Thank you so much for your support with my blog. As of 28 May 2022, due to the move to our new website, you can review my blog in https://www.myhappipet.com/ On the new website (most part is translated in English), we enhance it so that it is much easier to communicate to each other. We will provide update on our picture book project which will be published in August this year. Thank you so much for your continuous support to us!
Two years ago, when we decided to have a dog, after more than 10 years of not having a dog, because of the lockdown in Melbourne, no dogs in rescue centres were available and we were told it will be years before we can get a dog from some breeders. It was almost a miracle we met Saki!
As all human beings have a reason why they were born, I believe all pets have a reason why they were sent to us.
When I think about the reason why Saki was born, I think it is to make everyone smile😊 . Everyone who walks past Saki, or people in the car (when they see Saki’s face popped out of the car window), smile 😊.
In addition, Saki has a reputation among the tradies who come t fix the apartment building that she is the best behaved dog in the building! I feel this is too exaggeration! BUT I quietly feel the second reason why Saki is with us is to teach my son how to behave!
Thank you, Saki chan for making everyone happy ❤️.
I have been noticing a lovely looking shop called Pawsconnect, which specialises in dog & cat’s chiropractics.
Saki was hit by a car in July last year (2021) and since we were a little concerned about its impact on her. So I made a booking for Saki.
The shop (clinic) had some lovely products mainly sustainable minded products, dog/cat food that are made from natural ingredients or cat toilet sand made from Tofu! They even had pet’s first aid kit.
Phillip sensei who is very experienced chiropractor, examined Saki thoroughly. He told us Saki has no problem, only her bicep is tight, but this is completely normal.
He also showed us how to massage Saki as she loves running and jumping.
Phillip also advised it is better to trip the hair grown around her paws to stop from slipping.
We feel much better now as we know Saki’s body is okay!
Saki seemed to love being massaged. We will try this on her from now on.
We are staying in Adelaide this New Year’s holiday. I have been visiting Adelaide many times as my husband was born and spent his childhood there. This time we are staying in Hilton Adelaide as we found out it was pet friendly hotel (this must be due to COVID).
It is 7 hours drive from Melbourne to Adelaide. Saki looked tired after the long drive. On the next day, she seemed fully recovered and is enjoying her walk in unfamiliar environment.
We were lucky enough to find a off leash dog park called Pityarilla Dog Park, which is located within short drive from the hotel in Adelaide CBD.
✅ Safety-There are two spaces for dogs-one for smaller (up to 13 kg) and double gates.
✅ Cleanliness-Poo bags and bins are conveniently placed (the bags were biodegradable – eco friendly!)
✅ other consideration for dogs and owners-It was a warm day when we visited. There are shaded area with roof for the owners to sit down. There was also a water station. Also there are many free parking spaces.
I always enjoy holiday in Adelaide as it is quieter and time goes slow😊
Today was the first weekend since long lasting lock down ended in Melbourne a few days ago. Victoria achieved 70% fully vaccinated population.
Cafes can hold up to 50 people. In general Melbournian love eating outside. Today’s weather was not great, but many cafes and restaurants looked busy with these people who want to catch up for breakfast or lunch.
We as usual were walking the busy street to get a morning coffee.
When we walked in front of the cafe we always do a large German Shepard appeared in front of Saki and looked like she/he was going to attach her. Then I heard Saki crying.
Saki was with my husband on lead and he stood between Saki & the other dog. Luckily the owner of the dog also came to grab her/him, so it stopped there, no serious incident.
It was only about 3 seconds that it happened. I was so scared and could move.
I am used to seeing friendly dogs in our neighbourhood, so it was quite a shocking scene. Also we would not be able to grab the other dog, as it was a big dog!
If my husband tried to grab the dog, I guess Saki would have tried to attach him/her to protect my husband, but because of the size difference, I cannot imagine Saki would win! We really learnt that it is very important to keep the dog on lead where they are expected to.
(PS:Saki’s tummy problem is all gone now!Thank you for thinking of her!)
Since early this week, Saki is usually not well and having bad tummy. She doesn’t ask for a ball play when she gets bored at home. She is quiet…
She had the similar tummy problem when she first came to our house. It lasted for about a week. Then the vet prescribed her prebiotic paste and a specially made wet dog food by Hills Science. After 3 days or so, she go much better.
At that time she loved the prebiotic paste, but she doesn’t seem to enjoy it this time.
The vet also advised plain food such as chicken breast. I bought minced chicken, boiled it, mixed with boiled broccoli. When I was cooking she seemed very interested in it and kept sniffing. First she left broccoli out, but in the end she finished it all! A success!!
I tried to practice Reiki, on her, which I learnt a little bit. When Saki is not well, I am not feeling well. Is it because I am recently a little stressed about something?
I mentioned “smartness” for the 1st characteristics for the Border Collie in my previous blog, 2nd one is it’s “friendliness”.
