#kangals

[grub-art]

kangals - o2/17/22

[chrys-the-ghost]

my dash did a thing

[am-i-too-old-for-warriors-yet]

“Pack Pack, Kill Kill”

2010--2018--2020

[vexvamp]

Finally got around to drawing @kangals character, Kirn. He was one of the first OCs I really fell in love with when I first joined DA, and I’ve been meaning to draw him for a very long time. Just pretend the scarred eye is on the other side. A miscalculation was made. 

[doberbutts]

kangals replied to your post “Taking a dog you have no abject interest in herding to test herding...”

i've been thinking about seeing if there's some herding classes i could do with stellina, but obviously it would just be as a fun activity for her since it's not like i have any livestock of my own. she's got some herding champion cousins and half-siblings so i'm really itnerested to see if she'd take to it. do you think that would be a bad idea since it wouldn't be for a title or anything?

i guess i'm worried about denying her opportunities to do herdy things since she's a herdy breed, but at the same time i don't want to cause undue stress if it's frowned upon for "just a pet" people to participate

So I am not a herding person and this is just my opinion (from living in a high farming area) and the opinion I’ve heard from people who do herd for utility/working purposes (not titling or fun or “breeding worthiness”) but:

Herding specifically stresses the animals. The dog is performing an altered predatory sequence on the livestock, and the livestock are moving to avoid (in their mind) predation. They do not see the difference between a dog that truly wants to box them in to eat them, and a border collie following instructions from the farmer. As a result, it is um... not super kind... to put your dog on stock if you have no actual interest in herding as a whole. “Just to see if [dog] can” is still putting stress on the [usually sheep] for no real point. Additionally, stress affects prey animals differently than predatory animals, and in some species can cause them to have various health issues or even kill them, so it’s always in the back of my mind. Keep in mind as well that part of herding is to bite and snap at the livestock in order to move them, and because herding is just altered prey drive, that can trigger a true predatory sequence from a dog and it stops being “move the [sheep]” and starts being “eat the [sheep]”. Such was the case for the non-herding-breed dog I was talking about in my OP.

Personally if I were a person interested in “herding for fun”, I would look into things like treibball where the dog “herds” an exercise ball around a pen.

On the other hand, I don’t think it’s wrong to want to learn more about herding especially if you have a herding breed dog with proven herding ability within the pedigree. I would just keep the welfare, safety, and mental wellbeing of the livestock in mind, as respect for those things is a large part of herding as well. There are plenty of people who started with a “well, let’s just see if the dog can do it”... discovered they liked it, and then went on to pursue education and such from there. Sushi’s breeder wants her to have a herding instinct trial when she’s old enough so she can verify her dogs are still capable of being the utility farm dogs that she wants to be breeding- I have really no interest in herding or learning about it, so for me it is a moral question as well on whether I feel it’s right to put Sushi on [the breeder’s] sheep and see what happens when I know that it will stress the sheep.

[canisitsnotlupus]

"Sir, the Kangal is good for the world. Not just families. They are the color of sand and rock, they have the heart of those before them, the wild animals that have become our friends. It is that way with our dogs. Everyone should have a Kangal." - Brave And Loyal, by Cat Urbigkit

[fjordfolk]

dogblr questions - 18, 50!

(dogblr questions)

18) Your favorite trick your dog knows?

I answered this yesterday so I’m going to twist it and tell you what Luna’s favourite trick is: It’s paw. Because she gets to very excitedly slap people and sometimes it turns out that’s actually what we asked for and she gets treats for it. Sometimes.

50) What’s the silliest thing your dog has ever done?

The silliest thing that happens regularly (and thus I actually remember it) is that every time we get home to the farm and let Sparty out of the car, she runs screaming down the driveway.

She shoots off. She runs halfway down the road. She barks like mad. She sprints back up, extremely pleased with herself.

We don’t remember how this started.

Clearly, neither does Sparty.

[smoothexpression]

@kangals replied to your post “dogs going into heat is so fucking stressful how does anyone do this ”

Im dealing with this now and i HATE it, idk how ppl keep intact females

several years ago an old friend of mine had a dog die from pyometra so it’s like consuming my every thought rn dana was acting so off yesterday afternoon, but then by the end of the day she was back to normal, and then this morning she threw up, but is still eating well and acting completely normal. i’m like constantly thinking about every little factor of her life over the past few days and obsessing over everything. might get her blood tested tomorrow just for some peace of mind XP