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i own every Bionicle posted:Somebody got super muddy in the field and came to know the unspeakable horrors of bathtimes Welp, time to completely reset all your progress Bath time? 
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Mar 25, 2024 00:33
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Jarvis wants to love on everyone every time, so I get that.
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Mar 25, 2024 00:38
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I've been in PA for a month now, and I've noticed something weird: while there's lots of dogs in the neighborhood, something like 90% of them, the owners aren't willing to let them say hello! It's always "oh, she's not good with dogs" or "he's not friendly" or "I dunno, he can be kind of weird". What's the deal? Pavlov's not getting as much socialization as he or I would like, and hell, I want to say hi to the dogs. Where did you move from? I think in general people in the Northeast tend to have a bit more reservations about talking to strangers and they bring that with them with their dogs. I’ve lived in New England all my life and didn’t realize how guarded we were until I traveled a bit. I see the same thing with Newton, but met a few other dogs who are now buddies with him. Hi Mookie! Also met a dude named Jimmy who got an older dog about the same time I got Newton, last time I walked by his house he had the garage door open playing music loud as hell, he invited me in to show me the dog house he was building for her. He also had Kiss figurines and a motorcycle where the headlights were held on by chrome skeleton hands, Jimmy rules. But his dog really does hate Newton. If you go to a park or other area where everybody is walking their dogs people will probably be a lot more friendly, but it does suck to not have your neighbors want to chat and make dog buddies. If you come to NH you and Pavlov can say hi to Newton 
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Mar 25, 2024 00:45
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I moved from CA. I will say that I hardly ever saw people walking their dogs around the neighborhood in the old place, so the uptick in activity is nice. But the old place also had easy access to an amazing oceanside walk, and there were folks and dogs that I saw there every day. I'd like to find something similar around here...no luck so far. There's a nice state park nearby, but I haven't met many dogs there yet.
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Mar 25, 2024 01:00
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Yeah the amount of people that would walk up to me and corner me against the spycar when I was about to unclip Kedah as shes furiously trying to lunge and barking nonstop at them asking dumb questions for 10 minutes and then would say some bullshit about how they dont feel safe around her in the nc/sc/tn area was insane
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Mar 25, 2024 01:14
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HootTheOwl posted:Welp, time to completely reset all your progress All progress erased, including “sit” 
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Mar 25, 2024 03:10
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We had a photographer come to the dog training place where I work so you know I needed Easter pics of my two. They have their own Easter baskets. Scout knows how to hold it but was in A Mood and refused.   Gamble did an excellent job remembering stay.  Scout broke a mug, a plastic egg, a decorative carrot and my will to live.  Getting them to pose together without devolving into a wrestling match was just as challenging as you’d expect but we got the shot. 
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Mar 28, 2024 19:56
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those tongues <3 Love those photos, thanks for sharing 
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Mar 28, 2024 20:47
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Photographs taken moments before disaster 
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Mar 28, 2024 20:57
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My daughter saw them and started squealing about the real-life Bluey and Bingo!!! They’re adorable!
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Mar 29, 2024 03:37
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I've been posting these over in the Cute thread in PYF but I figured you all might enjoy them too, my dog Waffles had grandpuppies about four weeks ago (a couple of my friends kept one of Waffles's puppies from her first litter a couple of years ago, and their dog Noodle just had a litter)    
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Mar 29, 2024 20:37
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I made something for my dogs.  It's an extendable ball thrower. I hated walking to the park carrying a 2 foot long chuckit, so I spent some down time putting things together in TinkerCAD, 3D printed them, then improved from there. This is the first version I'm comfortable actually showing to people. It works really great. The whole thing is about 9.5" when collapsed and 2.5ish feet when extended. If you have access to a 3d printer and want one, shoot me a DM and I'll share the files. I'd really appreciate some constructive criticism on it before I post it for the general public.
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Mar 29, 2024 23:57
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MockingQuantum posted:I've been posting these over in the Cute thread in PYF but I figured you all might enjoy them too, my dog Waffles had grandpuppies about four weeks ago (a couple of my friends kept one of Waffles's puppies from her first litter a couple of years ago, and their dog Noodle just had a litter) I hope the puppies are also named after food. The best genre of dog name imo.
