Now he is packless & human instead

Ramsey || 20+ || she/her + Penelope 'PP' the Saudi Arabian Village dog Kafei the Shiba Inu Kohaku the Silken Windhound & Zucchini the Kitty-Kitty

[howstrangethemusicsoundstome]

People are trying to bring back 1880s-era anti-ASL sentiment. Worst timeline.

[tuttle-did-it]

You'd be surprised how often I'm told there is no interpreter at an event, there are no captions at an event, and they act like I'm asking for something absurd.

This isn't a performative dance routine interpreting what is going on.

But hey, deafies, we're woke now because we require interpreters.

[tuttle-did-it]

This is all absolutely true. Also, to add, many deaf people receive a much worse education because the schools are unwilling/unable to invest in proper education for deaf people. So there are deaf people out there who struggle to read English because the structure of English is completely different than the structure of Sign Languages.

Also, Sign Language is NOT international. Signing in London is different that Ireland, or Paris, Toronto, Mexico, New Zealand, India-- some of the signing may be similar or even related but they are all different languages. So if you see several interpreters at an event or a news broadcast or en EU summit, and they are doing different signs, this is why.

And for the idiots who still don't comprehend that for many people English is a second language, even signers who were born in an English speaking country-- and still argue 'you get captions what's the problem' - Have you ever watched the auto-craptions on the news or a live event, or even a film on Amazon that they couldn't bother to get a human to properly provide subs? Yeah. A good percentage of the time, it's just word salad that means absolutely nothing. You're likely to just get a pile of words that may or may not have to do with anything going on in what you are trying to watch.

Some time, put on the news with no captions or sound. Put on a film or show you have never seen before, and try to lipread what is being said. Try to figure out what the plot or context is from just the actor's faces. Just try to engage when the only queues you have are facial expressions and movement on the screen-- if you can even see them talk at all, a lot of films and shows are shot over a shoulder with the back of someone's head.

Wear ear-plugs when you are out having a coffee with a friend and try to figure out what your friend is even saying. No music, no nothing-- just earplugs and trying to figure it out.

Do all of this for a week and then tell me that craptions are enough. Then tell me we don't need interpreters. After two days, you're going to be angry and frustrated because you don't know what the fuck is going on.

Interpreters do more than just tell you the exact words. They INTERPRET English language and put it into sign. They aren't just randomly throwing around their hands and looking silly. And they do it on the fly, live, as something is going. A good majority of the times, Interpreters have no idea what is going to be said. In those moments they are hearing something in English (or French, Spanish, what have you), figuring out what the best way to sign these words back to a sign-user base, and they have to do it all in seconds. It's a LOT of work.

So if you are at an event or you see two or even more signers who keep switching off after half an hour or an hour, know that the money is NOT being wasted having multiple interpreters there. They are not being lazy. They are doing a whole helluva lot, and their brains and hands and faces occasionally need a break.

So if you are hiring interpreters for an event, don't be surprised if they say you'll need to pay more to have several interpreters there. The interpreters are incredibly skilled, and they work bloody hard. If they tell you they need more than one, don't have a fit at them and try to talk them into just having one interpreter, thinking you can pay less. Understand that they work their arses off, and it's a very intense job that requires a lot of brain power and body power. So please, PLEASE be kind to interpreters.

And for chrissake, STOP DOING THIS. STOP DOING THIS. STOP FUCKING DOING THIS.

[once-a-polecat]

Seconding all of this, but also to get more specific on the first point:

ASL (American Sign Language) is not only different from BSL (British Sign Language), they're not even in the same language family. Similarly, LSM (Mexican Sign Language) is different from LSE (Spanish Sign Language), and there are other regional sign languages in Spanish speaking South America.

My (hearing) kid is studying ASL and when there was a Deaf contestant on British Bake Off he said that he really didn't recognize the BSL signing. But we traveled to Peru last summer and saw some people signing at a restaurant, and he said he recognized a few signs of LSP, even as he could tell it was a different language.

When you start to understand how much signed languages are full and complete languages with specific grammar and structure, you realize why captioning is not an equivalent to interpretation.

[leebrontide]

"Why would deaf people need interpretation in a language that's their first language? Can't they just read a fast moving faux-phonetic transcript of a speech made in their second language."

Clown-ass behavior.

[parakavka]

Dogs of Chagu Chagu Umakko 2025 (1) (2) (3)

[yesornopolls]

Did you decide your pet's name before getting them? (If you adopted a pet with a preexisting name but changed it, still counts.)

