A Siberian Husky and his Humans

Aspen. Siberian Husky; Date of Birth: 9/13/2019. His Guardians, Queer wives. 🏳️‍🌈 Adventuring in Southern California

[adventures-with-aspen]

Hello!

This blog is dedicated to documenting my adventures with Aspen.

About the Canine

Aspen came under the care of my wife and I about a year ago. He lived the first two years of his life mostly in a crate and, as a result of his overall lack of socialization, he struggles with:

Resource-guarding

Barrier Frustration

Leash Reactivity

Touch Sensitivity

Separation Anxiety

We follow R+ and LIMA training methods only!

We are starting to participate in dog-powered sports and hike regularly.

About the Humans

I am an avid podcast listener and canine enthusiast. My guardianship of Aspen has encouraged me to pursue canine knowledge in a more professional capacity.

I started my journey towards a Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA) certification, and hope to turn my hobbyist passion into many professional opportunities!

My wife is a very patient and understanding first-time dog owner—and cat enthusiast.

Thank you for joining us on our journey!

[ursiday]

Earth

[darkwood-sleddog]

it's fun having dogs that don't do a traditional "bark bark" most of the time--like my dogs grumble and scream and yodel and such--bc when they DO bark it's like woah there bud, getting kinda serious over here.

[phantomrose96]

If you are a PET trying to help your HUMAN just remember the acronym WAY

Are you in the Way?

Are you in the wAy?

Are you in the waY?

If the answer to all three is YES then you are HELPING 👏👏👏

[adventures-with-aspen]

Getting some new followers reminds me that I need to clean up the pinned post

[eggseventy]

one of the best things about cats is that sometimes they'll just purr because youre around them

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

I am so damn pleased with the Sedgwick County Zoo media team, y’all. They just dropped a stellar blog piece on why GenAI slop videos of animals are such a problem - and how to identify them!

The Reality of AI Animal Content – Sedgwick County Zoo

If you spend any time on social media, you’ve probably seen them – bears bouncing on trampolines, apes caught on doorbell cameras, or “rescu

This is the first time I’ve ever seen a zoo or aquarium in the United States speak up broadly about AI. (The only times I can think of any comment at all has maybe individual instances when a deepfake of “their” animal escaping is circulating.) And they did a great job with this piece! It’s succinct, easy to read, and written in a way that doesn’t shame people for engaging with AI content before they knew better.

I think this is exactly the type of resource needed for sending to that family member or friend we all have - the one who isn’t aware of the slop issue and constantly sends you clearly fake videos because they’re “so cute.”

I’d love to have Sedgwick get some public positive reinforcement for taking this stance. If you’re so inclined, a comment on their FB post would be great as it’s likely they’re going to get shit for this from sloppers & co. We really do need animal organizations to stand up for accurate, real animal content and this is a great first step in that direction.

[kuttithevangu]

Reading people’s rescue dog profiles like

[thatisahotsoup-deactivated20220]

[darkwood-sleddog]

If we can’t say dogs bred specifically for companionship are purpose bred than none of our dogs are. Like the purpose? Companionship and human beings have been breeding dogs specifically for this purpose and little else for a very long time. A huge chunk of registered dog breeds fall into the purpose of being a cute, well tempered little guy that can sit on your lap and be your friend. It might be a little tame of a purpose compared to dogs that do true work like herding, livestock guardianship etc., but we can’t even draw a line between what’s sports and what’s work in the modern context of dogs. I think we can call companion breeds “purpose bred”.

[great-and-small]

The breed standard for modern Persian cats calls for the nose and mouth to be in “vertical alignment” with the eyes 😭

[elvenferretots]

If you want to be a change in the dog sport community, be a voice. And not a voice complaining.

When you see someone over-correcting their dog in the parking lot, walk up and ask if they're okay or if they're stuck or if they need help. Be sincere. It's likely that they'll blow you off. It's also likely that they'll go home and have something to think about, whether it was that thing they were doing really wasn't working as well as they thought, or that the attitude they're bringing to the trial isn't healthy.

If you see someone having a bad attitude about losing, take your time to go up and comment something you liked about their run. I've had someone who I didn't like a single thing about the person, but their dog sure did try, and I let them know that I noticed how much their dog loved working and how hard she was trying. The next time that same person was not only more fair to their dog, but had a better attitude in the ring. Maybe it wasn't what I said. Maybe it was. But complaining on the internet about people's attitudes won't change them. Addressing why people are feeling frustrated or struggling with the relationship with their dog can.

Be the change you want to see in dog sports.

[joski-town]

"Using treats is the easy way" okay. Have fun having a hard time I guess.

[darkwood-sleddog]

went down a rabbit hole because i saw a post on my dashboard about pushinka (the dog owned by JFK). Anyways, here's some of the most unhinged moments from the list of united states presidential animals living at the white house, mostly names, but also some other...tidbits...

Tradition of naming dogs stupid things starting strong with George Washington, but what's this....sheep? And they killed a guy? Jefferson, obviously.

I just like the visual imagery of a parrot attending a presidential funeral in 1845. I'd swear my ass off if i was owned by Jackson too.

Fun Fact, Lincoln's dog is also why Fido was commonly used for dogs in America (probably less common now, but is seen as a typical 'dog name')

Honestly naming a presidential dog Veto is iconic. It's even more iconic when you're James Garfield who famously tried to pass the Wade-Davis Bill which was a bill that would have made post civil war reconstruction more strict on the south and was supported by both the house and the senate only to be pocket vetoed by Lincoln who wanted a softer approach....

You known what, I'm not even going to try explaining anything about the Coolidges to you bc they were honestly wackadoo. I'll just leave a list of my faves:

woke dogs and their woke pronouns

me reading the list: oh a WOLF?? oh wait. it's a dog. it's a wolf dog? nope. it's a wolfHOUND. okay...

Idk this one is just cute to me tho:

"Given and Quickly Returned"

"Oh you're getting a new puppy Joe? Another German Shepherd eh? What're you gonna name him? Major? Oh. Um. interesting Joe, that's interesting."

[what-even-is-thiss]

“Cats don’t actually love you”

A cat is a small creature in the middle of the food chain that is fully aware that you are a very large thing that could stomp its head in at any moment and yet it chooses to rest its tiny little head on your leg for a nap and spreads out on the floor near you exposing its belly and its most sensitive organs. It brings dead mice and bugs to you to share food.

Don’t you get it? This tiny thing trusts you. It wants to help you too. It licks your leg thinking that it’s helping. It kneads on you to find comfort. It shares its body warmth with you in the cold and gives you your space in the heat. It hisses at other mammals it sees outside including other cats in an effort to protect its family.

Cats love you so so much. But they will keep trying to eat plastic.

[fjordfolk]

ask not what the dog can do for you but what you can do for the dog etcetc

[brighthounds]

okay i promise i'm only going to do this the one time. I promise I'm not going to continue to be annoying about this. but i am sharing my instagram post to tumblr because idk why not yolo. maybe this will actually be useful to somebody. and more can be found on the world's most cursed website/app.