Himself, the Comet, & the Dragon

[wyrddogs]

I'm trying to keep my follower count down, so unless you are a pet blog or have pets clearly marked in your header, I will probably be blocking you. It's nothing personal. This does not pertain to longtime followers.

My pets:

Bindi, 4/25/10 - 12/16/22. Mixed breed. I miss you, Kid.

Kermit, 2/29/20. Dachshund. My handsomest and most manly of men.

Zaku, 2/14/23. Belgian tervuren. I wubs my bubs.

Spyro, 9/25/25. Dachshund. Girl, no.

[wyrddogs]

Weight pull update (apologies to everyone's dashboards):

KERMIT

Been pulling three chains for the last couple months. I put him on the cart for the first time in like six months last night. He pulled 45 and then 65 pounds (20 and 30kg) with ease and, more importantly, enthusiasm. I'll keep him there a week or two before increasing weight.

LUCI

Lucille has been pulling three chains for months and she looks like a sled dog, she's driving so hard. The friction on the carpet really helps her stay in a straight line. Last week we put her on the cart (45 pounds/20kg) and she was scrambling back and forth again. So she's not ready for that yet. I don't want her wasting energy. So we'll stay on the chains for a bit.

SPYRO

Still bounding with great enthusiasm down the carpet in her harness with no weight. I've been standing in different places (both sides, in front, at the end, behind her) and last night I walked from the finish line towards the start line as she drove past me. This will help with agility later. Didn't even phase her.

ZAKU

This dog finally isn't injured so he was able to pull for the first time in months. I didn't want to overdo things so he pulled 140 and 180 pounds (63 and 82kg). I had two separate people watch him as he pulled. While they said he looked like he was bracing for remembered pain, once he realized he didn't hurt, he got right to business. By the end of the night, he was looking much more relaxed as he moved into the pull.

He was so excited and happy to be put back in harness. He's missed this.

[wyrddogs]

Heelwork update

Club held another training day. I worked on rally with my crew.

I've been doing a warm up of sending Zaku and Spyro to my platform for Place/Up, then a fun food/toy toss, then back to platform. With Kermit I do some tricks and a fun short send to the platform. He's not really into food tosses, but he likes tricks. This gets them excited and engaged.

They aren't ready for most rally signs yet, but we went into the ring anyway to get used to being there. My only goal was lots of fun and enthusiasm with what we did know.

I only allowed myself one cheesestsick per training session to keep things short and sweet. Once I ran out of cheese, it was over, and they got to relax a bit before going back in the car. That keeps me from doing too many reps and burning them out.

ZAKU

He's now able to get into heel position without the platform. We practiced the 360 in both directions, one step at a time. I did a few steps of lured heel, and then he was so focused that we managed four steps of non-lured heel. Super happy.

Right now front looks like me backing up while having him hand touch at my waist. That got rid of the pressure so it's going well. Eventually I'll phase out movement, then I'll add sit. I just want to make this comfortable first.

Did stand for exam (with the platform) with one woman he knows and one he doesn't. The woman he knows started by jerking her hand around his head and he got weirded out a bit, so I made her back up and do it again calmer, and he was fine. The non dog-savvy stranger executed a perfect exam and gets an A+ for Perfectly Following Directions.

SPYRO

Discovered a hole in her training-- she does not understand down-stay without her place mat. So we'll work on that. It's also been A While since I've done down-stay with the mat so I know what I need to focus on lol.

She can be lured into heel position without the platform, though sometimes she adds a spring up to my kneecaps as an extra. I lured her a few feet in heel and she did great. She's starting to auto-sit on occasion, which is great.

Front is going fine lol. She kind of crashes into my ankles with her enthusiasm to get the food.

I need to ponder how I'll train her stand for exam, though we are faaaar off from that, since she still needs a solid understanding of stay first.

KERMIT

Kerm let me know that he's not ready to get rid of the platform yet. When I try to lure him without it, he sloppy sits, rolls over, or waves. If I'm able to get him to rotate, he ends up outside of heel position. When I added the platform back in, instant clean up. I was able to lure a few steps of heel position. He was very distracted by the environment (there were chickens nearby), but doing some tricks between exercises helped re-focus him.

Front is going fine. He's the farthest along of the three.

Training puts Kermit in a really good mood so he was friendly and outgoing to the other folks attending.

[wyrddogs]

Man, I have spent the majority of today just bawling my eyes out. It is two hours past my bedtime and I have not stopped. Today sucked.

[wyrddogs]

Also! What’s a dog sport you haven’t tried yet but would like to some day?

I’d like to give herding a shot! It looks very technical and requires a lot of pressure awareness and knowledge of herd mentality. I love watching sheepdogs at work.

I don’t think I should do it with Zaku, though. I’ve developed his prey drive so I can hunt hares and raccoons, and I don’t think it would be safe to put him in a pen with prey animals. The safety of the sheep is more important than me doing an activity with my dog.

Herding is also a lifestyle in the same way bitesports is. You have to really dedicate yourself to it, with both time and money. I don’t have either at the moment. Maybe in the future, if I’m in a different living situation, I might give hunting a rest and try a different lifestyle that is more conducive to herding.

A couple of the malinois breeders I’m looking at for Next Large Dog produce some herding dogs, so the instinct is there.