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Mar 30, 2024 02:08
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Metis of the Chat Thread posted:I hope the puppies are also named after food. The best genre of dog name imo. They are, top to bottom they're Ziti, Wonton, and Mlinci. My dog Waffles's first litter was all named after breakfast foods, Noodle's litter name was Muffin, though she was the only one who ended up having a food call name. Waffles had another litter last summer, they were the "Waffles Fries" litter so they all had potato-y names, the family that got one of those puppies very nearly kept his litter name, which was Tater Tot, and I was just a little heartbroken that they didn't.
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Mar 30, 2024 03:03
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That's gorgeous. I get to suggest names for my dog's litters and I'm always trying to get food names in but I rarely succeed. Another dog from the organisation is called Gnocchi though, which is an absolute winner. Imagine having a service dog called Gnocchi. Everyone would love you.
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Mar 30, 2024 03:57
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Metis of the Chat Thread posted:That's gorgeous. I get to suggest names for my dog's litters and I'm always trying to get food names in but I rarely succeed. Another dog from the organisation is called Gnocchi though, which is an absolute winner. Imagine having a service dog called Gnocchi. Everyone would love you. Yeah we're lucky that we're pretty close with our breeder, so we've always been pretty involved with the litters, I think we've at least had input on the litter theme for all of our dogs' litters, and some we've chosen outright. We even got to whelp Waffles's last litter at our house, which was a tiring but extremely rewarding experience. Plus the pups from that litter were just so dang cute:   
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Mar 30, 2024 04:34
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St_Ides posted:I made something for my dogs. I think that's illegal in my state
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Mar 30, 2024 13:15
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HootTheOwl posted:Is it spring loaded? I expect it just needs a flick of the wrist. (That's what she said)
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Mar 30, 2024 14:09
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That said I've been tinkering with a treat dispenser like a coin changer. We're close
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Mar 30, 2024 15:00
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HootTheOwl posted:Is it spring loaded? Nope. Just gravity/centrifugal force. There's an elastic on a hook to keep it closed, but that's all it does. Once it's extended the friction keeps it all in place. I didn't print in black specifically to make it look less like a police baton, which is a prohibited weapon here.
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Mar 30, 2024 15:36
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Today is Frejas first birthday, she's had a nice walk in the park and met a new friend today, she's now enjoying a nice turkey leg for dinner as a rare treat and holy poo poo can this dog destroy bone easily.
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Mar 30, 2024 19:34
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Yeah Kedah destroyed a tbone in about 3 minutes once so she never got a bone again
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Mar 31, 2024 00:56
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 dog was not ready for baby to learn crawling, and snapped at her.
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Mar 31, 2024 01:31
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HootTheOwl posted:
Look up Family Paws Parent Education and see if there are any trained providers or virtual classes near you. They seem to be really helpful for integrating babies and dogs safely.
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Mar 31, 2024 14:00
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I've been in PA for a month now, and I've noticed something weird: while there's lots of dogs in the neighborhood, something like 90% of them, the owners aren't willing to let them say hello! It's always "oh, she's not good with dogs" or "he's not friendly" or "I dunno, he can be kind of weird". What's the deal? Pavlov's not getting as much socialization as he or I would like, and hell, I want to say hi to the dogs. Just a thought but lots of Covid dogs were just not really socialized well because everyone was avoiding each other. Where I live everyone gave everyone else a real wide berth on the street for like 18 months so a lot of dogs who were born in that era never got a lot of leash greetings. Our dog was generally just not too friendly on the leash and I never wanted to risk an incident. It's bad though because if I'm walking any dog now I still instinctively avoid other dogs and probably start giving off a vibe when I see them. I don't even know what it would be like to walk a dog friendly dog
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Apr 1, 2024 05:47
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It's a pain in the arse tbh, my dog wants to say hello to every loving person and dog we come across and we live in London, it's not exactly quiet. Trust me, you have the better deal.
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Apr 1, 2024 11:13
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Instant Jellyfish posted:We had a photographer come to the dog training place where I work so you know I needed Easter pics of my two. those doofy grins!!