Saki’s friendliness hasn’t changed since she was puppy. (Although recently, we notice she likes human better than dogs!) When we first took her out for a walk, she used to greet every single dog & person!
Her lovely face (as most of the puppy dogs!) plus her friendly expression melted everyone’s hart!
Our 14 years old son often gives her some rough play and some mischievous thing, but Saki is very patient and she even shows her respect to him! For example, she waits forever when she is told to wait when my son puts her food in a bowl. How sweet of her!
My son, who is a teenager, often shows his frustration, then he comes to Saki to give her a cuddle and kisses.
We love ❤️ seeing this. For Saki, it must be quite frustrating as my son comes to cuddle her while she is at sleep, but she never gets angry. She has such warm hart. Thank you so much, Saki for your love to us 💕 .
Im my previous blog I introduced the first characteristic of Border Collie-they are smart. After that I remembered one thing.
A few years ago my work colleague and I were talking about dogs. She said to me, “my dog (border collie named Katie knows a lot of words.”. She showed me the video which surprised me a lot!
In the video, there were about 10 objects, such as shoe, bag, cloths etc. When my colleague said “shoe” to Katie, she went to fetch it without making any mistakes!
I have read new article which introduces about the Border Collie who identifies more than 100 words. Border Collie’s smartness is proven!
How many words does our Saki know? Not bad..she loves the words “ball” or “park” -she responds so well to these! However, she recently she learnt the word “shower”.
We noticed she doesn’t like being washed, but I don’t think she knew the word “shower”. Yesterday Saki had a swim in the sea first time after the winter was over.
She showed nervousness when she heard the water running to fill the bath tub.
That night, my husband teased her saying “would you like shower again”? Then she quickly ran to me to ask for my help! We all agreed Saki learnt a new word!
As generally said, there are 3 characteristics of Border collie-they are smart, agile and royal to the owners.
①SmartーDavid, my husband, used to volunteer as a dog trainer as a teenager (since 16 years old). He has had about 7 dogs in his life. The very last one, called Angus, Border Collie & Irish wolf hand mix, came to him as an adult dog. He was quite aggressive first time, and it took David a long time to train him. When I met Angus first time he was already a very gentle & smart dog.
Toilet training would be one of the big topic for everyone when welcoming a dog to home. We live in an apartment. We placed a small size real lawn for Saki’s toilet. She had a few accidents, but she quickly learnt to use the lawn for her toilet (took about two months to learn). After a while- around two months passed, she stopped using it, and only did toilet outside when she is taken out for a walk three times a day.
Regarding basic command, “Hand”, “Sit” and “Drop”, David started training her when she was around 3 months old. With some treats, she quickly learnt. She is training to wait after she is told to “sit” before she eats. Quite often we forget to say “Dozo” , =”please” in Japanese, so she keeps waiting for a while! (so sorry, Saki chan!)
FYI, please see here to access to the movie which shows one point command lesson by David. (To be continued.)
I pause the report on Eve’s situation (the ex wild dog who ran away from my sister’s place since late August.) Although she hasn’t been reunited with my sister yet, we believe she will return when timing is right. Thank to everyone who has given us kind words and the person who has been helping my sister, Mimi.
I am introducing our beloved dog, Saki the Border Collie. Saki is a chocolate coloured female border collie, born in April 2020 (1.5 yrs old) .
Since my husband and I lost our last two dogs before my son was born (16 years ago), we have been missing having a dog, but we didn’t have a chance to welcome one.
Since COVID hit and we stayed at home due to lock down, we started thinking now is the time to welcome a dog. We searched firstly shelters, however, there was none available (we live in an apartment, so only middle size dog can be kept.).
Then I searched breeders, but they are all out of dogs and asked me to register our interest. The price was also ridiculously high. For example, average price for Shiba dog was AU$7,000!
We didn’t feel right to pay this much for a dog, so our hope was almost gone. However, when I was chatting with my work colleague, she suggested to contact the breeder where she got her border collie from.
Without any hope I contacted the breeder, and to my surprise, she said,” we just had 8 puppies yesterday, I am going to send photos, so you can choose which one you want.”
With this unexpected answer, we had to make our decision quickly, however, it didn’t take us long to say yes, please to the breeder. My husband told me that girl border collies should be smaller in size (unlike our last dog Angus, border collie mix), and they are smart dogs.
What we chose (they all looked the same, but we chose one!) was a brown coloured one. There were black & white ones, too but I like the way the breeder said the colour was “chocolate colour”.
The lady from the breeder sent us a photo of Saki’s father and mother. Her father had the same colour with Saki, chocolate & white and mother, black & white. I didn’t know until I studied more about border collies, that there are more than 30 type of border collies depending on colours and sizes. Since her father’s name was “Whisky”, we decided to name ours “Saki” (similar to Sake=Japanese drink, but it is actually popular Japanese girl’s name, means “flower blossom”. To be continued.
Momonouchi 