#dog discourse

[flodaya]

The way those security dogs work is you basically buy the dog from approved breeders that work with those programs then the trainers choose which dog is gonna work best for you and then they train the dog up. But it’s a dog; you can guarantee what you’re gonna get. So maybe it ends up with health issues that make it impractical; maybe it was too anxious traveling; maybe didn’t get along with noon or hundred other possibilities. It seemed to be really bonded with the trainers kids so I’m assuming they either kept it or found it a suitable family cause that’s what happens with those very expensive dogs. If you buy a dog for a purpose it’s always a roll of the dice unfortunately. Similar with service dogs tbh that’s why they recommend not training one up yourself because you never know how it’s gonna work out. I’m assuming there was maybe an issue with noon or their lifestyle that made it impossible for them since they certainly have the finances to support a dog even if it doesn’t work for them as planned

i promise this is last thing on this topic, and yeah, i mean they arent the first nor the last people to not keep a pet, i'm sure Daphy found a beautiful home <3

[kronkk]

sterilizing and breeding out pits would do so much for dog rescues. they're all totally overrun by pits and bully mixes that aren't likely to find responsible, suitable owners. there's plenty of non-pit strays who could use the resources and would be safer as pets. I agree with adopting over "shopping" but it's really unfeasible if you don't want a pitbull. breeding them is so unethical just seeing how many languish in shelters because they can't find appropriate homes.

there are areas where its almost impossible, I just went on Petfinder.com and the first 8 are all obviously pits or pit mixes being listed as just ‘terrier’ or ‘terrier mix’. I also dont understand how when I was adopting my dog who’s a huge mutt but does have Jack Russel in him that the foster mom said to not bring him around kids because he’s a terrier mix but somehow a amstaff terriers are ‘nanny dogs’

I do know of a shelter my family always goes to that has puppies and grown dogs that are not pit mixes/they have dogs other than pit mixes

[penatola]

Going to look into joining a local group to decriminalize owning pitbulls & mixes in my area.

fucked up they are considered a "wild and exotic animal" akin to literal bears and hippos.

"theyre soooo dangerous" stfu

[highly-nonexistent]

There is something very weird about the relatively short nature of the culture surrounding website creation. As in, like, internet-user-created websites have been around for like 30-31 years at this point, and the culture surrounding them has changed so very much.

People used to create websites left and right for their own needs, their little shops and their little blogs about what they liked. Some websites of course housing horrible content since their dawn, and some being as mundane but as unique as the person behind its code. I have seen older sites, archived, that promoted creating your own site, and that was interesting to see. That culture of creating your own website and of sharing that knowledge on a still-growing facet of communication.

And then at some point social media appeared, and that was interesting, because now everyone was able to quickly present themselves without the need of a website, but that didn't mean people stopped making websites. I mean, hell, Geocities died in 2009, so a lot of people were creating their own websites for free before that time, no need to pay for domain names or hosting. And even without Geocities, there were other website hosting things that yes, while not as customizable, were still a resource for people to work with them. There's still a website floating around that I made when I was a kid using one of these services. Cool stuff.

All this to say that I do feel a weird sense of dread looking back and cross-referencing with the present and seeing things like "website creator powered by AI" and shit like that, because just ?? How did it go plummeting so quickly. There is a weird feeling of having lost a developing culture to corporations making quick access to posting things that, as corporations' nature dictates, are used to sell data or to train models or what have you. Similarly, we get pretty same-y looking pages because of the need to be slick or whatever with designs that just leaves everything looking the same. ALSO, the loss of spaces for kids, or just the gradual lowering of them in favor of cocomelons and whatever else the devil's machine has spawned is like watching an apple decay before having ripened. I do feel like there is this phenomenon in which how to make a site has been lost in the notion of "making a website falls into the realm of evil and scary coding and I could never be a programmer, plus who would look at it, plus we have tools to make them," etc etc etc. Here is a little secret: website creation is not exactly hard to pick up at all. You might say it's very similar to using a rich text editor like Word or a notes app or whatever you use. Similarly, have you used markdown for things like messages or D iscord messages, you know, with the asterisks for bold text and the likes? Markdown is based on html's structures. And truly, you do not have to even learn to code using Javascript if you don't want to, you can just go full html + css and structure your things as you go, adding your little images and your updates. Because guess what !! Html and css are not programming languages, they're a markup language and a stylesheet language respectively, which is a fancy way to say "you make the structure of your page with the first one and make it pretty with the second one". This includes cool stuff like tables, lists, grids, colors, transitions, etc. All of that without any programming. (That being said, if you are interested in programming, Javascript isn't too bad to pick up. The language itself *is* kind of evil, but using it in conjunction with html is not too difficult). I do have to say though, I am glad that there is a push to making your own websites and things, especially with Neocities sprawling a huge community of avid website creators, as well as the huge amount of tutorials and stuff making the push forward with making sites and online spaces and experiences more widely available. Hopefully this becomes a trend that keeps going up, considering the state of seemingly every single social media that has existed since the 2000s- 2010s.

[caudachroma]

Recognizing and Reporting Dogfighting on Social Media: A Short PSA

(feel free to copy/paste to anywhere.)

In light of recently discovering nine accounts with evidence of illegal dogfighting taking place behind the scenes on TikTok, I’m posting a PSA on how to recognize and report content like this for legal action to be taken, to save the lives of dogs and other animals used as “bait.”

