#randomthingsthatirkme

[millenniallust4death]

I'm sure your sweet pet dog is actually a wolf - dog hybrid and not just a regular GSD or husky mix. Uh huh.

[millenniallust4death]

I'm having surgery this month so I booked a hotel room in town for a few days for my recovery. I live alone on a farm in a remote area where I don't even have the option to phone for an ambulance. If I have a complication from my surgery then I could die alone. I am so tired of living in this dystopian hellscape where I need to pay for a hotel instead of just going home to recover.

[millenniallust4death]

It really irks me that when you buy an academic ebook, you can only print 5 or so pages (4%). I paid for all the words! Sometimes, I need to print sections so that I can engage with the content and make drawings. The Notes feature doesn't always cut it. $85 for a book that I can barely use just to satisfy an arbitrary copyright law. I feel so frustrated.

(Buying a print book isn't an option in rural Alberta.)

[millenniallust4death]

Me: *opens FB to read a post a friend sent me about a pedigree*

Me: Immediately sees a post summarized as:

I've never owned a GSD before but I really want a puppy from this breeding [pedigree is all about producing serious, hard dogs that are sharp aggressive motherfuckers]. I think dogs with an edge are so cool! But breeders are always asshole gatekeepers and I'm tired of their negativity. I want what I want!

Me: *immediately closes Facebook*

There's always this cycle in my breed where hard, sharp dogs are seen as cool to own on Facebook by people new to the breed. All I can say is that Bosco was a once in a lifetime dog and I don't have it in me to train another. Asking Bosco to do anything a normal pet easily does was completely against his natural temperament. It was so much work and Martin had exceptional mentorship from Bosco's breeder. My next dog will be out of a close friend's dog because he is unusually easy going for a Czechline GSD and produces that temperament in his offspring (as well as good working ability).

Be very careful what you wish for and talk to people who are honest about the reality of living with a dog that has high social aggression.

[millenniallust4death]

I finally left my local GSD group because I was permanently irked. I wanted to throat punch all of the people who made tantrum posts because their workingline GSD displayed typical breed qualities. Workingline GSDs are very pretty but they aren't dark sable dog pillows. They are an assertive breed that will make their own decisions without clear and consistent boundaries from their owners. Taking them to dog parks might be okay until it suddenly really isn't and there's a dead pushy little dog. Three hours of daily "fetch" isn't training. Gah.

[millenniallust4death]

My high school friends on Facebook keep posting varying statements of:

"Almost all of the COVID cases [in Windsor-Essex, Ontario] are found in agricultural workers. Who cares?"

I love how COVID has made explicit which human lives are valued and which groups are considered expendable. But here's a thought, what are you going to eat if you kill off the farm workers?

[millenniallust4death]

I don't know if it's product of self-isolation or I'm just overly cranky but I am weary of scrolling by nutty dog training and breeding discourse posts on Facebook. I don't care if seeing a prong collar makes you cry. Dude, you have no idea what high social aggression means in real life. Why would you do a tight line breeding on a dog known for producing GDV or terrible teeth? Why are balanced pedigrees considered old fashioned and undesirable? If it costs you $20K to breed a litter then maybe you are focusing on the wrong factors.

And what's up with all these people suddenly splitting their accounts into two? I irrationally don't want to accept friend requests from people I have already added.

So, I deactivated my FB account because everything irks me. I would delete my account except my old posts have funny comments from Martin.

[millenniallust4death]

I saw you said you hate the term "stable" when used to describe GSDs. Do you mind explaining why?

Is it meaningful to apply binary categories to a complex topic such as temperament? Good/bad? Accept/reject? Stable/unstable? What information about the dog's threshold for aggression, prey drive, resiliency, nerve strength, attitude, etc. does the term, stable, actually convey? Is a dog stable simply because you prefer certain characteristics? Do those traits fit with the breed standard? I often see GSDs described as having stable temperaments because they are overly social towards strangers; this is not a correct temperament for a GSD according to the breed standard (ie. aloof but approachable). Stable just leaves me feeling cranky and asking a litany of questions.