Tobaneezer Scrooge

Toby, everything beagle, 10/31/2023 - present Regis, Rottweiler, 02/24/2018 - 07/27/2023 Adventures in training, growing, and surviving adulthood from the lens of a shitty iPhone camera

[mrbeezercheezer]

Simply cannot fathom why he is not allowed to swim in the Big Water

[odddogs]

to good to go unposted regardless of whether or not i could find the source i feel like he's made of coconut husks

[mrbeezercheezer]

Not impressed with today’s enrichment

[nefja]

May I offer a strange fungus growing on my parent’s couch?

Is that a wild fungus though or a Lab grown one

[dogfancier]

Ch Fitz-Down Paul, corgi (pembroke) owned by Miss J. Fitz-Williams, Devon. 1937

[canisalbus]

✦ High pray drive ✦

[pocketdogs]

tofu is incredible thank you for sharing pictures and videos of him

you are so welcome

[mrbeezercheezer]

My dog is Jesus btw

[mrbeezercheezer]

It’s so damn cold and I love it but yeesh. The wind and negative temps make it hard to enjoy from anywhere else but my bed. Toby loves the snow but it’s too cold for his paws. Normally it doesn’t bother him but I think the negative temps and the fact that the snow is so high makes it much colder for him than it would be. He wants to run and play but as soon as he goes out, he’s ready to come back in. We’ll get through this my guy.

[punishedsaints]

[pocketdogs]

he has a quest for you

[mrbeezercheezer]

A murder most foul

[mrbeezercheezer]

So glad Toby is happy to sleep all day because it’s gotdang COLD. Normally I love hiking in winter but not with 30mph wind chills and negative degree temps. He likes the snow but not the cold. He lived that life on the streets and much prefers a blanket and a soft bed. That being said, he will become a pain in the ass if he doesn’t get some decent exercise soon. I can hear the jaws music…

[mrbeezercheezer]

It’s been a long time since I used this blog. At first it was to log my time with Regis. I didn’t appreciate how this blog could stand in as a photo album and memory book. There isn’t as much of Regis on here, though he is everywhere in my heart. I’ve decided to correct this with Toby. So here he is:

A trash dog, a dumpster dog. He was supposed to be a one-week sleepover buddy but he never left and I never asked him to. The shelter forgot I had him, and I had to remind them to spring him from the hands of the state so he could be officially mine. He’s an everything beagle. A lil guy. A barnacle. He has no opinions unless it involves food and a comfy place to sleep (on me). A blanket stealer. A pillow thief. The quietest hound who ever lived, never a peep unless we’re driving down the road home - then it’s time to woo and moo and raaa and roo (and what can ya do but to join him in his celebrations).

He’s been with me since Thanksgiving 2023, a mere handful of months since Regis passed. They aren’t remotely alike but in one thing: giving my life purpose.

Here’s to many adventures Tobeezus Cheezus

[elvenferretots]

Can you elaborate on your oversocializing comment? I have never heard anyone lament that before and I find that fascinating, especially coming from a dog boarding/veterinary background (and with all the super scared Covid puppies who need vet care ahhhh!)

As a trainer, I see a ton of guardian breeds. The worst cases of barky-lungey/reactive behavior I see are the guardian breed dogs who got to meet EVERYBODY as puppies. They then hit maturity, developing into aloof dogs who only like their people, but have a track record of EVERYBODY trying to touch them all the time. They don’t enjoy it, and they don’t have history of their owners advocating for their space. So they make their own space.

A trainer I used to work with pushed the “9/10 rule” with protection breed puppies; for every person they meet (which should be a productive experience such as a vet, groomer, judge/instructor, trusted friend and their children, etc.), they should learn to ignore or pass by at least nine unbothered (pedestrians who want to pet your dog, strange children, people in uniforms, folks with hats/canes/etc.). The puppies I’ve met who were raised like this turned out very nice for the most part.

I see this and have made this mistake with other dogs, too. I let TenSoon play with lots and lots of other dogs as a puppy, and he learned bad manners and was bullied into several spats. As a breed already prone to rude behavior and SSA, that was the last thing he needed. I see a bunch of dogs, friendly and not, who could’ve benefited from spending more time learning to ignore other dogs and less time learning bad habits with poorly vetted ones. Almost every case of reactivity I get that isn’t a GSD or ACD has a case record of oversocializing with every dog they met during puppyhood. They respond either with barrier frustration over their excitement at another dog, or insecurity due to being bullied or even attacked.

