Heathdale flower 23rd July 2021

The Lockdown Dog Diary

There's one staff member at school who is missing school life the most.

Heathdale flower

Dear Diary,

Still at home. Last week I went back to work in the Secondary Office because my holidays were over. I was really excited about seeing all the teachers again. Even though I’m not supposed to, I did jump up on some of my favourite people and give them my very best greetings.

But then on Friday, I was suddenly at home again. This seems to happen quite a lot in my life. I even had my half-year birthday at home this week. I’m one-and-a-half human years now. My family has upgraded me to grown-up dog food and I don’t have to sleep in my crate any more.

When we stay home, there are still a lot of things to keep the humans busy. The family are on their computers most of the day. I can hear lots of lessons happening in different rooms and sometimes they talk to the people on the screen. One of them even had their violin lesson online this week. That was quite loud. They seem to have their schedule all worked out but they take breaks fairly often to go to the kitchen. That’s where I like to catch up with them, especially if they are feeling generous. I have noticed there is a lot of food in lockdown. And people bake a lot.

I go online, too. Tuesday and Thursday nights my weekly dog training switches to Zoom when we have a lockdown. You might think it’s hard to get a dog to go to training when it’s online but it’s pretty normal for me now. We push all the furniture back in the lounge room and the computer is set up so that our trainer can see me and whether I’m being awesome (hint: I always am because there are treats every time I do something good). My handler is really the one being trained, not me, but I don’t think she knows that.

During the day, I don’t really have that much to do myself. I am on alert for parcel deliveries. There seem to be a lot of those in lockdown too. The rest of the day I nap with my friend the kelpie dog.

While it’s really nice to sleep on the couch all day, I do miss my friends. I haven’t seen the students in weeks. I’m really behind in my ear scratches and head rubs quotas. I’m wondering how everyone is going without my daily tail wags and happy greetings. It must be tough. I hope they know I’m thinking of them and I hope they know that when they come back, I’ll be just as happy to see them as I’ve always been.

Ziva


If you have a message for Ziva, send it to questions@heathdale.vic.edu.au and we'll be sure to pass it on.