New walking route

Checked out a new route today by the waterway near Tanjong Rhu. Lovely place with many people exercising, walking their dogs, chatting with friends etc. Saw a Westie belonging to a Japanese couple, he was muzzled and seemed quite aggressive. I was delighted when the lady owner complimented Uno and Abby for being well behaved :)

Things are not looking good…

Uno’s ears looked dirty when I cleaned them this morning. He had been shaking his head relentlessly and looked so miserable :( Phyo said that he appeared to feel better in the afternoon. When I cleaned his ears again in the evening, they were relatively clean but he whined quite a bit (which is unusual) during the cleaning. Will monitor for another day before deciding whether or not to bring him to the vet.

Oh no…think ear canker is back!

Uno’s ears seemed a little dirtier than usual when I cleaned them last Saturday. Today, barely 3 days after I last cleaned them, there was brownish wax again :P Seems like the ear canker is back…
As he was due to apply Frontline this week, thought of using Revolution for this round since it is effective against ear mites too. Guess what? The groomer actually talked me out of using Revolution! He took his time to explain the toxicity of the product, how it stresses the doggy’s body and recommended an oil-based ear cleanser instead. Decided to listen to his advice and purchased the cleanser…super oily but leaves Uno’s ears smelling so nice :) Hope it works!

My first attempt to clip Uno’s hair

Uno’s trim turned out quite well after overcoming the initial difficulties in handling the clipper. He seemed fairly relaxed during the session, except when I tried to trim the fur on his paws (ticklish??) My next practice will be on Abby...

Finally!

After shopping around for so many days, I finally bought the clippers…and they were the most costly of the lot that I have seen. But what the heck! I won't know if I'd succeed until I have tried : ) Strongly recommended by pet owners and groomers, I’m placing my bets on Andis to last me a long time. Let’s see how Uno, my first guinea pig, will turn out!

The pendulum and my unconscious mind

The NLP trainer shared about using a pendulum to understand our unconscious mind. After calibrating the yes/no directions, I asked if I should groom my dogs personally instead of sending to the groomers. Guess what? The reply was yes! Indeed I had been toying with this idea, especially after Abby’s session :( The facilitator, Dr Billy Kueek explained that I may have picked up cues from both Uno and Abby that they are more relaxed being groomed by me than by a stranger. Hmmm….it is possible, afterall I have been grooming them for months.....but could it be that I am unconsciously ‘controlling’ the pendulum to give the desired reply, to justify the costs of buying the grooming equipments??

Abby’s makeover

Poor Abby, she was so stressed up during her grooming session today. The groomer at Happy Paws feedback that she was shivering, clung onto the grooming table and simply refused to co-operate. When I went to fetch her home, she leapt right into my arms and refused to leave!

I was quite disappointed with Abby’s new look…the cut looked more than a Schnauzer cut than a Westie cut and I can't bear to even take a photo of her :( Guess not only is she stressed up by this grooming experience, me too! Maybe I should take up lessons to groom Uno and Abby myself :)