Did you decide your pet's name before getting them?

Yes

No

See results

Voting ended onMay 1, 2025

[ewaneneollav]

[flippingchicken]

creating banger designs for my banger neopets

[seagulley]

this is like if a jedi did dog sports

[yesornopolls]

Have you been bitten by a dog?

Have you been bitten by a dog?

Yes

No

Voting ended onFeb 27, 2025

[smellyvampirez]

[great-and-small]

Speaking of breed standards, would you be able to give me some context on what the heck is up with the German Shepherd "stack"? I see a lot of GSD owners saying it's breed standard and therefore fine, but the slant looks so extreme in some dogs that I have some skepticism about it (and also because, of course, breed standards have nothing to do with animal health).

This is a pretty hot button issue and you’re right that there is a ton of bickering back and forth about it online. I’m happy to share my thoughts, but keep in mind that as a veterinarian I am biased towards function over form. I care way more about if a dog can do the things it wants/needs to do than how it looks. I won’t get into it here but I actually have real qualms with the distinction between “working line” and “show line” in some breeds.

My quick takeaway opinion- There are several orthopedic issues in the German Shepherd dog (specifically show lines) that have likely been exacerbated if not entirely caused by breeders striving for the classic “sloped back” look that is considered breed standard.

Now that being said, it is a fact that the three point stack (how a dog is positioned when standing) greatly exaggerates the angulation of the back and hind legs. You will often see comparison images like this one that show a dog in stack versus standing square and you can clearly see the top line looks more sloped when the dog is stacked. This image is from a GSD subreddit, a pretty dog here nicely demonstrating how the stance can change the appearance of the top line.

This phenomenon is what certain hardline GSD breed standard loyalists will point to when discussing this issue. They posit that the sloped back is essentially an optical illusion caused by aesthetic posing, and therefore a German Shepherd is no more prone to orthopedic problems than any other large breed dog. This is where I disagree.

You can easily find stark examples of a poorly put together dog in any breed or mixed breed out there, so when discussing my concerns with the GSD I will only use photos of titled dogs that are accomplished within the show ring. These are not random backyard bred shepherds, but champion dogs from acclaimed lines that will almost certainly be bred to pass on their genes. When breed clubs like the AKC award these dogs as exemplars of the breed, they tacitly endorse the conformation issues I’m about to discuss. So my beef is not with German shepherds or dog breeds in general, but specifically with breed clubs that refuse to examine whether their standard harms animals. An important disclaimer, not every breed club is like this and many take health concerns extremely seriously.

Dogs have a very different limb anatomy and gait to humans and a healthy dog is meant to walk on their paw pads. The “ankle” or hock should be upright and angled as you can see here in this nice-looking champion shepherd from 1902.

German shepherds can sometimes have a problem that is colloquially called “dropped hocks” where that joint is abnormally loose and in more serious cases can even be touching the ground, which is completely abnormal and something I would consider a serious physical flaw. A dog having dropped hocks/tarsal hyperflexion like this is proven to cause medical issues for these dog, but unfortunately the sinking joints also help to give the dog that “classic” sloping look that breed clubs love.

This dog “Ch Kysarah's Pot of Gold” won best of breed at the National dog show in 2015. You can see his hock is literally flat on the ground even when not stacked

And it’s not just one dog. Here is another champion dog (Cruaghaire Catoria), who got some controversy for winning best of breed at Crufts in 2016 despite an extremely abnormal gait.

Perhaps we could excuse the low hocks when the dog is standing as being the result of the stack, but it is glaringly obvious when she moves that this is no trick of her positioning. Her entire tarsus rests on the floor as she runs and in close ups you can even see bald patches there to suggest this is a “normal” gait for her. In this video, the announcers agree that this is the ideal gait for a shepherd. If I saw this gait in a friend’s dog I’d politely express my concerns for long term mobility issues and recommend an orthopedic consultation. To see it win best of breed is galling to say the least.

And lest you think the problem has been solved, here’s another from the National Dog Show in 2023

None of these dogs could charge athletically into a field and effectively herd sheep. If we are prioritizing aesthetic over function to the degree that a dog cannot do what it was bred to do, or more importantly that it cannot do the simple things that dogs love to do, then we have veered unforgivably off course. Not to put too fine a point on it but what the fuck is the point of a breed standard if it impedes the dog’s function in any way? We have no right. German shepherds are an incredible breed of dog that have stood by us humans in some of our darkest moments; I think the breeders and kennel clubs who claim to love them the most should work harder to ensure the “champion” dogs they are producing can live long pain-free lives. If we have to adjust our notion of what the breed is “supposed” to look like then so fucking be it.

