and a chance to sniff each other once again while the humans had a special treat – an ice-cream uncle waiting with ice-cream bread and wafers.

Walking through Fort Canning Park with kids and furkids in tow!

Old school ice-cream uncle.

Most obedient pup award goes to this little fella who waited so patiently for his owner!

It was really nice getting to talk to some of you and we apologize if we didn’t get a chance to speak to you.

Lucy drooling over the ice cream sandwich she wasn’t going to get any of.

Thanks Bryan (@bry-wong) and Charissa (@theroyaltail) for helping us!

              Happy faces after ice-cream!

After everyone was rested up, we headed back to Fort Canning Park – caught a nice sunset, and we saw quite a few owners carrying their dogs, especially up the stairs to Fort Canning again! Hugo was asleep in his owner’s arms all the way back! Aww!

              Stopping traffic with our dogs 🙂

Re-entering Fort Canning Park, up a long flight of stairs (this was just the beginning)!

Thank you everyone for participating in the Walk Your Pups SG50 Pack Walk! We apologize for any delays or inconvenience that you may have encountered and thank you for your patience and high spirits throughout! We hope to see you at our future events and get to meet your cute pooches again.

                                                                 Thank you for making this happen!

Thank you also to our photographer, Nathan Wu of Nathan Wu Photography for taking such great photos of our walk, and to our wonderful volunteers who helped out in every way they could.

Happy SG50 Weekend to all!

A big thank you to our sponsors Wellness Natural Pet Food for Dogs and Cats, Holistic Select and Rose-Hip Vital Canine for the awesome products that were in the goodie bags. The first 25 lucky early birds got a bottle of Rose-Hip Vital Canine AND Rose-Hip PLUS Rose-hip oil for the human! We also collaborated with the very talented Verna from PuppyLoveDoggyFashion who spent the last few weeks sewing up a storm of beautiful SG50 scarves for each of your pups. We hope you all loved the goodie bags!

     The Furry Tales pack love their scarves!

 

More photos at Our FB Page!

Jumper Trial: Dogs Had Fun Despite Nerve-Racked Humans!

Contributed by Vicky Ti
Sisi and I tried out some basic jumper training with our dogs last year, but got lazy this year and took a 6-month break. However, we got off our butts and started again last month and challenged ourselves on Sunday with a pre-novice trial by Singapore Kennel Club (SKC)!

We arrived at West Coast Park dog run pretty stressed, thinking there would be about ten obstacles for our dogs to clear (to be fair, we had only been stringing four to six obstacles together up til our last practice, where we attempted ten obstacles, and that didn’t go very well)…and found out it was a challenging course of TWENTY OBSTACLES!!! Some hyperventilating may have happened, as well as some nausea and near-fainting.

Bunny Lucy and her floppy ears! (Photo by Mr Wong Seng Wai’s son)

While the humans were busy having a meltdown, our dogs had fun speeding around the park and making new friends. We were a little worried they would be too tired for the trial, but on the other hand, it was good for them to run off some excess energy.

I like to jump sideways, anything wrong with that?? (Photo by Mr Wong Seng Wai’s son)

The dogs did extremely well, considering the fact that they had never been in a tunnel this long and opaque before, they had never jumped through a life buoy hoop frame before, and that this was their longest course to date. The humans didn’t mess up as badly as we thought we would either, and all in all it was a great experience in retrospect.

Here’s Sisi and Lucy having fun.

Olive likes to clear her jumps with loads of margin to spare. I think she’s part antelope!

I know it looks pretty good…but here are the parts where we messed up! Haha.

Olive never completed going all the way through the long yellow tunnel and kept popping up behind me while I was on my hands and knees, making a fool of myself! Hey, anything for our dogs, right?

Thanks Alan from Pawsitive Mind for training us! We enjoyed it thoroughly and will be joining another trial this year!

More photos here: https://www.facebook.com/elsa.soo/posts/10206549875839661

Purina ONE DOGA x Causes for Animals = Fun and Cuteness!

