The dog musing/vent thread

Ugh the PWDs around here suck - probably because they've become so popular so there are tons being bred indiscriminately. They're like doodles injected with a bit of nasty. We had to kick a bunch out of daycare for snapping at people and putting holes in dogs. Plus whenever I come across one at a park or something it always seems to be RGing its owner, or a stick, or bullying other dogs to get them to run so it can chase them.

I mean doodles are usually dumb doofs, but for the most part they all seem to be harmless.

Agree with some of the other water dogs though! I suppose one downside is they may be harder to find or more pricy, since they are relatively uncommon, at least around here.
 
I actually really like cockapoos. For the most part, they seem to get the best of both breeds. I don't like curly coats, but I see plenty that are straight. The rest of the poos are take it or leave it. They seem to be nice little dogs, but pretty interchangeable. A yorkie-poo is a shih-poo is a malti-poo with no real difference in size or temperament.
 
Agreed, the little oodley-poodley-doodley things are pretty much all the same. Kind of like mixing up all the paint colors until you just get varying shades of brown. The mid-sized doodley things seem to be less mindless than the huge ones, but most of the ones I've met have had serious anxiety issues.

And of course they all have a mindless barking problem. Every. Single. Doodle.
 
Old Teddy the 17 year old Pekingese passed away yesterday. My mom brought her to the vet for evaluation and euthanasia while I was at work.

She stopped eating 5 days ago, and stopped drinking water soon after that. She then couldn't get up and was making whining, painful sounds, so my mom brought her to the vet the next day.

Teddy was 100% incontinent and 100% blind for many years already, and had severe dementia for the recent 3 years or so since she'd lost recognition of me and my parents. (Her early symptoms of dementia started long before that though, when she was around 10 years old) In recent years, the only thing she still remembered/enjoyed was eating food.

Her mind and memories have already been gone for a long time, but this is the first dog I've had pass away under my care.

Dementia in dogs is very real you guys, and it's pretty darn distressing near the end.
 
I inherited a freezer full of weird seafood so tonight the dogs are having octopus. I'm getting a lot of "WTF?" looks as they decide whether or not this is really food.
 
Doodles around here seem to just happily doodle along. Romp around, sometimes chase a toy. It's very cute and enduring.

Then again, the poodles around here seem to just happily poodle along. Romp around, rarely play with or chase a toy. Dumb and annoying.
 
Leo got to see snow for the first time ever! He absolutely loved it. Lots and lots of zoomies and pouncing and snow eating.

He loved chasing after the sleds, but did a great job of actually staying out of the sled's way. There was definitely some herding drive kicking in the way he circled the sleds, but he never tried to nip, which I was grateful for.

And here is a bonus picture of the one time I took him on the sled with me. He was very excited to jump on to join me. But as you can see, once it started moving he was not much of a fan :rofl1:

 
I have a little toy poodle mix (with Shih tzu) and she's been one of the coolest, most intelligent dogs I've ever known. She was a therapy dog in an alzheimers unit for many years, has a few agility titles (and hopefully many more) is always up to play any game and is completely bombproof with people and dogs. I don't consider her interchangeable in the least bit.
 
A friend of my parents' has been battling cancer for several years and is currently looking for a "therapy dog". I've asked for more details, but I don't think they're looking for an actual therapy dog or service animal, more of an emotional support dog. Right now the wish list is for a smallish labbish mellow love sponge, if anyone in SoCal knows a good candidate.
 
A friend of my parents' has been battling cancer for several years and is currently looking for a "therapy dog". I've asked for more details, but I don't think they're looking for an actual therapy dog or service animal, more of an emotional support dog. Right now the wish list is for a smallish labbish mellow love sponge, if anyone in SoCal knows a good candidate.

OMG he doesn't look like a lab at all but Linus is ~20lb and is a LOVE SPONGE. He is what I would call an "extreme cuddler" - he wants to be at least half on your lap at all times, and would prefer to just be hugged all the time. He's fabulous and sweet adorable to boot. That being said he has a Pom coat, but he likes to be brushed so I don't find his upkeep too difficult. And we're in SoCal ;)
 
When I first started get seriously into training as a hobby SO many people gave me the same blanket statements. One of them was "keep all training sessions short, never more than 5 minutes."

Yeeaahh, Tell that to my dog who just spent 25 minutes working on back up, independent hind leg targeting and pivoting and is walking around occasionally putting his back feet on random things and looking at me expectantly, lol.

(just a humorous observation about blanket statements. I totally get that you should only train as long as the dog is enjoying it.)
 
Ha! Glitch in on the floor throwing a tantrum right now because I took his marker away and he wants to keep working. I got the same advice, and he just makes his own rules.
 
I train throughout the day, if an opportunity arises that would make a training session, we take it!

Lincoln would train all day every day, the only thing he doesnt like doing is endless reps of something once he "gets " it, he wants to move on, and he sees the reps as that he didnt get something right, and gets really frustrated.
 
Addie is super clingy lately. It is kind of cute. She is usually touching me in some way and has chilled with jumping up and nipping my stomach. If I sit with my DH, she has been sitting right with us, usually trying to lick me. She gets more perfrct every day.
 
When I first started get seriously into training as a hobby SO many people gave me the same blanket statements. One of them was "keep all training sessions short, never more than 5 minutes."

Yeeaahh, Tell that to my dog who just spent 25 minutes working on back up, independent hind leg targeting and pivoting and is walking around occasionally putting his back feet on random things and looking at me expectantly, lol.

(just a humorous observation about blanket statements. I totally get that you should only train as long as the dog is enjoying it.)

5 minutes a session for the best, most effective training. More if you just want to bum around with your dog and/or tire them out.
 
5 minutes a session for the best, most effective training. More if you just want to bum around with your dog and/or tire them out.

Totally. I usually do 5-8 minutes when we're doing something new. We do 25-40 minute sessions (with play/sniff breaks) when we're working on different aspects of one skill, or polishing what we already have.

It's just fun to look back on what I thought dog training would be like, vs what it has been like for me. I fully expected his attention span to be about 5 minutes. It's really really fun to have a dog that really wants to play with me. : )
 
Is that 5 minutes for an entire session or five minutes working on a single behavior? My batsharks will happily take turns, practice staying while the other works, and switch activities every few minutes for hours on end. They also offer behaviors constantly and hang out on their perches just in case I feel like giving them a cookie.
 
Since I had a couple moments and panics in the Petrie addition on here; thought I'd better update things are going a lot better. He's come out of his shell a ton - while he's still fearful of you coming at him to pick him up or put a collar on him, for example, he comes to you when you call and will climb on you, cuddle you, and interact with you now. Now just if he'd not use his loud little mouth.... :p He's such a cute dog, and very excited for the most part. Hates Winter though, and sometimes getting him outside is a challenge when he's not feeling the cold - but he gets out, haha.
 

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