Language-

Certain words for dogs/behavior/people are used mostly/entirely by dogfighters. Some of them are as follows:

•*Cur* or *Stone Cold*- A dog that won’t/refuses to fight

•*Dogman*- Someone that handles fighting dogs

•*Prospect*- A promising young aggressive dog

•*Champion*- A dog that has won fights

•*Game Bred*- Dogs bred for aggression/fighting

•*Game Dog*- A dog proven “game”, a fighter

•*Scratches/Scratch Lines*- The lines dogs start behind in the fighting pit

•*Catchweight*- A heavyweight fighting dog

•*Chain-weight*- The normal weight of a dog

•*Yard*- Where the dogs are kept

•*Roll/Bump*- A training match

Fighting Dog Training Equipment

Most dog fighters use the same methods that people have for a century or more, manual devices to bulk up their dogs and train out any remaining hesitation. The names of those are as follows:

*Catmill, Flirt Pole, Spring Pole, Turn Table*

•Treadmills are a red flag, though these are also used for non-fighting dogs, so treadmills alone are not a sign.

Personal/Dog Behavior

Accounts/people that behave in a certain way are easy to recognize once you figure out the pattern. Red flags such as the following:

-Flaunting a dog’s muscle mass

-Dogs on chains outside, sometimes with doghouses

-Dogs not allowed inside/in contact with each other

-Stock of single/multiple dogs fully of Pit Bulls/Bully Breed dogs

-Dogs often look thin, but in reality have no fat and are all muscle mass

-Bragging of a dog’s “bloodline” and often citing the names of specific dogs. Looking up said dogs may bring up papers/conformation of them coming from a “fighting line”

-Videos of dogs training/hanging off of things just by their mouth, grabbing and shaking hard

-Dogs with scars on their face/head

-Breeding, advertising dogs for stud, selling puppies, “coming soon” type posts

-Advertising the kennel their dog came from, said kennel only seems to breed very lean bully breeds/pit bulls

-Often arguing for “preserving lines” or arguing inbreeding is okay

Reporting

If you report the accounts/content to the social media site they are on, the content will be removed and no further action will be taken. To actually get these people in legal trouble, report them to the FBI tip line. If you don’t want to use your own information with the tip, put the address of something like a Walmart. Just make sure if you add any contact information that it is valid.

The accounts often comment on each other’s pages/videos, and if you are a strong-stomached person you may be able to report multiple at once by browsing comments and clicking on suspect accounts to acquire usernames.

DO NOT INTERACT WITH THEM

FBI tip line: https://tips.fbi.gov/home

American Humane Guide: https://www.americanhumane.org/fact-sheet/reporting-internet-animal-abuse/

[balthazarslostlibrary]

I was walking along the beach a few days ago when I saw these pakake, or new zealand sea lions. They were very peacefully resting above the tide-line getting their Zs in and cuddling.

Their peace was very nice to see because these are taoka species and endangered after being hunted almost to extinction on the mainland. Pakeke have only started pupping on the mainland in the past 40 years, and so it’s extremely important to protect them.

Now for the less great part

Their peace was, unfortunately, disturbed by a person and her off-leash dog. There were signs up saying to leash your dog for a specific part of the beach, not even the whole beach, because there were pakeke resting in that area. When I shouted to her that there were sealions, and that her dog was actively harassing them, she waved her hand vaguely at her dog until it eventually came away. I realised she didnt even have a lead, and she just left her dog’s poop on the beach to go into the ocean.

Actually infuriating that some people just refuse to leash dogs their when they should, no matter what people say or do.

The world does not belong to you, and your dog comes second to the environment and other wildlife, get it through your head.

[the-adventures-of-dave]

I’m reading an article about how off leash dogs are damaging to wildlife and half the comments by dog owners sound just like outdoor cat people. Very much the vibe of “other people do worse things than me so I should be allowed to do what I want”.

Pet owners are responsible for their pets, and that includes their pets’ impact on others- wildlife and the environment. It’s frustrating to see people put other living things at risk for their own convenience.

[fayeandknight]

Going to throw out my two cent take on "doodles" even though absolutely no one asked me.

For the record I currently work as an assistant dog trainer and daycare attendant.

I do not hate doodles. What I hate is seeing these high energy, (mostly) intelligent dogs suffer under misinformed owners. My heart breaks for the dogs marketed as living teddy bears to people who genuinely do not understand what they signed up for.

We had a 9 month old one in class on a Thursday and in a foster home/given up for adoption by Tuesday. The dog is not a bad dog. She's a puppy with lots of energy and an under worked brain. But the owner didn't realize she'd be so much work. Too much work.

I do not hate doodles. I hate the marketing around them. I hate that they often don't get a fair chance at being a dog, with all that entails. I hate that people expect them to be perfect from day one without structure or training. I hate that those dogs have to pay for it by having unhappy owners or losing their homes.

I hate that so many are bred/sold without regards to structure or temperament. I hate that the dogs ultimately pay the price.

But I do not hate doodles.

At the end of the day they're dogs, and they deserve to be treated as such - needing training and enrichment and proper care. Just like any other dog.

I don't hate doodles, but I do hate what's sadly happening to too many of them.