Last Sunday, The Furry Tales stretched and strengthened our cores with our pooches at the Purina ONE DOGA event. Over 50 dogs and more than 60 people participated in setting Singapore’s record for the largest mass exercise with animals – yay! Tanya, instructor at InOm Yoga, and her calm assistant Muddy led the doga session in support for Causes for Animals. They did an awesome job!
Everyone enjoyed themselves on the mat, and there was a noticeable difference in the dogs’ energy levels from the beginning of the session to the end.

Even some really active puppies like this cutie managed to calm down and relax.

A nice back stretch for the humans.

Olive being a good prop for mama to stretch.

Lucy is completely relaxed like jello!

Participants that didn’t have their own dog were paired up with shelter or rescued pups (we love the concept of this!), which made for a whole lot of adorable! An adoption drive followed the doga session where we met plenty of cuties.

Awww, Heart Melt! (Photo Credit to Michiez Chua Photography)

Hope to see you at our next Zen Your Pups doga event, on 26 September! More details will follow closer to date, so keep a look out for that. In the meantime, The Furry Tales will be having a pack walk to celebrate Singapore’s National Day on 7 August – find out more here.

Check out The Furry Tales’ logo on the poster!

Our dogs look sooo good in their SG50 scarves!

Thank you Purina One for organizing this awesome event!

For more photos of Purina ONE DOGA, head here.

Socializing on a Pack Walk

Contributed by Vicky Ti
I’ll be honest. Olive is not the easiest dog in the world to manage, and two years on, I sometimes wonder if it was the right decision to adopt her. She is a mongrel with a controversial past (which we won’t go into right now), bad genetics (out of her litter of six, the three females are aggressive, and one of her brothers put someone in the hospital with stitches) and possesses several behavioral issues. I’ll just briefly mention two of her issues here: firstly, she doesn’t like strangers touching her and will snap, and secondly, she is reactive to stranger dogs and will do the whole hackles, growling and lunging thing if left unchecked. I have been working consistently with her over the last two years on this using a variety of methods, but primarily by stuffing her face with food when she meets her triggers and rewarding her for acceptable responses. The going has been slow.

BUT…
Over the last few months, The Furry Tales have been more active in going out to dog events and having our dogs meet many strangers (both humans and dogs), and I believe this has helped Olive a lot. She seems to have mellowed slightly in her reactivity, especially towards humans. If she is alone, she will still bark at people coming up to us directly and won’t allow them to touch her, but at these events, she lets her guard down and several people do end up patting her without eliciting a reaction from her. If she is alone, she is still bad with dogs approaching us, but at the group events, she is less reactive and manages to meet and greet many dogs without issue.

Look at Olive going up to sniff Pebbles at our Zen Your Pups event a few weeks back!

Over the last few months, she’s had more ‘good’ days where the waiter can come up to our table and she doesn’t bark, where men jog past her too close for comfort and she doesn’t snap, and where we walk through crowded areas and she’s not as nervous. She is more manageable when she sees stranger dogs and has decreased her ‘threshold’ distance where she will walk past them and ignore if they are not too close. While I’m sure this is partly due to training, I’m also very sure that mass social events have helped.

Having said that, The Furry Tales are organizing a pack walk in collaboration with Rao Canine, to celebrate Singapore’s 50th JUBILEE year together! This will be a great chance to socialize your dogs, meet new friends and enjoy a stroll along the Singapore River. Dog trainer Fern says that “walking dogs together in a group is the single best way to help dogs achieve a calm state of mind in the presence of what normally causes them to react. By keeping dogs moving together you unify them, bond them as pack mates, and give them a non-confrontational positive experience around people and dogs.”

Details are as follows:

Date: Friday 7 August 2015 (public holiday)
Time: 5pm – 7pm
Route: Meeting at Fort Canning Green at 5pm. Walk through Fort Canning Park to the Singapore River. Quick pit stop at the Asian Civilization Museum before heading back to Fort Canning Green.
Cost: $15/pup – includes goodie bag worth more than $15 plus an exclusive SG50 scarf (U.P. $18), with the option of embroidering your pup’s name for $3!