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Apr 1, 2024 12:55
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Pavlov does not like the thunder  https://i.imgur.com/DmlBh4K.mp4 I've tried thunder shirts, and they basically just paralyze him: he stands in the middle of the room, unable/unwilling to move, until I take the shirt off. Anti-anxiety meds only work if he takes them well in advance of the weather, and I don't want to be pre-emptively doping him all the time on the off-chance that this storm will have thunder (no thunderstorms in the forecast, but we got 'em anyway). I feel like I can't comfort him in the moment because that would just reinforce his fear, but I don't really like ignoring him either. Any advice?
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Apr 3, 2024 21:19
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How would comforting him reinforce his fear?
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Apr 3, 2024 21:34
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Yeah that’s not a thing https://www.theacademyofpetcareers.com/blog/the-myth-of-reinforcing-fear/ The author even gives a good tip about what they do during thunder storms.
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Apr 3, 2024 21:45
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Pavlov does not like the thunder Just treat him normally and interact like you normally do, play a little game, that sort of thing. Don't totally ignore him, that's also not right IMO. e: Yeah kinda what that article said - I think it's a "true" thing in that people when attempting to comfort may get agitated/frustrated themselves and then the dog picks up on that and gets possibly further agitated? Personally, when Snowbell was a-shuddering like this, I liked to pointedly just do normal things. She never liked it enough to do much playing but she was chill to just sort of keep a watch-dog sort of eye on the weird loud dogs in the sky instead of pacing around the house and leaving drool all over the floor from panting. Which since she was an akita and generally liked to just keep a watch-dog sort of eye on basically everything, is probably ideal! Shugojin fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Apr 3, 2024 |
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Apr 3, 2024 21:48
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Pavlov does not like the thunder Generally speaking I haven't found that comforting my dog would reinforce the fear response--it's not really a conscious response on their part so it seems like it's less likely they'll get conditioned to respond to comfort in a fearful way. My dog generally calms down when comforted, we just make sure not to baby her, and generally don't give treats. Basically we approach it more as reassurance than anything, so we speak to her quietly, pet her gently, generally just try and present a calm front ourselves. Honestly other than a thunder shirt, the most useful thing during storms for our dog is white noise of some sort. During 4th of July we usually go into the basement and watch movies at a little louder volume than we typically would, which can help to drown out the worst of it. Other than that (and meds, but I get why that's not an appealing solution) there's not a ton I've found that works, other than desensitization training, and that needs to happen over time. Having a place (mat, dog bed, etc) that you train him to go to, and reward him when he's there and calm and relaxed, can go a long way though, like I know one person who has a "thunderstorm mat" that they've trained their dog to view as the calm spot, and they bring the mat out in stressful situations, and I guess he mostly just hangs out there and does pretty well.
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Apr 3, 2024 21:54
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Yeah that article is a good overview of the subject. It is possible to "train" fearfulness into dogs but it's usually not a situation where you're reinforcing a fear response so much as trying to train the dog out of a fear response--like training a dog not to growl, you're not so much training them to not growl, you're training them to skip the "hey I don't like this situation" growling phase and skipping right to the biting phase, so basically taking away the dog's early warning system. And obviously it's possible to under-socialize a dog and end up with an adult dog that has a sort of "trained fearfulness" but that's more a matter of a lack of exposure, not a reinforcement of fearful behavior. I will say from experience it's entirely possible to have a dog who is smart enough to make the connection between displaying some of the outward signs of fearfulness and the attention they get for it but, uh, most dogs aren't good fakers, in my experience? I'd say it's generally pretty easy to distinguish dog body language to determine when they're genuinely freaked out, and yeah, you're not going to reinforce that feeling in most dogs, it's so unpleasant for them that I can't see how you'd be able to reward them enough to create a conditioned response anyway.
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Apr 3, 2024 22:00
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Alright, thanks y'all. I'll read that article. I was so looking forward to how New Home would have fewer fireworks than the old place (which is fairly densely-populated and has multiple households that will set off lots of fireworks anytime there's something to celebrate). I should've realized that the new place's regular thunderstorms would make up for that.  I have white noise going, but nowhere in the house really gets away from the noise. And Pavlov isn't a cuddler, and won't accept pets except on his own terms. So about all I have right now is talking to him, which doesn't feel adequate.
