Ideas for your pet in lockdown.

Well I thought I had had a whirlwind start to my new pet service business but I wasn’t expecting a mini tornado to hit Flagstaff Hill this weekend! That just about capped what has been a wild week with an unexpected 7 day lockdown in place and crazy weather causing a blackout for just over 5 hours!

Whilst the lockdown has led to a very quiet week overall, I was pleased to have the chance to take Luis for a walk just before we were asked to stay at home. We explored Craigburn estate, it was quite windy and we saw very few people, as is usually the case. I suspect that some people were at the shops stocking up on loo roll lol! Joking apart, winter is such a good time to walk as you don’t get too warm and the freshness of the breeze invigorates you. When the sun shines it can be as warm as a spring day when there is no breeze and it is most welcoming. If it’s cold and raining, the thought of a nice warm cup of tea when I get back is the thing that keeps me going. It can be hard to work yourself up to going out sometimes but it does make you feel so much better, try it.

I’ve really missed catching up with Blue and Sonny this week. My Thursday regulars, I’m really hoping that we can get back to walking next week. I’ve had to revert to the stationery bike for my exercise which has been very tough as I have done less and less with the walking commitments! K9 Walkies is also waiting to do a first walk with two beautiful kelpie cross dogs, fingers crossed we can start soon.

Our wild weather yesterday, even for me was probably too much to venture out. So what can we do to keep our pets amused when we are faced with such extremes?

For dogs; we can use it as an opportunity to keep up with training. If your dog is already well trained, you can try some brain training games. A game of cups; using 3 cardboard cups, place a treat in one of the cups and place them on the floor, right side up. Keeping your dog on a leash, let them approach and find the treat, once they’ve found it, they get the treat. To make it a bit harder, next time place a small piece of foil over the top of the cup. If you are interested, look on Youtube for Cesar Milan’s “Three great ways to exercise with your dogs #StayHome”. Also, if you have a rope toy, you can play tug of war with your dog, most dogs love this and it really exerts a lot of energy. You can also throw treats about the room while they aren’t looking and tell them to go and “find”. If they haven’t played this game before, they might need some help to work it out. I love playing this game with dogs that come to stay with us, they really need to use their nose to sniff them out.

For all the cat owners out there, you know that cats love to go out and explore but this isn’t necessarily a good thing for our wildlife. We can keep them satisfied by giving them something to chase, a feather or soft toy on the end of a piece of string- don’t forget to always supervise your pets when playing games, especially with string as this could quite easily be swallowed or strangle your pet. A piece of paper crunched up into a ball, they like to pat this around the floor. Even a paper bag, you can put treats inside so that they get their head in and then touch the outside of the bag, they love to chase your hand – be careful though, you might want to wear some thick gloves just in case! Again, you can Google, there are so many ideas on the Internet that don’t need to involve a cost. Try Better Homes and Gardens “7 Super Fun Games Your Cat Will Love to Play All Day Long.”

For bunnies; we all know that bunnies love to go out, explore and forage. On bad weather days we can stuff some hay in a kitchen roll tube, they love to toss the tubes around and eat the hay. Bunnies also love to nudge things; you can set up some toilet roll tubes in a row and hide treats underneath. Watch them nudge them all over. You can also train your bunny to show jump. Yes, it does sound a little crazy but competitive rabbit showjumping has been around for many years in Sweden. More videos on Youtube if you Google “showjumping rabbits”.

So that's the pets sorted out. How have you all been in lockdown? Personally, I quite like lockdown as it gives me time to catch up on the jobs in the house that I keep putting off ordinarily. I know this is not the case for some and I feel for those of you that are home alone. This is the time that we need to make the most of social tools, pick up the phone to call, text and chat on social media or better still video call. There is always someone at the end of the phone we can talk to, pick up the phone if you feel the need.

To finish off this week, I’d like to thank Professor Nicola Spurrier for the outstanding work she has done and is continuing to do for our state. I have great faith in what she is doing and I think it is fair to say that you can see the results that can be achieved when everyone is doing their bit to stay safe.

I’d also like to thank the emergency services and SA Power Networks for their hard work in some incredibly bad weather; they worked tirelessly to get our power lines up and running in the shortest time possible. It’s easy to sit at home and complain, (I did have a mutter myself) when we have no electricity for everyday things, however, I am grateful that we have such workers that keep us all going, especially while we are sitting in relative comfort.

Thanks for reading.

Regards, Kath