Sign up by 2 August HERE.

Back to Olive – while I do get tired occasionally of dealing with her issues (especially during those special times of the month), she is very manageable through consistent training. She is also intelligent and bright. My husband and I can’t imagine coming home without having her to greet us at the door. She is a delight at home and always makes us smile with her antics, and she loves to joke around.

Zen Your Pups!

Awesome participants who woke up so early for doga!

On Sunday, The Furry Tales organized Zen Your Pups, our first ever public doga class at Fort Canning! Thanks to everyone who woke up so early to spend precious time bonding with their pooches.  Tanya of InOm Yoga did a fabulous job leading 16 people through various stretches and exercises with their dogs who cooperated impeccably, zen-ning alongside their humans!

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and hope you did too! Here are some highlights of the event (#ZenYourPups).

Tanya, fellow TFT member/InOm Yoga instructor with her assistant Muddy.

Our dogs socializing before class – Milo and Peaches saying hi.

Olive and Lucy seem interested in Pebbles!

An excited Milo on the mat way before class began!

Super strong warriors!

Using our dogs as a prop to find balance in Warrior 3. Some are more cooperative than others.

Stretching those inner thighs and giving our dogs a good massage! Buibui is enjoying his human’s attention.

Two in particular were very zen-ned out! (Maggie and Cotton)

Humans enjoying their Warrior 1 pose.

Donut looks pretty happy about his massage too!

Towards the end of the class, some of us were verrrry relaxed.

We love the hand-carved rubber stamp of our five dogs that was made by Baisimu and we couldn’t wait to use it for our goodie bags. Baisimu is a store that specializes in hand-carved Chinese seals and customized handmade goods.

                      Customized goodie bags

                           This is my goodie bag!

We also raised S$300 which has been donated to Causes for Animals, an animal welfare charity that offers food and medical aid to street dogs and shelters. Find out more on how you can support them here.

As you can tell, we LOVE doga and are excited to join in the DOGA event hosted by Purina and Causes for Animals. Tanya will be leading the doga portion of the event (yay!), and after that, there will be an adoption drive and other activities. They even offer to pair you up with a dog if you don’t have one yourself. Sign up here and we hope to see you there!

For more event pictures, head to our Facebook page here. And stay tuned for our next Zen Your Pups event! Namastay.

#PetsPicnicParty2015

The Furry Tales were invited to be a part of this year’s Pets Magazine event – the Pets Picnic Party 2015! Despite the initially rainy weather and thereafter humid and muggy air, turnout was good and spirits were high. Dogs and humans got up close and personal on their picnic mats, with plenty of cold drinks and snacks going around.

Great turnout for this years #petspicnicparty2015

Tanya and calm assistant Muddy did a 15-minute Doga demonstration to introduce a few simple poses and massages we could do with our dogs. They did an awesome job!

Muddy showing off the twist on stage very well!

Erm, Olive tried, she really did!

(If you are interested in trying out doga, TFT are holding an introductory class on 28 June at Fort Canning Park! See end of post for further details.)

Olive and Muddy really enjoyed all the other dogs there, greeting old friends and meeting new ones. At an event like this, there is a lot of socialization going on and we were pleasantly surprised by how everyone got along despite the cozy spaces (the humans too)!

Cory, Cole, Olive and Muddy say hi. Cory might be feeling left out…he is after all shorter, and whiter…haha!

It was also sweet Twinkle’s barkday and we got to celebrate with some delicious Barkery cake!

Channel News Asia also covered the event: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/starterkit/servlet/fragment?id=1897458&view=embed

Thanks Pets Magazine for organising such a great pets picnic party! Looking forward to next year’s!

Here are some more shots from our event, credits go to Muddy’s dad, Michele (thanks!).

Tanya and Muddy being interviewed by Dawn Tan from Channel News Asia.

Lady-Mae and Oreo in the back, hoping for treats.