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Apr 3, 2024 22:11
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Alright, thanks y'all. I'll read that article. Well you're doing all the right things I think, just keep up with it. I only started reading the thread a week or so ago so I don't know how new New Home is, but more familiarity with a place will likely help too--some dogs just take a while to get comfortable and sensitized to somewhere, and it's possible he'll get more comfortable with the thunderstorms, even if he's never thrilled by them. In some ways, more frequent thunderstorms are likely to be easier to cope with than rare but noisy occasions, he may just get more used to them. Now that I've whelped a litter myself, I also can't recommend desensitization training enough, though I think it is likely a much slower and more gradual process with an adult dog than it is with tiny puppies. But just slowly exposing him to quiet recordings of thunderstorms, treating and praising him when he's calm in response to it, and ramping up the volume/intensity over time, might help. Some dogs it seems to work really well, it never really worked with my dog Badger. I think she could tell that it wasn't real, somehow.
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Apr 3, 2024 22:18
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Yeah, I tried desensitization therapy with fireworks for Pavlov, and he never showed any reaction to the recordings. Maybe if I invested in a huge soundsystem I could make a therapeutically useful simulation, but I think he just knows that sounds coming from my computer/phone/etc aren't real.
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Apr 3, 2024 22:28
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I’ve found having A Job to do very useful for my anxious dog. The job can be as simple as a look at me -> treat, or a touch, or it can get complex like maintaining a heel or doing tricks. Anything to get their brains out of being afraid and onto something that they CAN control and can succeed at. Like even if your dog is super over threshold you can reward them with a piece of bacon just for looking at you. The more their brains come back into their bodies, the more you can do!
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Apr 3, 2024 23:19
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Alright, thanks y'all. I'll read that article. He's obviously older than our pup, but we had a LOT of success with YouTube videos for storms and fireworks in the background on a low volume and slowly upping it over time so it became "normal". We did it quite a lot leading up to bonfire night in November and Diwali after as we live in a very built up area. (We live at fireworks explosion night too so regularly get poo poo going off right outside our living room window even though it's on a main road) And it really helped her prep for those nights. It maybe worth giving it a shot over a few weeks at low volume and building him up to see if he's able to just ignore it. Freja is quite nervous with some things but thanks to the work we've put in, fireworks and storms aren't one of those things. She'll happily lay down now looking out the windows at the fireworks etc.
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Apr 3, 2024 23:47
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Yeah, I tried desensitization therapy with fireworks for Pavlov, and he never showed any reaction to the recordings. Maybe if I invested in a huge soundsystem I could make a therapeutically useful simulation, but I think he just knows that sounds coming from my computer/phone/etc aren't real. Oh, I didn't see this as I left the post half constructed for a couple of hours. Ignore my previous! Sorry, hope you find something that works for him because that dog is a trooper after all the poo poo he dealt with RE airports etc.
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Apr 3, 2024 23:49
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Puppy has Pneumonia.. She's had vomiting issues since we got her and we've repeatedly taken her to the vet about it and it's been shrugged off so many times. This time I had a video of her literally wheezing as she was having a really rough time a few days ago. Turns out they think she has the dog version of IBS due to a food allergy and that's caused the vomiting, which has in turn meant she's been aspirating while vomiting and it's turned in Pneumonia over the last 2 days or so. Luckily we took her straight to the vets and she's on antibiotics now and doing a hell of a lot better right away. She has a bit of a temp and is now on some boring, bland, white prescription food while we have to try and make a plan to work out what the main trigger was. Gonna be a long process I think, just glad she's happy and ok. Took her out for a very short walk yesterday as she's been on antibiotics for 3 days now and was having crazy zoomies and shes hurt her bloody leg now and was limping last night. Christ knows what she's done cause she wasn't jumping off anything high etc. *Sigh* This is meant to be easier than kids, right?..
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Apr 9, 2024 11:56
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