I basically wish I’d known this a bit sooner:

[pawsitivevibe]

Important to remember no matter what breed of dog you get ... You might want a particular breed for particular traits. But if you're getting a puppy you gotta just write off those first two years. You will not have the dog you want to end up with. You will have a baby dog. And all the terror that entails.

You'd think this would be common sense, but man have I seen so many people recently get puppies of particular breeds for specific reasons and get frustrated when the puppy isn't "low energy" or "super smart" or the "ugggh I want to do all these activities but I can't because it's too young." Like, listen you bought a Border Collie or a Shih Tzu or a Golden Retriever, and you're gonna get certain predictable breed traits ... Eventually. But right now you have Baby Dog. People expect too much of their puppies too quickly, whether it's simply good predictable behaviour, or certain activities like sports or even jogging and hiking. Write off those first 2 years and focus on your baby dog's development.

[specklemutts]

Socializing Puppies: talk to me about it!

I feel like I fell very short with Ren when socializing and while he turned out just fine and is a very solid dog, I think that I just got lucky.

I'm not trying to fuck up O'Malley, though. He's 8 weeks old, has had 1 DAPP vaccine, so no paws on the ground outside of my home. How do I socialize this lil dude? What should I be doing so that I (or whoever ends up with him) don't end up with a nightmare dog.

Tips/tricks? I want a well-socialized, behaviorally sound dog. No more jerks in this house

[enrichmentformaverick]

It’s important to remember that socialization isn’t about getting your dog to meet as many people as possible, it’s about your dog having Positive experiences around new things

[bullyshark]

I gotta say teaching Shark a chin target as her very first trick helped so much with handling (especially to look at eyes, teeth, and ears) and Dr Karen's Calmness Protocol with the mat has done wonders! Shark learned how to lay down by figuring out that a down was the preferred pose on the mat, and since I would lay it down and feed her pieces of food while I ate at the coffee table at home or the picnic table at work, she began to default down when I'm sitting or standing with food.

She's 6 months old and just went with me to a birthday party for an 8 year old, there were like 10 children, more adults, and a few toddlers/babies. It was a new house, with so many people and loud and new noises (including a bunch of kids rapid fire playing one of those arcade type basketball games), and she spent most of her time offering downs at my feet just content to watch everyone unless they started talking to her- then she wanted to say hi. Aside from being cautious about the most novel of things at first (some plush Halloween decorations of Jack and Sally on the floor) she adjusted pretty quickly. At one point all the children screamed when something scared them and Shark just acted confused and a little curious. She was raised with mostly puppy culture so she has always been pretty good about recovering from loud noises, but I was seriously impressed.

We did a puppy kindergarten also through our local kennel club and it was so beneficial in socializing her to loud noises, novel experiences with toys and baby dolls, and focusing with other puppies around- highly recommend it!

I took her lots of places before her complete set of vaccines were finished, and mostly carried her. I'm a vet tech so I'm definitely not downplaying the importance of vaccines, and plenty of people in the veterinary field are conflicted about this, but the American Veterinary Behavior College discusses a lot about the behavioral risks of not taking puppies more places before their critical socialization period ends at 12 weeks compared to the risk of catching parvo. We went into hardware stores and sat in my car in parking lots, I carried her into pet stores and let her sniff new things. I just figured out the Joanns fabric store here is dog friendly so even though she's six months now, we'll be exploring that soon!

When she was little and I was letting her walk on store floors, I didn't worry about manners (except for trying to have her sit and focus on me before going to greet people) as much as building her confidence. Shark enjoyed climbing on the stacked bags of dog food, so I let her and encouraged her and rewarded her for exploring. Employees thought it was very cute and Shark continued to want to experience new things. Dogs can learn manners at any age and I hardly ever have a problem keeping her off of something now, she is usually tempted but I just assume she would always like to climb so if I don't want her to I reward her for staying by my side as we walk by.

I let her play with cardboard boxes and paper bags and plastic bottles, she loves all those sounds now. She chooses to climb on metal grates like the ones under a grill or a bird cage. It's hard to tell how much of this is because of puppy culture, but there is still an online puppy course with them you can follow for free on their madcap university website. Even if they aren't raised with puppy culture, it still benefits them in their new home!