Hope is a Four Letter Word

Ron. 30's. Dog trainer, amateur writer, hopeless Trekkie. 🐕 TenSoon. UROM U-Ch AKC-Ptd. Fayek's Night Prowler BH-VT CD PCDX BN RE RC2 CGCA CGCU TKP DDB WAC. Multi-sport adventure dog, constant shadow, fetch maniac, born 6/19/18. 🐕 Valkyrie Cain. U-RBPIS Themiscyra's Rise of the Valkyrie BH-VT CSAU CD BN RM CGCA CGCU TKA DDS DDBE ATT WAC VGM. Head of the household and of leaping before looking. Promising mondio prospect and reliable right hand dog, born 5/6/2023. 🦈 Mister Tumnus. Rehome Marshall ferret. Old soul and living beanie baby. 9/23/23 🐕 Fiver. Accolade Thunder Roars Adventure. Terrific Toy Terrier and Tiny Sport Terror. Smallest disc dog on the field and helper dog in training, born 9/25/24.

[lucy-harker]

A bond that would not be broken. Above men, above God, above fate. Together forever.

GINGER SNAPS (2000) dir. John Fawcett

[kangals]

An exciting new vocal stim I have been experiencing is just softly going "wee-waa..." whenever Im doing something. Wee-waa...

you have Summoned the WeeWa

[mythicalmutts]

The face of a dog that absolutely does not intend to move so I can also lay on the bed

[doberbutts]

[thevirgodoll]

[elvenferretots]

Learning patience at the tire shop.

[millenniallust4death]

Tagged by @agentsofpuppies to share six faceless photos! I'm currently visiting @molosseraptor, so the images are from our outings.

I cannot believe how delicious the chocolate croissants from Trader Joe's are. Joy we can afford in this economy. Of course, I took a photo of the heat map from the "Living With Conviction: Sentenced to Debt for Life in Washington State" exhibit we attended! I know Allie enjoyed listening to my rambling commentary about the graph instead of reading a Tumblr post about it.

[kuv8sh5]

isn't he beautiful

PRINT

[pitbolshevik]

95% mouth

[homoaffectionalism]

[elvenferretots]

Remove Valkyrie from box so she can be loose in car. Car safe place for Valkyrie. No destruction. Only comfy Valkyrie.

[mesacollie]

A nice day at Lake Sabrina up in the Eastern Sierra. It was a beautiful 77ºF, with a light breeze, and the water was a refreshing 67ºF. Meanwhile, it was 110ºF at home when we got back, so this was a REALLY nice break from the unbearable heat. And lemme tell you, after weeks of having hot water come out of BOTH sides of my faucet at home, that cold water felt SO GOOD.

Mesa didn't want to get in the water, but I did manage to lure him out about knee deep with some treats and encouragement. But he made it absolutely clear that he was doing so under duress. And as soon as I gave him the treat, he shot out of the water like a rocket.

That said, while he may never have a career in dock diving, I do think I might be able to take him kayaking. I am pretty sure that he will not jump out of the boat once it's surrounded by water. And this would be a great place to try it. There's a really nice boat launch.

However, I'm not going to try it until I buy him a float coat. I have no idea if he can even swim, so if he did jump out, I'd want some safety measures. And I'll have to take the kayak down from the rack in the garage and see how well he fits in it on dry land, too.

I'd love to take him kayaking, though. I haven't put my kayak in the water since I left Florida and this lake would be a perfect place for it, since my boat is designed for flatwater like this lake. So, we'll see what we can manage. Worst case, I go kayaking without him and he'll just have to spend the day at doggy daycare.

[fidelcostco]

WAIT HOLD ON I cannot fucking believe when I was like four years old my parents were cajoling me to walk with the family and trying to get me to keep up even though I kept insisting that I was "tired" until they took me to a doctor and found out my LUNGS DIDN'T WORK. how insane that we live in a world where reasonably loving parents think their FOUR YEAR OLD is trying to be LAZY. like they were mortified to be clear. adults are just so trained to ignore children's complaints as untrustworthy, kids just need discipline, they can't possibly speak for themselves. what the fuuuuck.

[fidelcostco]

YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE BTW you should always be trying to take children seriously, especially very little ones but definitely all of them. the most disempowered class basically legally defined as property and most people are like "yeah that's good actually I hate when they Loiter lol they're stupid and loud and i actually think children should stop existing. restrict their personhood more actually"

[ruderubicante]

A Love for Ignorance

[nakkipalkka]

[terrierthing]

"corn is a filler in dog food its just empty carbs and starch" have a kindergarten level of understanding nutrition lol.

[terrierthing]

her majesty Corn

[elvenferretots]

@thebarkpaladin You probably have this first step, but front foot targeting for Fiver to start a tucked sit!

A couple of things not noted here or noticed after the fact:

My timing is slow and I'm missing marking several times. This is due to splitting attention. The next several sessions would be best without trying to talk to the camera or manage the Sentient Tube Sock.

Mister Tumnus was out on purpose for training today. With the budget unable to go to training classes currently, Fiver in particular can use practice working through safe distractions. He melts a bit under social pressure from handler or other animals, but gains confidence working through it. Tumnus is his buddy, but he gets touchy about him being close by while he's working, something he also struggles with in a trial setting or with nearby class dogs.

The choice to scatter the jackpot at the end is to allow some more decompression after the session, with play directly after to also blow off any steam and leave him excited to do this again.

I'll add the next step on video once he's fluent at the foot target!