Olive is camera shy!

Muddy’s favorite massage.

ZEN YOUR PUP!

For those of you interested in trying out doga with your dogs but don’t know where to start, TFT are holding an introductory class on 28 June, 8am, at Fort Canning Park!

Tanya of InOm (and also Muddy’s mama) will be conducting the class and the rest of The Furry Tales will also be there, so come and join us! We are collecting a minimum donation of $10, which will be passed on to a shelter of our choice. Class will be limited to 15 participants.

SIGN UP HERE by 21 June. Hope to see you there!

We Get Wet and Muddy for GDAB!

Lulu, Lucy and Muddy support #guidedogsday !

On the last Wednesday of April every year, people around the world unite to celebrate to the importance of guide dogs in our society. To pay tribute to the efforts gone into assisting the blind or visually impaired, as well as the people who train them, the Guide Dogs Association of the Blind (GDAB) in Singapore organized the “GDAB Dog Challenge” event to raise awareness and funds.

Tanya happy with her goodie bag and er…yellow wrist tag!

The GDAB event last Saturday was at Bishan Park, and while we were almost doubtful the event would continue due to bad weather, people were happy to walk around with umbrellas, meeting fellow dog owners, collecting their goodie bags and enjoying the free drinks and ice-cream cones provided (hey, anything for freebies right?). The dogs also mingled while waiting for the drizzle to come to a halt. With live music, it made for good and happy vibes all round despite the gloomy weather.

My mama didn’t tell me to come in costume, or I would have been competition for you!

Lulu begs her mama for the treats she knows are in the bag.

Free ice-cream!

The rain finally stopped and the 1km dog walk and obstacle route could begin!

And we’re off…!

Muddy with his lucky parents, Michele and Tanya.

Our dogs enjoyed themselves – it was like a massive pack walk with fun and games along the way, with dog obstacles set up mid way. Lucy does agility training so she was happy to show off how easily she could jump over hurdles and run through the tunnel.

A wet and muddy Lucy comes out the tunnel.

Lucy thinks hurdles are too easy peasy.

Muddy hasn’t done agility before, but seemed to enjoy it so his mama is considering bringing him up to speed with it.

Muddy can’t lose out to a girl.

Everyone really enjoying the obstacle course despite the wet grass and mud!

Queuing for the next obstacle.

Apart from the dog walk, participants also got to pick up some tips from SuperNova Academy‘s dog instructor, Shanice, on how to cultivate proper dog etiquettes. There was also a look-a-like contest where owner and dog dressed alike.

These cowboys won the lookalike contest.

There were also canine massages being offered by PawsFurLife, a photo taking booth and another contest going on. We heard that Onyx (below) loved his massage. He certainly looks like he is!

Onyx enjoying his massage by Pawsfurlife. Photo credit: @hachimonster.onyxbaby (follow them on Instagram for more pictures of the two cuties, Onyx (Schnauzer) and Hachiko (Japanese Spitz)).

We didn’t get to try the massages or participate in the contest, but got stuck at the photo booth instead because of the cute cat and bird we saw sitting there.

While waiting for our turn at the photobooth, we met a little birdie!

And the cutest grumpy cat.

The Furry Tales had a great time meeting friends (old and new), raising awareness for guide dogs and left with awesome goodie bags (which included vouchers for SuperNova Academy training programs, a discount voucher for a swim at Sunny Heights, a personalized digital pet tag that’s to be mailed to us and treats). Thanks for the invite, GDAB!

Thanks for the great event with an even greater purpose!

GDAB’s programs include those for orientation and mobility, psychological support and counseling, Eye Live Independent (occupational therapy), and others. They have helped close to 100 vision impaired clients since being established in 2006! And this year, one of their initiatives is to start training guide dogs locally instead of importing them, which will lower costs and hopefully increase the availability of guide dogs (and shorten the waiting time) to those who need them.

So how can we get involved in supporting GDAB and help empower the blind or vision impaired so they can lead a normal and productive life? We can DONATE to help fund their programs, or VOLUNTEER (print or web design, photograph/videograph, help out with events and general admin duties).

