#h42el

[pocketdogs]

you said in tags that you had to adapt to having a BC-- As a "oh god I want a BC or mix thereof someday but I'm scared"-person, I'm curious about what that looked like for you.

honestly, I think I just wasn’t ready for a puppy, or maybe I was and I just forgot what puppies were actually like because I hadn’t had to take care of one in years. plus, a border collie puppy was a whole new ballgame. I had a calm, low energy dog before I got Finn, so it was a bit of a shock at first. I asked myself if I made the right decision more than once. after a month of sleepless nights and a lot of frustration I started to understand him a little better, though

it’s hard at first cos you can’t really take your puppy on a hike and drain his energy like that, but the puppy doesn’t care, he’s got so much energy, he’s ready to go, like all the fucking time, and he will go unless you figure out how he can channel his energy the right way. enter mental stimulation. a lot of it. tricks, obedience, puzzle toys, anything to keep him busy. another thing he likes to do is perform every single trick under the sun when you really just want him to, like, sit down, jeez

also, bloat? puppy doesn’t care about that, either. 20-60 minutes after mealtime are absolute hell cos he’s bouncing off the walls when he really shouldn’t be, so you have to find a way to calm the little fucker down and that can be really difficult cos you know how puppies sleep 18-20h per 24h cycle? not this demon. he’s not interested in toys unless they’re moving, and he wouldn’t take naps unless I crated him, and it took a while for him to learn to settle the fuck down and just sleep. if I got 5h of sleep I considered myself really lucky. and you really have to make the most of these moments cos he’ll be up and ready to go again in literally no time, and you can kiss whatever plans you had goodbye cos your hyperactive puppy demands your attention right now. (tip: it’s important for you to train him to have an off switch if you cherish your sanity, like really important)

and don’t expect your relatives or friends to be able to handle a border collie puppy even if they’re experienced dog owners. I left my parents with him for two days and they got absolutely no sleep. literally. don’t do that to your loved ones, the dog’s a handful the first couple of weeks (and still is for people who aren't, well, me). did they let him jump on their lap once? well, you’re going to have to spend the next few weeks trying to curb that particular behaviour, so good luck

all in all, I probably bit off more than I could chew but I did adapt pretty quickly, I think. once we created a daily routine that worked for us things got a lot easier (still very busy, but easier to manage). maybe he was just an isolated case but that first month put me off puppies for life  

[fjordfolk]

PyrShep!

well i mean i think it’s pretty clear what happened here. the wave of romanticism washed over central europe and with it came the pure breeding movement, making once-ambivalent people look at their dogs and go “huh. i guess we should… organize these somehow?”

and to be fair they did a pretty decent job, except by the end they were stuck with a reasonably sized pool of misfits. dogs that just didn’t fit the preconceived ideas, too small to be picards or briards, to smooth to be mudis or croatians, too fluffy for beaucerons, you get the picture. they didn’t particularly look like each other, but they looked even less like any of the others, so they loaded them up, they sent them as far as their delivery service was willing to take them, and said congratulations, these are your problem now

and now matter how you look at it that’s at least false marketing

[nefja]

h42el replied to your post “I found a great harness for Mantrailing you can open at the front so...”

dang, looks good, what about the julius k9 mantrailing harness tho? I'm afraid all of the might be too wide in front to pass through Rika's legs :(

Yeah, that one sure looks nice as well but unfortunately it’s only available in M (17-28kg) and L-XL (28-56kg) and Nefja is too light and small for the harness :( When she was a pup we got a harness that all her other litter mates got as well and it fit them all very well...but not Nefja. She is and always was a slender little bean.

[animalsustainability]

h42el replied to your post “@h42el asked: “ Oh what about jersey cattle tho? My family had Kerry...”

I mean their cute faces alone, right? I hear they've got friendly temperaments, but idk, any cattle ppl keep in backyards are bound to be more socialized. I'm hugely wary of large livestock. Our neighbor was killed by his bull :/ farming man, it's dangerous..

Yeah the phrase “never turn your back on a bull” is well justified.  I’ve never worked with dairy bulls but massive respect to people brave enough to do so. Intact stallions are nerve-wracking enough for me tbh.  But yeah the thing is livestock don’t realize they’re bigger or stronger than you and so it’s on to you to be as careful as possible.  

But Jerseys have the cutest faces.  This is known.  Though out of deference to my mother, who I learned my Jersey love from, I will concede that Brown Swiss have the most ridiculous, luxurious eyelashes of any cow.  Glamour cows, those ^^

[thedutchsighthound]

[twobigears]

h42el replied to your post: noodlebutts replied to your post: I joined BH305...

Ahh I heard about this on the podcast and I also perked my ears at the “waiting is part of life” thing. Hopefully it goes well for you! I assume they often do the same courses again so maybe one day…

Yeah most of the courses get repeated at some point, popular ones definitely repeated. Most of Shade’s courses are once or twice a year, the Bogeyman course is several times a year now, etc. I was really torn on adding this one since I was trying to stick to just one course (Shade’s heeling foundations is our other one) but the “waiting is part of life” was just too intriguing and I figured this course won’t be offered again until at least August since Sarah is doing Worked Up again next semester.

[twobigears]

h42el replied to your post: What a pleasant surprise to order all four of...

I feel that second tag so hard.. and the first one..

Hahah yeaahhh.... I really don’t know when I’ll actually start reading them. Got so much other stuff to do, in addition to the other books I’m burning through. Which is why I’m sitting here on Tumblr, there’s that procrastination. :D

[twobigears]

h42el replied to your post: but if I quit teaching agility and look for...

Dang that sucks :/ teaching agility sounds amazing in theory, but I guess it falls under the same once-it’s-a-job-it-can-get-unpleasant phenomenon as everything else :/

Yeah and so on one hand I’m like “well, every job has its sucky parts so what’s the point in trying anything else” and other hand I’m like “how much can I keep sticking through the sucky parts of teaching agility and deal with it”.

Some of the downsides have been:

I have no break from it. Agility is my life. And yeah it sounds great in theory. But not in reality. Sometimes it would be really nice to have a job I could leave at the door when I clock out and not think about it again until I go back to work.

Related to that, when something sucky happens in agility, as it does every now and then (and currently is), it’s essentially impossible to escape it. For the majority of people, agility IS an escape from other sucky things.

Being more involved in the politics. I think politics effect everyone at some point, but it’s much easier to avoid when agility isn’t your livelihood. And there is a lot of bullshit out there, and I’m living in a political-bullshit-heavy region. It’s like everyone forgets that agility should be about having fun with our dogs, not ruffling feathers at each other.

I feel more pressure to do well in agility, because who wants to learn from an instructor that sucks?

In addition to the general downsides that come with running your own business. I think the above downsides are ones that aren’t as obvious until you experience it. Yeah there are lots of positives too. But the downsides always suck. I go through this debate every now and then of “do I really want to keep doing this” and obviously I haven’t quit so far, but we’ll see.