What's your "thing?"

I was absolutely anal about cleanliness and grooming for years. I'm not anymore for a few reasons. The biggest one is that I don't have access to free grooming anymore! I can't just bring my dog to work, bathe, dry, and trim throughout the day. Now I either have to put them in the bathtub at home on a hot day or heat dry them completely then clean the bathroom! Sooooo not worth it!

I'm a food nazi, and as of late my dog is a sausage shaped atrocity. She and I are getting back into shape when I get home.

I used to be a foot nazi. Actually, just more of a grooming fiend. No joke, I would literally go nuts if feet and nails were not trimmed, coats were not clean and tangle-free, and there was no staining of any sort on any white parts.

Now that I have no high-velocity dryer, no dog bathtub, no grooming shears and no dremel? I'm decidedly less anal about grooming my own dog. If she's clean, doesn't stink and her feet have been trimmed in the past month, I'm not going to flip out.

Being a service dog handler has changed my "things" quite dramatically. My real "thing" with my particular dog is her behavior, and the behavior of myself and other people around her. I strive to keep her in a certain state of mind - calm, focused, aware of her surroundings but detached enough to not get riled up by them. My dog is a border collie and is high strung and rather prone to anxiety by nature, so at times it can be quite a challenge. I get frustrated with people who deliberately, after being warned not to, screw with this. I can't control environmental things that might bother my dog, like construction or thunder, but I can control your **** hand reaching for her, or your **** face making kissy noises.

Oh, I have another thing. I hate hate hate off leash dogs that aren't trained to RECALL or DOWN immediately. Too many times I have to deal with the stress my dog feels when an offlead dog decides the recall can wait the 30 seconds it'll take to molest my dog and leave her wound up tighter than a tick.

It's really hard to decide because I feel I have 2 main 'things' LOL In order of obsession though:

1. Food. I love cooking, baking, reading about healthy things for him to eat. I love natural solutions and preventatives and learning how to use them for healing, cleaning, or incorporating them into his daily diet!

2. Outdoor kennel. This is not only where Orson stays when he's unattended outside, it's MOSTLY the potty area. It's right out my back door as well. So yes, I am obsessed with keeping it poop free, and also use vinegar and/or bleach water (it has concrete pavers as flooring) to keep it smell free!

Also, I guess to the average John Q, I am considered anal about nails, ears, and general dog cleanliness and have been told as much, LOL Honestly though, to dog savvy folks such as yourself, I feel you'd consider me lacking. Orson's nails get dremmeled about every 7-10 days, his ears get cleaned about 2 x a month, and he gets a bath about every 2 months or so?? (his odor -or lack thereof- dictates this....he isn't a smelly dog at all)

My "things"?

Well, in regards to dogs, I'm nutty about interacting on forums and reading about training. I read training books about issues my dog doesn't even have, like aggression and the like. I'm also a bit nutty about keeping track of the books I've read, which makes me look like an obsessive ninny.

I'm also a total agility nut. I can't watch enough videos, read enough about training, or go to enough classes. If I had more money, I'd go practically every night of the week.

Add to that an obsession with looking at Petfinder.com and border collie rescues to find the perfect dog that I CANNOT HAVE RIGHT NOW. Yeah...issues.

I'm big on keeping my dogs in shape, agility (of course) and more specifically, weave training in agility. I'm just a little crazy about it. Nice weaves (and it's starting to become contacts, too) are the first thing I notice in a run. Don't care how fast the dog is, I'll notice nice weaves. And I'm really insanely proud of Psyche's weaves.

Oh gosh! In shape! Yes. I'm obsessed with my dog's weight and keeping it down and keeping her properly conditioned.

Wish I could say the same thing about myself. lol

Diet and leashing. I am petrified of loosing a dog because it wasn't on leash.

I can't come up with anything very specific. My thing is everything 'dogs.' I like them to be clean, fit and healthy, moderately trained, well behaved, playful...love playing with them, watching their behavior, their expressions. I get a big charge out of their personalities...enjoy walking with them and seeing their joy at exploring things. I love just having them as my pals, snuggling with them at night time on the couch. I don't know if I have one single main thing that's my thing.

I deal with this all the time on forums and in my place of work. There are times to be stern and blunt and have an edge of scolding but mostly you'll save and help more dogs by mentoring or befriending their owners.

It drives me insane the number of purely positive snobs out there that express their opinions through cruelty. Good for you, you do right by your dogs and you don't approve of how other dogs are treated but if you follow the training methods you've so adamantly accepted you'd remember that humans are animals too and cruelty won't get you much more than a shut down cold shoulder.

PS, you guys would lose it at my work with all of my fat clients. LOL Sometimes I just pick my battles but I recently had to lay down the law when I had three of my bootcamp clients request I work their obese dogs in agility. Sorry, I don't want to break your poor dogs people.

This x1 million. I hate the doggy smell, I hate filmy hands. I will absolutely not touch a dog I can smell across the room.

I loathe that film on your hands after touching dirty dogs. Bleh!

I also hate being kissed or drooled on by dogs though. I'm not a huge "awwww cute doggy lets cuddle, wrestle, and make out!" person.

