Present Company Inc

01/09/2025

Bunbury and Busselton - we have a rare opportunity. One of our OT's will be travelling your way on the school holidays. This means that on Sunday 28th September we have the opportunity to offer in-person consultations. Specifically these consults would be 'pre-meetings' individuals who are thinking about getting an Assistance Dog but don't know where to start, or have a dog and would like to get it funded (by NDIS) but are not sure about what the process looks like. For individuals on the NDIS looking to have the Assistance Animal Template form completed to request funding for an Assistance Dog, Training and/or maintenance this can also be done. Spots are limited. And please note these are not dog training sessions. So if you are interested in the above, please email: [email protected] ASAP.

28/08/2025

If I could raise awareness about one thing it would be this!

29/07/2025

So what does taking responsibility for your dog look like?

Quite a number of dog owners are unaware of some of their legal responsibilities under W.A. state law.

One of the main responsibilities is having your dog under effective control in public areas.

This means having the dog on a lead and being handled by a responsible adult. Yes, that's right, walking the dog is actually too high of a responsibility for a child under 16.

The only places where dogs are allowed to be off lead, are at designated off lead exercise areas, and within these areas you are still required to have your dog under effective control.

This means that your dog should have a reliable recall, even around distractions, and you should respect other people using the space if they don't want to interact with your dog, and recall your dog away.

This is just a part of your responsibility around taking your dog out into public areas.

Being a responsible Dog owner is not only essential for your own dog's safety, but it also means that other dogs and their humans can use public spaces without concerns about being approached.

The City of Albany is urging owners to take responsibility for their pets following an increase in dog attacks.

There were 121 dog attacks in the 12 months to the end of June, and 14 infringements issued.

While there were 107 from June 2023 to 2024, and 7 infringements issued.

Ranger coordinator Carl Fjastad said the City of Albany takes all dog attacks seriously.

"Many of these sad and unfortunate incidents can be avoided if dog owners take proper responsibility for their animals," he said.

"Several dog owners have been prosecuted this year, with court fines ranging from $6,000 to $10,500, and orders made for the destruction of the attack dogs."

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23/07/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/1LvR1FQz9x/?mibextid=wwXIfr

A wave of new scientific research is challenging one of humanity’s oldest beliefs: that consciousness is uniquely human. Studies now suggest that animals, from dolphins and octopuses to bees and even ants, may have forms of awareness and subjective experience. The idea of animals feeling, thinking, or experiencing the world in a meaningful way is forcing scientists to rethink what it means to be “conscious.”

This shift is driven by advances in neuroscience and behavioral science. For example, experiments have shown that bees can learn concepts like “same” and “different,” while octopuses display problem-solving skills and curiosity akin to mammals. Even insects, often dismissed as purely instinct-driven, exhibit behaviors suggesting they might have rudimentary forms of awareness, like making choices that indicate memory, preference, or even emotional-like responses to stress.

The implications of these findings are profound. If more animals possess consciousness than we assumed, it raises ethical questions about how we treat them, from factory farming to wildlife conservation. As the scientific community pushes further into the mysteries of the mind, one thing is becoming clear: the line separating human and animal intelligence is far blurrier than we once believed.
Sources: The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (2012), Current Biology, Scientific American