Thanks for asking!

[wyrddogs]

Given the choice between a Kermit-sized Zaku or a Zaku-sized Kermit, which are you picking?

Kermit-sized Zaku, easy. A 60 pound Kerm would only use his size for evil.

He already climbs into my garbage can to pull out wrappers. Imagine if he could reach the table.

He’s also a very opinionated dog and there are some things he gets away with by being thirteen pounds. If he’s being a jackass I can just pick him up. Sixty pounds of Kermit would require some management. But people would also be less willing to barge into his space and pet him when he wants to be left alone. It’s tough being small and cute.

He’d also figure out how to get over my fence.

Thanks for asking!

[ipushedtimmyinthewell]

1.5 years vs 6.5 years.

[wyrddogs]

Everyone is on vacation so I’m one of the only people in my office building and I’ve had one (1) email in two hours and have caught up on all my tasks and am bored out of my mind. Ask me stuff?

[wyrddogs]

BREAKING NEWS: My son deigned to carry a stick for a few minutes.

[wyrddogs]

This dog is so good. We were all sitting on the grass and hanging out when a middle-aged dude appeared out of nowhere, being dragged by his bully mix. The dog stopped about five feet away and was hard staring at my dogs.

I was able to throw some food down to distract Spyro, who is in the middle of a reactive phase, but was too late to do anything for the boys. The dog was very tall and stiff legged, and staring right at Zaku. I put my fingers through Bub's collar and lightly said, "Don't move. Don't move. Don't move." And he stayed still! He was laying on the ground with another dog posturing super close by and he didn't react.

The guy finally was able to get his dog moving again and I gave all three of my dogs a party.

Like holy shit. Zaku would have been well within his rights to tell that dog off and then we would have had a very real dog fight on our hands. I am under no illusions that the other guy would have been any help at all considering how he was stumbling as his dog yanked him around.

Anyway, everyone tell Zaku how good he is.

[fjordfolk]

doesnt get any better than this actually

[wyrddogs]

Standoff.

[elektroyu]

First Artfight attack of 2026! Budgies Odin & Zoey for Bird-brained :D

[wyrddogs]

I put Zaku's collar on this morning. I took the dogs out for a walk, came back and fed them, had breakfast. He catapulted himself into my lap, and I discovered he has no collar.

So unless it is somehow in the yard, it is currently out in the wild blue yonder somewhere in the open space where I take them.

Update: Collar found! It was neither in the yard nor in the middle of nowhere-- it was inside the house.

[wyrddogs]

It's always interesting to me how about once a year someone posts in a dachshund group asking how people feel about the lepto vaccine, and then ten gajillion people immediately respond that they would never ever give it to their dachshund, they've been breeding for thirty years, dachshund explode on contact, they advise their puppy buyers to never give it, it's incredibly dangerous, etc etc.

When I or two other people post that we give the vaccine to our dogs because lepto is a terrible way to die, we get jumped.

[doberbutts]

I asked the doctors at my job why people have such a huge hateboner for the lepto vaccine since we see lepto cases come through a couple times per year and- agreed, it's a terrible way to die, but also it's zoonotic and spread through urine and can cause you to go blind [temporarily]. And their answer is that it's the second most likely vaccine to have a reaction after the rabies vaccine, which is legally required in this state, and rabies is not curable while lepto is, so it's an easier scapegoat.

My dogs are not currently vaccinated for lepto because we don't come into contact with wildlife often enough for me to consider it a huge risk, but I certainly have previously and would do so again if there was more wildlife crossing my yard. Thankfully with my fence all I really have are very bold squirrels in the trees, and blue jays that are Fenris' sworn enemies. There's been wildlife in my neighbor's unfenced yard, so I don't doubt the risk would be there if the fence didn't deter them.

[wyrddogs]

Ah, that makes sense. I know a couple of anti-vaxxers who also hate the rabies vaccine (they'll get it once and then titer the rest of the dog's life), so lepto being the better target makes sense.

And it's definitely a weighing of risks. A lot of the folks who comment have pet dogs who rarely leave the yard, so it's generally not a big deal if they don't get it. What takes me aback is the vehemence of their responses. Especially when it's a new person asking about the vaccine and then they're advised that dachshunds will die if they get the vaccine. That's what sits wrong with me, especially since when I've had conversations with my veterinarians, they've told me that the vaccine is much safer than it used to be, and they've all told me that if I'm nervous I'm welcome to hang around a bit in case my dogs do have a reaction.

It's very, "Big Veterinarian just wants to make money off the vaccines; they don't care about the health of your dogs!"

[yutaan]

A papercraft memorial portrait of Cinder, a wonderfully sweet cat. Her most beloved pose was loafing with her legs tucked up underneath her, so that was the requested pose for the piece. I hope I did her cuteness justice!

[wyrddogs]

It's always interesting to me how about once a year someone posts in a dachshund group asking how people feel about the lepto vaccine, and then ten gajillion people immediately respond that they would never ever give it to their dachshund, they've been breeding for thirty years, dachshund explode on contact, they advise their puppy buyers to never give it, it's incredibly dangerous, etc etc.

When I or two other people post that we give the vaccine to our dogs because lepto is a terrible way to die, we get jumped.