FetchQuest

Blog for my dog

[allthings-acorn]

The thing about the whole not-a-beginner-friendly-breed thing is that I really just think dog people have incredibly low expectation of first-time owners. Which may be justified sometimes! But as a newish dog owner (Acorn is 5 now!) it’s incredibly frustrating.

It’s like people look at their breed and rightfully think, “my breed has needs!” But then for some bizarre reason they follow that thought with, “unlike some other hypothetical breed that has No Needs and this would be suitable for a first-time owner.” They all have needs! There is no perfect dog for a first-time owner because they all have quirks and it’s really a matter of doing research and thinking about what quirks you can handle or even enjoy.

[the-barn-rat]

real tired of hearing the vegan vs. omnivore arguments when the real superior diet in terms of both cruelty and ecosystem is locally sourced

beef and pork from a farm 10 minutes away from you is more ethical and less detrimental to the environment than quinoa grown in ecuador. the future is food forests. the green revolution is food forests. if we manage to survive this apocalyptic hellscape all of your food, plant and animal, is going to come from within half an hour of where you live. plant a vegetable garden in the meantime

[clouddoggo]

As a trained conservation biologist this is the most important step we can take. You do not understand how many issues we could solve if people bought most of their food from local sources.

[making-friendos]

Tiny alien visits a dog park

[70sscifiart]

The two scariest pages from The Scholastic FunFact Book Of Ghosts, 1978

[szczekaczz]

Illustrations from Breeding, training, management, diseases and c. of dogs (1877) by Francis Butler

[dozydawn]

“This Afghan Hound gets a final brush-up before the start of the judging.”

09 February 1974.

[farm-paws]

Mr Castle you will always be famous to me

[fetchquesting]

It’s been 2 years since Da Vinci received his STAR Puppy. Now it’s a title and not just a certificate.

[making-friendos]

A copper retriever with her unoxidised puppies

[aiiaiiiyo]

“Belka” and “Strelka”, Soviet space dogs after landing. USSR, 1960. [1800x1295] Check this blog!

[omgellendean]

The amount of people in the notes to this post (and any other space dogs related content) being surprised that Belka and Strelka or some other “dogmonaut” survived starts to concern me. Surely you guys know that most of the space dogs survived their journeys and went on with their doggy lives? Certainly you understand that getting the living creatures into the space and safely bringing them back was the point in these experiments? Like, you all get that these dogs were sent into space as part of the programme aimed at safely getting a human cosmonaut there, and Soviets weren’t just launching puppies to their deaths for the fun of it? You don’t just baselessly extrapolate Laika’s fate on all of them, right? Right?

…

Anyway, in case you get worried or upset looking at the space dogs’ photos, please know that most of the space dogs survived their journeys and went on with their doggy lives. They were sent into space as part of the programme aimed at safely getting a human cosmonaut there. Getting the living creatures into the space and safely bringing them back was the point in these experiments. Belka and Strelka definitely survived their flight, Strelka had puppies (one was gifted to JFK), and they both lived well into the old age.

[sylvia-on-the-run]

i forget her actual name(it translates to little star) but the last of the dog cosmonauts before gagarins flight ended up being adopted by gagarin and his wife and he often spoke about being grateful for her contribution

[zuxigo]

That would be Zvozdochka. She was also named by Yuri Gagarin. Here’s a picture of her with her friends sourced from a Russia Beyond article that manages to misidentify all 4 dogs (correct labels added to bottom of photo added by me)

[sylvia-on-the-run]

yesss thank you

[classicdogs]

[theadventurek9]

The dog who used to hide everytime I picked up the dumbbell to a dog that will retrieve to hand over a jump.

He will still need tons and tons of work and he still shows some signs of stress with the dumbbell but he is also showing signs that he thinks chasing the dumbbell is fun. So we are making huge improvements.

We are still mostly playing with the dumbbell just a restrained toss with a release and a retrieve to hand. Every once in a while I'll throw in a front or a formal sit stay but overall we still are focusing mostly on play.

We've also started to work more on our switch cue with toys. So much improvement with him and I'm so happy to see it.

[dozydawn]

[caitlikescoffee]

[the-acid-pear]

[masterxdanx]

[securityunit-ese]

Before I forget here enjoy some more photos of Charle's fucked up dog breeding experiments (find more posts here)

IMO the worst are the second generation GSD x BullDogs. Like First Generation? Doesn't look so bad

But then they backcross to the BullDog... and sure some look normal

but then the rest...

....yeah

[pangur-and-grim]

if I could have one truly evil action, I’d breed a bloodhound to a borzoi. I want to see what a sighthound looks like with big flappy jowls

[securityunit-ese]

@pangur-and-grim here they (saluki x bassethound) are, from the book The genetic and endocrinic basis for differences in form and behavior : as elucidated by studies of contrasted pure-line dog breeds and their hybrids (1941) which is the result of the 1926-1941 crossbreeding experiments by Charles Rupert Stockard at the Cornell Dog Anatomy Farm

[securityunit-ese]

One outlier to the fucked up experiments is the saluki x peke because honestly the peke is already pretty fucked up and the crossbreds are an improvement

They used showdogs for the purebreds btw, to ensure the lines were as contained as possible for the genetic studies.

So the saluki x peke babies were reverse-monsters in that they are less fucked up than one parent but more fucked up than the other