For more information and donations please visit http://www.guidedogs.org.sg or email at admin@guidedogs.org.sg or call 6423 0217. Thank you!

Can I be a guide dog too?

Olive & Muddy check out Bubbly Petz

Last weekend, Olive and Muddy made a date to head down to the Bubbly Petz Grand Opening.

Where are the bubbles? We don’t see any!

They liked the sound of an eco-ethical (cruelty-free and recyclable or biodegradable products) pet store and cage-free, restraint-free and open-concept pet grooming studio, which is what Bubbly Petz is. Helmed by Desmond Chan and Suar Shi Min, Bubbly Petz advocates humane handling techniques of animals and the need to improve animal welfare standards in Singapore.

One of the talks we attended was by trainer Kristina Setiabudy, entitled “Life Skills for Enjoyable Grooming”, whereby we learnt how to use clicker training to desensitize dogs to having their paws handled or targeting our hand to get them into a the desired position instead of manhandling or manipulating their body. Once the treats were brought out, Muddy and Olive got interested in the learning 🙂

Muddy volunteered so he could earn some treats from Kristina while Olive cheered him on!

What impressed us is the passion of Bubbly Petz to educate pet owners on making informed choices for their animals and the environment, and the care that goes into choosing the planet-friendly products they sell – these include biodegradable poop bags and plant-based or organic foods. The Furry Tales can’t comment on the grooming services yet, but be sure that we will be following up on this next! Olive and Muddy have already requested to go back.

Congrats, Bubbly Petz, on your grand opening! (Back L-R: Desmond, Tanya, Vicky, Shi Min. Front L-R: Muddy, Olive)

Bubbly Petz is located at 266 Joo Chiat Road Singapore 427520. Tel: 63486872 or 96563786 (Desmond). They also do house calls – where grooming is done in the comfort of your own home.

YAY Tanya and Muddy won 3rd place in the lucky draw! Muddy can’t wait to try out the vegan treats and tea-tree oil shampoo!

Singapore’s 1st International Guide Dog Day!!

International Guide Dog Day (IGDD) is dedicated to celebrating guide dogs all over the world, to recognize the importance of guide dogs within our society, being a shield, companion and eyes of their blind or vision-impaired handlers.

Singapore will be having its first IGDD on 25 April 2015! Organized by Guide Dogs Association of the Blind (GDAB), the GDAB Dogs Challenge will be a 1km fun run with dog obstacles along the way, such as hurdles and weave poles.

Fun hurdles course.

GDAB are looking to raise S$100,000 which will be used for the training of the blind and vision-impaired as well as funding their guide dog programs. GDAB announced this year that it will start training guide dogs locally, instead of bringing them in from overseas. There are now a total of six guide dogs in Singapore and GDAB targets to train two each year.

Sign up today to support the vision impaired community and our canine heroes! You can register at: http://www.lightrunners.com/guidedogday/ or contact Josh at (+65) 6339-7900 for more information.  You stand a chance to win a pet hotel package for your furry VIP, which includes 5 swimming sessions + 1 daycare trial + temperament test at Sunny Heights.

All registrants will be entitled to a goodie bag worth S$70 which contains a personalized digital dog tag, swimming session vouchers, a dog obedience training voucher and various dog treats!

Some members of The Furry Tales will be there with their mamas and would love to meet new friends. Come say hi if you are around! We love this initiative because the awareness for guide dogs and their handlers in Singapore really needs to be increased. Recently in the local news, a man threw tools at guide dog Nice and reportedly caused it to be fearful of strangers. Guide dog Esme with handler Ms. Chiu also appears in the news regularly about getting rejected from shopping malls and stores because of Esme, even though guide dogs are legally allowed in most public places.

Hope to see you there!

Date and time: 25 April 2015, 4-7pm
Venue: Bishan – Ang Mo Kio Park / Pond Gardens, Activity Lawn 1
Cost: S$38