This. I get super paranoid about my dogs dehydrating or overheating. I saw on tv where someone's dog was panting one minute, dead the next and I know someone who's Pug got extremely overheated/dehydrated and very VERY nearly died. It's terrifying to me.

I'm also somewhat paranoid about collars bothering/annoying or even choking the dogs. Collars seem uncomfortable and so I rarely keep them on them. Violet has hers on about 90% of the time because she's door bolted a couple times and I don't want her to get lost w/out ID but Chloe wears hers about 10% of the time.

Tidy feet! I can't stand fuzzy, messy feet. Or ears, for that matter. Drives me nuts when Dance starts looking messy (or Grinchy, as I refer to it). And just because it drives me nuts, I swear she grows hair faster than any other Toller I know, haha. The other Tollers I groom have such easy care coats and Dance's is just so fine and fluffy and grows like crazy. I could tidy her up every two weeks if I wanted, but instead I tend to do it about once a month.

Nails. I hate doing nails, but I hate long nails, so I make sure to do them at least weekly.

Cleanliness. I can't stand petting a dog who leaves your hand smelling gross or leaves a filmy feeling either. Even worse when a dog walks into the room and you're immediately overwhelmed by gross dog smell (this happens at work a lot). I find the Dobermans feel dirty really quickly, and so I bathe them more often than I have any of my other dogs. Not excessively, but if they go more than 4 or 5 weeks without, then they feel just gross to me.

Being in shape. My dogs are at a nice weight (well, except for Ripley - he looks slightly skinny again), but I am trying to get them in better condition (we're lazy in the winter). I like my dogs to look as fit and healthy as possible. It's so sad how many fat dogs there are out there that people think are healthy.

Training. I love training and I love getting behaviours to be as precise as possible. Working with and training a dog is one of my most favourite things about having a dog.

And probably a million other things, seeing as I am kind of obsessed with all things dog, but I think those are the main ones.

Really? I've always thought the opposite about Orson! LOL Phoebe would stink and feel dirty long before Orson........she normally needed to bath 2-3 times to his 1. (much to her chagrin)

Orson normally needs a bath about every 2-3 months depending. He could go longer, but I do like the freshly washed feel/smell. I don't normally bath him over the colder months 'cause you know how they get cold and shiver like they're dieing when the temp falls below 70 F, LOL

Yeah, most of the Doberman forum I belong to would agree with you that their dogs hardly ever need a bath. But mine are gross, haha. They do play a lot together though (well, Ripley plays with Dance and Keira sort of plays by herself) and roll around in the dirt and stuff a lot. And if there is a mud puddle, you can bet they'll be splashing around in it. Also, Ripley is a blanket sucker in his crate when I'm at work (so I can't stop him since I'm not there), which means he lays on soaked blankets daily which makes him smell bad. And I have a thing with smooth coated dogs. They feel dirtier to me than longer haired dogs for some reason. Even when I go to my Dobe breeder's house, her dogs feel dirty to me, but everyone else thinks they feel nice and clean. So I think part of it is me and part of it is the way my dogs are.

My biggest "thing" is probably pit bulls. They are not monsters. They do need an involved, proactive owner. They are more prone to dog aggression than average. The same rules of learning apply to them as with any other dog. They should not be expected to be Golden Retrievers in bully costumes. Blah blah blah.

Food and supplements by far. I love learning about different foods, different supplements, trying them out, etc. I love helping people pick out food and supplements for their dogs (which is my job).

I'm also concerned about cleanliness - my dogs are clean, their bedding/toys/crates are clean. Always.

I enjoy training and working on behaviors, but it's definitely not a passion of mine. I don't have any desire at present to compete in sports, and that's fine and dandy with me.

Another thing that bugs me at least when it comes to Teagan is collars. I never leave one on her when she is outside running around and I am not there to supervise. Especially since there is alot of stuff for her to get her collar caught on outside.

Mitsu's never really wears a collar, unless we are going somewhere, but that is going to change for both dogs once we move. Since we will be moving into town and right now we don't have a fence up.

Plus if a fight starts between Mitsu and Teagan, especially when Mitsu gets bigger it will be easier to get them apart. AKA: get Teagan's teeth out of Mitsu's face.

I also learning this is one of mine as well. Dives me. freaking. Crazy. Since owning Mitsu I've gotten alot of comments, especially from family. I can't wait for the comments I will get once I move into town. FUN!!!

I might just start saying she is a Tosa Inu cross instead of a Bully cross. GAH!!

My thing is loose leash walking. No pulling at all, no crossing over in front or behind me, no lunging at people/dogs and he can stop and sniff all he wants but must move on when I say "let's go" without having to tug on the leash. It took a while to get there, but is so worth the effort.

I love to walk, but it must be pleasant and relaxed otherwise it's no fun and too stressful. Someone once said, I can't remember if it was here or on another forum, that walking was like a religion for them and that's exactly how I feel.

Fortunately, I live on the edge of town and have some very nice areas for walking and some places where I can let Leo loose, including on a bay where he can swim. I'm also able to avoid people and other dogs for the most part.