This is too long already so I’m not getting into hip dysplasia, DM, carpal laxity, elbow dysplasia or other conditions that exist in the breed. If German shepherd clubs want to distance themselves from the notion that their breed standard is causing problems with canine health then they will need to stop publicly lavishing awards on dogs with medically concerning gait issues and start focusing on breeding dogs that can run around a ring without causing even the most casual of onlookers to realize “something’s not right there”

[doberbutts]

Patrick is a dog I personally knew, as well as a few of his relatives and his breeder, and I can tell you for a fact that Patrick moved stock in his personal life just fine actually. It was important to Frank (Patrick's breeder) that he produced dogs that could still perform as intended, including herding in a real world setting on a real farm.

I also know that that image is a still frame from a moving shot on a slick floor, and Patrick's owners have posted other photos of him both moving and still on grass to dispute this, but those tend to get ignored.

I *also* know that people went wild with those photos of Patrick and went after his junior handler and co-owner, who was a minor at the time she began to receive death threats for the crime of owning and showing the dog. I know this because I know her mother and have met her on numerous occasions in person, and because she has spoken directly to the people who started the public outcry about Patrick when he was at that show.

I also had the personal pleasure of knowing a half sibling of Patrick who had an extensive working career as a mobility service dog and who dabbled briefly in both herding and bite sports (and agility and obedience and dock diving but who's counting), again to satisfy Frank's desire to ensure he was producing dogs that could do the work. I know a niece of his who is also deployed as a mobility service dog, again more than capable of performing the physically demanding work required for this.

Conformation-only dogs of any breed are simply not my cup of tea but you will never catch me disparaging a dog putting in the work and an owner at least trying to bridge the gap. Please understand that you're making a lot of assumptions based on a bunch of still photos and not on an actual exam or watching the dog in question move in front of you, which any orthopedic specialist worth their salt will tell you is absolutely not good enough to judge just about anything. I also know this, because both Patrick and the relatives of his that I knew had been to orthopedic specialists prior to doing the above mentioned work to ensure their bodies would not break down rapidly from the repeated stress.

I know the vets I've worked for would never make such a strong statement on a dog they've never put hands on.

[border-collie]

[biteyjr]

A young man experiences his first flakes

[farm-paws]

Do you ever hear someone talk about your breed in a way that makes you grind your teeth? Because I do

[ofcarnivora]

We have Podlets and Olivekins!

[biteyjr]

Impromptu stack update too.

4 months -> 11 months

[biteyjr]

Here's to many more years of staring at me

5 months -> 11 months

[klapollo]

Ppl who wanna say r*tard without consequence again are desperate to come off as nonchalant and apathetic to what you think but they're always writing some PhD dissertation to justify it bc deep down they either know it's wrong or hate that ppl think they sound like a COD lobby toddler saying it

[klapollo]

[kangals]

what’s your most petty reason that you could never own a certain breed of dog? and I mean PETTY. don’t give answers like “I think flat-faced dogs are unhealthy” or “doodles aren’t ethical to breed” I don’t give a shit that’s boring. give me the DUMB shit that no reasonable person would care about but you do.

like, me I can’t own any dog where I can see it’s butthole. if its tail is docked, screw tail, or carried over the back, get that shit out of here. I refuse. I don’t care if they’re perfect otherwise, hide your goddamn rectum.

[meangirlnurse]

as a crested gecko person, I feel that in my soul. That being said I found it cheaper to just convert an old ikea cabinet I had -- the zoomeds suck.

😭

yeah honestly i have an old light blue RUDSTA in my basement that wouldn't match anything but it's PRETTY close to the insane reddit requirements....and FABRIKOR would be pretty fucking roomy

i do love the concept of using an IKEA cabinet though it seems kind of headache

[biteyjr]

ohhhh I did this once! But I made the terrible mistake of doing it for my first ever bioactive terrarium which means somehow I managed to kill most of my snake plant. Little twerp likes it though and it is fun seeing him use the entire thing.

The only pain is that it doesn't hold humidity too well and you have to cut through metal to ensure the heat source gets through.

I will say sealing it wasn't too bad and was probably the least difficult part of putting this monstrosity together. Think it took me three days of on and off work and then I seasoned it for a month.